During a speech in the Rajya Sabha on Monday (December 16), Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accused the Congress party of having a history of “curbing freedom of speech”. He called the incident involving Indian film actors around the time of independence.
The minister said, “Both Mazruh Sultanpuri and Balraj Sahni were jailed for what mistake in 1949?” In 1949, at a meeting organized for the mill workers, Mazrukh Sultanpuri recited a poem written against Jawaharlal Nehru and thus he was forced to go to jail.
“He (Sultanpuri) refused to apologize and was jailed,” He added, “You know, today we (members of the opposition party) walk with the constitution in our hands and say freedom of expression, there is an atmosphere of fear in the country. Didn’t Mazruh Sultanpuri feel it? Didn’t Balraj Sahni feel it?
Who were Mazruh Sultanpuri and Balraj Sahni?
Born Asrar Hasan Khan, believed to be Sultanpuri Among the most prominent poets and lyricists of your time. He wrote lyrics for iconic Bollywood songs like ‘Ek Ladki Bhigi Bhagi Si’, ‘Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan’, ‘Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko’, ‘O Hasina Zulfowali’ and ‘Papa Kehet Hain Bada Naam Karega’.
He also won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest film honour. Describing his work, the National Documentation Center (a part of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) once wrote: “Mazrooh Sultanpuri was the last member of a powerful quartet – Sahir Ludhianvi, Shakeel Badayuni and Shailendra were the other three – which defied the constraints of commercial cinema. They turned film songs into poetry and introduced ghazals to film music.
Sultanpuri wrote against British rule in India and joined the Progressive Writers’ Movement, whose members espoused socialist and communist ideologies. At that time, many other prominent actors of the Hindi film industry were openly involved in such political activism. Often, the message of their films reflects their political views.
Stage and film actor Balraj Sahni was also a member of PWM. He has acted in movies like Make bigha land (1953) and Kabuliwala (1961). His last film hot air (1973) was considered a milestone in parallel cinema, winning the National Film Award and being nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
The National Film Development Corporation of India has called him a “champion of neo-realist cinema”, who “brought a sense of authenticity and social consciousness to his roles.” Sawhney strongly supported Marxism. He was also part of the Bharatiya Janata Theater Association (IPTA) supported by the Communist Party of India. However, he later criticized the party for turning the group into its mouthpiece and “breaking the backbone of IPTA”.
Why were Sultanpuri and Sahni arrested?
in the book Majrooh Sultanpuri: A Poet for All Reasons (2021), author Manek Premchand gave a detailed account of the incident. Sultanpuri recited a poem during a labor movement in Mumbai in 1949, criticizing Nehru’s decision to include India in the Commonwealth of Nations.
“Aman ka flaga hai dharti pe, kisne kaha laharane na paye, yeh bhi koi Hitler ka hai chela, mar le sathi, jane na paye! Nehru is the servant of the Commonwealth, kill the friend, go no! (Such uncomfortable with our flag of peace! He is some protege of Hitler, only Nehru, slave of the commonwealth, friends, grab him by the throat, or he will go away)”, Premchand wrote.
The state government has issued an arrest warrant against Sultanpuri. He went underground and was only arrested in 1951, imprisoned in Arthur Road Jail for a year. “After his arrest, then Bombay Home Minister Morarji Desai asked him to apologize so that he could be pardoned. The poet refused to do so”, says the book.
Premchand writes that Nehru was one of the early proponents of the Progressive Writers’ Movement. However, Sultanpuri protested “about a specific political issue”. Dominion status Under the Commonwealth of Nations.” He felt that India was given “equal status” but “allegiance to the Crown”.
He wrote, ‘Many people, including Mazruh, thought it was trafficking. After all, what did freedom even mean with a foreigner calling the shots here? Nehru also initially opposed joining the Commonwealth, but later he and the Congress Party agreed to it. With the formation of the Republic of India in 1950, this dominion status ended.
“In an interesting reversal of what Nehru’s Congress had done to this man, it was during the Congress party’s rule that India’s highest film recognition, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 1993, was awarded to Mazruh. At the time PV Narasimha Rao, an Urdu enthusiast was, and the person who presented the shawl to the poet was Shankar, the President of India. Dayal Sharma who was an Urdu scholar,” said Premchand.
As for Balraj Sahni, he wrote that his jail sentence was ordered accusing him of having a role in “inciting violence at Communist Party rallies”. Sawhney was imprisoned for six months and later wrote that he was “rejected” by EPTA and the Communist Party after his release from prison. “My life was a rudderless ship. If this was not enough, I had to bear the threats of the police. They tried to make me their informer,” he wrote.
This did not end Sahni’s interest in socialist politics. Much later in 1972, during a speech at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, he mentioned Nehru. “Today it is clear to everyone that in the last twenty-five years the rich have become ‘richer’ and the poor have become poorer. Pandit Nehru wanted to change this situation, but could not. I don’t blame him, because he faced very heavy odds. Today our Prime Minister Indira Gandhi promised to take the country towards the goal of socialism. How successful he will be, I cannot say. Politics is not my line. For our present purposes it is sufficient if you agree with me that the propertied classes dominate the government and society in India to-day.
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