Recycled Bin

Qawwalis from Fareeda Mehta’s Kali Salwar (2002) by Wahajat Khan & Party, Badayun. 

Sultana at the market [0:00-1:00 “Is dasht mein…”

Sultana goes to the dyer’s [1:01-3:37] “Naina more..” (Juggan Mian)

Homework (1989) a documentary film made By Abbas Kiarostami

Remembering ROSA LUXEMBURG

5 March, 1871 - 15 January, 1919

Today, a hundred years ago, Rosa Luxemburg, the greatest woman Marxist theoretician, had her skull smashed with the butt of a rifle and her brains blown out with a bullet fired by the Friekorps, a gang of fascist soldiers (the forerunners of the stormtroopers of Hitler), who had been mobilized by the German state at the time to crush the abortive German revolution better known as the Spartakist Uprising. Her body was then dumped into a canal that runs through Berlin and discovered only 5 months later. This Uprising was led by the German Communist Party that had been formed only two months before by Rosa and her revolutionary comrades after years of battling the reformist and revisionist ideas in their former party, the SPD.

The Revolution she led failed to fructify and if it had succeeded, history would have been very different – perhaps World War II could have been avoided, perhaps we would not have had the Holocaust. But that is only conjecture. What is real though is the enduring relevance of Rosa’s thought even after the world has changed enormously in the last 100 years.

Rosa, and her comrade who was murdered along with her, Karl Liebknecht, have remained iconic figures who campaigned fearlessly against militarism in their lifetime and still serve as rallying points in worldwide protests against imperialist wars from World War II to the invasion of Iraq and other countries.

Further, in this era of capitalist globalization, Rosa’s insistence on the imperative of internationalist resistance encompassing unity, association, cooperation, and solidarity of the exploited and oppressed in every country and continent holds a beacon for workers worldwide.

Against the reformist and revisionist compromise position that the labour movements could diminish the disastrous effects of capitalism touted by her erstwhile comrades of the SPD, Rosa argued that genuine democracy could not be achieved within the framework of capitalist relations of production. We need to relook at her work now especially at a time when sections of the Left in our country and elsewhere are plagued by what she termed as “parliamentary cretinism.”

Rosa was intensely opposed to bureaucratic and elitist methods of organisation and argued that radical thought cannot be injected into the working class from without, that theory should not remain the preserve of a few radical intellectuals in the party but that “the mass of workers should take into their own hands the keen and dependable weapon of scientific socialism” which would transform them from “dead machines” to become the “free and independent directors of society as a whole”. It is the role of the communist party to ensure that the workers develop the critical faculty through a dynamic relationship between the party and the masses.

Rosa’s other passionate concern was the establishment of real revolutionary democracy after the seizure of state power through revolution. She warned against the replacement of bourgeois democracy by socialist authoritarianism. “When the proletariat seizes power, it must exercise a dictatorship, but a dictatorship of the class, not of a party or of a clique – and dictatorship of the class means: in full view of the broadest public, with the most active, uninhibited participation of the popular masses in an unlimited democracy.” For her, socialism was meant to bring about “a total spiritual transformation in the masses degraded by centuries of bourgeois class rule” as regards their values relating to gender, race, religion, governance, freedom, etc.

No remembrance of Rosa can be complete without a few insights on her life as a woman. She had reportedly refused to occupy a “safer” and marginalized position as a women’s spokesperson in the socialist movement, but she was a strong supporter of working women’s movements though much of her involvement was behind the scenes work carried on through her close friend and comrade Clara Zetkin, the leading woman socialist of Germany who edited a widely circulated paper called Gleichheit (Equality). Rosa challenged the widely held view among her older male comrades that “a woman’s place is in her home” through her life and work. Her greatest love was her fellow comrade Leo Jogiches, with whom she shared a passionate and stormy relationship for 17 years; they remained close comrades even after it ended. Jogiches is meant to have collaborated with Rosa on her earlier writings but concentrated more on organising the revolutionary underground apparatus. He was, in the words of Clara Zetkin “one of those very masculine personalities – an extremely rare phenomenon these days – who can tolerate a great female personality.” Though she suffered emotionally after the relationship with Jogiches ended, Rosa did not go to pieces. “I cleave to the idea that a woman’s character doesn’t show itself when love begins, but when it ends.” She later wrote to her young lover Costia Zetkin, “ I am I once more since I am free of Leo”. In this context, Raya Dunayevskaya, the Marxist writer, has remarked : “Luxemburg needed to be free, to be independent, to be whole … . Her greatest intellectual accomplishments occurred after the break with Jogiches.” Rosa proved that a woman’s central relationship can be to her work, even as lovers come and go.

A century after Rosa’s death, the best homage we can pay her is to read her works.

2

दिसंबर यानी मायूसियों के दिन

ऐसा केवल मुझे लगता है

या उसे भी?

बहुत दिन हुए देखे

उसके चेहरे पर बदलते मौसमों का रंग

मेरा देखना बदल गया है या उसका बदलना?

वह दिसंबर में खास दिखती है

यह मेरी बढ़ी हुई उदासी है या

उसका अतिरिक्‍त अभिनय?

मैं उसे ले जाना चाहता हूं

कुतुबमीनार

बैठना चाहता हूं हरी घास पर

दो क्षण।

उसे लगता है कि यह बचकाना खयाल

चुपचाप पड़े रहो

करते रहो जो कर रहे हो

ऐसा कहते हुए छुपा ले जाती है

अगला वाक्‍य

जो शायद यों हो कि

चलेंगे… जब…

या

क्‍या करोगे वहां जाकर

या फिर

पिछली बार तुमने…।

कुतुबमीनार न जाने के

हो सकते हैं कई बहाने

उसके पास

मेरे पास केवल एक बहाना है

मुझे उसी के साथ जाना है।

उसी के साथ

1

जितनी इच्‍छाएं हैं उतने अभाव

हर बार कोई इच्‍छा याद आती है

और मर जाती है

कभी कुछ मन पड़ा

जो तुरंत बन पड़ा

याद नहीं आता।

ये ढलता दिसंबर

कतुबमीनार का हरा आंगन है

ढाल वाला विशाल मैदान

जहां चाहो बैठ जाओ

घास पर, खंडहर पर

सीढि़यों पर

उसके साथ

जो सवाल न करती हो

यूं ही कहीं बैठ जाने पर।

विमानों को उतरते देखना

चिडि़यों को गुज़रते देखना

खुद को उमगते देखना

बेसंवाद

चुपचाप

कुछ यूं कि पता न पड़े

बैठे हैं दो अजनबी, कि दोस्‍त।

धूप तेज़ लगी तो तिरछे हुए

कुछ लेटने जैसे

और चेहरे पर रख दिया उसने

अपनी शॉल का एक कोना

बरबस

चीजें इतनी ही सुंदर होनी चाहिए

कि पता हो उसे

क्‍या चाहते हो तुम

बस।

मैं कहूं, कुतुबमीनार चलोगी

वो कहे, हम्‍म

वो कहे, चलें?

और उठ खड़ा होऊं मैं।

दो सवालों के बीच क्‍या जरूरत है

किसी और की

जब इन्‍हें भरने को धरती, धूप

घास, पक्षी, भौंरे, उदासी, आस, अनायास

इतना सब कुछ हो?

उम्र की इस नीरस ढलान पर

मन के सीले तहखानों में

बस इतनी सी इच्‍छा है मेरी

साथ हो व‍ह

कुतुबमीनार के दालानों में।

वही

Kisi Sey Kuch Shikaayat Hai! Nahin To

Hai Woh Ek Khwaab-E-Be-Taabeer

Bhula Dene Ki Neeyat Hai! Nahin To

Kisi Ke Bin, Kisi Ki Yaad Ke Bin

Jiye Jaane Ki Himmat Hai! Nahin To

Kisi Soorat Bhi Dil Lagta Nahin! Haan

To Kuch Din Se Yeh Haalat Hai! Nahin To

Tujhe Jisne Kahin Ka Bhi Na Rakhkha

Woh Ek Zaati Si Wehshat Hai! Nahin To

Tere Is Haal Par Hai Sab Ko Hairat

Tujhe Bhi Is Pe Hairat Hai! Nahin To

Hum-Aahangi Nahin Dunia Se Teri

Tujhe Is Par Nadaamat Hai! Nahin To

Hua Jo Kuch Yehi Maqsoom Tha Kya! 

Yehi Saari Hikaayat Hai! Nahin To

Azeeyat-Naak Ummeedon Sey Tujh Ko

Amaan Paaney Ki Hasrat Hai! Nahin To

Tu Rehta Hai Khayaal-O-Khwaab Mein Gum

To Is Ki Wajha Fursat Hai! Nahin To

Wahaan Waalon Sey Hai Itni Muhabbat

Yahaan Waalon Se Nafrat Hai! Nahin To

Sabab Jo Is Judaai Ka Bana Hai

यह मौसम काटता है। हर साल की ढलान पर सबसे ज्‍यादा तिरछी पडने वाली धूप देह को काम भर का गरम नहीं रख पाती। दिन का बचा अधूरापन हर गहराती रात के साथ मुकम्‍मल ब्‍लैक होल में तब्‍दील हो जाता है। स्‍मृतियां खोहों से निकल कर बाहर आ जाती हैं। बरसों पहले संदूक में दबाकर ठूंसे गए किरदार ठंडी रातों में बाहर निकलने को मचलने लगते हैं। कुछ रेंगता हुआ सा करीब आता है और ठीक सामने आकर पसर जाता है। दो संक्षिप्‍त निद्रा-सत्रों के बीच फैले हुए सपने में जैसे कोई आकर कुछ नायाब सामान रखकर चला गया हो। वह बेहद करीब है। हम उसे पहचानते हैं, जागी आंखों से उसे खोजते हैं लेकिन वह पकड़़ में नहीं आता। सपने में लेटा आदमी खुद को सुपरमैन समझता है। सपने के बाहर वह सपना खोजता है और निस्‍सहाय हो जाता है।

आंख खुलती है तो सब कुछ वैसा का वैसा। फिर से वे सारी बातें, वही सारे काम, वही संवाद, वहीसारे स्‍वांग, रिपीट करने होंगे ताकि दिन का बोझ कट सके। दिन एक भारी गठरी है। दो रातों के बीच का वक्‍फ़ा किसी ऐतिहासिक उत्‍तरायित्‍व जैसा लगता है। और रातें? हर रात अपने आप में एक इतिहास होती है। मनुष्‍य बनने की छटपटाहटें इतिहासों के कालखण्‍डों के गूंजती हैं। आधी रात कोई बेतरह चाह रहा है मनुष्‍य बनना। कोई जबरन रोक रहा है उसे दिन के उजाले में। वर्तमान के रंग-बिरंगे स्‍वांग और अतीत की प्रामाणिकता के बीच प्रेम का गला सबसे पहले जिबह होता है। बीते प्रेमालापों को याद कर मनुष्‍य बनने की कवायद एक भयाकुल करने वाला खयाल है। मौजूं इतना सपाट है कि यहां प्रेम किसी उत्‍पाद की तरह रंगबिरंगी पन्नियों वाले कार्ड लगे डब्‍बे में कैद है।