The Alhmra Hall No 2 was overpacked during the session to celebrate masses poet Habib Jalib at the Lahore Literary Festival 2022 on Sunday. Besides the characteristic topic of the session, Main Nahi Manta (I don’t believe), the session had the right panellists: long-time Jalib’s friends Mujahid Barelvi (broadcaster), and Aitzaz Ahsan (politician and lawyer). The third guest was Dr Taimur Rehman (musician and university teacher), who kept the session alive with his melodious performance on the lyrics of the great revolutionary poet.

Barelvi showed his strong grip on the poetry of Jalib. He related most of the poems with their context. Sharing several anecdotes, he established that Jalib was such a selfless human being, that he never tried to get his popularity and poems materialized in capitalist terms. Similarly, the ruling class from Ayub Khan to Nawaz Sharif failed to buy him. He said Jalib’s poetry set political, and foreign policy agendas. He said when Jalib recited his poem “Aise dastoor, subhe be nor ko, main nahi manta, main nahi janta’ ( I don’t believe in such a constitution, such a lightless dawn) at a mushaira in Murree. Those were the times when Sheikh Manzoor Qadir had just crafted the constitution of 1962. After hearing the prophetic verses of Jalib, Sheik Qadir called ace lawyer of his time Malik Ghulam Jilani and said the constitution would not work.

‘But why?’ asked Jilani.

Jalib has rejected it, he replied. Soon, the constitution was history.

Barelvi remembers that the same Murree venue hosted another mushaira during the Yahya rule. Jalib was again on fire.

Aitzaz shared the memories of that mushaira.

This time, then a senior judge was to preside over the evening. Only to fail Jalib, the organizers set out the popular humorist and satirist Dilawar Figar before Jalib. Dilwar almost won the crowd. But when Jalib held the mike, he looked into the eyes of the chief guest, and then to picture of the dictator of the time. He started with the poem:

Tum se pahle vo jo ik shakhs yahan takht-nashin tha

us ko bhe apne khuda hone pe itna hi yaqin tha

(The one who was enthroned here before you, he was just as sure of being his own god). This just demolished the organisers’ scheme to flop Jalib. The mushaira was over.

Aitzaz said Jalib was gifted with saying complex issues in the easiest possible way.

Both Barelvi and Aitzaz shared their profound memories of Jalib. They said he would train masses on domestic politics and foreign policy issues through his poetry. Though he made his name as a poet of the revolution, his status as a romantic, ghazal writer has yet to be explored.

Taimur concluded the session by singing a Jalib poem, which the hall gave a standing ovation to both Jalib’s poem and Taimur’s performance.

WOMEN OF THE RAJ: At a session to unveil the book titled ‘She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen’, writer Katie Hickman sat with moderator Nelofar Bukhtiar to discuss the content and objectives of the book. According to the author, she wrote the book to tell untold stories of the women of British India, and to smash stereotypes, which have been established and remained unchallenged for over two centuries. The subject of the book is those women, who travelled to India before the 1857 uprising and took up the role of nurses, dressmakers, bakers, portrait painters, circus actresses, domestic help, teachers, shopkeepers, and so on. Primarily, they came to India as wife or family members of the British officials in the early 1600s, but they soon gave up their orderly life and started exploring the avenues to discover themselves. The session was aided with visuals to keep the audience engaged.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2022