Zulqadar 1

Amna Zulqadar

2020-02-0504

Literary Theory

Saeed Ur Rehman

Response Paper-1

Title: “Everything is a construct”, instructor wrote it on board, as she began the class and

the next thing she put on the screen was Bulleh Shah’s kafi, ‘Ki jaana mei kaun’ (I don’t know

who I am). The kafi begins with the lines:

Ki jaana mei kon Bulleya

Na main moman vich maseetan

Na main vich kufar dian reetaan

Na main pakan vich paleetan

Translation:

Bulla! I don’t know who I am

Nor am I part of the believers in the mosques

Nor am I part of the rituals of the disbelievers

Nor am I the pure among the impures

There is a clear defiance of binaries that are created through the religious ideas in a society. As

the Kafi progresses, Bulleh Shah expresses his disapproval of several types of social and

religious binaries that are created by the society.

 Zulqadar 2

***

George Lukacs points towards the process of a social concept turning into reality i.e.

reification. How I see it, it is like that everything that we believe in, is not real. It is a reality that

comes into existence according to the situations that we are in and hence, ‘Everything is a

construct.’ For instance, Simon de Beauvoir argues that the idea of superiority of men emerged

because of his capacity to hunt anytime he wants to. Whereas, the women’s ability to hunt is

limited because of her capacity to give birth. This is how the idea of men being more sovereign

came into being. Now when today the world has moved away from the time of hunter-gatherer,

the established superiority of men remains in the form of patriarchy. The social conditions have

been changed but the reality that was constructed because of the previous social conditions has

been reinforced in today’s world.

Therefore, there is nothing such as the ultimate truth. All the concepts that have been

created emerge from inside rather than being established by some outside force i.e.

reality/ultimate truth. Language gives rise to this illusion of truth and reality. As, human beings

keep on associating different concepts with words and these words keep on defining different

binaries that we follow. Different words in different languages with same meanings, can have

different connotations and concepts associated to them, depending upon the social and material

conditions these words surfaced in.

***

Today, we try to see world as black and white or in terms of the binary digits 1 and 0.

That is how we try to look at the concepts as well, in terms of something being true or something

being false or something being good or something being bad. Honest is good, we would say
 Zulqadar 3

without being sure of what it is. And patriarchy is bad, without being sure of what argument we

are actually trying to make.

Religion, in particular, introduces these binaries by dividing people in categories of

virtuous and sinful. These categories reinforce certain boundaries, as in, a person can either be

virtuous or immoral; thus, not leaving the space for a grey area to exist. It is essential for anyone

to associate to any one of these concepts to conform to the social standards of the society. You

cannot usually claim not to be part of any of the binaries because that makes it difficult for the

society and you to determine your own reality.

When Bulleh Shah says:

Na main andar bed kitaban

Na main rehnda phaang sharaban

Na main rehnda mast kharaban

Translation:

Nor my inclination is towards the Vedas

Nor is it towards intoxication

Nor am I lost among the corrupts

He opposes the dichotomy that is introduced by the religion in the society. He neither

claims to be part of a group nor he puts forward the claim of creating and belonging to a category

of his own. He just frees himself from the obligation to conform to the standards that are part and
 Zulqadar 4

parcel of associating with a group whether it is that of the virtuous people or people who deny

being religious. He further says:

Na vich shadi na ghamnaki

Na main vich paleeti paaki

Na main aaabi na main khaki

Na main aatish na main paun

Bulla ki jaana main kaun

Translation:

Neither am I among the joyous nor the mourners

Neither am I among the impure nor the pure

Neither I am of the water nor the land

Neither I am the fire nor the air

I don’t know who I am

It is evident from the above verses that Bulleh Shah’s disapproval of any binaries, makes

it difficult to map out the truth and reality about him. There is no concept that can be associated

with him because he discards any concept to be reflective of his real nature. Language presents

us with the illusion of our reality and we feel obligated to conform to it and thus become a slave

of our social conditions by giving in to the concepts arising from them. But here Bulleh Shah

seems to claim his own authority by rejecting any of the concepts. Initially, the repetition of, ‘I
 Zulqadar 5

don’t know who I am’ conveys the confusion that arises in the reader’s mind by his constant

resistance against dualism. But the reclamation of his authority over his own reality is evident in

the later verses:

Awal aakhar aap nu jana

Na koi dooja hoar pachaana

Mei toun na koi hoar sayana

Translation:

I know myself, as the beginning and the end

Duality; I refuse to rely on

There is no one wiser than myself

***

Nietzsche says: “What, indeed, does man know of himself! Can he even once perceive

himself completely, laid out as if an illuminated glass case?”

Thus,

Ki jaana mei kon

Bulleya ki jaana mei kon!

Further, Nietzsche argued that nature itself has hidden our reality from our self. We can

not even see our self than how it can be possible for us to perceive our reality or perceive the

ultimate truth. As Nietzsche mentions, “The liar uses the valid designations, the words, to make

the unreal appear as real.” This reminds me of the Bulleh Shah’s Kafi ‘Mei-beqaid’ (I am free).
 Zulqadar 6

Mei be-qaid, Mei be-qaid

Na rogi, na vaid

Na mei momin, Na mei kaafir

Na sayaad, na said

Translation:

I am free, I am free,

Neither I am the victim, nor am I the healer,

Neither am I a believer nor a disbeliever,

Neither am I chasing something nor am I the one being chased.

In the above verse, he once again rebels against the binaries and claims to exist outside of

them. In the later verses, he claims to be free because of his irrelevance to any of the social

constructs. He says that as he does not identify with any of the dualities, hence, he identifies with

something greater than these worldly concepts and therefore he transcends the constructed

realities.

Chaudveen tabqain sair asaada

Kithay na honda qaid

Kharaabaat may jaal asaadi

Na shobha, Na aeb

Translation:
 Zulqadar 7

I rove beyond the fourteen heavens,

There are no limits to my journey.

I dwell amidst the wilderness,

Neither in prosperity nor in austerity.

Therefore, Bulleh Shah claims his reality to be something that is beyond the concepts

moulded by language as Nietzshce put it: “Is language the adequate expression of all the

realities?” Bullah’s treatment of the social construct and the confusion that arises from his not

belonging to any group; is a portrayal of how language can fail to be the depiction and

expression of all the realities. As Bullah Shah, ends the kafi by saying:

Bullah shoh di zaat ki puchnaaen

Na paida, na-paid

Translation:

Why do you enquire about the reality of my beloved?

Neither does it exist nor is a nonentity.

Hence,

The “thing in itself” (for that is what pure truth, with-out consequences, would be) is

quite incomprehensible to the creators of language and not at all worth aiming for.
 Zulqadar 8

Truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are; metaphors

which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now

matter only as metal, no longer as coins.

-Nietzsche

***

The different languages, set side by side, show that what matters with words is never the

truth, never an adequate expression; else there would not be so many languages.

-Nietzsche

But is there any way to defy and exist outside of the constructs and the false sense of

reality that language gives us?

“Mei be-qaid (I am free)”, Bulleh Shah says but is not he also defining himself using the

binaries that already exist. He claims to exist outside of them but there is nothing concrete or

real, outside these boundaries, that he can refer to. He is identifying himself by not identifying to

anything; but he is still indebted to the concepts and constructs, that his social conditions have

given rise to.

He claims to be free but what is freedom, after all? Is not the definition for the synonyms

of this word in different languages vary? Is not the freedom different for different groups in the

society? For instance, how an upper-class woman views freedom would differ from how a

woman from lower-class views it. Also, how Bulleh Shah is defining his sense of freedom in his

kaafi, would be viewed differently by people belonging to different social conditions. So, is
 Zulqadar 9

Bulleh Shah really transcending the binaries because he still ends up conforming to the binary of

freedom and slavery.

***

It is a vicious cycle, you try to escape the false consciousness but you end up using the

same tool i.e. language, and thus escaping or not identifying to the concepts becomes difficult.

Bulleh Shah denied being part of any group. Still, the binaries that he was opposed to, try

to claim him as a part of them. Every group tries to draw his relevance towards it, for instance, in

South Asian tradition, he is viewed as a dominant religious figure. Though, in his times, Mullahs

were against him because he did not conform to the religious standards of the society. He did not

show any prejudice against women and the traditions claim that he once danced with a courtesan,

in a bazar. Still, women are prohibited to go near his grave, just because of the forced association

of religious groups with Bulleh Shah. Although, he clearly, refused to be called religious or

otherwise.

That shows, how difficult it is for the individuals to perceive a reality outside the realm of

the established concepts. As Nietzsche puts it, “Every word immediately becomes a concept,

inasmuch as it is not intended to serve as a reminder of the unique and wholly individualized

original experience to which it owes its birth, but must at the same time fit innumerable, more or

less similar cases - which means, strictly speaking, never equal - in other words, a lot of unequal

cases.” Therefore, the identity and the reality of an individual is limited by the language itself

rather than being expanded by it. Because language does not represent the truth, it rather creates

an illusion of it.

***
 Zulqadar 10

Work Cited

Nietzsche, Friedrich. “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.” Truth, pp. 14–25.,

doi:10.1002/9780470776407.ch1.

Newton, K. M. “Georg Lukács: ‘Critical Realism and Socialist Realism.’” Twentieth-Century

Literary Theory, 1997, pp. 163–166., doi:10.1007/978-1-349-25934-2_33.

Shah, Bulleh. “Chaunaviyaan Kaafiyaan”.