Poet Allama Iqbal recalled on his death anniversary

Allama Iqbal. Source - Hilal Publications

Speakers at a discussion meeting in Dhaka on Tuesday (April 21) called for rehabilitation of poet and philosopher Allama Iqbal in his proper place as a poetic genius.

The discussion meeting was organised by the Allama Iqbal Society, Bangladesh marking the great poet's death anniversary at the RC Majumder Hall of Dhaka University with society's president Prof. Anisuzzaman in the chair.

The speakers said Allama Iqbal was one of the finest poets of the 20th century as well as a remarkable philosopher of the Indian Subcontinent. He was also a politician and a member of the Lahore Legislative Assembly during the British period.

His lyric "Sare Janhan Che Accha" is played with pride but certain quarters have tried to lower his esteem as a poet and a philosopher just because he was the proponent of the idea of separate states comprising Muslim majority areas of India, back in 1930 at the Allahabad session of the All-India Muslim League.

Critics should rather celebrate Allama Iqbal that his foresaw Muslim majority states which are now realities. They should rather ponder why a poet of Sare Janhan Che Accha thought of Muslim states in the subcontinent in the evolving politicl scenario of that time. Muslims tried to remain happy with autonomous provinces but that was not to be.

Allama Iqbal was a barrister, conversant in five languages and wrote books on three of those. His book Reconstruction of Islamic Thoughts was a significant contributon to western political thoughts. Those who want to make him responsible for the partition of India which ot divided nine years after Allama Iqbal's death only lower themselves.

The Poems and writings of Allama Iqbal are of high standards in terms of literary value as well his unique thoughts on religion and the state. Delhi University's dropping in 2022 the lessons on Allama Iqbal in the political thought of the subcontinent on the plea of being responsible for the partition of India is the outcome of one-sided and substandard thinking during the hay day comunalism in India.

Dr. Md. Mohsin Uddin, teacher Santa Maria University presented a paper on the political thought of Iqbal. The discussion meeting was addressed by Prof. Abdul Latif Masum, former Vice-Chancellor of Patuakhali University, Mostafa Kamal Majumder, editor, GreenWatch Dhaka, Dr. Rashid Ahmed and Prof. Nasir Helal of Dhaka University, Dr, Abdul Wahed and Afzal Warsi, a leaderof the Bihari Community in Dhaka.