Nationalism in Mahjoor
A third factor was Mahjoor’s unshakable faith in the past. Nationalism is essentially a group memory of past achievements, traditions, and experience. A voracious reader of Kashmir history, it must have revealed brilliant and highly civilized periods in the past, as is obvious from his poems. No wonder he felt highly proud of his inheritance. On the other hand was the deep shock at the insolence of the ‘present’, which further led to a certain amount of chauvinism. He criticized his great romantic predecessor Rasool Mir for being, what may be termed as ‘extra-nationalist’.
In his praise for the bright Qandhar moon, Rasool Mir even forgets the beautiful Zoon, who lives in Kandahar.
Mahjoor’s close association as a Patwari with the peasantry who were the clear victims of an unjust system was another factor in determining the course of his nationalistic poetry.
Lastly, what I consider a significant to find out why he alone proved a harbinger of new ‘political and nationalistic’ poetry. Whether certain particular and outer influence worked besides the ‘general and inner influences’. Through Azad’s writing on Mahjoor and other life sketches, we learn that Mahjoor had an opportunity of studying vast literature in Punjab where he spent six months. He also stayed in Amritsar where he made an acquaintance of famous Urdu poet Shibli Nomani and Bismil Amritsari. His acquaintance with Mohamad Din Fauq is also noteworthy in this regard. Punjab was a hot bed of politics during that period where new political forms and forces like fully bloomed and were directly guiding the national struggle. Mahjoor could not have escaped these strong influences, wholly, though the extent of such influence is yet to be examined thoroughly. Any future research attempting to discern and determine the extent of these influences will not only be highly desirable but very commendable in my opinion.
All the above-mentioned factors combined not only to shapes Mahjoor’s nationalistic feelings but through him of the masses. The flames of growing nationalism were to a great extent fanned by his poetry and his poems become the national anthems for the national movement of Kashmir.
Come, Gardener : create the glory of spring: Make guls bloom and bulbuls sing – create such haunts.