IQBAL BRAINWASHING PEOPLE TO PREFER SLAVERY OVER FREEDOM?

    I was helping a tution student with his winter vacations homework. He was supposed to write one of Iqbal's poems written for children. I suggested "Ayk Ga'ay Aur Bakri (A Cow and a Goat [ایک گاءے اور بکری])". While reading that poem (which I haven't recited since I was a child), I felt as if Iqbal was justifying British occupation of India by extolling the benefits Indians received from being under Her Majesty the Queen Victoria's authority.
    Though I don't deny the apparent fact that the English government brought several reforms in Hindustan which we could never expect to witness in the Mughal Dynasty. But most Pakistanis can't even imagine an Iqbal - the man who dreamed up Pakistan and poetically constructed its ideological foundations - as a person who praised the heinous British subjugators of the ummat-e-marhumah.
    Before further discussion, let's discusses the poem in question.
    The poem Ayk Ga'ay Aur Bakri is included in "Bang-e-Dara (The Call of the Marching Bell[بانگ درا])", one of the many collections of Iqbal's Urdu verses. Published in 1924 CE or a year after Iqbal's knighthood by King George V, it contains some of the popular Iqbalian nazams and ghazals including the Shikwah (Complain) pair, Taranah-e-Hindi­ (Indian Anthem), Bilal, Siddiq and many more. It was one of the earliest works of Iqbal, probably written well before 1905 CE i.e. the year when the Poet of the East finally attained mental maturity and ideological understanding of many national and religious affairs.
    The pre-1905 Iqbal was filled with a strong sense of Indian nationalism and intense adoration for his country, as reflected by his Himalah (Himalayas) and Taranah-e-Hindi (Indian Anthem) and Naya Shivalah (New Shiva Temple).

خاک وطن کا مجھ کو ہر ذرہ دیوتا ہے        پتھر کی مورتوں میں سمجھا ہے تو خدا ہے
[You've assumed God lies in idols made of stone. Every particle of the country's dust is a god to me.]

    All of his poems for children date back to pre-1905 CE era, even the seemingly-children-addressed ones e.g. Jugnu (Firefly) and ­Ayk Parindah Aur Jugnu (A Bird and a Firefly). Thus, it mustn't come as a surprise to anyone that Iqbal could write a pro-colonization poem. What exactly did he write in Ayk Ga'ay Aur Bakri? What's the story behind this poem?
    Ayk Ga'ay Aur Bakri is a dialogue between the titular animals. While grazing in a meadow, a gentle goat (pro-mankind) comes across a bitter cow (anti-mankind) and hits upon a brief conversation with her. The cow complains of her miserable life; her master grumbles when she doesn't produce enough milk and sells the animals when they grow thin. The cow is also mad because the man doesn't repay her for the milk he gets from the cow for his children. The goat responds by describing the grass and the shade provided to the animals by mankind. She asserts the luxury and security they got within man's enslavement and warns her about the threats liberty poses to animals. In the end, the cow measures both views and decides that the goat is correct.
    Let me quote the actual Urdu dialogues of the pro-slavery goat with my own frail English translation of Iqbal's eminent and mystical verses.

یہ ہری گھاس اور یہ سایا    یہ چراگہ یہ ٹھنڈی ٹھنڈی ہوا
[This meadow, this cold breeze. This green grass and this shade.]
یہ کہاں، بے زباں غریب کہاں         ایسی خوشیاں ہمیں نصیب کہاں
[Such delights where can we find? Compare these delights with the speechless poor (us)]
لطف سارے اسے کے دم سے ہیں    یہ مزے سارے آدمی کے دم سے ہیں
[These joys are all because of man. These luxuries are all thanks to him.]
قید ہم کو بھلی کہ آزادی!    اس کے دم سے ہے اپنی آبادی
[Due to him, we have our colony. Does imprisonment suit us better or sovereignty!]
واں کی گزران سے بچاءے خدا    سو طرح کا بنوں میں ہے کھٹکا
[Hundred kinds of danger lie in the foreign land. God forbid from a journey to that place.]
ہم کو زیبا نہیں گلا اس کا    ہم پہ احسان ہے بڑا اس کا
[He is our great benefactor. It doesn't behove us to complain about him.]
آدمی کا کبھی گلہ نہ کرو    قدر آرام کی اگر سمجھو
[If you value comfort. Don't complain about man.]

[I don't know if it's proper or not but this poem reminds me of the Founders' Song, specially the fifth verse. It was sung by the animated character Dr. Gross in Adventure Time with Finn and Jake.]

 

    It cannot be ascertained whether Iqbal was actually sugar-coating the evils of the British raj or he was actually referring to the dangers of constant complaining against God and ignoring His countless bounties upon us. But the allusion towards imprisonment and scorned mention of liberty may be directed towards anti-freedom Iqbalian sentiments who was actually condemning those Muslim fundamentalists such as Ahmad and Isma'il of Bareli Sharif who tried to perform jihad against the Sikhs. But any such theory will be disregarded as Muslims were not seemed involved in any major Freedom Movement back in those days. Even Muslim League wasn't created while Iqbal wrote this poem; it was founded in 1906 CE at Dhaka (Bangladesh).
    As a matter of fact, Iqbal was never an alluring proponent of the Freedom Movement. His Allahabad presidential address (1930 CE) is wrongly accoutred as being a proposal for the establishment of Pakistan when Iqbal was actually talking about the creation of an autonomous self-governing union of Muslim-majority Indian provinces. There is a huge difference between what Iqbal really suggested and the ideas we usually put in his long-rotten mouth. He was referring to something similar to what we have in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.
    But, doubtlessly, Iqbal was a profound philosopher. His accomplishments in philosophy make him resemble Mulla Sadra. And, I assure you, this is the highest compliment I can give him.