A NEW EVALUATION OF GHALIB AND HIS POETRY
Author(s): N. N. WIG
Source: Indian Literature , January-March 1968, Vol. 11, No. 1 (January-March 1968),
pp. 36-48
Published by: Sahitya Akademi
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23329606
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A NEW EVALUATION OF GHALIB
AND HIS POETRY
N.N. WIG
IHE first centenary of Ghalib's death will be celebrated
in 1969. Perhaps no other Indian poet in recent
times except Tagore has won so much acclaim. Un
fortunately, in Ghalib's case, most of it came after his death.
There are more than 40 books on his life and works by different
authors, apart from numerous articles and special numbers
of magazines devoted to him.
The amazing fact about this poetic genius is that much
of his popularity rests on only one slender volume, Diwan-i
Ghalib, in Urdu, containing 185 Ghazals. Perhaps no other
poet in history can claim such abiding popularity for such a
slender work. This is not surprising; rarely has there been a
book in the world literature which contained such breadth
and depth of human emotions, from utter despair to the height
of ecstasy; such wit and humour; such wisdom and insight
expressed in unmatched lyricism and poetry.
What was the personality of this man who has stimulated
and delighted countless generations of poetry lovers ? Though
there is no satisfactory definition of a genius, every individual
is essentially a product of hereditary and environmental
influences. In this article an attempt is made to study Ghalib's
life from a psychological point of view, in an effort to under
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GHALIB AND HIS POETRY
stand his complex personality and the way it influenced his
poetry.
Ghalib, whose original name was Asad Ullah Beg Khan,
was born in Agra in December, 1797 and had a Turko
Persian ancestry of which he was very proud. His grand
father Mirza Quqan Beg migrated to India in King Mohamed
Shah's time and came from a family of warriors. Ghalib's
father held minor jobs with various princes and eventually
died in a small battle when Ghalib was only about five years
old. Ghalib's uncle, Nasar Ullah Beg Khan, took up the
burden of bringing up his brother's children, but he too died
a few years later when Ghalib was only nine. Nasar Ullah
Beg Khan was quite a successful army officer and in apprecia
tion of his services to East India Company he was given a
'Jagir' by the British. After his death, the 'Jagir' was taken
over by the Government and a small annuity bestowed upon
the bereaved family, including Ghalib. The legal battle over
the recovery of the full estate dominated a large part of Ghalib's
life.
Ghalib's mother belonged to a rich aristocratic Muslim
family of Agra and his father probably lived with his in-laws
most of the time. Ghalib, born in his maternal grandfather's
house, was the second of three children. The eldest was a
sister and the youngest a brother, Yusuf Ali Khan, two years
junior to Ghalib. It is recorded that this brother developed
mental illness at the age of 29 which persisted till his death
in 1857 during the days of Mutiny.
Unfortunately, not much is known about Ghalib's
childhood. He was brought up at his mother's place, and
by all accounts his early life was spent in luxury. His pet
name in childhood, which remained popular among his
friends throughout his life, was 'Mirza Nausha' or the Young
Bridegroom. Death of father and later of the uncle probably
added to the laxity of discipline and soon Ghalib drifted into
an easy life of leisure, which was typical of rich aristocracy
in the nineteenth-century North India. Spending time in
kite-flying, cock-fighting, gambling or in the company of
dancing girls was the accepted mode of behaviour among
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INDIAN LITERATURE
such class, to which Ghalib was no exception. He picked u
the habit of drinking quite early, and could never leave
Writing verses was also considered fashionable for th
leisured class, which is probably how Ghalib's early foray
into poetry began. It is possible that had his father not d
so soon as he did and had Ghalib not been brought up in s
luxurious childhood, he would have followed his father's
footsteps. He might have made a moderately good army
officer under some native prince, but Urdu language would
have lost one of its priceless jewels. This early period certain
ly coloured whole of Ghalib's life, and in spite of the hard
ships, the terrible poverty and heavy domestic burdens in his
later days, Ghalib remained a Bohemian at heart. The
revival of that lost childhood—for him, a golden age—re
mained his favourite dream, which was reflected in his poetry.
This is also what probably made him an incurable optimist.
Not much is known either about his early education.
He probably went to some local school and was soon proficient
in Urdu and Persian. There were hints of his precocious
intellect at a very early age. He wrote his first poem before
he was in his teens, and had completed a book of verse before
he was twenty. Legend has it that a poem, which Ghalib
wrote when he was about eleven, was taken by an admirer
and read to the great Mir Taqi Mir in Lucknow who praised
it. At about thirteen, he came in contact with a great
scholar who was to have a profound influence on his life:
Mulla Abdul Samad, an Iranian and a Parsi recently con
verted to Islam, who met Ghalib during his travels in India.
Obviously struck by the young boy's sharp intellect and keen
desire to learn, he stayed with him for two years and taught
him Persian language and literature and history of Persian
civilization and religion. From thereon we perceive a strong
influence of Persian culture on Ghalib, who idealised every
thing Persian and took pride in being the foremost Persian
scholar of his day. For a number of years he even consider
ed it as unbecoming to write in Urdu. He preferred to wear
a Persian dress and followed the Shia cult which came from
Iran, though he originally belonged to a Sunni family.
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GHALIB AND HIS POETRY
I think that Ghalib's obsession with Persian civiliza
tion can be traced to his subconscious idealization of his miss
ing father, whose vacant place in his mind was at least partially
taken by Mulla Abdul Samad. One other interesting
speculation would be to guess the impact of his early years
in mother's home on his future life. In Indian culture, a
son-in-law staying with wife's parents is always a subject of
mild ridicule and petty jealousies. To a sensitive mind like
Ghalib's such slighting references to his father and talk of
their dependence on maternal family would not have gone
unnoticed. Especially, the early death of father might have
made Ghalib feel more insecure. As an inevitable reaction
to similar situations, it is not unusual in children to develop
defensive attitudes and secretly day-dream about the father
being all powerful and glorious.
Ghalib shifted to Delhi from Agra quite early in life and
started living independently. It is not clear why he did it.
Perhaps the dissatisfaction with the life in the maternal home
played a part. Subsequently, especially after his mother's
death, his relations with maternal family seemed to have
cooled down. For the first few years, he continued to receive
plenty of money from his mother and persisted in his life of
easy luxury. As was the custom those days, he got married
quite early, at the age of thirteen, with a girl of eleven. By
all accounts, including some of his own letters, this did not
turn out to be a very happy marriage. She was an average
housewife, a thoroughly religious and devout muslim, who
could never fully put up with her husband's extravagant
habits, drinking, debts and a non-conformist outlook on life.
She bore Ghalib seven children, but none survived. Ghalib
adopted one of his wife's nephews who died at a young age.
In later years, he looked after the two children of his adopted
son.
There are some piquant references in his letters to h
domestic life. Perhaps the most well-known is the one in
letter to Munshi Har Gopal Tafta in which Ghalib is advis
another friend who has lost his second wife and plans to mar
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INDIAN LITERATURE
again, not to make this mistake. He says:
'On the plight of Umrao Singh, I felt pity for him an
envy for myself. Good God, there are those whose
chains have been cut twice and here am I, hanging by this
noose around my neck for over fifty years. Neither do I die
nor does the rope break.'
Little is known of Ghalib's amorous life. In those days
it was not unusual for the rich to have dancing girls as com
panions. In one of Ghalib's letters there is a reference to his
deep love for one such girl in his youth. A couple of his early
ghazals also seem to have been addressed to some woman he
might have loved. Apart from this, nothing much is known about
Ghalib's relations with the opposite sex. In spite of an un
happy domestic life, he does not seem to have drifted to extra
marital affairs. Perhaps alcohol was his main vice.
The next important event in his life was the case of his
pension. This affair dragged on for almost fifteen years and
was largely responsible for his mental unhappiness and
financial difficulties. As we have noted earlier, after his
uncle's death the British Government had fixed a pension for
his family. After the death of the trustee, Ghalib filed a case
in the court in 1828, claiming that the pension should not
have been divided in small parts but all of it should be given
to Ghalib's family with effect from the date of his uncle's
death. Ghalib even undertook a journey to Calcutta, the
then Capital of British India. The case lingered on for years
with many ups and downs. Ghalib took the case to the
Governor General's Council, and eventually to the Privy
Council, but he lost every time. He even wrote a petition to
Queen Victoria. To complicate matters, he had borrowed
a large sum of money, his luxurious habits continuing during
all this time. The failure of this case came as a staggering
blow to him and the rest of his life was a story of unending
pecuniary hardship.
However, through all these years his literary stature was
growing. He had attracted a small band of intellectual
admirers very early in life but by now his fame had spread far
and wide. A large number of scholars from different parts
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GHALIB AND HIS POETRY
of the country accepted him as their mentor in poetry and sent
their verses to him for correction. By 1840, he was recognised
as one among the two or three top Persian scholars in the
country.
Another event which seems to have left a mark on his
life was his arrest and imprisonment for three months in 1846
for the offence of using his premises as a gambling club. There
are varying versions of this event, but Ghalib probably was
guilty, although it is possible that he did not realize the seri
ousness of the offence nor imagined that a man of his standing
in the community could be so treated by the police. The
subsequent trial and punishment came as a shocking blow
to his pride and reputation. Barring a few close and loyal
friends, everyone he knew, including many relatives, forsook
him in this predicament, which naturally made him very
bitter.
July 1850 marked the beginning of a somewhat happy
period in Ghalib's tormented life. Bahadur Shah, the last
Mughal Emperor, honoured him with a title and monetary
gift. Ghalib was employed to compile a history of the Mughal
dynasty in Persian, with a monthly stipend of Rs. 50/- for this
work. This brought him in close contact with the exclusive
literary circle that existed in the Red Fort. It turned out to
be one of the poet's most glorious productive periods, more
so because the King was himself a significant poet in Urdu.
Zauq, another leading literary figure of Delhi, was his teacher.
After Zauq's death in 1854 Bahadur Shah turned to Ghalib
for poetical guidance. Ghalib was writing mainly in Persian
in those days, but the influence of Bahadur Shah revived his
interest in Urdu. Some of his best Ghazals are of this period.
His financial condition and social status further improved
when the King's eldest son and heir apparent accepted him
as his poetry teacher in 1854 with a salary of Rs. 400/- per
annum. Probably, Wajid Ali Shah, the last King of Oudh,
also started paying him a stipend of Rs. 500/- annually at
about the same time.
Ghalib's happiness however was short-lived. The politi
cal upheaval of 1857 saw the destruction of all his hopes and
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INDIAN LITERATURE
dreams. With the deportation of the King, all financial he
from the King and the British government ceased. Durin
this period of hardship, some of the poet's more affluent pup
and friends came to his rescue. After the 'mutiny', he w
accused by the British of siding with the deposed King, thoug
he had taken no active part in the disturbances. However
the British government agreed to resume his pension with
three years and his literary stature was regained. By t
time he was the most famous of old Delhi poets. The Naw
of Rampur took him as his teacher and put him on a stipen
From 1860 onward Ghalib's health deteriorated rapidly
and for the last four or five years of his life, he was alm
confined to bed. Numerous letters written during this per
give details of his illness, of which the main symptoms w
repeated abscesses and boils all over his body,especially le
frequency of micturition, increasing deafness, failing eyesigh
tremors in hands, etc. In spite of all this, his mental facul
remained sharp, as his letters of later years amply show.
end came in February 1869 after a paralytic stroke.
The diagnosis of Ghalib's illness has never been properl
discussed, but the symptoms point to the strong probabili
of its being Diabetes Mellitus. Alcoholism might have also
contributed to the general poor health, deafness and tremo
The frequency of micturition may on the other hand sugg
an enlarged prostate gland. His death was almost certainl
due to a cerebro-vascular attack (a blood clot or haemorrha
in the brain vessels) resulting in paralysis and death. The
are known to occur more in diabetic patients.
Much has been written about Ghalib's personality, his
physical attributes, his love for Persian language and way
life, his liberalism, his religious tolerance, his sparkling
and humour, his alcoholism, etc. But one striking aspect
his personality has missed the attention of his biographers : th
contrast in his moods from utter gloom and despair to t
height of elation and ecstasy. Some critics have noted
sharp wit and humour as his poetry's most distinctive feature
while others with equal vehemence have tried to prove th
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GHALIB AND HIS POETRY
his writing mirrored human suffering and misery. The truth
is that Ghalib was both a pessimist and an optimist,
depending on his moods. In the following example, one of
his famous ghazals, there is almost a classical description of
what psychiatrists would call a depressive illness. Medically
speaking, depressive illness is recognised in a patient by a mood
of hopelessness, pre-occupation with ideas of death, lack of
interest in everything, lack of sleep, suicidal thoughts, feeling
of undue guilt, etc. Let us now see how the various couplets of
the ghazal can be cited as an example to illustrate these points :
'Koi Ummid bar nahin ati'
I see no end to my despair,
As my troubles before me loom;
No ray of hope illumes my breast,
It is a cell of the deepest gloom.
Why can't I go to sleep at night?
Why can't I realize
that death will come when it will come
and not a day too soon...
Time was when I could laugh
at the wanton whimsies of my heart
.. .But now my heart has lost all hope
and naught can make me smile.
I am in that far off land where even the news of my
own self is rare to obtain.
I know the reward of piety, good thoughts and
pious deeds. No more I can solace myself, no
more I feel inclined.
What face you will show in Kaaba with all your sinful
past?
Don't you feel ashamed, oh Ghalib, to even think such
things.
(Translation by J.L. Kaul)
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INDIAN LITERATURE
I have always thought that this is a masterpiece of a poem
which so beautifully records an almost clinical picture of a
psychological illness. An occasional sad couplet or ghazal
is certainly not unusual in any poet's collection; but here it is
not one or two couplets. The mood pervades through the
whole poem. The remarkable thing which makes it dis
tinctive is not sadness (other poets may have written about
sadder things) but the accuracy of description. There cannot
be much doubt that Ghalib had personally experienced such
depressed moods of clinical intensity.
Here is another example, also a ghazal, written around
1828-33:
I long to go to a lonely place
Far, far away from here
No doors, no walls, I'd build me there
A shelter lone and bare
A way from man's vain company
And all this petty strife
Unwatched by neighbour's prying eyes
I'd lead a lonely life
If I fall ill, no fellow-man
Need minister to me.
And if, perchance, I die, no one
Need grieve or mourn for me.
(Translation byJ.L. Kaul)
The above are only two instances taken from among his
various ghazals, reflecting the same mood. As is well known
in modern psychology, a person suffering from such depression
can also experience at times an absolutely contrary feeling,
marked by an undue elation, extraordinary happiness and a
sense of extreme confidence and superiority in himself. This
type of personality is called cyclic, cyclothymic or manic
depressive. Such persons will suddenly go into a state of
gloom for days and weeks on minor provocation and then
would swing to the opposite side of complete elation without
apparent cause. This was also Ghalib's case as a section of
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GHALIB AND HIS POETRY
his poetry amply demonstrates. As an example, I am quot
ing below only the first few lines of a ghazal:
'Bazicha-e-atfal hai'
This world is a children's nursery for me. I delight
in the spectacle of creation morning and evening.
King Sulaeman's throne is a play-thing of children
for me. Christ's miracles hold no wonder for me.
Seeing me, the desert covers itself in sand.
The mighty river humbles itself before me lying low in
dust.
Don't bother how I feel in your absence. You had
better watch how you look in my presence.
A lover, yes, but a clever lover am I. When I am there
Laila forgets Majnu and belittles him in my presence.
Laila and Majnu's love is as sacrosanct as anything can
be in Urdu poetry, but here Ghalib in his elated mood feels
confident that Laila is ready to deceive Majnu for him.
I have made efforts to trace the dates of writing of various
ghazals to see if the varying moods of Ghalib can be correlated
with actual events in his life. Dating the ghazals is not easy
as there is a lack of agreement among authorities. The
ghazal 'Koi Ummid bar nahin ati' was written probably some
time between 1847-1850. Very few of Ghalib's letters of this
period are available. However, a newly published collection
of his letters, Nadirat-e-.Ghalib, has some belonging to this
period. I have come across one such letter in the collection
which Ghalib wrote to his friend Nabi Bakhsh 'Haqeer' on
January 9, 1850 and which I am quoting below:
My dear friend,
I owe you the reply to a letter. But what can I do?
I am so grief-stricken and depressed. Further, stay in
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INDIAN LITERATURE
this city is no longer to my liking. On the other hand
there are so many impediments in my way that I cannot
go away from here. My grief and sorrow has reached
a point where my only hope lies in death.
One whose only solace is in death.
His disappointment has no bounds.
In this flood of depression and sorrow, I began
thinking today of you and your children. It is a long
time you have not written anything about yourself or
the children either... I wish you all well.
Most probably the ghazal 'Koi Ummid bar nahin at
was also written during the same period. The similarity o
the mood is striking. The period is soon after the impris
ment of Ghalib in the summer of 1847. Some other ghaz
reflecting a similar depressive mood might also have been
written at about then.
The other ghazal which I have quoted to depict his elated
mood, namely, 'Bazicha-e-atfal hai', can be timed more
accurately. In one of his letters, written in July 1854, Ghalib
refers to this ghazal and says it was written a year ago. This
would put it in the year 1853 — a period when he was relative
ly well off and happily settled in the King's court. Another
ghazal depicting also a confident mood, was written a year
later, in 1854, which was incidentally the year of the death
of Zauq, one of Ghalib's main literary rivals in Delhi.
A cyclothymic or manic-depressive personality is often a
victim of heredity. Manic-depressive psychosis, one form of
insanity, is closely associated with such personality. Details
of Ghalib's brother's mental illness are not available, but
possibly he could have suffered from a similar disease. It
must, however, be made clear that Ghalib himself never
suffered from any insanity or mental illness. Cyclothymic
personality is only a variation of normal and is fully compati
ble with high intelligence and excellence of other faculties.
Other notable features of such a personality are his ex
trovert nature, gregariousness, love for eating and drinking,
etc. All of these were present in Ghalib. It has been suggest
ed that, generally, drinking was a source of inspiration for his
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GHALIB AND HIS POETRY
poems, which he mostly composed in the evening after his
drinks. Much of the mystical quality of his couplets remind
one of alcoholically inspired ecstasy.
The contrast in Ghalib's mood and attitude towards life
is evident not only in his poetry but in other spheres also. At
times we find him supremely self-confident, headstrong and
cocky. At other times he is vacillating, apologetic and un
sure of himself. Under the facade of self-assurance and self
aggrandizement, there was basically an insecure personality,
which can be traced to the childhood events, death of his
father and other happenings. In such moods of exaltedness
he was quick to offend people. But he was not a good fighter
and when pressed hard, would rather compromise than fight.
In 1851, for example, he wrote a beautiful 'sehra' for the
prince and was so carried away by its poetical excellence that
the last two lines of the poem contained a veiled but slighting
reference to Zauq who was then King's mentor, as if challeng
ing him or anyone else to write a better 'sehra'. When he
heard about the King's displeasure about this reference, he
wrote a long poem of apology saying, how could he dare
compete with Zauq. His famous. literary quarrel in
Calcutta in 1828 was also typical. When he read a Persian
poem in a private gathering, some people criticized the
grammatical use of certain words and phrases and quoted
certain authorities in support. Ghalib immediately and
arrogantly dismissed those quoted authorities as non-entities
with no knowledge of Persian. The result was an uproar,
and for weeks following the event, Ghalib was criticised in
public and press. Finally, though he was convinced of his
literary ground, he decided to issue a letter of apology.
The same pattern we find in the defamation case of Qati
Burhan in his later years. During the days of mutiny he had
a copy of the Persian dictionary Burhan-Qati with him. As
he had nothing better to do those days, he went through the
book, found it full of mistakes and ended up by writing a new
book on its corrections. When it was published, it raised a
storm of protest from traditional and conservative exponents
of Persian language. Some people went to the extent of send
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INDIAN LITERATURE
ing Ghalib threatening and abusive letters. One of the
wrote a book derogatory to Ghalib, full of vulgar and obsc
language. Ghalib filed a court suit claiming damages f
defamation, but when he found a large number of defen
witnesses against him, he ended up by compromising outsi
the court without pursuing the case.
Similar examples can also be cited from Ghalib's behav
our during the 1857 mutiny, when he first tried to remain on
the side of the King and afterwards was as pro-British as a
one could be.
It will be nai've to suggest that by analysing certain traits
of his personality we can understand the genius of Ghalib or
the beauty of his poetry. A genius is beyond analysis. It
is a mysterious quality, almost a divine gift. Ghalib was
intensely aware of his greatness, his destined place in history.
In one Persian poem he predicts how posterity will remember
him and how believers and non-believers will both find ex
positions of their viewpoints in his poetry. Ghalib's tragedy
was that of a tormented soul—a genius who is caught in the
midst of mediocres who do not know his worth. As he says :
They have never understood nor will understand what
I say. Oh God, give them a new heart if you cannot
spare a new tongue for me.
There are many a poet in this world highly praised and
highly talked. But the style of Ghalib is his own,
unrivalled and unmatched.
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