Rahim’s synthesis: In polarised times, Abdur Rahim could be a national icon for his syncretism (India)

Why should we recall Rahim today? In our polarised world where Hindi and Urdu are placed respectively in Hindu and Muslim camps, Rahim disrupts the neat order …

by Syeda Hameed

The lines reflect my emotion when I opened the book, Celebrating Rahim produced by Inter Globe Foundation and Agha Khan Trust For Culture, published by Mapin Publishing. This article, however, is not a book review. It is my experience of a man who, along with Amir Khusrau, symbolises our syncretic culture, to use the overused phrase, our Ganga Jamni tehzeeb.

[…] Why should we recall Rahim today? In our polarised world where Hindi and Urdu are placed respectively in Hindu and Muslim camps, Rahim disrupts the neat order by writing Barvais invoking Hindu Gods, Bighna Binasan (Ganesh), Nand Kumar (Krishna), Suraj Deb (Sun God), Girija (Shiva) and Priya Raghubir (Hanuman). His literary canon shows that in the Mughal court there was no discernible rupture between the Hindus and Muslims. Professor Namvar Singh speaks to this fact: “Rahim had attained that high ground of sensitivity where a Musalman while still a Musalman does not remain a mere Musalman nor a Hindu a mere Hindu.”

Read at the source: The Indian Express