Asif Khan published Damodar’s text generally known as Heer Damodar in 1986. Four years later in 1990 Najam Hosain Syed brought out his book ‘Akath Kahani’ on Heer Damodar which is a milestone in the history of our literary criticism. It not only offers the most valuable evaluation of Damodar’s work but also raises the bar high on literary criticism, a rare phenomenon in our lazy intellectual world that feeds on the carcass of tradition.

The book has not just a special place in our literary annals but also has an existential significance for the author himself. It was produced during the darkest days of dictatorship.

The author, talking about the book, once said that it enabled him to cope with the oppressive conditions created by the brutal martial law of General Zia. Creativity combined with critical thinking can be an effective weapon of resistance. The legend again did what it had been doing in the past; giving hope to the people in their fight against the traditions and oppressive system.

Najam Hosain Syed very forcefully does two things: one, he recreates Damodar’s story from the beginning to the end illuminating its significant dimensions that most of us tend to miss due to our habit of resorting to shortcuts by focusing on seemingly the main features forgetting that nuances lie in the details. Two, he explores, analyses and critiques the workings of the system described by Damodar with meticulous care in the context of characters created in the narrative.

Damodar paints society, events, characters and situations with the novelist’s eye. What makes him subtle is that he never uses a broad brush. Instead he goes into details leaving nothing significant out.

Najam Hosain Syed starts off by dissecting the literary device used by the poet which has deceived the critics especially those beholden to tradition. Damodar claims at the very outset that it just happened that he came to settle in the fief of Sial, the dominant tribe of the area, and set up his shop there due to the kindness of its generous chief who would be the father of female protagonist Heer. He further claims that he has been a witness to the story of Heer. Let’s see how Najam Hosain Syed tackles this contentious issue. “There is poet Damodar who composed the story of Heer. Then there is another poet Damodar who is a character in the story: ‘Damodar is my name, Gulati is my caste / I came to settle in the fief of Sial.’ This second Damodar, a poet, is present in the story everywhere. He is a witness to whatever happens…This second Damodar, this ever preset witness, is a product of first Damodar -- Damodar who appears in the story is a sign of coming together of the poet and his listeners in their effort to create the story afresh and to recognise and experience the reality of their times… This literary stratagem appears to be simply the poet’s trick to start his narrative but through it he conveys to his listeners that he is one with them; his creativity and consciousness are a product of the society of his listeners.”

Najam Hosain Syed employs Marxist framework to analyse the story and uses Marxist concept of social classes based on rights of private property that has assumed a sacred character in its long social evolution. About the characters, he says that they look like strangers in the story of a tradition-bound society that puts premium on conformity. “Strangers’ entry in the narrative is one of the fundamental elements of the narrative,” he writes. Main characters like Heer, Ranjha, Sehti and Luddan, are strangers in the sense that they are atypical. But at the same time, he shows, they are insiders as they are fully aware of system’s inner workings. “They subvert the system’s functioning from inside,” he writes. So much so that even Damodar, the poet and a character in the narrative, becomes a stranger. “Under the patronage of Khan Chuchak he apparently becomes a shopkeeper and dispenses the groceries to the lords. In a Rath society (a society dominated by lords) a shopkeeper while being endowed with semblance of human agency is little more than a menial. But while being menial he has a certain degree of autonomy. Like Ranjha (who wears the mask of a yogi at some point in the narrative) Damodar is in the disguise of a shopkeeper. Like Ranjha he doesn’t get his guise soiled. With great discretion, he shows us what he witnesses. He favours no one. His guise enables him to share the secrets of what goes on in other households. He remains objective while weighing things which automatically exposes the counterfeits of Rath society,” he says.

The narrative reaches its climax when Heer elopes with Ranjha. Both are captured and presented in the court of Qazi (Muslim Judge). Qazi treats Heer harshly when she refuses to conform to norms of an elitist family. She does quite the opposite; she presents all the valid intellectual and moral arguments in her defence in the manner of a serious defence lawyer. Her defence exposes both the judge and the system. When she is given a short shrift by the judge who is determined to defend the status quo at all cost, she subtly exposes the judge’s inability to judge. “Listen to my submission you Judge; this is an indescribable story.” Heer cannot describe it in words understood by the judge and his ilk. Her story is beyond the Qazi’s comprehension and thus indescribable. It’s beyond his comprehension because she declasses and throws challenges to a social order based on class distinctions, patriarchy and gender discrimination. So is the story narrated by Damodar beyond the comprehension of so many, readers and critics, for being uncompromisingly critical of the prevalent. We needed someone with the calibre of Najam Hosain Syed to decode the story. He decodes it creatively and critically.

He not only exposes anti-people biases inbuilt in our social structures but also points to their antitheses that emerge in the form of unusual characters gifted with critical consciousness to challenge what is accepted as natural and normal. The main protagonists reflect the conditions they are product of as well as human striving to transform them to have a fully humanised society. That’s why they have become enduring metaphors of defiance and emancipation.

In a nutshell, Asif Khan and Najam Hosain Syed have performed a historic feat to bring Damodar, neglected for long, into limelight but we still need to do more to fully restore Damodar, a giant of a poet, to his rightful place in our literary firmament. — soofi01@hotmail.com

(Concluded)

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2024