Neither Islamic nor Romantic: Taj Mahal as the Progressives Saw It

For the Progressives, Taj Mahal was not even a monument of love, let alone being Islamic, explains Rakhsanda Jalil

Taj Mahal has also been created by the imagination of writers and poets. The Progressives saw it very differently from those who built it or those shunning it now.  

(Photo Courtesy: Liju Joseph/The Quint)

To those who claim the Taj Mahal was built by traitors and their very names must be excised from history, I will offer no plea on its tremulous beauty that caused the Bard to liken it to a 'teardrop on the cheek of time'. Nor will I draw attention to the obvious fact of it being a world heritage site, drawing millions of tourists from India and abroad.

These are facts and, like pearls, must not be cast before swine. Instead, let me present an alternative reading of the Taj, one presented by Urdu poets, especially the progressive poets; for, Urdu poetry can be relied upon to provide a contrarian, Catholic view on almost anything on God's earth!

Deconstructing the image of the monument to love, Sahir Ludhianvi finds this showy exhibitionistic declaration of love an insult to the love of ordinary mortals, who cannot afford an emperor's self indulgence. Sahir's Taj Mahal deserves to be quoted in full to appreciate his scorn and derision for a love that is so ostentatious:

Sahir Ludhianvi’s poem ‘Taj Mahal’  (Photo Courtesy: Liju Joseph/The Quint)

Translation:

For you the Taj may well be a mere manifestation of love

And you may be attached to this beautiful setting

But, my love, meet me somewhere else

For what place do the poor have in this assembly of royals

On those paths that are engraved with the signs of power and royalty

What meaning can the passage of love-filled souls have on it?

My love, behind the curtains of professions of constancy

If only you had seen the signs of power and authority

O you, who are pacified by the mausoleums of dead royals

If only you had seen the darkness of your own homes

Countless numbers of people have loved in this world

Who says that their emotions were not true?

But they did not have the provisions of publicity

Because those people were poor like you and me

This building, these graves, this enclosure, this fortress

These pillars bearing testimony to an emperor's unconditional supremacy

These are festering wounds on the chest of the world, ancient wounds

Mingled in them is the blood of your ancestors, and mine

My love, they too would have loved

Whose craftsmanship has bestowed amazing architectural beauty upon it

The graves of their loved ones have remained unmarked, unlit

No one has lit so much as a paper lantern on their graves

This garden, this river bank beside the Jamuna, this palace

This sculpted door and wall, this archway, this niche,

An emperor has taken the assistance of all his wealth

And made fun of the love of poor people like us

My love, meet me somewhere else

Taj Mahal reflects in the Yamuna riverPhoto: Source

And in much the same way, there is Kaifi Azmi, fellow member of the progressive writers' movement, urging his beloved whom he addresses as his 'friend' to come away from the Taj Mahal:

In this poem, Taj Mahal reminds Kaifi Azmi of the homeless, the destitute and the unsung.  Courtesy: Liju Joseph/The Quint

My friend, I have seen the Taj Mahal

... let us go back

A diamond boiling over with alabaster flowers

Silvery minarets blazing in the fire of the moon

Winking continuously at the poet's mind

The grand and alluring mausoleum of an empress

Like a question, it flashed through the mind's eye

The thought of those who lie in the streets like corpses

Whose nerves and sinews shrink lifelessly

Whose skulls smash like cymbals in the heat

My friend, I have seen the Taj Mahal

... let us go back

In this dome like the beating heart of Shahjahan

The smiling face of an empress on its walls

Glittering from every layer satire and discrimination

Over which history puts the mask of love

I swear by the moonlight and by this world of wonders

Like a canal of milk coming to the boil

So too does this scene meets the traveler's gaze

One who is reminded of the fate of Farhad

My friend, I have seen the Taj Mahal

... let us go back

This gleaming threshold, this be crowned dome

It is these marvels that have encouraged the worship of graves

Even the stars are perforce to bow in prostration

Such is the boudoir of the much-adored empress

Not a palace but a clearly visible division this is

Like smoke on the face of life, like the dance of light on a grave

Spreading across this garden tomb as soon as its hem shrinks

May many life-filled funerals find such mausoleums

My friend, I have seen the Taj Mahal

... let us go back

Then, there are the more conventional responses to the spectacular beauty of the Taj, such as this by Mahshar Badayuni:

Allah main yeh Taj Mahal dekh raha huun

Ya pahlu-e-Jamuna mein kanval dekh raha huun

Dear God is it the Taj Mahal I am seeing

Or is it a lotus blooming beside the Yamuna

And this by Sikandar Ali Wajd:

Jadu nigah-e ishq ka patthar pe chal gaya

Ulfat ka khwaab qalib marmar pe dhal gaya

The magic of love's glance has worked on stone

The dream of adoration has been cast in marble

And by Waris Kirmani:

Jaane kis taazgii-e fikr ka izhaar kiya

Waqt ke husn gurezaan ko giraftaar kiya

Such freshness of the imagination it reflects

Capturing the fleeting beauty of time

But the most fitting response to the hate mongers who have already excised the very mention of the Taj from the Uttar Pradesh tourism booklet and are calling it a 'blot on Indian culture' comes from Seemab Akbarabadi:

Kaash phir duniya aur ek Shahejahan paida karey

Kaash phir ho khaak se jism-e muhabbat jalwagar

If only the world were to produce another Shahjahan

If only another monument to love were to rise from this soil of graves.

Video Editor: Mohd Ibrahim