How Jawaharlal Nehru’s death marked the end of an age of innocence: Book Excerpt from Rakhshanda Jalil’s ‘Love in the Time of Hate: In the Mirror of Urdu’

On Nehru’s 60th death anniversary, Rakhshanda Jalil remembers the shock and grief his demise caused the writers and thinkers of his age. Let us look at the spell Nehru cast over the writers and thinkers of his age and the effect he had on the Indian literary scene, especially the progressive writers’ movement. In B R Chopra’s Naya Daur, Sahir Ludhianvi is exhorting his fellow countrymen and women to join hands, put their shoulder to the wheel and build a new and prosperous India: Saathi haath badhana saathi re Ek akela thak jayega, milkar bojh uthana Come, my friend, extend your hand One alone will tire, let us carry the burden together And in Dhool ka Phool, Sahir is again urging people to put communal ill will aside and, in true Nehruvian style, become a liberal humanist: Tu Hindu banega na Musalman banega Insaan kii aulad hai insaan banega You will be neither a Hindu nor a Muslim Born of a human you will be a human In Naunihal, Kaifi Azmi celebrates the enduring legacy of Nehru whom he has long admired with this ode to Nehru’s liberal humanism which he believes is a balm that a country scarred from a lingering post-partition ill-will desperately needs: Meri awaaz suno, pyaar ka saaz suno Kyun sajaii hai yeh chandan ki chita mere liye Mai koi jism nahiin hoon ke jala dogey mujhey Raakh ke saath bikhar jaaoonga mai duniya mein Tum jahaan khaaoge thokar wahiin paogey mujhey Hear my voice, hear the musical instrument of love Why have you set up this pyre of sandalwood for me I am not just a body that you can burn me I will scatter in the wind with my ashes Every time you stumble you will find me beside you When Nehru dies, the shock and grief among the Urdu writers is near-palpable. Writing about the sick and ailing Nehru in ‘Boorha Majhi’, Anand Narain Mulla makes a plea to the young and ruthless waiting to seize power: Mujh ko dhaare se hataane ki yeh koshish na karo Don’t make this attempt to push me away from the current When the terrible news comes of his death, a vast amount of poetry is written in a near-spontaneous outpouring of grief.