I have received a number of Muharram publications during the past few weeks. Today, I will confine myself to collections of poetry alone.

It is in the domain of poetry more than in prose that the tragedy of Karbala has found a genuine expression. It was left for prose writers to dabble in controversial issues while the poets chose to concentrate on the great tragedy. Thanks to their devotion and involvement, we have in addition to the manifold rituals of Muharram, a rich tradition of elegiac poetry ranging from the most cultured mournful expression, as we find in the marsiyas of Mir Anis, to the folk expression we find in nohas. Of course, this tradition is now under threat because of present day tabligh obsession of some reformist marsiya writers. But I will talk about that later. Let me first talk about the two collections of marsiyas I recently received.

The first is a collection of Syed Waheedulhasan Hashmi’s short marsiyas, compiled by his son Dr Syed Shabihulhasan, and published by Izhar Sons, Lahore, under the title Al-Atash. The other is a collection of selected marsiyas by Dr Hilal Naqvi, compiled by Professor Sahar Ansari and published by Saif Ali Educational Complex, Islamabad.

Late Wahidulhasan Hashmi was a graduate of Allahabad University and at the very start of his poetic career had the opportunity to get feedback on his ghazals from Arzoo Lakhnavi. He started as a ghazal writer but very soon turned to devotional poetry. He wrote naats and munqabats along with marsiyas. He has to his credit a collection of naats, munqabats and salaams published under the title Tahreen. But Hashmi was destined to be better known as a leading marsiya writer of his time. Al-Atash is a collection of 40 of his marsiyas.

After his death, Shabihulhasan compiled them anew with each marsiya carrying with it a short critical note from a distinguished writer. Critics such as Sahar Ansari and Suhail Ahmad Khan have paid glowing tributes to his achievements in the field of marsiya. Hashmi believes that we should now have short marsiyas because the full length marsiya as conceived and written in the times of Anis and Dabeer are no longer in demand. He himself wrote short marsiyas.

Though some marsiya writers opposed this move, Hashmi carried forward this movement. His argument was convincing: a marsiya writer is no more in the commanding position in a Majlis-i-Aza as he was during the times of Anis and Dabeer. He has been pushed back by the orator. He can now be accommodated there in a secondary position provided he does not prolong his stay on the mimber. Thus he cannot afford a full length marsiya because of the limited time allotted to him.

Hilal Naqvi is opposed to Hashmi’s campaign for short marsiyas. But he himself has scarcely written a full length marsiya.

Eighty six bands is the limit he has been able to reach in the present volume.

But let us talk about his marsiyas. I read them with rapt attention and wondered if Urdu marsiya has finally succeeded in finding a new mode of expression. Here is a shift from emotionally charged expression to a deeply thought-out, emotionally restrained expression. In fact, the emotionally charged expression enjoyed a long life in the history of Urdu marsiya, and is now asking for change. I am not trying to say that it is an inferior kind of expression. Not at all. It has its own depths and heights. But the problem is that this expression has already found its culmination in the marsiyas of Anis. In any literary tradition the emergence of a great poet creates problems for the coming generations. He exhausts all the inherent possibilities of the current expressions leaving nothing for those coming after him. Thus Urdu marsiya after Anis was for long in a state of decline. It stood in dire need of some new mode of expression.

In this situation, a group of marsiya writers came up with the idea that marsiya should be divested of its elegiac elements. It should be turned into a tabligi marsiya. Such an attempt should be seen as an attempt to convert a basically creative expression into propagandist expression. Propaganda is essentially anti-poetic, a vulgar form of expression.

What we find in the marsiyas of Hilal Naqvi is something different. He has brought with him an intellectual approach, which may act as a check on the overflow of emotions. Or we may say that the infusion of intellect with emotions may lead to a restrained emotional expression. Herein is a hope for a new mode of expression, which may impart new life to Urdu marsiya.

Apart from being a marsiya writer, Hilal Naqvi is also a scholar and has done research on marsiya. This has helped him in what he is trying to do in this field of poetic expression.