An 18-year-old college student from Sialkot, Asghar Saudai, wrote a tarana or song in 1944, to inspire crowds in their demand for Pakistan, one line of which became, and continues to be, a rallying cry: “Pakistan ka matlab kiya? La ilaha illallah” [What is the meaning of Pakistan? There is no deity but Allah]. Rais Amrohvi wrote the other most chanted verse “Bat ke rahay ga Hindustan, ley ke raheingey Pakistan” [India will be divided, we will take Pakistan].

Poets played a pivotal role in the Freedom Movement. In his book Jang-e-Azaadi ke Urdu Shuara [The Urdu Poets of the War of Independence], Dr Mahmud-ur-Rehman considers the first poet of political protest to be Mir Jafar Zatalli (died 1713), who responded to the moral breakdown of the Mughal empire after the death of Aurangzeb with coarse satire.

A verse he wrote for the Emperor Farrukhsiyar that goes, “The prevailing currency is wheat, lentil and peas/ Because the Emperor Farrukhsiyar is the one who kills people with his shoelace”, cost him his life. He was executed by being strangled with a shoelace. Scholar and writer Jamil Jalibi writes that Zatalli “laughs raucously to make us cry, he screams and roars so that his voice reaches the deaf.”

The poetic style called Shehr-e-Ashob or ‘A city in mourning’, emerged in response to the growing power of the British after the Indian defeat at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. By the time the revolt of 1857 came around, Urdu poetry was well-established and the last bastion of Mughal culture.

The emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, himself a poet, gathered the best poets around him. He wrote, “Aaj ka din eid-e-qurbaan tabhi jaanein gey hum, aye Zafar/ ta tegh jab dushman tumhara qatal ho [I will only consider today the Eid of sacrifice, O Zafar/ When your enemy is vanquished by the sword].”

On the other hand, Ghalib remained a bewildered observer: “Roz iss shehr mein ik hukm naya hota hai/ Kuchh samajh mein nahin aata ke kya hota hai [Every day a new order is issued in this city/ I do not understand what is happening].”

The sense of defeat transformed into a call for change. Ismail Meerathi, known for children’s literature, focused on uplifting the youth. It was not a battle of swords, but “Yeh jang hai akhlaaq aur ilm-o-hunar ki [This is a war for manners, knowledge and talent].” Addressing students he said, “Utho qaum ki aabroo ko bachao [Rise up and save the dignity of the nation].”

Akbar Allahabadi warned, “Raah-e-maghrib mein yeh larrkay lut gaye/ Waan na pohnchay aur hum se chhut gaye [In the rush to Westernise, our youth are lost/ They could not achieve their aim, and have lost their place here].”

As the resentment towards British rule grew, poets became more strident. Hasrat Mohani called for revolution — “Inqilab Zindabad!” — a slogan that was adopted all over India. The rebel Bhagat Singh walked to the gallows singing Lal Chand Falak’s song, “Dil se niklegi na mar kar bhi watan ki ulfat/ Meri mitti se bhi khushbu-i-watan ayegi [When we are dead there would still be patriotism left in our hearts/ Even my corpse will emit the fragrance of my motherland].”

Every political meeting and every movement, from the Khilafat Movement to the Non-Cooperation Movement and Swadeshi, was accompanied by poetry, memorised by the crowds. This included Shafiq Rampuri’s, “Bolein amma Mohammad Ali ki/Jaan beta hilafat pe de do [So said the mother of Muhammad Ali / My son give your life for the khilafat], or Tagore’s “Vande Mataram [Praise to the motherland].”

Most of the political leaders and religious leaders wrote poetry, but Allama Iqbal was a poet and philosopher who became a political leader. He asked, “Teray darya mein toofaan kyun nahin hai? [Why has a storm not arisen in your river?].” From his philosophy of khudi or self-realisation, to simple songs any child could learn, such as “Saray jahan se achha Hindustan hamara [Better than the whole world is our Hindustan]”, he eventually paved the way for the creation of Pakistan.

As prose developed, the stories of Sadat Hasan Manto and Krishan Chandar recorded the senseless violence as Partition neared. Critic Akhtar Hussain Raipuri wrote that literature in such hands is no longer a camera but a weapon.

The establishment of the Progressive Writers’ Movement in 1936 focused on social reform, but many of its writers, including Sahir Ludhianvi and Krishan Chandar, turned their hands to that other great platform of mass communication — cinema. Much has been written about the pivotal role of South Asian cinema. In 1947 alone, 170 films were released. Some, because of the message they carried, others as a relief from the intense politics.

Shaheed (1948) encapsulates the many aspects of the Freedom struggle — Gandhian peaceful protest, violent struggle, and those officials in the police and judiciary whose loyalty to their British paymasters is tested.

Theatre, since the 1860s, was another platform for protest, especially in Bengal, whose impact can be gauged by the promulgation of British Governor General Lytton’s Dramatic Performances Act in 1876, which allowed the arrest of dramatists for sedition.

Local journalism was honed with publications such as Maulana Zafar Ali Khan’s Zamindar, Mohammad Ali Jauhar’s Comrade and Maulana Azad’s Al Hilal.

The success of the Swadeshi movement that rejected British goods was made possible by the response of the craftspeople weaving khadi, setting up local cotton mills, glassblowing, producing tiles and building materials.

The Bengal Art Revival led Abanindranath Tagore and Abdur Rahman Chughtai to seek inspiration from traditional arts. Zainul Abedin took on the infamous 1943 famine as a theme, a famine caused not by drought, but by selling rice to fund WWII and by confiscating thousands of boats to prevent them from falling into Japanese hands.

The arts are often seen as existing on the edges of society, but they played a pivotal role in the Freedom Movement.

Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist.

She may be reached at durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 21st, 2022