Urdu poet and writer Muslim Saleem: Muslim Saleem’s unparalled services Urdu by Dr. Shahzad Rizvi (Washington)

It would be appropriate to call Mr. Muslim Saleem the second father of Urdu, Maulvi Abdul Haq being the first one. Maulvi Abdul Haq had rendered great service to Urdu in pre-internet era. In the same manner, Mr. Saleem is rendering similar services to Urdu in this era of information technology and internet.

Mr. Saleem came of age in post-Independence India when Urdu was engaged in soul searching. People were asking, what will happen to Urdu? What is Urdu’s future? Languages usually do well when they have official patronage. In the past, writers and artists found patrons in kings and nobility. In modern times, that role has been taken by the academies. But those academies have to exist, and if they do exist, then they must be willing to provide patronage to Urdu. As far as I can see, both those conditions don’t seem to meet expectations as far as Urdu is concerned.

If a language becomes an official language or national language, this status becomes a boon for it. When the Moguls decided to adopt Persian as the court and official language, it flourished. People made it a point to learn Persian – it was the ticket to good position at court, or in government at any rate. The same thing happened with English. The result was that every child wanted to learn English. This was true in my case; I was born during British rule in India. Now the question arises, why should anybody today learn Urdu? It is not an official language, it is not a national language, it is not the language of a province, and, to make things worse, it is not regarded as a good medium for the instruction of sciences. There are no books on Computer Science in Urdu. If the utilitarian aspect of Urdu is low, then it faces the challenge of becoming an endangered species.

It is my belief that Urdu’s character, in the absence of the support systems I alluded to earlier, is changing fast. It is not enough that a few students opt to take Urdu in schools and colleges. Through the media or in the classroom or in the marketplace, what people hear is not Urdu. The result is that Urdu speakers do not sound like Urdu speakers. Whatever they speak, it is not exactly Urdu.

Under these difficult prevailing conditions, Urdu has found a patron, a savior, and an indefatigable crusader in Muslim Saleem. He picked up Urdu’s banner and began his march into a desolate territory – with almost no resources of time and money. He cataloged Urdu writers region by region, and provided contemporary writers, especially young ones, a venue to publish their work. If someone sends his work to him he publishes it with alacrity, for the community to share and enjoy. He does not judge the work, he does not make himself a critic of the work, he simply plays the role of a catalytic agent in bringing the work, whether it be poetry or prose, before Urdu readers; they can judge its value for themselves.

Mr. Saleem is a journalist by profession, and this aspect of his life has given him access to the highest circles in government and business, and contact with prominent and influential citizens. He has leveraged this access in the service of the Urdu language, enabling Urdu speakers and writers to be heard in the highest echelons of society. The result is that whenever there is an Urdu function, prominent ministers eagerly attend it. This not only keeps the candle of Urdu burning, but it brings home the importance of Urdu in the Indian multi-linguistic fabric, where languages vie with each other for prominence.

We live in the Information Age, and every day new innovations of technology are taking place. Therefore it is vital that a person has some understanding of technology. Many litterateurs of Mr. Saleem’s generation, however, especially the poets, are not computer or technology savvy. But Mr. Saleem has mastered modern technology. He has numerous websites and manages them with skill in the service of Urdu.

Muslim Saleem was born in 1950 in Shahabad, Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, and brought up in Aligarh – which shaped his person. He is the son of a famous Urdu poet, Saleem Wahid Saleem. He received his higher education at Aligarh Muslim University and entered the profession of journalism. Currently he lives in Bhopal and is very active in promoting Urdu, writing poetry, shepherding young writers through the difficult shoals of publication, and, of course, attending to his professional field of Journalism.

As a poet, Muslim Saleem has opened new frontiers and new horizons. His poetry embodies a unique mixture of traditional and modern poetry. At one point we see him as a romanticist and at another we find him as a reformer. No matter what role he may be incorporating at the time, he is always holding a huge and clear mirror to the society. He wants to change things if they are not working for humanity at large, but he never forgets to share his reasoning. He does not impose his will on us, the readers, but rather he co-opts our energies with our permission. When he moves in any direction to undertake a reform, he is always at the head of a caravan composed of enthusiastic fellow travelers enlisted with him in the cause of Urdu.

Take a look at his couplet as an example of his poetry:

Deo-qamat wo shajar jab tez andhi mein gira

pasta-qad jitne thay poday, sab qad-aawar ho gaye.

To an uninitiated eye, this “sher,” this couplet, seems to about a large tree falling and small plants becoming large. But beyond the literal, naive interpretation, it is about a human being, or an organization, being brought down by a cataclysmic untoward event, while by the grace of God, people who are not prominent go unscathed and become prominent. These are the vagaries of life.

Let us take a look at another of his couplets and analyze:

Jab bhi jazbon ke liya alfaz nashtar ho gaye

kaise kaise phool jaise haath pathhar ho gaye.

Superficially, he seems be talking about words turning into daggers and hands turning into stones. But it is much deeper than that. When feelings get out of hand and we become angry, we express that anger with harsh words. Words can be more hurtful and can cause greater harm than weapons. These harms are sometimes done by the hands of the gentlest people–hence the metaphor of flower-like hands turning into stones.

In the limited space of a short article on Mr. Muslim Saleem, it is not possible to do justice to his poetry in a detailed manner. All I can say that he is one of the great poets of our time. He also happens to be a great patron and supporter of Urdu language. I highly recommend that the readers read his poetry collection Amad Amad; his poems are also available on his website. I strongly believe that the sobriquet Baba-e-Urdu Saani aptly suits him and should gain currency.

As proof of Mr. Muslim Saleem's valuable services to Urdu, I am giving URL's of his directories of Urdu poets and writers:-

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Muslim Saleem’s unparalled services Urdu by Dr. Shahzad Rizvi (Washington)

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