So much remains unexplained about the 1857 war
A good part of the book narrates Munir’s life and poetry at “Kala Pani”, particularly the difficulties encountered to survive in a hostile political and geographical environment. Through the excerpts from his letters, we get to know the type of prisoners that were sent to that penal colony, most of which were hard criminals but there were quite a few who were “prisoners of conscience”
“Jang-e-Azadi 1857 Ka Mujahid Shair — Mir Muhammad Ismail Hussain Munir Shikohabadi”by Dr Tauseef Tabassum is a biographical account of the life and times of a poet in the years before and after the Indian war of 1857. The two words in the title “Jang-e-Azadi” and “mujahid” indicate that despite the passage of over one and a half centuries, the war of 1857 and the role of the combatants in it remain a source of controversy till today. Much depends on which side of the fence you are on. The author has made his preference quite clear in the title. For him, the war of 1857 was a “war of independence” and not a “revolt” or a “mutiny” and the natives who fought against the British were “mujahids” — revolutionaries or freedom fighters — and not rebels. A large number of historical accounts of the 1857 war have been penned down by the British and the narrative set by them is pretty straight: all those who fought against the British East India Company were “rebels” as it were the soldiers of the Bengal Army paid by the Company, who rebelled against the British military command, therefore, it was a “mutiny” and the participants in it were “mutineers.” The author disagrees with this British contention.
The book does not contain any information about the author for the reader to know whether he is an historian or a litterateur nonetheless his treatment of the topic shows that he has double interest in literature and history. His work is significant in many ways.
Quite rightly, he asserts that the British purposely distorted not only history of the war of 1857 but also deliberately indulged in the character assassination of all those who opposed them. This was done consistently and systematically to tarnish the heroes as villains. The case of Munir Shikohabadi is in point.
Munir was a poet in the court of the princely state of Banda and was thought to be one of those who advised Nawab Ali Bahadur to take up the cudgels against the British. He also fought against the colonists but as the natives lost the war, he had to go underground, however, he was eventually hunted in October 1859, was tried for nine months and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in “Kala Pani” (the penal colony of the Andaman Islands) from where he was released after five years owing to good conduct in 1865. He spent the last fifteen years of his life struggling to eke out a living in the cities of Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow and Agra, eventually settling as a court poet in the princely state of Rampur on a salary of Rs100 per month where he breathed his last in 1880.
Munir was a poet in the court of the princely state of Banda and was thought to be one of those who advised Nawab Ali Bahadur to take up the cudgels against the British. He also fought against the colonists but as the natives lost the war, he had to go underground
The court trial of Munir shows how the British belittled the role of “freedom fighters” as much as they could. His role in the war was in public knowledge yet he was implicated, tried and sentenced for murdering a tawaif, Nawab Jan. Munir expressed his innocence in a poem in these words:
شمر کا خنجر زبانیں ان کی تھیں
قتل کرتے تھے مجھے تزویر سے
مصطفےٰ بیگ ایک صاحب ان میں ہیں
کج روی میں بڑھ کے چرخِ پیر سے
کر کے خونِ ناحقِ نواب جان
مجھ کو بھی پھنسوا دیا تزویر سے
The tawaifs were an institution in themselves because as courtesans they entertained the nobility by their excellence in poetry, singing, dancing and etiquette. Maintaining relationships with them was an acceptable aspect of the cultural life of the nineteenth century India and Munir was no exception. In fact, the beloved of his youth was a tawaif on whose death he wrote a poem of lament but he definitely had no amorous relationship with Nawab Jan who was the mistress of the Nawab of Farrukhabad. As to who was her killer and what were his motives, the author has not been able to investigate.
The defaming of Munir as a heinous criminal and not a freedom fighter is just one example; there was much damaging British propaganda against those princely rulers who were opposed to them. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Oudh is a perfect example. It has been propagated that he was an effeminate and incompetent ruler who was given to singing and dancing and drinking and debauchery, totally unmindful of his public responsibilities. This is nothing more than a British concoction. In actuality, Wajid Ali Shah was a great patron of learning and fine arts. He was an avid reader, an established poet and an author of about one hundred and fifty works on a wide range of subjects. A proof of his commitment to the cause of learning and scholarship can be understood from the fact that over seventeen hundred poets and scholars and about five hundred physicians were patronised by his court. Not only this, he took keen interest in the governance of Oudh, particularly its military whose size he had increased and whose command he had personally assumed which was threatening to the British. Like Wajid Ali Shah, Munir, too, hated the British ‘racists’ as is evident from one of his couplets:
تارے ہوئے غروب، خط و خال دیکھ کر
گوروں کے پاؤں اٹھ گئے، کالوں کے سامنے
A good part of the book narrates Munir’s life and poetry at “Kala Pani”, particularly the difficulties encountered to survive in a hostile political and geographical environment. Through the excerpts from his letters, we get to know the type of prisoners that were sent to that penal colony, most of which were hard criminals but there were quite a few who were “prisoners of conscience” such as Maulana Fazle Haq Khairabadi, Molvi Mazhar Kareem and Munshi Khushi Ram, the last named penned a history of the Andaman Islands in 1861. One more such celebrated ‘prisoner’ who wrote a classical account of “Kala Pani” was Maulana Jafer Thanesari, whose another distinction is the several marriages that he contracted during his forced exile in the Andaman Islands. How the war of 1857 changed the life of people in a twist of fortune is well told by Munir in the following couplet:
جو کچھ مزدور تھے وہ آج ٹھہرے راج کے مالک
جو شب کو مہترانی تھی ہوئی دن کو مہارانی
But much before the war of 1857, Munir spent many years in the city of Lucknow which remained the dearest to his heart despite stays in Allahabad, Agra, Kanpur and Rampur. His poetic reflections about Lucknow reveal that it was the nerve centre of high culture and civilisation in the whole of the Indian subcontinent that has been beautifully captured by him in the following couplets for posterity:
پیشِ نظر ہے آج گلستانِ لکھنؤ
ہر ایک سمت نور کا جلوہ ہے دیکھ لو
پریوں کی دید ہے سرِ بازار رات دن
ہر کوچہ میں طلسم کا میلہ ہے دیکھ لو
کملی سے بھی دو شالوں کو پایا یہاں ذلیل
کشمیر سے یہ شہر زیادہ ہے دیکھ لو
فیاض ہیں تمام امیر اس دیار کے
گھر گھر میں رقص و عیش کا جلسہ ہے دیکھ لو
درگاہیں اور تعزیہ خانے ہیں نور کے
یہ فیضِ بزمِ ماتمِ مولا ہے دیکھ لو
اس شہر کو میں کیوں نہ کہوں جنتِ نہم
اس کا نظیر ہند میں عنقا ہے دیکھ لو
