July 11, 2004

Shibli Nomani and Atiya Fyzee had an inexplicable relationship. Their association had a lot of dimensions that are not known to common public

FEARING that I may forget to mention a particular chain of thoughts which have oppressed me ever since Atiya Begum died in 1967, I will digress for a while from the main theme of the subject under discussion. I had an uninterrupted communication with the renowned trio (Nazli Begum, Atiya Fyzee and her husband, Samuel Fyzee Rahamin) for more than twelve years from 1954 onwards. During all that time, as my early youth progressed to maturer years, my ideas about many things took certain shapes and were reshaped with the passage of time.

There was, for instant, another prominent lady of the subcontinent whose image would appear and reappear before me apart from Atiya Fyzee’s, because it had certain resemblance to her character. That other lady was Sarojni Naido with whom all the clear thinking men and women of our time are well acquainted. She was a great friend of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and was always hopeful of Hindu-Muslim unity. I never had the opportunity to see or meet Sarojni, but having read a few lively sketches of hers, written by men of substance, I began to wonder as to why we never had somebody like her in our own Pakistani society. Like so many books on my waiting list, a good biography of Sarojni Naido has its own place.

It is admitted that Sarojni was a greater public figure than Atiya Fyzee and was a national celebrity; but then Atiya Fyzee had the disadvantage of belonging to a minority. Her popularity in India was confined. People of this minority having any weight were overwhelmed by Muslim Ulema, who considered that going open-faced in public was against the rules of modesty and was unbecoming of women of respectable Muslim families.

Even as great a reformer as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan thought that the time was not ripe for imparting high education to our women. The great man’s contention was that educated women were likely to become more sensitive to their dignity and would demand more respect of their ignorant men. That might create social conflicts. He therefore reasoned that unless men became true gentlemen through proper education, in the first place, they would not learn to respect their women. Sir Syed’s idea of a gentleman was formed by his observations of the high society in England and elsewhere. Unfortunately Sir Syed did not have enough resources to begin a parallel educational programme designed to meet the needs of Muslim women.

So, if Atiya had not let ill health interfere with her formal schooling in Europe early in her life, we could certainly have had an Atiya comparable to Sarojni. Young Atiya had obtained admission to a girls school in England. On the very first day of her school she was fascinated to witness a fire-fighting drill by a group of young girls, rushing with water-filled buckets to put out a fire.

But her fate was to become a satellite and then glow, dependent on the big star, while Sarojni was not indebted to any Mahatma or Maulana for her fame. It can be safely said that had there been no Shibli Nomani to befriend her, Atiya Fyzee would have never shone like she did in our literary world.

But then two people are never the same in this world. For all her achievements and abilities Sarojni could never have dared to fathom the Grand Canyons of America as Atiya did, riding two Red Indians. Sarojni had not the blood of a Turk running in her veins. However, like true intellectuals, both of them were humanitarians and liberal in their ideas.

Bearing in mind the intellectual environment at the time, we see that Shibli Nomani was totally unaware of any Muslim woman with such high intellect as Atiya. To him all females were feeble minded creatures. Shibli was highly impressed with two persons for their mental capabilities — Abul Kalam Azad and Atiya Fyzee. Abul Kalam was, considering his young years, only a boy. A wonder boy though. Atiya was maturer, but still she had the credit of being a woman.

SHIBLI-ATIYA SQUABBLE: Despite that fondness for her, readers will be surprised to learn that Maulana Shibli erected hurdles in her way to check her moves against the unfair domination of men in Muslim society. From a study of Shibli-Atiya correspondence, since published, we find that Shibli disliked Atiya’s appearing on any stage to address male audiences. He even scoffed at her efforts to drill the young girls of the Janjeera community. Muslim Ulema were one step ahead. They disliked any Muslim woman who faced strangers. We discover that Shibli wished that Ulema would let Nazli Begum, a donor, lay the foundation stone of a hall at Nadva, but he was disappointed. In this context the excellent review of Shibli’s letters by Moinuddin Ahmed Ansari is referred.

COME SEPTEMBER: Atiya’s marriage to Samuel Fyzee Rahamin took place in 1912, the same year when the Titanic sank on her maiden voyage. Who knows how many peoples’ hopes went down with the unfortunate ship. Atiya Begum however fulfilled her desires to her hearts content. When in London two of them wrote and performed plays on stage. Not like gypsies, but as intellectuals. Of that we shall learn more later.

It is reminded that we, the Muslims of the subcontinent, have been content for decades and decades with the legendary Zaibun Nisa, emperor Aurangzeb’s daughter, as if one accomplished Mughal princess was enough to speak of. Atiya Fyzee could have become a Sarojni Naido, but the degenerate society of the time would not let her. She had a lot of excellent qualities but a policy of rigid narrow-mindedness in her own prejudiced society had a stifling effect on all those qualities.

WAS SHIBLI SELFISH?: Atiya wanted to shine and show her own self and not to appear as a mere protege before the Muslim society; but Shibli would not hear of it. He tried hard to dissuade her and was successful in keeping this jewel of a young woman away from the orthodox society. But it is an irony of fate that his own writings (letters) provided the biggest source to Atiya’a fame.

There is a lurking suspicion that by not supporting Atiya in her endeavour to show herself in frontline, and by not agreeing to dedicate any of his books to her name, Shibli saved his own image, telling her that his agreeing to her wishes would utterly undo his good work which he was carrying on. I m sorry to allege that Shibli was serving his own self.

Those of us who have had the opportunity to go through the letters addressed to Atiya Fyzee by Shibli Nomani cannot fail to note that some of his utterances touched the boundaries of infatuation.

STALE METAPHORS: But let us see if that was the reality. The difficulty is that Shibli was a poet. He was sensitive too. He had some pet phrases to express his love, regard and gratitude which he would include in his letters addressed to different people at different times. These phrases were not composed exclusively for Atiya. Those were stale metaphors. For example, he writes to Atiya Fyzee:

Atiya, mera her rongta aur her moo-i-badan tumhari tasueef o tareef ka aik sher hai

He writes to Mohsin-ul-Mulk

Mera to ruan ruan dunia ki khwahishon se jakra hua hai

Again, he writes to an official of the Bhopal court.

Mera rongta rongta huzoor-i-aaliya ka fidai hai

So you see, Atiya was not the only recipient of his eulogies. He used only a stale metaphor to express his love for Atiya.

PRIDE SHATTERED: Shibli was quite conscious of his supremacy and ascendancy as an academician, and unlike Maulana Hali, he considered modesty as some thing degrading. His self-esteem, having approached the limits of conceit, had grown so vain that he made it a principle not to take precedence in addressing a letter to anybody. His part was to make a reply only if necessary. But both his pride and principle were shattered where Fyzee sisters were concerned. He not only took precedence in writing to them, he came down a step lower. Shibli would send reminders when no replies were forthcoming.

Had Shibli not addressed his letters to Atiya Fyzee, dripping with poetic fervour, she would have been virtually unknown to the literary world. That much is certain. The history of our literature would have thus missed a tantalizing topic which has touched Shibli’s life so much. For this we ought to be thankful to Atiya Begum who did not keep them secret.

People question in their hearts the propriety of Shibli’s writing such letters to a Muslim lady of high rank. In my opinion, writing to a lady to whom Shibli had been introduced formally and with whom he already had verbal communications was not so very bad, after all. But the real trouble was that Shibli as a poet could not desist from using superlatives in his writings — letters included. Had Shibli taken care to review his letters before dispatching them, he would certainly have made some changes. Then his antagonists would not have been successful to prove that Shibli’s gallantry was not in tune with his character or, in more blunt words, Shibli was a hypocrite. Still, some have tried hard and long with concealed pleasure to make Shibli look like one fooled in a love game. It was the magnitude of Shibli’s personality which had added such a colour to the whole matter.

Atiya Begum is no more. She passed away 36 years ago. But her life story is not finished as yet. What am I writing now could not have been possible during her life time in spite of her wish. Back then, my mind was not ready for it. Moreover, my knowledge of Urdu literature was scant and some important books about Shibli Nomani were yet to be published.

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