The Mushaira Subculture of South Asian Britain
Words by Hejab Azam
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The Mushaira Subculture of South Asian Britain by Hejab Azam
Every summer, growing up, my parents would drag me along to a Mushaira every other weekend. As a kid, I didn’t appreciate them, but as an adult, I’ve begun to realise how important Mushairas were in bringing people together and maintaining Urdu poetry and literature. A Mushaira is typically an evening social gathering where poets congregate to recite different styles of poetry such as Ghazals, Nazms, Qitahs, and more. Mushairas are hugely popular and common in North India and Pakistan and have been integral in shaping the Urdu literature of South Asia today. This has crossed borders all the way to the UK and beyond, where there has been a thriving mushaira culture since as early as the 60s.
My mother, as well as all the aunties at the mushaira, would come dressed in beautiful banarasi and silk sarees. The aunties would wear their jewel encrusted gold bangles and have strings of pearl maalas hanging from their necks. Others would have heavy statement jhumkas (dome shaped drop earrings) dangling from their ears. There would always be a couple of aunties who would carry a little batwa (purse) usually with a few paans wrapped up inside. Opening up a batwa with paan was the equivalent of opening up a packet of gum in class—everyone would rush to get one! The air was usually filled with an overpowering musky perfume with hints of rose and jasmine—what I call the aunty perfume (we all know at least one aunty who smells like this).
Mushairas were a place where you’d see the full gamut of interesting and eccentric characters. You’d have a few uncles with thick mustaches shrouding their paan stained lips, some with longer untameable hair and wearing wacky 80s shirts, some came dressed in their Lucknowi style sherwanis and dopalla topis. You’d have the uncles that were very formal, graceful and took Urdu poetry very seriously. Then you’d have the more humorous groups of uncles, leaning over to each other whispering (usually inappropriate) jokes into each other’s ears and chortling away!
If you listened really closely, over the echoing “waah waahs,” laughter, and chatter, you could just about hear the children, running in the hallways, playing tag, and accidentally bursting a few balloons.
Poets at mushairas often had a certain stereotype. Many of them loved storytelling and had a certain poetic rhythm and style when they told stories. Sometimes they’d share their own stories, other times it would be stories of people they once knew, stories of acquaintances, or predicaments of their “Waalidah ki maamuzaad behen ki shohar ka chacha ka class fellow.” (Their mother’s cousin from my uncle side’s, husband’s, uncle’s, class fellow).
A Brief History of Mushairas
India’s mushairas gave rise to some of the most famous poets in history, including Meer Muhammad Taqi Meer, Mirza Ghalib, Allama Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and many more.