Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Members of Hindutva outfits defaced a mural of renowned poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal in Rajasthan’s city of Jaipur on Thursday. Accusing Allama Iqbal of being the “architect of India’s partition,” the right-wingers smeared ink on the mural. The mural was originally part of the city’s beautification project.
A video of the incident has gone viral on social media. It shows two men blackening the mural with ink while an individual describes Allama Iqbal as “the architect of Pakistan”. The miscreants are seen questioning why India needs a mural of the poet-philosopher.
A person spraying the ink on the mural called the poet “the divider of India and Pakistan”. The act of defacing was committed by three individuals while others stood by.
Iqbal and his famous poems like ‘Lab Pe Aati Hai’ have regularly been targeted by supporters of the Hindutva ideology. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power at the Centre in 2014, several schools have been stopped from reciting his iconic poem ‘Lab Pe Aati Hai’ during the morning assemblies. In May 2023, Delhi University’s Academic Council cleared several syllabi changes, including the scrapping of Allama Iqbal from the BA political science syllabus.
Iqbal, who died in 1924, also wrote ‘Saare Jahan Se Acchha, Hindustan Hamara’. He is considered one of the most influential Muslim thinkers. Born in Sialkot, Iqbal’s roots go back to the Sapru clan (Kashmiri Pandits) that later converted to Islam. He studied at Government College, Lahore and later taught Arabic at Oriental College in the same city. Around this time, he wrote many poems for children including ‘Saare Jahan Se Acchha, and ‘Lab Pe Aati Hai.’
He later moved to Europe and studied in England and Germany. After returning to India, he wrote prolifically on politics, religion and philosophy. He was also honoured with a knighthood for his notable works ‘Bang-e-Dara’ and ‘Rumuz-e-Bekhudi’. He was deeply influenced by Rumi, the noted 13th-century poet.
The defacing of his mural has drawn criticism on social media with people pointing at Iqbal’s patriotic song for India.
A social media user Jyoti Punwani said “They obviously haven’t heard of Saare Jahaan Se Acchha. But then their ancestors were never part of the freedom movement”.
Another user said, “Little do they know about his fight against the Britishers. How could they when you are forced to praise an ‘apologiser’”.
Yet another user said, “When the law enforcers become helpless in front of the fundamentalists, then the fundamentalists commit whatever crimes they want and break the law”.
