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The recitation of soulful marsiya makes the most sense during the month of Muharram. However marsiya or poetic lamentations accompanied by soz and nohas, or sacred lyrics rendered in sombre ragas and witnessed by all without prejudice of religious and sectarian considerations is almost a dying art today.
To share her love for this art that had encouraged communities to come together, Dr Aliya Imam, Urdu scholar was invited by Sanatkada, a local NGO to talk of the marsiya by Mir Anis written in 19th century Lucknow in memory of the martyrdom of Husain, grandson of Muhammad, prophet of Islam before a select audience belonging to different religious and social backgrounds.
Mir Anis is the celebrated Urdu poet who died in 1874 in Lucknow. He had lived in turbulent times. He was witness to the dethroning of Wajid Ali Shah, last king of India and his exile to Kolkata by the British in 1856. He saw Indian soldiers rise up in rebellion against the army of the British East India Company that used cruel means to crush all those who posed a threat to the power of the British.
What injustice! How inhuman! Mir Anis may have exclaimed at the unfairness of it all.
Later the poet was to collect his powerful feelings and tied them up into spontaneous expressions in verse. The poet imagined the hurt of those who had witnessed the cruelty at Karbala so long ago with his own sorrow. In his marsiya, the creative genius uses the imagery of Karbala to create a catharsis for his own times. By bridging the past with the present, the poet's verses continue to insist that injustice thrives in our day and age as well just like it had so many centuries ago.
The tyrant raised his club in fresh attack,
The scion of the dusty one saw red.
He beat his hands in wrath; the giant fell back,
As lightning struck upon his angry head.
Defeat for evil! Victory for the just!
His head now severed fell upon the dust.
Mir Anis evokes the suffering of the martyrs at Karbala not just to cling to the past but rather to use the past as a pointer to continuing injustices in the present. This way an incident from the seventh century is bridged with the present and contemporary audiences are forced to question if that sacrifice so long ago was all in vain?
Linking sacred history from the past with commemoration in the present is believed to also strengthen the shia Muslim identity that is a minority in the world.
Muharram is the name of the first month of the Islamic calendar but on the 10th day of the same month, the tragedy of Karbala in modern day Iraq took place in the seventh century on the banks of the river Euphrates. On this day Husain led a caravan of fellow soldiers, friends and family members to try and battle dynastic rule, social injustice and political cunning.
That memory of Husain's fight for a more just social order is kept alive in particular by shia Muslims who are partisan to Ali, father of Husain and one of Muhammad's closest and bravest companions.
Ali is also a favourite cousin, and son in law of Muhammad and shia Muslims have always negated the authority of the first three successors of Muhammad in favour of Ali. Iran is the only Muslim country in the world with a majority shia population.
The evening with Dr Imam was also special for giving audiences a little glimpse of the way Muharram was observed in the city under the patronage of shia rulers of Lucknow who traced their origin to Iran. The rulers had encouraged all literature and architecture that was inspired by the memory of Ali and his direct descendants and which found firm roots in Lucknow nearly two centuries ago.
It is said that the shia Muslim rulers of Lucknow who were connoisseurs of everything fine in life could not think of life without music during the traditional 40 day mourning period observed in memory of the martyrs of Karbala and therefore encouraged the lamentations of the event to be written and recited publicly in musical ragas.
With the end of monarchy in 1857 and the colonisation of the region by the British, even best practices associated with the way of life of the shia rulers were negated, neglected and nearly forgotten.
Today the city continues to lament the declining participation of many more Sunni Muslim and Hindu people in trans -communal Muharram rites that existed before the arrival of denomination based communal politics practiced by politicians now, nearly seven decades after the departure of the cruel colonialists.
