“THE selfishness and deceitfulness of those in power, their moral decay and fondness of flattery, their lust for power, the emanating social injustice and calamities is of chief concern to Sayyed Muhammad Jafri”, notes Intezar Husain in his introduction to Teer-e-Neem Kush.

Shokhi-e-Tehreer was Sayyed Muhammad Jafri’s first book. Published posthumously in 1985, it was a collection of humorous verse. His second collection of a similar kind, Teer-e-Neem Kush, came out in 2007, published by Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore.

Tracing the history of satire and humour in Urdu poetry, Intezar Husain writes that Akber Ilahabadi raised satirical poetry from the status of a facetiae that it was to a level that had thoughtfulness and decency. After him, Sayyed Muhammad Jafri is the one who adopted Akber’s art in a meaningful way. But the analogy with Akber ends here, he says, because the issues facing Jafri were quite different from those that perturbed Akber. Akber’s concern was mainly cultural. He took his raw material from the clash of the two civilisations, western and eastern, and especially Islamic.

But in Jafri’s poetry, this conflict is of lesser importance. He deals more with issues concerning social and political life, rather than cultural changes. Intezar Husain is of the view that Jafri’s tendency to criticise political norms lends him more similarity to Jafer Zatalli than Akber. Zatalli was a croaker critic of social conditions and political manoeuvrings. He did not spare even the rulers and paid the price for his lewd and venom-spewing gags when he was put to death in 1713 by the rulers.

Jafri Sahib, being a government servant, handled his political satire tactfully and in his poetry we find strong criticism of our political system and social life: dissolutions and reconstitutions of cabinets, the pursuance of self-interests by ministers, rampant corruption, an inefficient bureaucracy, a contempt for etiquette in social gatherings – all these found their way into Jafri Sahib’s poetry and that too in a hilarious manner that is not seemingly offensive and can be enjoyed by those who have been criticised.

What surprises and delights the reader is the wit and repartee blended with a satirical tone in Jafri Sahib’s poetry. He can discover the lighter side of any incident. Whether it is the sighting of the Eid moon or the elections, Karachi’s mosquitoes or minister’s prayers, he has the gift of seeing incongruity in perfectly normal situations.

One of his very effective weapons is the insertion of lines from maestros such as Ghalib, Nazeer Akberabadi, Iqbal and some Persian poets that intermingle with his humorous theme so beautifully that a new dimension of these serious lines dawns upon the reader. (Such insertions, mentioned through inverted commas, are known as ‘tazmeen’ in Urdu and Persian poetry).

Sayyed Muhammad Jafri was born in Bharatpur on December 27, 1907.

His father, Sayyed Muhammad Ali Jafri, came to Lahore in 1906 and was appointed as the principal of Lahore’s Islamia College. Sayyed Muhammad Jafri graduated in 1928. Not content with a master’s degree in Persian from Oriental College, Lahore, Jafri Sahib obtained an M.A. in English from Government College, Lahore. Being a good calligrapher and an amateur painter, along the way he took a course at the Mayo College (now the National College) of Arts, Lahore, where Abdur Rehman Chughtai was amongst his teachers.

Before joining Government College, Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), he taught at schools in Jhelum and Lahore. In 1940, Jafri Sahib joined the ministry of information and broadcasting. He remained associated with the ministry of information after independence and was posted to Karachi. In 1964, he was sent to Tehran as the press and cultural attaché, a post from where he retired in 1966. He then settled in Karachi, where he died on January 07, 1976.

Though Jafri Sahib was a popular poet of mushaeras (poetry recital sessions) and his poetry was very much in demand, he refrained from publishing it in book form. He has stated the reasons for not publishing in his poem ‘Mera Divan’ in an interesting manner, as usual. It is much to the relief of his fans that the second volume has also now seen the light of day, although some may not find it as absorbing as the first one.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com