ANYONE who has seen Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif reciting “main nahin maanta, main nahin maanta (I do not accept, I do not accept)” in a TV footage of his rally some time back may know the name of the poet who composed these lines — Habib Jalib — and be aware of the fact that Urdu poetry has much to offer other than love poems.

One of the myths about Urdu poetry is that it only sings of the beauties of sweethearts. Though Urdu poetry has always had a marked tendency towards eulogizing the beauty of a real or perceived sweetheart and lamenting the woes of a lover who cannot even see her we must appreciate that it has also been a tool for expressing all kinds of thoughts, whether erotic or metaphysical, philosophic or political. Some Urdu poets — just like Habib Jalib or Faiz Ahmed Faiz — have been very vocal, too, against injustice and their poetry decried the power that rulers abused.

In fact Jafer Zatalli, an Urdu poet who ridiculed political turmoil and social chaos in the reign of the inept successors of the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb Alamgir, was put to death in 1713 by the then ruler, Farrukh Sair, for Jafer Zatalli had lampooned him when he ascended the throne. Later poets, such as Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Sauda and Mushafi, mentioned, either overtly or covertly, the social and economic breakdown that India passed through in their times. The 20th century poets, such as Zafar Ali Khan, openly rebelled and criticised the government of British India and were put behind the bars.

Urdu poetry’s tradition of protesting and decrying against injustice and highhandedness of rulers has lived up till now. A poet of our times who kept this tradition alive by fighting for the rights of the people and as a result suffered a lot was Habib Jalib. In fact Habib Jalib’s poetry is the testimony that busts the myth about Urdu poetry: if he ever sang of a sweetheart, it was the rights of the people. He was rightly called the ‘awami shaer’, or the poet of the common man. It gives him a unique position in the entire history of Urdu poetry for before Jalib only one poet has been called with such honorific title and he was Nazeer Akberabadi, whom we know as Urdu’s first ‘awami shaer’.

When one reads Jalib’s life one feels that defying an authority and challenging an unjust order was perhaps in his psyche. He stood up to every military ruler — Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf. Not only that, whenever he felt that a democratically-elected government was behaving undemocratically or the rights of citizens were being trampled, he would stand up and protest. Though a one-time fan of Z.A. Bhutto and a supporter of the revolution the Pakistan People’s Party founder chairman wanted to bring about, Jalib raised his voice when he felt the Bhutto government was not behaving the way it should. Similarly, being a great supporter of Benazir Bhutto did not keep him from criticising her government. He did not spare Nawaz Sharif either. But more strange was his attitude towards any government or political leader that was no more in power.

Once a prime minister or president was ousted, Jalib never wrote or recited anything against him or her. He believed it was not fair to strike someone when he or she was down. Perhaps, for him there was some sub-conscience appeal to be an anti-establishment entity and challenging the symbols of power while supporting those who had fallen out of favour, be it a common man or a former prime minister.

Mujahid Barelvi, a journalist, activist and writer, was very close to Jalib. In fact it was Mr Barelvi who took care of Jalib and his schedule, to the minutest details, whenever Jalib was in Karachi. But Jalib was a Karachiite too. He lived in this city for quite long and missed his Karachi friends when he moved to Lahore. Mr Barelvi has been writing on Jalib, his poetry and his ideology for a long time now. And when he collected such writings in the book titled ‘Jalib Jalib’ in November 2011, it flew off the bookshops and within a month a second edition had to be published. Mr Barelvi has attributed this popularity to Jalib. I feel Jalib busted yet another myth about Urdu literature that says Urdu books do not sell. Similarly, when ‘Sare-e-maqtal’, the second collection of Jalib’s poetry, appeared in 1968 its four editions sold within a few months.

Because Jalib took part in political activities and wrote about them, he has unknowingly recorded Pakistan’s political history in his poetry. For example, when Ayub Khan ‘promulgated’ a constitution, Jalib recited his signature poem ‘Dastoor’ (constitution) at a gathering and the crowd sang with him ‘main nahin manta, main nahin maanta’. He was imprisoned. Before that, he was sent to jail in 1959 for taking part in Hyder Bakhsh Hyderi’s ‘Hari Movement’. When Fatima Jinnah, affectionately known as the Mother of the Nation, contested an election against all-powerful Ayub Khan, Jalib wrote a poem, titled ‘Maan’ (mother), for her. He wrote a sarcastic poem against Ayub’s advisers.

When a film actress was asked to come to presidency and dance before a visiting head of state, she refused. When forced, she tried to commit suicide. Jalib recorded it in a poem, which was later included in a movie as a song that said:

Tu ke nawaqif-i-adaab-i-ghulami hai abhi/Raqs zanjeer pehn kar bhi kiya jata hai. (You are not aware of the manners of slavery/ one can indeed dance while in chains)

In Yahya era, Jalib was imprisoned for writing poetry against military action in East Pakistan. Again, during the Hyderabad Conspiracy case, he remained behind the bars for 14 months. Though Jalib was a progressive and supported Bhutto’s ideology, he had joined National Awami Party and despite friendly ties he had developed some differences with Z.A. Bhutto. His famous poem, ‘Larkane chalo warna thane chalo’ is the reminiscent of that rift (but there is more to it).

During the Zia era, Jalib was arrested three times. According to Mr Barelvi, the military ruler had demanded that a line from one of his famous poems be removed. The line said: Zulmat ko zia, sarsar ko saba, bande ko khuda kya likhna?

It can be roughly translated as: why should one call darkness zia (literally: light), intense wind gentle wind and a man God?

When Benazir Bhutto arrived from exile in 1986, Jalib wrote a moving poem for her. When he came to know that Benazir was planning to visit Washington, Jalib composed a poem requesting her not to visit the United States. But when Benazir came to power, Jalib was disillusioned and in a ghazal of his he composed a few couplets against her ministers.

The book, published by Lahore’s Jamhoori Publications, records in a flowing manner the important events of Habib Jalib’s life and the background of his certain verses. One realises that whether it was a movement for Islamic revolution during the 1970 general elections or the rights of the Baloch people, a political issue or a social one, nothing could escape from Jalib’s sharp eyes and cutting remarks.

Habib Jalib died on March 12, 1993.

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