Tabish Dehlvi and Pakistan Zindabad

It might seem a bit strange today but it’s a fact that a Hindu mystic, Munshi Shiva Dayal, who believed in the unity of religions and used to worship Hindu gods and offer Muslim prayers, taught Tabish Dehlvi how to read the Quran. Tabish Dehlvi also learned Arabic and Persian from this teacher. It was, perhaps, this kind of influence and upbringing that made Tabish Sahib the sort of courteous, polite and refined person that he was known to be.

A veteran poet and broadcaster, Syed Massod-ul-Hasan Tabish Dehlvi was born in Delhi on Nov 9, 1911. His paternal great-grand father was a Persian poet and his maternal grand father, Moulvi Inayatullah, headed the bureau of translation in Hyderabad (Deccan).

Unable to continue his studies after matriculation for want of resources, Tabish Dehlvi found work to make ends meet. He began his career in the postal department as a clerk. But having composed poetry at the age of 13 and having attended mushaeras, or poetry recital sessions, at a very young age, he was not meant for this run-of-the-mill job. So, he joined All India Radio in 1941.

It was his love of knowledge and learning that made him return to formal education and, in 1958, 24 years after his marriage, he did his BA from the University of Karachi.

In his memoirs “Daastaan Kehte Kehte”, Sabih Mohsin has narrated in an absorbing manner the events of the historic broadcast of June 3, 1947. Tabish Sahib was there not only as a witness to history but also to play a role in it. No doubt it was a historic day: the British government was going to announce independence plans for India and subsequent partition of the subcontinent. This important declaration is known in history as the Mountbatten Plan or the June 3rd Plan.

Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Lord Mountbatten, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Baldev Singh were to address from Delhi’s broadcasting house live, which was in itself a big event as rarely, if ever, had such great men addressed the nation live and that too together.

It was decided that the speeches would be followed immediately by the translations to be read out by Ansaar Nasri. At the end of his speech, Quaid-i-Azam said ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ which was not there in the written script and was not in the translation either. Ansaar Nasri started broadcasting the translation, unaware that the Quaid had uttered a historic phrase at the end of his address. Tabish Dehlvi, Akhlaq Ahmed Dehlvi and Shakeel Ahmed, the newsreader, decided that this bit of history must go on air in translation as well.

Tabish Sahib, known as Masood Tabish at that time, scrawled ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ on a piece of paper, tiptoed to the studio and gestured to Ansaar Nasri, who was busy reading the translation, that it must also go on air. Nasri, at the end of the Quaid’s speech, emphatically said ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. The broadcast ended and they all hugged each other.

When the Quaid was leaving the broadcasting house the crowd was chanting the slogan ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. Dawn’s main lead on its first page the following day was headlined ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.

Those historic moments always remained with Tabish Sahib and, as is evident from one of his poems ‘Khuld-i-baaz yaafta, Pakistan’, Pakistan was a ‘paradise found’ to him.

Tabish Dehlvi migrated to Pakistan in September 1947. He joined Radio Pakistan’s Lahore station and then moved to Radio Pakistan Karachi.

In his poetry, Tabish Dehlvi seems to draw on the works of Faani Badauni and Meer Taqi Meer. The former not only inspired Tabish but was also his mentor.

‘Neemroz’, the first collection of Tabish’s poetry, appeared in 1963. His other anthologies are ‘Chiragh-i-Sehra’, ‘Ghubar-i-Aanjum’, ‘Taqdees’, ‘Maah-i-Shikasta’, ‘Dhoop Chhaaon’ and ‘Haiku’. ‘Baazdeed’ is a collection of his essays.

His collected works titled ‘Kisht-i-Nawa’ came out in 2006.

Tabish Dehlvi died in Karachi on Sept 23, 2004.

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