MIRZA Vajid Hussain Yaas Yagaana Changezi (Oct 17, 1884 to Feb 4, 1956) is one of the most controversial poets of Urdu.

What made Yagaana so controversial that he was treated almost like a pariah in the literary world of his times? Some critics believe Yagaana was an eccentric and his conceit at times bordered on megalomania.

His literary skirmishes with contemporaries earned him a bad reputation of being too arrogant and unreasonable. Aside from that, two things made him a very unpopular figure among the fellow writers and critics as well as the public. First, he could not stand the popularity and cult-like following of Ghalib, undoubtedly one of the greatest poets of Urdu, and wrote, albeit unsuccessfully, to dethrone Ghalib from the high pedestal that Ghalib occupies even this day.

Yagaana was, undoubtedly, an iconoclast but his iconoclasm transformed itself into a show of hostility and ultra-critical attitude towards Ghalib. He was dubbed “Ghalib shikan”, or, literally, ‘the breaker of Ghalib’. It consumed his considerable time and efforts and all he received for it was derision.

Secondly, some of his verses, which he did not intend to publish but were somehow printed, outraged the public as well as religious scholars.

The verses were, as they were published in India and reproduced in one of Karachi’s leading Urdu newspapers, blasphemous, decided the religious-minded. Yagaana was considered an outcast and was publicly disgraced in Lucknow in 1953.

No doubt he was one of the fine modernist poets of Urdu. In his contemporary sensibility, a deep sense of meaninglessness of life, even a deeper sense of loneliness, individualism and nihilism we find a truly modernist poet. But the controversies surrounding him have somewhat clouded his true merit and real worth.

An objective, research-based study on Yagaana has long been overdue. Though Dr Najeeb Jamal had carried out research on Yagaana for his doctoral degree in 1988, could not get it published for a number of reasons.

Now his thesis, duly updated in the light of new information about Yagaana that has come up during the intervening years has been published by Lahore’s Izhar Sons.

Titled ‘Yagaana: tehqeeqi-o-tanqeedi mutal’a’ (Yagaana: research and critical study), the book has been divided into three portions: biographical details and literary skirmishes along with political and cultural background and literary atmosphere of his times, his published and unpublished works and critical analyses of his art and contribution to literature.

Each portion is further divided into chapters, hence making the book a comprehensive, objective and research-based study that clears the mist around the personality and works of Yagaana.

“The modernist trends and the political upheavals in the post-industrial society were beginning to have their effects when Yagaana was composing poetry and the grip of the “form” was also loosening in the wake of the rise of modern poems in Urdu,” writes Najeeb Jamal in the intro to his work, “and it was Yagaana who came out fully armed with new themes and new thoughts to defend the traditional genre of ghazal.

“He transformed the Urdu ghazal with modernistic issues, different language and modern style. He tried to bring Urdu ghazal to modernism and ultimately influenced, to some extent, many of his contemporaries”.

The most interesting and important portions of the book are the ones that deal with Yagaana’s literary skirmishes with his fellow writers, his hostility towards Ghalib and his controversial poetry that resulted in his public disgrace.

Najeeb Jamal has done extensive research and found some extremely rare sources on Yagaana. His approach is objective but he has a sympathetic attitude towards Yagaana and definitely rises above the biases that Yagaana had to face throughout his life and afterwards.

He says, for instance, that Yagaana’s skirmishes in Lucknow had to do more with the pride and prejudice of Lucknow-based writers than Yagaana’s own highly inflated ego.

Though Yagaana had changed his penname from Yagaana Azeemabadi to Yagaana Lukhnavi, Lucknow poets were rather unwilling to accept him and objected to his linguistic proficiency, writes Dr Najeeb Jamal.

In those days, the poets of Lucknow were overwhelmingly fascinated by Ghalib and took pride in composing poetry in Ghalib’s style. This, perhaps, had a psychological effect on Yagaana and he reacted with total denial of the great bard.

Najeeb Jamal says Yagaana was not against Ghalib but he disliked the way in which the Lucknow poets were blindly following him and copying his style.

Yagaana was in fact taunting the old-fashioned poetry of Lucknow poets though he was apparently criticising Ghalib. His focal point was not Ghalib but “the Ghalib complex” from which the Lucknow poets were suffering, notes Dr Najeeb Jamal.

The issue of Yagaana’s public disgrace is usually swept under the carpet and even a highly acclaimed researcher like Mushfiq Khwaja failed to do justice when it came to the incident that took place in Lucknow in 1953.

Mushfiq Khwaja had carried out a monumental research on Yagaana and his ‘Kulliyaat-i-Yagaana’ (complete poetic works of Yagaana) and its intro indeed serves as an example of how to edit and annotate poetic works but he simply evades the issue of Yagaana’s public disgrace and ends the discussion by just saying that “an unpleasant incident” took place.

Najeeb Jamal has discussed it in detail. Yagaana had written a letter to Niaz Fatehpuri and it indeed contained some matter that would enrage any Muslim. Yagaana had also composed some verses that were considered blasphemous.

Niaz Fatehpuri showed the letter to Abdul Majid Daryabadi who wrote a very harsh editorial and protested through his newspaper ‘Sidq-i-Jadeed’.

Dr Najeeb Jamal has also reproduced the facsimile of the news item that appeared in the April 1, 1953 issue of daily Qaumi Awaz, Lucknow, edited by Hayatullah Ansari.

It reports how Yagaana was subjected to public disgrace in Lucknow and the people, who had taken out a procession with Yagaana parading before them with his face blackened, were chanting slogans that referred to words that Yagaana had written against the Holy Prophet.

In fact the campaign against Yagaana had begun on the issue since his article appeared in Josh Maleehabadi’s magazine as Dr Najeeb Jamal has mentioned. But he quotes from a letter by Yagaana that says Yagaana is under great mental stress and often unintentionally writes what he does not mean to say. But under no circumstances, this can be justified and Muslims were naturally outraged.

But almost all the critics and researchers who have written on Yagaana, including Najeeb Jamal, have expressed their doubts about the mental soundness and sanity of Yagaana during the last years of his life. Some have even blamed it on the poets of Lucknow and their hostile attitude towards Yagaana.

Having served at Bahawalpur’s Islamia University in several senior positions and having taught Urdu at two universities of Egypt, including Al-Azhar, Dr Najeeb Jamal has over a dozen books to his credit and now teaches Urdu at Islamabad’s International Islamic University and also heads its Urdu department.

The 488-page book is priced at Rs950, which is a bit too high, especially for the students.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com