A Forgotten Hero: Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi

Two days after the execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, on March 25, 1931, a slender and lean man set out of his house to succour the communal tensions in Kanpur. His wife tried to argue with him- "Where do you think you are going in this fierce riot?" He responded- "You are panicking in vain. Who will harm me when I have not hurt anybody? God is with me." Witnesses reported that he left bare-headed and bare-footed.

Unfortunately, his dead body was found in a pile with others after two days in a hospital. This man was no other than Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi. He was a journalist, editor, activist, freedom fighter and a prominent Congress leader. He himself wrote- ''A man is alive as long as there is a lofty ideal before his eyes, for which he can give his life.'' That's exactly what he did.

Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi

An Upfront Journalist

He started his career from a literary magazine, Saraswati where he worked in close association with Acharya Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi and developed high literary talents. He later came in contact with Pandit Sunderlal (who was a revolutionary Ghadarite) and his weekly Kamrajogi (in Hindi) and Swarajya (Urdu). For a short span of time, he also worked in Abhyudaaya, edited by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya.

In 1913, Vidyarthi along with Shivnarain Mishra started his own weekly, Pratap. Later it was converted into a daily newspaper. In the first edition, they set out the policy and objective of the newspaper-

"....सांप्रदायिक और व्यक्तिगत झगड़ों से 'प्रताप' सदा अलग रहने की कोशिश करेगा।....उसका मत स्वातंत्र्य-विचार और उसका धर्म सत्य होगा।"
("....'Pratap' will always try to stay away from communal and personal disputes...Its opinion will be Independent thought and truth its religion.")

It further stated-

"....लेकिन जिस दिन हमारी आत्मा इतनी निर्बल हो जाए कि अपने प्यारे आदर्श से डिग जाएँ, जान-बूझ कर असत्य के पक्ष-पाती बनने की बेशर्मी करें,...वह दिन हमारे जीवन का सबसे अभागा दिन होगा और हम चाहते हैं कि हमारी उस नैतिक-मृत्यु के साथ-ही-साथ हमारे जीवन का भी अंत हो जाए।"
("....The day our souls become so weak that they fall short of their beloved ideals or the day we deliberately become the disgraceful partisans of untruth,...that day will be the most unfortunate day of our lives and as with our moral death, we want it to be the last day of our lives.")

Vidyarthi as an accused in Fatehpur
Sedition Case (1923)

In the Foreword of Pandit Vishnudatta Shukla's book 'Patrakar-Kala', Vidyarthi mentions the responsibilities of a journalist-

"...पत्रकार की अपने समाज के प्रति बड़ी ज़िम्मेदारी है; वह अपने विवेक के अनुसार अपने पाठकों को ठीक मार्ग पर ले जाता है;...पैसा कमाना उसका ध्येय नहीं है, लोक-सेवा उसका ध्येय है; और अपने काम से जो पैसा वह कमाता है, वह ध्येय तक पहुंचाने के लिए साधन मात्र है।"
("...A journalist has a huge responsibility towards his society; he guides his readers on the right path according to his conscience;...Making money is not his goal, it is public service; the money he earns is just a means to this end.")

Vidyarthi went to jail on five occasions, out of which three times due to objectionable pieces published in the Pratap (according to the colonial government) and twice for his anti-British speeches. A British bureaucrat of United Provinces wrote in his report, "The publice life in U.P. can not be safe unless the 'Pratap' is crushed." after he published an investigative report on Rae Bareli Kisaan Massacre of 1921. He was slapped with a fine of Rs. 10,000 and a defamation case.

A Friend to Revolutionaries

Vidyarthi was a perfect blend of revolutionary and Gandhian ideals. When most of the Congress leadership was unsympathetic towards the revolutionaries involved in the Kakori case, he published numerous articles glorifying the act and provided material support to Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and Roshan Singh.

Bismil's autobiography was published by Pratap. Through his efforts, Vidyarthi constructed a mazar over Ashfaqullah Khan's burial in Shahjahanabad, Uttar Pradesh. He performed the ritual of a father at Roshan Singh's daughter. Not only that, but he also sheltered Bhagat Singh who worked in Pratap as an Assistant Editor under the pen name of Balwant Singh Sandhu. He even facilitated a meeting between young Jawaharlal Nehru and Chandra Shekhar Azad.

For Kisaan and Mazdoor

At a village named Narbal, several miles away from Kanpur city, Vidyarthi established a Sevagram Aashram in 1929 for village organisation. He opened schools and library there and promoted people to weave Khadi. Gradually, more than 200 nearby villages became part of the organisation. In Kanpur city, he worked for labour organisation. He was elected the President of Kanpur Mazdoor Sabha in 1927 and remained at the post until his death in 1931. Through his efforts, the Sabha managed to publish a weekly named Mazdoor.

\Vidyarthi as the President of U.P. Provincial
Congress Committee (1930)

"हम लोगों को....सीधे गाँवों की ओर मुड़ना चाहिए। हिन्दू मुस्लिम वैमनस्य दूर करने का एक मात्र यही तरीका है...उसी तरह शहरों की मिलों में काम करने वाले लाखों मज़दूरों के संगठन की भी आवश्यकता है। किसान और मज़दूरों का युग आ गया है।"
("We should...move towards the villages. This is the only way to eradicate Hindu Muslim animosity...Similarly, there is a need to organise millions of labours working in the cities. The age of peasants and labours has come.") 

At Odds with Communalism

Vidyarthi was a crusader against the rising tide of communalism. He believed that the strife between the two communities was mainly due to conflicting economic interests and competitive politics rather than communal feelings. In his writings, he evoked the example of Medieval practice of celebrating Ramlilas in front of mosques where both communities enjoyed the performances.

He equally confronted the Hindu and Muslim nationalists in his writings, for e.g-

"...कुछ लोग 'हिंदू राष्ट्र' - 'हिंदू राष्ट्र' चिल्लाते हैं। हमें क्षमा किया जाए, यदि हम कहें-नहीं, हम इस बात पर जोर दें - कि वे एक बड़ी भारी भूल कर रहे हैं और उन्होंने अभी तक 'राष्ट्र' शब्द का अर्थ ही नहीं समझा।...हिंदू ही भारतीय राष्ट्र के सब कुछ न होंगे और जो ऐसा समझते हैं - हृदय से या केवल लोगों को प्रसन्न करने के लिए - वे भूल कर रहे हैं और देश को हानि पहुँचा रहे हैं। वे लोग भी इसी प्रकार की भूलकर रहे हैं जो टर्की या काबुल, मक्का या जेद्दा का स्वप्न देखते हैं, क्योंकि वे उनकी जन्मभूमि नहीं...उनकी कब्रें इसी देश में बनेंगी और उनके मर्सिये....इसी देश में गाये जाएँगे।"
("...Some people shout 'Hindu Rashtra'-'Hindu Rashtra'. We must be forgiven if we say- No, let us emphasize that- they are committing a huge mistake and they have not yet understood the meaning of the word 'Rashtra' or nation....[when we get freedom,] Hindus will not be everything in the Indian nation and those who think so- from the heart or only to please people- are making mistakes and harming the country. Those who dream of Turkey or Kabul, Mecca or Jeddah are making the same mistakes because those are not their native land,...they will be buried here and marsiyas for them...will be read here.")

"He died, as he lived"

Back to March 25, 1931, Vidyarthi went to Patkapur area of the city where he saved the life of 50 odd people. From there he went to Bengali Mohal and Etawah-Bazaar. En route, he saved several Hindu families Machali Bazaar. In Mishri Bazaar, he saved more than 150 Muslim men, women and children. He was saving the lives of several families in Chaube-Gola when a frenzied mob attacked him.

A witness later stated that someone tried to save him pushing inside a house but he cried- "Why do you drag me? I will not save my life by running away. I surrender if my death quenches the bloodthirst of these people."

Vidyarthi's dead body wrapped in Tri-colour (on a pyre) 

Gandhi, himself wrote about Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi's death in his journal, Young India:

"The death of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi was one to be envied by us all. His blood is the cement that will ultimately bind the two communities. No pact will bind our hearts. But heroism such as Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi showed is bound in the end to melt the stoniest hearts, melt them into one. The poison has however gone so deep that the blood even of a man so great, so self-sacrificing and so utterly brave as Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi may today not be enough to wash us of it. Let this noble example stimulate us all to similar effort should the occasion arise again." 

He didn't die just to save several lives, but to save all of us from the vices of hatred, communalism and fanatism.

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How Urdu Came into Being?

अर्ज़-ए-दकन में जान तो दिल्ली में दिल बनी

और शहर-ए-लखनऊ में हिना बन गई ग़ज़ल

ارض دکن میں جان تو دلی میں دل بنی

اور شہر لکھنؤ میں حنا بن گئی غزل

(Life in the land of Deccan, heart in Delhi

And henna became ghazal in the city of Lucknow)

This sher of Ganesh Bihari Tarz rightly represents the pan-Indian character of the Urdu

language. Urdu has a long history spanning for a little less than a millennium now. The

process of evolution from which it went through is what makes it genuinely native to this land.

The study of this process lays forward us a shared history of two modern languages, viz.,

Urdu and Hindi.

Faint Beginnings

An eminent Urdu scholar Shamsur Rahman Faruqui points out that the “Early names for the

language now called Urdu were Hindvi, Hindi, Dihlavi, Dakani and Rekhta.” Amir Khursau

(1259-1325) called it ‘Hindavi’, for Abul Fazl (1551-1602), it was ‘Dehalvi’. People of Deccan

embraced it as a language of their own, ‘Dakhani’.

Amir Khusrau has the lines:

बहुत कठिन है डगर पनघट की

बहुत दिन बीते पिया को देखे

بهت کاتهین های دگر پانغاٹ کی

بهت دین بطه پیا کو دکهه

(For the path to the river is arduous

I haven’t seen my beloved since long)

Amir Khusrau (Source: Goodreads)

Yakta, an eighteenth-century writer from Lucknow, maybe rightly describes the evolution of

the language as:

“[people]....came from all sides and all shores of the world….And most of them adopted this

paradise….as their own native place….mixed each other’s vocabulary….for neither the

Arabic remained Arabic, nor Persian, Persian; nor did the….vernaculars retain their original

form.”

Thus, a language was born which was truly Indian in nature. It would not be incorrect to

argue that Urdu was actually born in military camps of Delhi Sultanate inhabiting the people

of Turkish, Iranian, Indian origin etc. or in the bazaars of Delhi. Thus, Shah Hatim (1699-1783)

in the preface of his Divanzada called Urdu as “rozmarra-i-Dihli’’ or the daily speech of Delhi

which was born out of the mixing of Khari Boli of Delhi and Persian and Turkish.

What about Military Camps

Babur in his memoir Turuk-i-Baburi mentions the word ‘Urdu’ or ‘Ordo’ repeatedly. However,

the word ‘Urdu’ in Turkish means a ‘military camp’ or ‘cantonment’. T. Grahame Bailey, thus,

concludes that Urdu came to signify the military language (lashkari zaban) over time. 

Eventually, it became the common tongue and began to be known as

zaban-i-Urdu-i-mu’alla-i-Shahjahanabad (the language of the city of Shahjahanabad),

later shortened to zaban-i-Urdu-i-mu’alla and further to zaban-i-Urdu. By the

eighteenth-century, the language of Delhi and the area around it, came to be called Urdu. 

Persian Influence

Persian enjoyed the status of the official language of the court from the times of Delhi

Sultanate to the demise of the Mughal empire in the eighteenth century. Therefore, when

Urdu came to flourish, its poets, writers, lexicographers etc. naturally inclined towards the

Persian traditions. They imitated the themes of Persian poetry, its idioms, phrases, meters etc.

Not only that, but they also adopted different forms such as ghazal, qasida, tazkira, etc. 

However, this does not mean that the Indians did not infuse something of their own. In fact, they

started to explore the vast potentiality that Rekhta presented them. Many like Mirza Sauda

(1713-1781), who started as a Persian poet switched to Rekhta.

Mirza Rafi Sauda (Source; Rekhta.org)

Transition to Rekhta

As for the influence of Persian faded, the poets of Rekhta and Hindavi came to be recognised

and patronised from royals as well as the public. They introduced new forms and traditions into

the language such as that of satirical verse (hijv) and speaking a fresh (taza goi). 

One important figure in this respect, who can not be ignored, is Jafar Zatalli (d.1713). He was

the first major Urdu literary figure- the first Urdu prose writer, satirist and humorist. His most

important contribution is the inventive use of languages and words. There is a traceable

influence of Hindavi on Zatalli’s Persian poetry. In his verses, one can find the fading of

Persian and the emergence of a new language, i.e, Urdu.

Jafar Zatalli has the lines:

अगरची सभी कूड़ा ओ करकट अस्त

बा हिंदी ओ रिंदी ज़बां लटपट अस्त 

اگارچی صبحی کودا و کرکٹ است

با هندی و رندی زبان لٹ پٹ است 

(Although everything is rubbish and sweepings,

The language is lively with Hindi and licentiousness)

Reference should also be made of Khan-i-Arzu (1689-1765), under whose influence and

mentorship, the upstart poets like Abru, Mazmun, Yakrang, Khushgo, Sauda and Mir, started

to explore the possibility of writing in their own tongue, i.e, Rekhta.

Urdu as a Name of Language

But when does the word Urdu first occur as the name of a language? Perhaps the first

example of the word bearing the sense as we know it today comes in the writing of Mus’hafi

(1750-1824). He wrote this sher sometime after 1776, though it is not clear when:

ख़ुदा रक्खे ज़बाँ हम ने सुनी है 'मीर' ओ 'मिर्ज़ा' की

कहें किस मुँह से हम ऐ 'मुसहफ़ी' उर्दू हमारी है

خدا رکھے زباں ہم نے سنی ہے میرؔ و مرزاؔ ک

کہیں کس منہ سے ہم اے مصحفیؔ اردو ہماری ہے

(I have heard the language of Mir and Mirza Sauda,

How can I dare to say that Urdu is my language?)

Mir Taqi Mir (Source; The Print)

From here we find numerous evidence of the word Urdu bearing the sense of a language.

It became common in Lucknow after 1846 and in Delhi after 1857.

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