02/12/2023
The era of political resistance via poetry started in Shahjahanabad soon after Shah Jahan was dethroned. In the year of 1658, when Aurangzeb crowned himself the Emperor, the Delhiwaalas saw a significant change in lifestyle, which was quite different to the one they were used to and were promised when they were invited to live in this city by Shah Jahan. However, with Aurangzeb on the throne, their problems were still trivial. Entertainment forms were banned but administration was still effective and Delhi was a safe land.
After the tenure of Aurangzeb ended, all hell broke loose. The ineffective and faulty administrative policies of kings like Jahandar Shah and Farukhsiyar, made life in the city quite inconvenient. It was during this time that a new style of poetry took shape, known as Shehr Ashob, meaning misfortunes of the city, highlighting the social and political decline of this great city which was once compared to paradise.
The first shehr ashob is said to be written by Mir Jafar Zatalli, who used satire and humour to mock the politics of his time, and his sarcastic criticism of all authority, including the Emperor himself, led to him being sentenced to death by Farukhsiyar. With time, this body of poetry modified itself to become a romanticised and poignant play of words, bemoaning the crumbling social order combined with the poet’s personal sorrows and pioneers like Meer, used this syntax to pull out from political criticism to a galant romanticisation of the past while lamenting on the collapse of Delhi, with the perpetrators of this decline (the British) becoming the sitamgar.
In the years to come, as the Mughal empire would crumble and following a series of attacks by the Persians, Afghans, Marathas, Rohillas and finally the British, the poet would find his finest hour amidst the massacres and Delhi would witness its finest cultural renaissance as it struggled to find footing between two eras, led by its greatest poets like Zauq, Momin, Ghalib and Dagh, writing about the pains and pleasures of love, spirituality and patriotism and about their beloved home, Delhi.
Curtsy - I love my Bharat
