Book launch: Remembering Jalib, the people’s poet

Speakers euologise his struggle against oppression.

ISLAMABAD:

May be Habib Jalib was a little crazy. The legendary Urdu poet stood up to every oppressive regime, every dictatorship, even spoke against democratic governments through his poetry when they went astray.

He never got a proper day job, he often could not provide for his family, he got jailed because he refused to give up his pro-people resistance poetry at a time when poets around him had turned sycophants and he even refused a Pakistan Peoples Party ticket to run for the elections.

Who does that? Who does that… anymore?

Perhaps he was eccentric, but being fearless and principled and a man of character, he had to be and this is how he will be remembered. The political conditions Jalib spoke against, the social injustice he criticised and the oppression he satirised in his verse remains as much a grim reality now as it was during his lifetime.

“Even today people who are corrupt, who have looted the public and who sell their conscience live with respect in Pakistan,” said Awami National Party Senator Haji Adeel. “I wonder how many Jalibs we have whom no one knows about and who have been forgotten with time.”

Adeel was speaking at the launching ceremony of a new book on Jalib’s life on Thursday at the National Press Club. The book “Habib Jalib: Roodad-e-Wafa” or “Habib Jalib: A Tale of Devotion” is written by the late poet’s son, Nasir Jalib. Nasir has compiled his father’s biography based on his recollections. Adeel said Jalib fought societal injustice and never compromised on his ideology and his principles.

Other speakers had similar eulogies for the revolutionary poet, who wrote against dictators and state oppression. Christian leader J Salik said what distinguished Jalib was that he lived the ideals he preached through his poetry. He said instead of showering hollow praises on Jalib’s greatness, we should try to emulate him.

Nasir Jalib said he wrote the book because he believed it was his responsibility to return Jalib’s memories to the people in written form.

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists President Afzal Butt said after Jalib’s demise, it is difficult to find any writer or poet who represents the ordinary Pakistani.

Information Minister Senator Pervez Rasheed was supposed to attend the event but he failed to turn up. Information Secretary Nazir Saeed spoke on Rasheed’s behalf at the book launch and said the government is willing to help in promoting the book in other cities and placing it in public libraries.

Speakers said Jalib’s poetry was sociopolitical commentary written in a language ordinary people could understand which is why people owned and liked his poetry. Pro-people, anti-establishment poems he wrote during the military dictatorships inspired student and worker movements back then. They are still relevant and have become anthems for the oppressed, speakers said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2014.