In the realm of history and historiography, the services of Dr Mubarak Ali are plenty. With a library of books and research papers under his belt, this tireless crusader has succeeded in creating awareness among the masses as regards the central role, the discipline of history plays in any society.
Dr Mubarak Ali was born in a house full of books. His father too was an avid book reader who used to study books like Tilism Hooshruba Alif Laila and Dastan Ameer Hamza. He started off with books such as Qissa Hatim Tai, Qissa Chahar Dervish and Fasana-e-Ajaib etc. Then came historical fiction.
“In those days, aana libraries in the city of Hyderabad (Pakistan) greatly helped satiate my thirst for books. I read books of Abdul Haleem Sharar and Sadiq Sardhanvee, who was a prolific writer. I read almost eighty books written by him. These novels had in them, all the shades of romance as well as scenes from battlefield in equal measures. One got emotionally charged up while reading these novels,” Dr Mubarak Ali states jovially. The detective novels of Teerath Raam Ferozpuri and Sherlock Holmes too captivated his mind in those days.
In his college days, Dr Mubarak Ali found a new level of inspiration in the works of Tolstoy, Gogol, Doestovesky and Turgnev. The platoon of great French heavyweights such as Balzac, Hugo, Dumas and Emile Zola too impressed him immensely. Then from the English writers, he mentions Dickens and Thomas Hardy.
“Thomas Hardy’s novels fascinated me a lot. Particularly, Hardy’s depiction of a man who feels dejected in the face of hostile circumstances had a very sombre effect on me,” says Dr Mubarak with a tinge of moroseness. Apart from his interest in world literature, he also relishes nuggets from the Urdu literature. Starting from Urdu prose, Dr Mubarak has read the works of such iconoclastic pen pushers as Prem Chand, Manto, Krishen Chander, Qurratulain Hider and many others. Then comes the turn of Urdu poetry and here too Dr Mubarak savoured the works of Mir, Nazeerakber Abadi, Iqbal and Faiz. Of Iqbal he says, “Iqbal fascinated me in my early days. The passion and vibrancy that the poetry of Iqbal exudes, gave me sheer joy in my younger days. But later on, when I attained maturity, the fact dawned on me that the poetry of Iqbal was bereft of any depth. I feel that he is more of a preacher than a poet.”
Dr Mubarak Ali’s infatuation with literature was so cemented that he was all prepared to obtain a masters degree in literature. Then one of his friends challenged him to do a masters in history with a gold medal, from Sindh University. At the time, it was considered a tall order, but Dr Mubarak Ali not only accomplished the task, he also got drawn to the world of history for good. With teachers like Ahmad Bashir and Taffazal Daood, Dr Mubarak Ali started appreciating the erudition of historians like Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar Braudel and many more. Mughal court historian, Abul Fazal’s style of jotting down history too impressed him a lot. “I am an admirer of Abul Fazal. He gave a new direction to history by secularizing it,” notes Dr Mubarak. Among the books that he chanced to study recently, he is all praise for Harbans Mukhia’s book Mughals of India. As regards labelling any book as his all time favourite, Dr Mubarak remarks that one’s choice about books change continuously and therefore it is not possible to name just one book as an all-time favourite.
On the pathetic state of the discipline of history in Pakistan, he says that there should be independent research institutes because one cannot do research in state controlled institutions as there are a host of restrictions. He is of the view that people still yearn for books but the problem is that our writers mostly write on irrelevant topics. He thinks that if any writer or scholar pens on new themes that concern the modern man; he is bound to get great number of readers. He says that his books quickly run out of prints and this proves that people still love-reading books.
In the field of music, Dr Mubarak Ali loves listening to light tunes. The list of his favourites includes names like Talat, Saigol, Mukesh, Lata, Roshan Ara Begum and Akhterbai Faizabadi. Ustad Bismillah’s Shehnai too is something that makes Dr Mubarak Ali happy. On the question of naming his all-time favourite singer, he picks up K.L. Saigol without any hesitation.
Saigol is one singer who Dr Mubarak Ali has been listening to for the past four decades. On the other hand, he derives equal pleasure from the ghazals of Ghalib, sung by Jagjeet. Of Noor Jehan, he says, “Noor Jehan’s pre-partition songs are worth listening to only. It maybe due to the fact that she was associated with some great composer of that era. In fact, the credit for a good song does not go to the singer alone as one must take into account some other factors too,” opines Dr Mubarak. He says that since there are no institutions to patronize classical music, that’s why its followers are not in great numbers. While in India, he states, the situation is not so bleak because classical music has very deep roots there.
Dr Mubarak Ali still remembers watching Do Begha Zameen in his school days. He says that in those days, in Hyderabad, there used to be a morning show on each Sunday, which he rarely missed. He names a few Hollywood flicks like the Gold Rush, City of Lights, Gone With the Wind, Fall of the Roman Empire, For Whom the Bell Toll and Ten Commandments, which he watched in that era. From Urdu movies, he is all praise for Footpath, Hum Log, Roti, Jhansi Ki Rani and Sikander. However, Dr Mubarak Ali no longer likes going to the cinema as is evident from the fact that he went to a cinema in 80s for the last time. “Cinema used to serve the role of a cultural institution at that time. College and university students would throng to the cinema and it was a sheer joy to watch a movie in a very conducive atmosphere,” he recalls.
Dr Mubarak Ali lashes out hard at producers, financiers and storywriters, who, in his view, have made a mess of our local cinema. Interestingly, he names the drama Ghalib as his all time favourite that he has seen several times. He pays tribute to actor Naseeruddin Shah for his wonderful acting in that drama.
In the realm of history and historiography, the services of Dr Mubarak Ali are plenty. With a library of books and research papers under his belt, this tireless crusader has succeeded in creating awareness among the masses as regards the central role, the discipline of history plays in any society.
