Dear Abu bhai!
I am deeply touched after reading your article. I extend my sincere thanks to you for presenting the life of a finest writer and a perpetual dissenter before us as most of us have forgotten Rahi in the dust of time. Indeed your analysis of his dynamic personality in the context of contemporary India is an eye opener for this generation. I think if the real struggle of Rahi gets the space in the writings of modern writers, surely the youth will get enlightened with his personality and find a role model in him.
Earlier for me Rahi was just a writer or a poet but after reading your article I came to know that He was the man of multifaceted personality. He was a poet, a writer, an activist, a visionary, a dissenter and above all a dreamer who always kept in his eyes a dream of free and communally unbiased India.
You have analyzed Rahi by putting him in a frame of contemporary India that is passing through the dark times; when we talk about dark times, an old yet relevant picture of Rahi comes into my mind when the entire nation was witnessing the oppression of emergency. Even the Film Writer’s Association knelt down before the government and supported the harsh policies of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rahi being a member of Film Writer’s Association opposed the government and became the voice of dissent. Becoming a poet or a writer is easy but becoming the voice for the voiceless people is tough and we all know that Rahi had chosen a tough path by opposing the establishment.
The idea of Indianness which was propagated by Rahi is need of the hour. He looked at the Hindu Muslim relationship in a very different manner. You read any of his pieces of writing and you will find a master narrative of secular India. Despite being severely criticized and attacked by the Hindu fundamentalists he wrote the dialogue of a mega TV serial Mahabharata. He retorted to the fundamentalists by saying “I am a son of Ganga and who would know the civilization and culture of India better than I”.
With reference to Aadha Gaon ( his much celebrated work), you have described in detail the love for India which Rahi was having in his heart but I think this love for India is something which Rahi had inherited from his father Syed Bashir Hasan Abidi, a leading civil lawyer of Ghazipur who had refused to leave India at the time of partition in 1947.
For me Rahi was a dreamer, he dreamt of a revolution, though the revolution which Rahi was dreaming of never occurred in his life but he forwarded his message of revolution to the many coming generation by writing this couplet.
Humari Aablapai ka zikr kar dena
Thaka hua jo tumhe koi Inquilab dikhe…..
I expect many more such articles from you and wish you good luck.
Yours
Shahid Jamal
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