SOMEONE who adored Urdu, served Urdu for almost 65 years and supported Baba-i-Urdu Moulvi Abdul Haq in his campaign for the promotion of Urdu does not deserve to be forgotten. But we have forgotten Allama Pandit Brij Mohan Dattatreya Kaifi — almost completely.
Aside from sporadic efforts to remember him through a few articles, not much has been written on Pandit Kaifi in the last few decades. But it was not always like that. In 1954, Abdul Majeed Salik had celebrated Pandit Kaifi’s 88th birthday in Lahore while Kaifi was in India. On that occasion, Salik remarked that there were more fans of Kaifi in Pakistan than in India. A poet, novelist, dramatist, researcher, philologist, public speaker and translator, Pandit Kaifi is known largely for his philological works. His writings, especially Manshooraat (1934) and Kaifiya (1942), describe some interesting aspects of the Urdu language and usage. But his poetry and fictional works too deserve attention. An erudite fellow, he was affectionately called ‘Allama Kaifi’.
Pandit Brij Mohan Dattatreya Kaifi was born on December 13, 1866, in Delhi into a noble family of Kashmiri Pandits. Kaifi was educated at a traditional Delhi maktab, or school, where he was taught Persian. His maternal grandfather was a scholar of Persian and under his guidance young Kaifi studied Persian literature. Later, he was admitted to a school where he learnt English. Kaifi did his BA form Delhi’s St Stephen’s College. He knew Arabic, Hindi and Sanskrit, too. During his student days Kaifi worked as editor of Khair andesh, a weekly published by All India National Congress, but the newspaper could not last long.
Later he worked for Kapurthala, a former princely state in Punjab, since Daljit Singh, a member of the royal family of Kapurthala, was a fan. Kaifi left for Europe on an excursion but the First World War broke out and he had to return to India from England. Once back in India, he befriended many literary figures and luminaries. Among them was Lala Sri Ram, a learned man from an aristocratic family of Delhi, who was deeply in love with Urdu poetry. Lala Sri Ram began writing Khumkhana-i-Javed, a sort of history of Urdu poetry and poets. Kaifi helped Sri Ram in his work, which Sri Ram duly acknowledged. The first volume appeared in 1908 and the fourth in 1926, but Sri Ram died in 1930.
Kaifi continued the work on the fifth volume, as desired by Sri Ram, and published it in 1940. The manuscript of the sixth volume was found in Kaifi’s personal collection, which he had donated to Punjab University. The sixth volume was published in 1990 by National Language Authority, Islamabad. Daljit Singh became Kashmir’s chief minister and asked Kaifi to join his team. So Kaifi went to Kashmir and served there for a few years.
Kaifi’s son Pandit Pyare Mohan Dattatreya worked for Lahore’s Tribune as assistant editor and Kaifi had shifted to Lahore where they lived in Model Town. But all of a sudden his son died and Kaifi shifted to Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) where his other son Surinder Mohan taught at Government College (now G.C. University). Among the bigwigs whom Kaifi had befriended was Moulvi Abdul Haq. Kaifi’ scholarship and his love for Urdu endeared him to Abdul Haq.
When Abdul Haq shifted Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu’s office from Deccan to Delhi in 1938, he asked Kaifi to join. Kaifi proved to be a great asset for Anjuman. They worked together to establish Anjuman’s branches in different parts of India and to hold Urdu conferences. It was a critical juncture as Hindi-Urdu controversy was at its peak and Abdul Haq and Gandhi were at loggerheads on the issue of Urdu and Hindustani.
In 1947, Kaifi suffered from a heart attack and his son brought him back to Lyallpur. At the time of Independence in 1947, Kaifi was at Lyallpur and was past 80. Because of the tense situation, he migrated to India, first staying in Bombay (now Mumbai) and later settling in Delhi. In March 1948, an Urdu conference was held at Ahmadabad, Gujarat, where Abdul Haq, invited from Pakistan, and Kaifi met. Both friends wept bitterly for quite long as both had apprehensions about Urdu’s future. Abdul Haq brought him to Karachi with him. But Kaifi’s health had fallen and he had to go back to Delhi.
Kaifi’s works on Urdu and its peculiarities have been very popular. Though Dr Mirza Khalil Baig does not agree to some of the aspects of Kaifi’s linguistic works, he appreciates Kaifi’s insight into Urdu’s unique features and his innovative skills for coining new words and terminologies.
Some other works of Kaifi include Bharat darpan ya musaddas-i-Kaifi (1905), Murari dada (drama) (1918), Khumkhana-i-Kaifi (1924), Nihatta rana (novel, 1931), Darya-i-latafat (1935), Khamsa-i-Kaifi (1939), Vaardaat (1941), Masnavi Jag beeti, Kaifiya (1942), Afsaanche and Intikhab-i-Zauq-o-Zafar (1945).
Kaifi died in Ghaziabad, India, on November 1, 1955.
Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2018
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