What is the single greatest tragedy that we face as Southasians today? There may be many answers, but for the philosopher-poet Jaun Elia, the one crisis at the core of it all: Repression and internal division.
Born in Amroha, a small city in Uttar Pradesh, India, in 1931, Elia witnessed a tumultuous period of history and the Partition of India. He opposed this event bitterly all his life, even as a thorough Karachiite.
In his words, we are unable to speak and listen; this inability perpetuates our division. He calls this the defining tragedy of our times:
“Aik hey haadisa to hai, aur woh yeh k aaj tak
Baat nahi kahi gayee, baat nahi suni gayee”(There is only one tragedy, and that is:
Words have not been spoken; words have not been heard.)
Most other left-leaning intellectuals of his time followed the then-dominant Soviet mode of thinking, a mindset encapsulated most notably by the Progressive Writers Association. The thought process was that the secret to progressive change lay in understanding the external world, the world of high politics and economics laws, absolute truth and “objectivity”.
Elia invites his readers into the internal world of the subject: the internally divided subject. For him, this is not a rebellion against Marxism per se but a rebellion against the orthodoxy that prevails within its dominant paradigm.
In the preface to Shaayad, which is the only book Jaun could publish in his lifetime, he explicitly connects his own intellectual lineage with Karl Marx.
He was one of the few intellectuals in the India-Pakistan context to bring the existentialism of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, the psychoanalytic philosophies of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud and the penetrating work of French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Jaques Lacan and linguistics into the radical vision of Southasian society.
Lacan defines man as a speaking animal. Similarly, Elia understood that we must find words or “signifiers” to communicate meaning. This creates a perpetual difference, a “remainder” that can never be communicated at any point in time and is thus left unspoken and unspeakable.
Mir Taqi Mir, a few centuries earlier, had used the word “na-gufta” to describe both states. Jaun is firmly rooted, in this precise sense, in the tradition of Mir Taqi Mir. This is why, Jaun says:
Shaayar to do hain Mir Taqi aur Mir Jaun
Baaqi jo hain woh shaam-o-sahar khairiat se hain(There are, but, only two poets Mir Taqi and and Mir Jaun
The others, what shall I say, are mediocre at best…)
The divided subject, which is perpetually unable to communicate meaning, thus becomes divided. This is why the theme of internal division runs through Elia’s work. To solve our multiple crises, he argues, it is as if we must “un-divide” ourselves by first recognising the internal split within our beings.
The theme of repression and internal division runs through Jaun’s work. To solve our multiple crises, Jaun argues, we must un-divide ourselves by first recognising the internal split within our beings.
As a tribute to the philosopher-poet who became my companion during my period of hiatus and exile, this theme lies at the core of my new ghazal album, Banbaas, (forest dwelling or exile), which is dedicated to the philosophical explorations of Jaun Elia. Banbaas also became my own story during my period of hiatus and exile, when Jaun Elia became my companion. More on that another time, but that is why this theme lies at the core of my new ghazal album, Banbaas (forest dwelling or exile), which is dedicated to the philosophical explorations of Jaun Elia.
Consider the words: Band Baahar Se Meri Zaat ka Dar Hai Mujh Main. (The door to myself is shut from the outside.)
A door can be shut in two ways: from the inside, implying that the person shut it, and from the outside, indicating that the person in question has no agency in opening it and accessing what is on the other side of this door.
Jaun Elia plays on this metaphor to lay bare the notion of the divided self, the split in the human consciousness between the conscious or the self-aware element, and the Unconscious. As Lacan points out in his book Ecrits, The First Complete Edition, “it is that which is Real but is nevertheless, inaccessible to us as humans”. Lacan uses the symbol $, with the subject S being internally divided, as indicated by the split in the S. Jaun uses the metaphor of the “door” to explain how, in our ordinary lives, this part of our own self is foreclosed on us. Band Baahar Se reiterates that this part of our unconscious self is unavailable. Moreover, since thought itself is constructed in language – “words” or “signifiers” – this internal split manifests itself in alienation: it is as if we are at once, ourselves and someone else: Main Nahi Khud Main yeh ik Aam khabar hai mujh main (I am not myself or within myself; this is everyday news about me).
Despite the awareness or aam khabar, or everyday news, of this internal split, the sufferer is perpetually alienated from the self. Jaun, speaking on behalf of all divided subjects such as ourselves, accepts that the door to my own Being, my own Self, is shut from the outside.
There are millions of voices residing, all at once, within me. Since a part of myself is hidden or inaccessible to me, it follows that “I am not myself, or in myself, and this is well-known common news for all” within me. The philosopher-poet is acutely aware of “all the voices” inside him. All these voices, at once, are aware of this internal split.
Zakhm Ha Zakhm Hun aur Koi Nahi Khoon ka Nishaan
Kaun hai Woh jo Mere Khoon main Tar hai Mujh Main(Wound upon wound, yet no trace of blood
Who is it that is drenched in my blood within me?)
Jaun Elia points out that while the sufferer of this internal split is in excruciating misery and pain, none of the wounds he/she has suffered are visible. Hence, unlike physical pain, the blood-soaked spirit is invisible to the general world. This internal division, which causes the divided subject to feel at war within, drenches the heart and soul and further divides the subject. The immediacy of “no trace of blood” on the one hand and the essence of being “wound upon wound” lies at the core of the duality in this verse.
He continues:
Main jo Paikaar main Andar key Hun Be-Tegh o Ziraah
Aakhirash kaun hai jo Seena-Sipar Hai Mujh Main(In this internal battle, I am without a sword or armour
Who within me stands ready to fight with a shield on the chest?)
Elia takes up the issue of the internal conflict and the philosopher-poet’s attitude to it. The sufferer is in a state of paikaar or internal conflict, yet that internal war is waged without a sword or shield. But for Elia, this could also mean a perpetual self-critique. By pointing out that this war is fought without sword or shield, he, almost ironically, then asks, “Akhirash kaun hai jo Seena Sipar hai Mujh Main”, – who is this person within me who is ready to fight with his own self?
The second verse also includes the meaning of “at last” or “finally”. Hence, it can also mean that “at least” there is a warrior ready to fight within me.
Ik Ajab Aamad o Shud hai k Na Maazi hai na Haal
Jaun barpa kayee naslon ka safar hai mujh main(There is a strange coming and going – neither past nor present
I am the eruption of generations upon generations of journeys within me).
Jaun connects individual misery to social and historical issues, seeing how this internal split is produced over multiple generations. Colonial subjects are victims of psychoanalytic division through exile, wars of plunder, communalism, and various forms of repression – social, sexual, and political.
There is meandering, an aimless “coming and going”, with no linearity or clear objective to our existence at first sight. There is neither the present nor a past.
As divided colonial subjects, we have been severed from both. In this endless continuum, there is neither past nor present, but the journey of generations upon generations is astir within us; a volcano, ready to erupt (Barpa), yet this volcanic eruption is perpetually subdued at the same time by the internal split within the consciousness.
Jaun Elia could only publish one volume, Shayad, in his lifetime. His remaining poetic works were published posthumously, as Yaani (Meaning, which contains the ghazal Band Baahar Se), Gumaan, Goya, and Lekin. His last and final volume, Kyun (Why), was published in December 2024.
His work remains for future generations to explore as a way of un-dividing the self with the hope of un-dividing our communities.
Philosopher-poet Jaun Elia’s unique insights into the internal subjective world of the divided self provides a revolutionary perspective to think about the ways in which we are divided across national, cultural, and religious boundaries.
This is a Sapan News syndicated feature.
