Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor who is also known as ‘shayiri kashmir’ (Kashmir’s Poet)

Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor who is also known as ‘shayiri kashmir’ (Kashmir’s Poet) has been a trendsetter in the literary history of Kashmir, especially poetry, as he took poetry away from the shackles of mysticism and the Sufi cult of classical poets like Soch Kral, Shams Faqir, Ahad Zargar and many others. Like William Wordsworth, he took poetry to the doorsteps of a common man and sang about Nature and the bountiful blessings that Kashmir has been bestowed with. He used simple diction and created music, images and scenes which keep one glued to his poetry. He made the nightingale sing for the beauty of the garden, the beloved hanker for a meeting with her lover, the mountains that act as sentinels the valley etc etc which people liked and gave him the love that he very well deserved. In ‘A Flower Garden is our Land’, he sings:

        bulbul vanaan chu poshan
gulshan vatan chu sonui
sonui vatan chu gulshan
gulshan vatan chu sonui
The bulbul says to flowers
A flower garden is our land
Our land is a flower garden
A flower garden is our land

In this long poem, he names so many natural spots like Dodpathar, Sokhnaag, Gulmarg, Mansbal, Neelnaag, Vernaag etc which are now the recognised tourist places thronged by thousands of local and non-local tourists every year. Such was the impact of Mahjoor’s simple diction that he became a household name within a short space of time in Kashmir in which a greater contribution was made by a street singer Mehmood Shehri who would sing Mahjoor’s poetry in the Srinagar streets in his melodious voice.  One of his popular songs ‘Come, O Gardener!’ is on every Kashmiri’s tip of the tongue for its music and imagery:

        volo ha bagvaano navbaharuk shaan paida kar
        pholan gul gat karan bulbul tithi saamaan paida kar
        chaman veeraan rivaan shabnam tsatith jaama pareshan gul
gulan tai bulbulan andar dubarai jaan paida kar
Come, O Gardener! Create the grandeur of a new Spring
Make arrangements so that flowers bloom, nightingales dance
The garden is desolate, dew is wailing, the flower is disturbed in tattered attire.
Once again, give a new soul to flowers and nightingales.

Mahjoor, nonetheless, wasn’t a poet of Nature only. He was a revolutionary poet also, though this facet of his least talked about because of the awe that his Nature poems have created among the masses. He has political leanings also which is why, his body was exhumed after a few days of his burial at Mitrigam, Pulwama, where he spent most of his life and then given a State burial at Athwajan, Srinagar. He wrote poems praising Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the plough (the symbol of the National Conference) and in praise of Maharaja also. He gave the message of fellow feeling through his oft-sung poem ‘Leave Skirmishes and Love One Another. However, very few people have talked about the revolutionary songs that he wrote to lift the workers from the morass of despondency and miserable conditions that they had been suffering from for generations of exploitation. The song is without a title but is addressed directly to the workers and labourers who earned for the capitalist but himself lived a miserable life. The song is like PB Shelley’s ‘Song to the Men of England’ in which the poet exhorts the workers in England to rise against their exploiters, that is, the capitalists who owned factories and mills and earned millions, but kept their workers in miserable conditions. Shelley sings:



Men of England, wherefore plough
For the lords who lay ye low?
Wherefore weave with toil and care
The rich robes your tyrants wear?

Wherefore feed and clothe and save
From the cradle to the grave
Those ungrateful drones who would
Drain your sweat—nay, drink your blood?

    *    *    *
With plough and spade and hoe and loom
Trace your grave and build your tomb
And weave your winding-sheet—till fair
England be your Sepulchre.

The last stanza is a clear message to the workers and labourers they must rise and fight against the exploitative forces and use their “plough and spade and hoe and loom” for their own benefit and not the benefit of the capitalists. As can be seen in the first two stanzas of the poem, Shelley addressed them as “Men of England” and tells them “…wherefore plough/For the lords who lay ye low?” These workers work from birth to their death, given their sweat and blood to their masters, but what do they get in return? Shelley calls these masters as “drones” who feed on the hard labour of the bees (workers). They aren’t enjoying the fruits of their hardwork. The capitalist takes their wealth without giving them their due recompense. If they don’t rise now, they would continue to live this miserable life till their end.

Mahjoor has a somewhat similar message to give to the workers of Kashmir in this song which begins as:

phaaka phari shonga mati mazdooro gatsh hushyaar
voth sapun istaada zulman chukh tsa kormut naabakaar
Hungry sleeping labourer, wake up now
Stand up, tyranny has made you useless.

Like Shelley, he calls upon him to rise up and break the shackles of the past:

voth gareebi mormut chukh hosh kar sambal dam
voth voni kotaah kaal rozakh zulum o sakhti hyund shikar
Rise up, poverty has made you dead, wake up, take courage
Raise up, how long will you be a victim of tyranny and hardship?

Mahjoor repeatedly asked the labourers to rise up and see for themselves that a new dawn has already shown its light. He tells them: ne:r maidanas andar dar traav tsa ti ban shahsavaar (Come out in the open, leave fear and you too become a warrior). Without the labourer’s taking courage nothing is going to change. He calls upon them to leave the past behind and make a new beginning: voth revaajan ‘aadatan hinz praani yim zanjoori tsaTh’ (Rise and break the shackles of the past, traditions and habits).
It is very difficult to know if Mahjoor had read Shelley, but it is quite surprising that Shelley’s ‘Song’ and Mahjoor’s song have the same message. Shelley says:

The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find, another keeps;
The robes ye weave, another wears;
The arms ye forge, another bears.

Mahjoor has somewhat a similar message:

zuv tsaTith mehnat karith sona saedi kari thak yim ameer
vaqta mushkil haara mang takh lori heth karnai tse laar
Giving blood and sweat you made them wealthy
In bad times ask them for money, they would chase you away.

In order to achieve their goal, all the labour class must join hands together and strive to get their dues:

haa mazooro gresto athvaas thaeviv thod vathiv
haq panun haesil kariv traviv karun voni zarapaar
O labourer, peasant join hands and rise up
Get you right and stop now beseeching (them).

He tells them that theirs is the land, trees and wealth, so they should be the masters (baajddar to taajdaar (the owner is the master)). Shelley says the same thing here:


 Sow seed—but let no tyrant reap:
Find wealth—let no imposter heap:
Weave robes—let not the idle wear:
Forge arms—in your defence to bear.

Mahjoor advises them not to get divided into castes, creed and sect for labourers belong to the same class, face the same problems and therefore must fight together to come out of maladies of exploitation at the hands of the wealthy:

yuth na bozakh zaat butraat khaandaan milat ta qoum
chuva muzooran hyund kunui akh qoum bas akh sapdaan shumaar
Don’t think in terms of caste, creed, sect and family
Labourers are considered as a single sect.

It seems the song have had its impact because the last couplet specifically refers to some labour movement that had become successful in dethroning the capitalist:

sath vari bronh von yi mahjooran ta ti gov poor az
vava hardani zard gatshi gatshi payi pathar yim sarmayidaar
What Mahjoor had said seven years before has been fulfilled.
The autumn wind has paled them; capitalists have fallen.

It is clear that Mahjoor wasn’t just a poet of Nature; he was a revolutionary too. He was conscious of the miserable condition of the labour class in Kashmir and the exploiting rich who paid peanuts to the workers. It is amazing to note that Shelley’s ‘Song’ was triggered by the tragic incident at Waterloo, Manchester, in which many labourers were killed, and Mahjoor’s song have had an impact on the workers here who revolted against their masters and got rid of the centuries old exploitation. As a believer in social justice and equal opportunities for growth and development, Mahjoor has, through this song, exhorts the workers to shun their fear and laziness and rise up to change their destiny. They must the owners of what they are sowing, harvesting, weaving, producing and so on. This song is as relevant today as it was when Mahjoor wrote it.