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Shayari<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by Christopher Norris<\/em><\/p>\n In a Delhi hockey stadium in December, about 100,000 people of various ages, genders, and classes flooded in for two days of poetry, debates, food and calligraphy sessions. It was Jashn-e-Rekhta, a three-day Urdu cultural festival, and its popularity reflects a wider appreciation for Urdu poetry. Shayari, historically associated with the politics of resistance, is experiencing a revival in the face of rising Hindu nationalism in Delhi.<\/em><\/p>\n – The Guardian, 11th January, 2019<\/p>\n It’s seventy years ago and more We settled our historic score On such a scale it wiped the floor To its one God plus hell in store That’s where the poetry comes in, Sorts god-squad, lack of zeal to win For big ideas. Then we begin Of those who make the loudest din It’s plural, polyphonic, not That’s why it makes you feel you’ve got Right in and put you on the spot, And no desire for some big shot But now we’ve Modri’s BJP, That only Hindus should be free Muslims and Christians they decree It’s pogrom, strife or killing-spree, So it’s no wonder Shayari’s When British nabobs came to seize Shayari brings no guarantees, Urdu, not Hindi, helps appease It’s the home-tongue of many, known A sense of all that’s theirs on loan, Of poet-speech. A lordly tone, Of Urdu Shayari and the bone Shayari by Christopher Norris In a Delhi hockey stadium in December, about 100,000 people of various ages, genders, and classes flooded in for two days of poetry,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":464,"featured_media":12849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
We knocked the Raj for six,
Rose up and showed you Brits the door
For all your knavish tricks.<\/p>\n
By a well-practised mix
Of old-style liberation war
With new mass politics<\/p>\n
With you lot. Just for kicks
We’d pitch our Hindu gods galore
Against your creed that sticks<\/p>\n
For us poor heretics
With small room in our oddments drawer
For Christ and crucifix.<\/p>\n
The Urdu kind they call
Shayari, with its liberal spin
On credal stuff, its all-<\/p>\n
More converts, love of small
Observances, and sense that sin
Goes deepest when we fall<\/p>\n
To live our lives in thrall
To loons and bigots as we pin
Our faith on the cabal<\/p>\n
Though love begs we forestall,
Through Shayari, the kind of tin-
Eared rant that sparks a brawl.<\/p>\n
The kind of preachy style
That tries to get you thinking what
They’re thinking all the while.<\/p>\n
To go the extra mile,
Pull dogma down, and have the lot –
All creeds and values – pile<\/p>\n
Thinking how versatile
We are, we Hindus. We’ve a slot
For every god on file,<\/p>\n
To bless or to revile
Those variants of the master-plot
No creed can reconcile.<\/p>\n
His far-right thuggish crew
Of Hindu nationalists who agree
That nothing else will do,<\/p>\n
To have a point of view,
Since they alone possess the key
To all that’s good and true.<\/p>\n
Unfit to lick the shoe
Of anyone who bends a knee
To Modi’s retinue.<\/p>\n
The goal his goons pursue,
With mindless unanimity
The flashmob-bonding glue.<\/p>\n
Got this big role to play,
This power to fight the same disease
We fought, back in the day,<\/p>\n
Our wealth, us easy prey,
And taught their bag of tricks to these
New leaders gone astray.<\/p>\n
Just clues along the way,
And no death-threats should you displease
The one God they obey.<\/p>\n
Old grievances and lay
The lingering ghosts whose harsh decrees
Preach vengeance come what may.<\/p>\n
To Muslims in the main,
But in the Hindustans a zone
Apart where poets gain<\/p>\n
Not theirs by that old bane
Of language-lore, the will to own
By rights some proper strain<\/p>\n
With priestly sect in train
To castigate the error-prone,
Goes clean against the grain<\/p>\n
It picks with all who’d feign
God’s voice for edicts far outgrown
Once poets tap that vein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"