Famous Urdu poet Akbar Allahabadi made it to headlines early this week after his name was written as Akbar Prayagraji on the website of the Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Service Commission (UPHESC). After furore over the issue, the UPHECS released a statement saying the website had been hacked. "The commission has not entered any such name on its website. It is being rectified," press release said.
Born as Saiyad Akbar Hussain, the legendary satirist poet used Akbar Allahabadi as his pen name, inspired by the name of his hometown Allahabad. However, his name seemed to be the casualty of UP's trend of rechristening of old names of cities under Yogi Adityanath's regime. For example: Mughalsarai railway station became Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya station in 2018. In the same year, Allahabad became Prayagraj. Faizabad railway junction is now Ayodhya Cantt. Next on the cards, according to reports, is Aligarh, which is likely to be named Harigarh.
In 2018 when Allahabad's name was changed to Prayagraj by Yogi-led BJP government, no one had imagined the famous poet would also face a whiff of the change. The aim to change the name of the city, according to the BJP leaders, was to restore its ancient glory which had got its name from a Mughal ruler Akbar some 435 years ago.
Who Was Akbar Allahabadi?
Among Akbar Allahabadi's most famous poems is, "hum aah bhi karte hain to ho jaate hain badnaam, wo qatl bhi karte hain charcha nahi hota". Rekhta translates these lines as: "I do suffer slander, when I merely sigh. She gets away with murder, no mention of it nigh"
Considered the master of wit and satire in Urdu poetry, Akbar Allahabadi was critical of western culture, colonialism and Muslim conformity. His earlier works were about love and longing. However, from 1870s, his poetry largely spoke about politics, nationalism and other issues of national interest and criticism of colonial power.
Born to an educated family upper caste Muslim family on November 16 in 1846 in UP's Allahabad, Akbar Allahabadi was enrolled in Jamuna Mission School to get English education in 1856.
Even though he dropped out of school three years later in 1859, he remained a voracious reader of English language, a mark of modernity at that point of time. This was one of the reasons that Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who was Akbar Allahabadi's senior contemporary and founder of Aligarh Muslim University, laid emphasis on English education among Muslims in colonial India.
The satirist poet worked as a clerk with the Railway Engineering department, passed the law exam and ultimately became sessions judge.
Through his work, Akbar protested the British Empire's attempt to create religious divides and their use of language as one of the dividends. He also wrote on freedom of expression and censorship in his poems. For example: "Khincho na kamano ko na talvar nikalo, jab aap muqabil ho to akhbaar nikalo." "Neither bow and arrow nor a sword do you require, publish a newspaper when faced with cannon fire," reads the Rekhta translation of the phrase.
"He rejected western culture, bitterly attacked British rule, consistently opposed all attempts to divide Muslims from Hindus and looked forward to the freedom, not only of India, but of Asia as a whole," writes Iqbal Hussain in his paper 'Akabar Allahabadi and National Politic'.In an apparent dig at the Indian leaders of British India, Akbar wrote, "Qaum ke gham mai dinner khaate hain hukaam ke sath, ranj leader ko bohat hai magar aram ke sath (Saddned by the sufferings of the nation, our leaders are rulers' guest for dinner. Leader is sad, but is at ease.)"