Syed Ali Ahsan :
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy was an eminent art critic; poet and connoisseur of theatre and dramatics. He was born on 24 October. 1890. His initial education was in Kolkata.
In 1910, he graduated from Calcutta University with honours in English. He came from an eminent Muslim family of Bengal: His father was a Knight of the British Empire. His name was Sir Zahid Suhrawardy. His uncle was Sir Hasan Suhrawardy. He was the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University for some time. His uncle was an Islamic scholar. His name was Abdullah Al Mamun Suhrawardy. He was the Imam of the Working Mosque, London.
Shahid Suhrawardy went to England for Higher studies. He took his B. A Honours degree from Oxford University in 1915. While in England, he started writing verses, some of which were printed in University Journals. One of such poem is quoted below:
Narcisse: Mallarmeen
Your eyes to me are moonlit seas
Where rove my sea gull dreams like souls,
Where coral roses keep their tryst
With large translucent bees,
Where seaweed held in amber bowls
Whisper like eager girls,
Where leaves of lilypearls
Wander amongst cold gleaming eyes,
And where the dream entranced skies
Tremble, grape colored,
But in your inmost eye I see a boy.
Through such poems he attracted the attention of Robert Bridges, England’s Poet Laureate. Robert Bridges came to know Rabrindranath Tagore in May 1913. Rabrindranath had then returned from USA. At Manchester College, Oxford, Tagore had given lecture on Realisation in Love. Bridges attended that lecture. Bridges invited Tagore to tea at his isolated house on Boars Hill outside the city. At this invitation he also invited Shahid Suhrawardy whom he liked. Shahid Suhrawardy had written about this incident, long after it happened. He said:
“No poet in England was so indigenous as Bridges, so unexotic, so classically free from the touch of the Orient. And Tagore in my eyes represented the melody, the abundance, the grace of the East; to him Beauty came as she flowed down streams awoke on the sprays of the breezetossed com; she came to him naturally as the cherished one to her lover. Whereas to Bridges she was a burden; with him there was a constant struggle to reduce the conflict to the counterpoints of harmony to force Beauty into the fierce shackles of tone and rhythm.”
After Tagore had left, Shahid Suhrawardy remained with Bridges for sometime. Recalling this incident Shahid Suhrawardy wrote as follows:
“After (Tagore) had left Bridges excitedly spoke how that evening, more than he could from his works, he had come to understand Tagore’s wise spirit. Then turning brusquely he added:
Tagore is an extraordinary good looking fellow. There is something unreal about him; something Assyrian, Old Asiatic. Do you think he puts gold in his beard? When I suggested that it was the colour of the sunset that had been playing on their faces, he broke into a loud school boy laughter and said: You cannot know the variety of poets. And striding to the mirror in the wall of his vast study he carefully combed with his fingers his hair and beard tousled by the wind.”
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy had written many poems during his stay in London. He continued to write poems after he had left for Moscow. In Moscow he had a chequered career. He joined Moscow Women’s College as Reader in English and later on he became a member of the Committee of Producers of the Moscow Art Theatre, a rare honour which an Asian would get at that time. After the war when the League of Nations was established with its Headquarters in Paris, Professor Shahid Suhrawardy was invited to join at the Artistic Section of the International Institute of International Co-operation of the League of Nations as its Secretary. He continued in that post from 1926 to 1929. During this period he made extensive tours of European countries and in one of such visits he met Rabindranath Tagore in Germany, where Tagore asked Suhrawardy about Modem European paintings. Suhrawardy helped Tagore in acquiring knowledge about Western paintings, which later on influenced Tagore in his drawings. On the other hand Tagore’s influence was also noticed in some of the poems which Suhrawardy wrote at that time. I quote below one of such poems.
The Ashoka Tree
The legend goes that in the days of yore,
A tree named after a meek Emperor,
With garland root and trunk and branches dried
Would at the touch of a girl’s barefeet
Break into tumultuous bloom
Of red and scarlet red.
Love, day in day out
I sit apart,
Hearkening into the gloom
For your approaching feet
Within my empty heart.
One may notice that three lines in this poem are exact translation from Tagore’s poetry, Tagore wrote:
Ashoka tree would bloom at the touch of my beloved’s feet.
And Suhrawardy wrote:
“And no sap feeling its hearts core,
Would at the touch of a girl’s bare feet
Break into tumultuous bloom.”
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy in one of his writings said: “These verses are experiments in the language, which is not the author’s mother tongue. They were written at different periods through many, years of changing allegiance to various English and continental literary tendencies.” These poems, before they were published in book form appeared in Oxford Publications and in English and American journals, Professor Shahid Suhrawardy had been in China. After the Russian revolution he was sent to China by Lenin as a cultural emissary. While in China he wrote several poems, which are noted for their youthfulness and merriment. One of such poem is entitled ‘Foam of the Sea.’ This is a short poem, which I quote below:
Foam of The Sea
“Foam of the sea, dissolving,
remarking!
(Youth O my youth, whither art thou flown?)
For have they winged the white birds of my dreaming,
Ceaselessly ageing and endlessly new,
Tenderness and warmth of the sea to the shore!
The white birds have perished and dead is their singing:
To me they will come back no more.”
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy during his stay in Europe at the League of Nations was connected with the publication of the Quarterly of the Seminarium Kondakovianum at Prague, an International Institute dealing specially with Byzantine Art. In 1930 Professor Shahid Suhrawardy was in Paris. His work at the League of Nations was over and he was prepared to return to India. But the British Government would not allow him to come back to India because of his Soviet connection. His uncle Sir Hassan Shurawardy was at that time Vice-Chancellor at the Calcutta University. He urged with the Viceroy that Shahid was not a Communist but he was an intellectual who was accepted by all. When he was in Moscow he did not work with the Communist Party. Instead he was associated with various theatre groups in Moscow. Rabindranath Tagore also pleaded with the Government to allow Shahid to come to Kolkata. In 1930, Tagore was also in Paris. He had come to Paris to hold an exhibition of his paintings which, according to him, was his gift to the West. Shahid Suhrawardy helped Tagore in organising the exhibition. The exhibition was arranged at the Modernist Galerie Pigalle. The opening of the exhibition was a crowded occasion. During the same time he was entrusted by Osmania University in Hydrabad, India with writings of handbooks on Mussalman Art in various countries. In 1932 Professor Suhrawardy returned to India after completion of his duties in Europe at the League of Nations.
Rabindranath Tagore appointed him Nizam Professor of Islamic Studies at Viswa Bharati with the object of making researches and delivering lectures on Persian Art. He accepted the proposal but could not join.
He got another assignment at the University of Calcutta, which he accepted. He was appointed Bageswari Professor of Comparative Fine Arts at the University of Calcutta. He continued in that post from 1932-1943.
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy always craved for clarity and coherence both in our speech and in the experience of which we speak. In the domain of Art this is very much essential. Art demands not only seeing and appreciating but also perception of sensuality and modification of the premises of our judgment. As the Bageswari Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Calcutta he proved himself as one best suited in the task. As a teacher he had the articulate understanding of the subject matter and he could interpret his experience in a manner which no one around him could aim at. Professor Suhrawardy’s lectures at the University were later on published in a book form which unfortunately is not available now. After retirements from this post he was made a member of Bengal Public Service commission in 1943. He continued in this post till 1946. After partition he went to Karachi where he was made member of the Federal Public Service Commission of Pakistan. He was in this Commission till 1952. In 1953, for one year he was the Visiting Professor on Islamic Arts at Columbia University in USA.
His most important assignment after that period was his appointment as a member of the Selection Committee of Forum of Art Critics for the decoration of the new UNESCO Building. Other members in this selection were Paplo Picasso, the Grand Master of Modern Arts and Harvard Read, the famous Art Critic. Suhrawardy was also Pakistani Ambassador to Spain in 1959. He was the Founder President of the National Centre of Pakistan P .E.N. He was in this post till he died in 1965.
In his old age he wrote, “Out of many wreckage of my years, I have nothing to offer to the proud destiny of youth, but memories.”n
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy was an eminent art critic; poet and connoisseur of theatre and dramatics. He was born on 24 October. 1890. His initial education was in Kolkata.
In 1910, he graduated from Calcutta University with honours in English. He came from an eminent Muslim family of Bengal: His father was a Knight of the British Empire. His name was Sir Zahid Suhrawardy. His uncle was Sir Hasan Suhrawardy. He was the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University for some time. His uncle was an Islamic scholar. His name was Abdullah Al Mamun Suhrawardy. He was the Imam of the Working Mosque, London.
Shahid Suhrawardy went to England for Higher studies. He took his B. A Honours degree from Oxford University in 1915. While in England, he started writing verses, some of which were printed in University Journals. One of such poem is quoted below:
Narcisse: Mallarmeen
Your eyes to me are moonlit seas
Where rove my sea gull dreams like souls,
Where coral roses keep their tryst
With large translucent bees,
Where seaweed held in amber bowls
Whisper like eager girls,
Where leaves of lilypearls
Wander amongst cold gleaming eyes,
And where the dream entranced skies
Tremble, grape colored,
But in your inmost eye I see a boy.
Through such poems he attracted the attention of Robert Bridges, England’s Poet Laureate. Robert Bridges came to know Rabrindranath Tagore in May 1913. Rabrindranath had then returned from USA. At Manchester College, Oxford, Tagore had given lecture on Realisation in Love. Bridges attended that lecture. Bridges invited Tagore to tea at his isolated house on Boars Hill outside the city. At this invitation he also invited Shahid Suhrawardy whom he liked. Shahid Suhrawardy had written about this incident, long after it happened. He said:
“No poet in England was so indigenous as Bridges, so unexotic, so classically free from the touch of the Orient. And Tagore in my eyes represented the melody, the abundance, the grace of the East; to him Beauty came as she flowed down streams awoke on the sprays of the breezetossed com; she came to him naturally as the cherished one to her lover. Whereas to Bridges she was a burden; with him there was a constant struggle to reduce the conflict to the counterpoints of harmony to force Beauty into the fierce shackles of tone and rhythm.”
After Tagore had left, Shahid Suhrawardy remained with Bridges for sometime. Recalling this incident Shahid Suhrawardy wrote as follows:
“After (Tagore) had left Bridges excitedly spoke how that evening, more than he could from his works, he had come to understand Tagore’s wise spirit. Then turning brusquely he added:
Tagore is an extraordinary good looking fellow. There is something unreal about him; something Assyrian, Old Asiatic. Do you think he puts gold in his beard? When I suggested that it was the colour of the sunset that had been playing on their faces, he broke into a loud school boy laughter and said: You cannot know the variety of poets. And striding to the mirror in the wall of his vast study he carefully combed with his fingers his hair and beard tousled by the wind.”
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy had written many poems during his stay in London. He continued to write poems after he had left for Moscow. In Moscow he had a chequered career. He joined Moscow Women’s College as Reader in English and later on he became a member of the Committee of Producers of the Moscow Art Theatre, a rare honour which an Asian would get at that time. After the war when the League of Nations was established with its Headquarters in Paris, Professor Shahid Suhrawardy was invited to join at the Artistic Section of the International Institute of International Co-operation of the League of Nations as its Secretary. He continued in that post from 1926 to 1929. During this period he made extensive tours of European countries and in one of such visits he met Rabindranath Tagore in Germany, where Tagore asked Suhrawardy about Modem European paintings. Suhrawardy helped Tagore in acquiring knowledge about Western paintings, which later on influenced Tagore in his drawings. On the other hand Tagore’s influence was also noticed in some of the poems which Suhrawardy wrote at that time. I quote below one of such poems.
The Ashoka Tree
The legend goes that in the days of yore,
A tree named after a meek Emperor,
With garland root and trunk and branches dried
Would at the touch of a girl’s barefeet
Break into tumultuous bloom
Of red and scarlet red.
Love, day in day out
I sit apart,
Hearkening into the gloom
For your approaching feet
Within my empty heart.
One may notice that three lines in this poem are exact translation from Tagore’s poetry, Tagore wrote:
Ashoka tree would bloom at the touch of my beloved’s feet.
And Suhrawardy wrote:
“And no sap feeling its hearts core,
Would at the touch of a girl’s bare feet
Break into tumultuous bloom.”
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy in one of his writings said: “These verses are experiments in the language, which is not the author’s mother tongue. They were written at different periods through many, years of changing allegiance to various English and continental literary tendencies.” These poems, before they were published in book form appeared in Oxford Publications and in English and American journals, Professor Shahid Suhrawardy had been in China. After the Russian revolution he was sent to China by Lenin as a cultural emissary. While in China he wrote several poems, which are noted for their youthfulness and merriment. One of such poem is entitled ‘Foam of the Sea.’ This is a short poem, which I quote below:
Foam of The Sea
“Foam of the sea, dissolving,
remarking!
(Youth O my youth, whither art thou flown?)
For have they winged the white birds of my dreaming,
Ceaselessly ageing and endlessly new,
Tenderness and warmth of the sea to the shore!
The white birds have perished and dead is their singing:
To me they will come back no more.”
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy during his stay in Europe at the League of Nations was connected with the publication of the Quarterly of the Seminarium Kondakovianum at Prague, an International Institute dealing specially with Byzantine Art. In 1930 Professor Shahid Suhrawardy was in Paris. His work at the League of Nations was over and he was prepared to return to India. But the British Government would not allow him to come back to India because of his Soviet connection. His uncle Sir Hassan Shurawardy was at that time Vice-Chancellor at the Calcutta University. He urged with the Viceroy that Shahid was not a Communist but he was an intellectual who was accepted by all. When he was in Moscow he did not work with the Communist Party. Instead he was associated with various theatre groups in Moscow. Rabindranath Tagore also pleaded with the Government to allow Shahid to come to Kolkata. In 1930, Tagore was also in Paris. He had come to Paris to hold an exhibition of his paintings which, according to him, was his gift to the West. Shahid Suhrawardy helped Tagore in organising the exhibition. The exhibition was arranged at the Modernist Galerie Pigalle. The opening of the exhibition was a crowded occasion. During the same time he was entrusted by Osmania University in Hydrabad, India with writings of handbooks on Mussalman Art in various countries. In 1932 Professor Suhrawardy returned to India after completion of his duties in Europe at the League of Nations.
Rabindranath Tagore appointed him Nizam Professor of Islamic Studies at Viswa Bharati with the object of making researches and delivering lectures on Persian Art. He accepted the proposal but could not join.
He got another assignment at the University of Calcutta, which he accepted. He was appointed Bageswari Professor of Comparative Fine Arts at the University of Calcutta. He continued in that post from 1932-1943.
Professor Shahid Suhrawardy always craved for clarity and coherence both in our speech and in the experience of which we speak. In the domain of Art this is very much essential. Art demands not only seeing and appreciating but also perception of sensuality and modification of the premises of our judgment. As the Bageswari Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Calcutta he proved himself as one best suited in the task. As a teacher he had the articulate understanding of the subject matter and he could interpret his experience in a manner which no one around him could aim at. Professor Suhrawardy’s lectures at the University were later on published in a book form which unfortunately is not available now. After retirements from this post he was made a member of Bengal Public Service commission in 1943. He continued in this post till 1946. After partition he went to Karachi where he was made member of the Federal Public Service Commission of Pakistan. He was in this Commission till 1952. In 1953, for one year he was the Visiting Professor on Islamic Arts at Columbia University in USA.
His most important assignment after that period was his appointment as a member of the Selection Committee of Forum of Art Critics for the decoration of the new UNESCO Building. Other members in this selection were Paplo Picasso, the Grand Master of Modern Arts and Harvard Read, the famous Art Critic. Suhrawardy was also Pakistani Ambassador to Spain in 1959. He was the Founder President of the National Centre of Pakistan P .E.N. He was in this post till he died in 1965.
In his old age he wrote, “Out of many wreckage of my years, I have nothing to offer to the proud destiny of youth, but memories.”n
(Essays by Syed Ali Ahsan)
