"Allama" Iqbal the misogynist
Had the "Allama" been alive, he would have had a gala time not just at
the Orangi and Hira Mandi brothels but even with the widows and the
children of "martyrs" who are proliferating by the day in Pakistan.
The following two books by the scholar W.C.Smith provide some
illuminating insights into Iqbal's misogynist mindset:
1. Modern Islam In India, Victor Gollancz, London, 1946
2. Islam In Modern History, Princeton University Press, Princeton,
1957
Iqbal's personality development was for men only. Smith wrote that
even at "his most poetic, his most progressive, his most inclusively
utopian" moments, Iqbal left women of the world out of his dynamic new
world.
Smith went on to write, "For women, he wanted no activism, no freedom.
Iqbal kept his own wives in purdah and untiringly preached to the
world his conception of the ideal woman."
In Javid-Namah, Iqbal satirized a western woman who addresses other
women as:
"Ladies! Mothers! Sisters!
How long shall you live as beloveds?
Belovedness is sheer privation:
It is suffering of oppression and tyranny."
Iqbal epitomized his conception of the ideal woman in his ode to the
Prophet's daughter (translation by Smith):
"The chaste Fatimah is the harvest of the field of submission,
is a perfect model for mothers,
So touched was her heart for the poor,
That she sold her own wrap.
She who might command the spirits of heaven and hell
Merged her own will in the will of her husband.
Her upbringing was in courtesy and forbearance:
And, murmuring the Koran, she ground corn."
....................
Apart from that He is also among the crowd for glorification of Islamic terrorism i.e. A wish that led to so called Blasphemy Law in Pakistan:
I found this:
# Muhammed Iqbal placed the body in the grave with tears in his eyes and said: "This young man left us, the educated men behind [in status]."
He said this about the killer Ilm-ud-din Shaheed who was hanged but was hailed as a martyr, and is now accorded the title of "Ghazi".
This guy was given the status of almost equivalent to National poet Maithili Sharan Gupt and author of vandematram, B C Chattergy just because he wrote a song "Sare Jahan Se Accha". Later he became one in mind with the terrorists of Muslim League to divide India and to implement infamous Blasphemy Law in Pakistan to harass non-Muslims.
Similarly Amir Khusro is often glorified as one of the earliest Hindi poets while his works were full of hatred of putting off the thirst of swords in the blood of Hindus.
These are just two cases for citing. There are many infact.
Anyway, the point is that Hindus have a problem with reality. As independent Hindu writer Siva Prasad Ray (Turning of the Wheel, A. Ghosh, Houston/Calcutta 1985) has observed, Hindu polemicists, especially Gandhians, are expert at interacting with a partner without the latter knowing about it. They merely impute feelings and opinions to the partner without checking what these are in reality. With that self-deception, it is easy to maintain fictions like the Gandhian mantra of "Hindu-Muslim unity", or likewise, the RSS characterization of Indian Muslims as "Mohammedi Hindus".
http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/fascism/replytopv.html
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Iqbal was quite fickle minded:
"Later I found out that Iqbal had a very colorful life. At one time he converted to Ahmadia religion and wrote extensively for Ahmadia, then came back to “regular” Islam. Then he became a Communist and wrote poems defending, even with a touch of violence, the working class. " (taken from PWI)
“Nations which give women more freedom than is necessary regret their mistake at one time or another. Nature has imposed such important responsibilities on a woman that if she tries to discharge them fully, she cannot find the leisure to do any other work. Taking her away from her real duties and giving her work which can be performed by a man would certainly be wrong. For instance, making a woman into a typist or clerk is not only a violation of the laws of nature but a regrettable attempt to turn human society topsy-turvy.” (Iqbal)
And then the same Iqbal will say, “The claim of the present generation of Muslim liberals to reinterpret the foundational legal principles, in the light of their own experience and the altered conditions of modern life is, in my opinion, perfectly justified. The teaching of the Quran that life is a process of progressive creation necessitates that each generation, guided but unhampered by the work of its predecessors, should be permitted to solve its own problems.” (Iqbal: “Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”)
He was definitely confused. The more you read him the more you will know how confusing and contradicting his thoughts were on different issues.
Later he chose the Wahabi ideology as favorite which is most dangerous piece of Islamic ideology of Totalitarianism . This was what led to Pakistan: Rejection of everything Non Arabic to feel as a true Muslim.
Nilofer :
I see positive side of Allama Iqbal
Few of his lines are my Favorite
like :
"Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqdeer se pehle khuda bande se khud poochhe bata teri raza kya hai"
peshanion pe likhe muqqadar nahi mile...
dastaar kya milenge jahaan saar nahi mile..
awaargi ko doop te suraj se rapt hai..
magrib ke baad hum bhi to ghar pe kahan mile...
mai chahta tha ke khud se mulaqaat ho meri...
par mere ghar ke aine mere kad ke barabar na mile......
Song
Sare jahan se achha ......
Yes I am againest his views of Two Nation Theory otherwise he was great Scholar and Thinker
Do you know?
Iqbal descended from a family of Kashmiri Brahmins.
_________
Dr Iqbal's grandfather was a Kashmiri Pandit belonging to Sapru clan. His father , in order to marry a Punjabi Muslim woman , converted to Islam- much against the wishes of his near ones.
His father Ratan Lal was summarily disowned by the Sapru family & was discredited. Unfortunately, Ratan lal did not live a happy life & died when Iqbal was very young. Post his death Dr Iqbal went back to his paternal grandmother & request her to “take him back" into the family fold. The social norms of the day did not allow Saprus to accept Iqbal back. In fact some of his relatives belittled him since his father had converted to Islam.
This rejection hit Iqbal hard. He slowly but surely transformed into a bigot of sorts. Though he seemed to be a polished poet during his early days, the hurt he received due to rejection during his formative years resurfaced as bigotry. Iqbal somehow managed to convert his personal rejection & belittling into a life long mission & linked it with his Quom- the Muslim community & started lamenting about the sad state of affairs of the Muslim community. He project Muslims as a wronged community who needed to unite & fight the forces that were suppressing it. Most believe Pakistan was his brainchild.
Interestingly while he borrowed very heavily from Kashmiri Shaiva philosophy ( Khudi which is just a translation of Soham/Shivoham), he seemed to be very bitter against “Hindus”, perhaps because of reasons mentioned above.
(from PWI)
Most Muslims whose near ancestors were Hindu or converted Muslims were vehemently anti Hindu to prove themselves as true Muslims. e.g Aurangzeb and some other Islamic rulers.
