Hussaini Hindu Poet Kalidas Gupta Raza

Kali Das Gupta 'Raza'

Dr.Mazhar Naqvi

Kali Das Gupta Raza is acclaimed as an authority on Mirza Ghalib. But his work on Azadari traditions remains less known or forgotten. Even marsiyas composed by him are not easily available despite its publication under the title ’Shaoor-e-Gham”. Born in 1925, Kalidas Gupta was a great devotee of Imam Raza (Rida).Out of his sheer love for 8^th Imam, he chose Raza as his pen name and worked ceaselessly in exploring marsiya writing by Hindus on the tragic events of Karbala. He immersed himself so deeply in unearthing Hindu marsiya writers to become an authority on the history of Deccan also. He traced the origin of marsiya writing from the period of Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda.

In his endeavor to collect material on the contribution of Hindus to the promotion of Hussaini literature, Gupta unearthed several authors whose work never came to limelight for two reasons –First, the non-availability of their compositions and second, the indifference of even most distinguished Imami scholars towards elegiac poetry produced on Karbala by non-Muslims. Gupta had given the names of such writers in his collection published under the title ’Sahv-o-Suragh’. Unfortunately, this book too is not available easily in the market. It indicates that there has been no second edition of the book or the due importance has not been given to the historical significance of Gupta’s work.            

The credit for tracing the first Hindu Marsiya writer of India also rests with Gupta. His work reveals that Ram Rao of Gulbarga composed elegiac poetry with pen name ‘Saiva’ in Deccan for the first time. When Ali Adil Shah ascended the throne of Bijapur, Ram Rao left Gulbarga and settled in the dominions of Adil Shahi kingdom. Apart from composing elegiac poetry, Ram Rao also translated ‘Rozatush Shuhadda’in Deccani verse. The importance of this work can be gauged  from the fact that its first Urdu translation under the title ‘ Karbal Katha’ had taken place in 17^th century.      

Makkhan Das,  Balaji Tasambak’ ‘Tara’, Swami Prasad ‘Asghar’  and several other Hindu poets also figure in Gupta’s research work .They all composed elegiac poetry on Karbala in very lucid style and popularized marsiyas among the Deccani people. Of the trio, Asghar wrote marsiyas in Deccani style of Urdu but composed his other poetry in Persian and Hindi. It is indeed unfortunate that research carried out by Gupta is never discussed nor any seminar is ever organized by lovers of Ahle-Bait on the contribution of non-Muslims in propagation of Azadari. Gupta surely deserves more attention ,for he didn’t undertake research work for any worldly gains but simply did it to shoe his unconditional love for Masoomeen in view of their simple living, high thinking and love for all, irrespective of their caste, creed of religion. Their only mission was to serve humanity and it charmed not only Gupta but hundreds of other non-Muslims as well. Over 14 years have passed since Gupta passed away in 2015, leaving behind a treasure on Karbala literature but his soul is still awaiting someone to rise and make his contribution known to the literary world not as an authority on ‘Ghalib’ but an ardent admirer of ‘Shah-e-Khorasan’ Imam Raza .By focusing on the research of Gupta justice can be done to those Hindu poets who were discovered by them but their poetry on martyrs of KARBLA remains forgotten, unpublished or non-translated till date.(References available on request.)