KARACHI: Marsia is the most powerful and significant genre of Urdu poetry that still owns a great potential to guide human thoughts because it glorifies the battle of Karbala as a metaphor of disobedience to injustice, tyranny and oppression.

Technically, marsia means a poem of grief over a great tragedy or lamentation for a departed soul. But now this genre is used precisely to commemorate the martyrdom of Ahle Bayt, especially the sacrifices of Imam Husain and his companions in the battle of Karbala.

After getting the great technical and poetic strength from the two geniuses of Urdu poetry, Mir Babbar Ali Anis (1803-1874) and Mirza Salamat Ali Dabeer (1803-1875), the classical marsia started a new journey in the 20th century when the British Empire was striving to make its illegal regime stronger in the subcontinent by suppressing people in their own land.

It was the time when the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which is also called the massacre of Amritsar, took place in 1919. The Indian freedom movement was at its peak and some enlightened poets and intellectuals like Molvi Muhammad Hussain Azad, Altaf Hussain Hali, Shibli Nomani, Ismail Merathi, Akbar Allahabadi, Molana Zafar Ali Khan, Allama Iqbal, Chakbast Lucknowi, Hasrat Mohani and many others were writing to make people aware against the designs of the colonial power and its conspiracies.

During that time, the famous revolutionary poet Josh Malihabadi started writing marsia with a new poetic elegance, radical spirit, and grandiloquence.

The second marsia of Josh Malihabadi entitled ‘Husain and Inqalab’, helped him get fame as the poet of revolution in the subcontinent. After the preamble of revolutionary style in Urdu marsia, the Urdu literature witnessed an emergence of strong metaphors inspired by the battle of Karbala. The battle of Karbala became the treasure of metaphors while the writers and poets belonging to the Indian Progressive Movement largely used such metaphors in their writings.

In this connection, Molana Muhammad Ali Johar’s two poetic lines represent the great meaning of Karbala:

Qatl-i- Husain asl mein marge Yazid hai Islam zinda hota hai har Karbala k baad

Answering a query about the prominence of marsia in Urdu poetry, famous poet and intellectual Prof Saher Ansari told Dawn that literature was all about language.

Marsia owned a vital place in Urdu literature as it had all prime linguistic characteristics, he said, adding that without marsia, Urdu poetry might be deprived of the highest values of ethics.

By the characters of Karbala, marsia communicated the great values of life to humanity, he said, and added that Josh Malihabadi transformed the genre by adding up revolutionary sentiments and values, which showed the vigorous spirit of marsia to guide human thoughts.

Prominent scholar and writer Dr Muhammad Raza Kazmi highlighted the importance of the message of Karbala, saying that the message of Karbala was universal because sacrifice was a universal value.

He said: “Edward Gibbon did not name Hur, but he wrote ‘A chieftain from the opposing side crossed over to claim the partnership of inevitable death’.”

Not only Hur, but Umar bin Khalid and Yazid bin Ziyad crossed over from the safety of the army of Yazid to the side of Husain where there were pitifully few; where there was hunger; where there was thirst and certain death, Dr Kazmi said.

Simon Oakley has mentioned the scene when Qays bin Ashath asked Husain why he did not bow to the will of his cousins. Husain replied in front of the whole army: “I will not give my hand in his hand in humiliation neither shall I flee like a slave.”

Dr Hilal Naqvi, a famous critic and marsia writer, said that marsia was an inevitable part of Urdu literature as it had provided the great treasure of words to the Urdu dictionary.

He pointed out: “Marsia, whether it is new or classical, is the only kind of Urdu poetry that voices against the malice, brutality and imperialism.”

Quoting Anis as saying:

Lanat khuda ki mazhab-i-Ibn-i-Ziad per, Dr Naqvi said that poetic line had great meaning condemning the oppressors and tyrants of all time.

Marsia drew the attention of people towards the voice of Imam Husain against the satanic powers of the time, he observed.

Eminent scholar, intellectual and poet Firasat Rizvi said that the previous century had witnessed the flood of revolutionary movements, fatalities of the first and second world wars, colonialism, and darkness of fascisms, deprivation, and global depression. During that time marsia was describing the sacrifices of Imam Husain and his companions to encourage the people of the subcontinent to live their life with full energy.

He pointed out that the first marsia of Josh Malihabadi entitled, ‘Awaza-i- Haq’ had pointed toward the emergence of political awareness in the genre of Urdu marsia. Talking about the spirit of marsia, he said: “Marsia teaches people to raise voice against tyrants, support disadvantaged people, condemn Yazidi ideas and encourages to opt for the path of Husainiyat.”

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2022