यूनिवर्सिटी ऑफ़ मिशिगन
मजाल है ! 'How
dare you!'
Notes on मजाल, हिम्मत, and साहस.
To express intense emotional outrage
or to make a defiant challenge speakers of Hindi-Urdu may use the nouns
मजाल 'temerity', हिम्मत 'courage', or साहस
'boldness' either with का of subject and a
clause in the subjunctive (1) or with का or
को of subject and a dependent infinitive
(2):
1. तुमने
अपने को समझा क्या है ? तुम्हारी इतनी मजाल कि मेरी
बहू पर हाथ उठाओ।
'Who do you think you are? How dare you
raise a hand to my daughter-in-law!'
(from Chapter Four of प्रेमचन्द's गोदान. See context.)
2. लड़कियों को
डाँटते थे, समझाते थे; पर सब-की-सब खुल्लमखुल्ला कहती थीं
-- तुमको
हमारे बीच में बोलने का कुछ
मजाल नहीं है। हम अपने मन की रानी
हैं, जो हमारी
इच्छा होगी, वह हम
करेंगे।
बेचारा
बाप जवान-जवान
लड़कियों से क्या बोले ?
'He tried scolding the girls and then cajoling them but
they told him quite openly, "How dare you interfere? We are our own
masters and we'll do whatever we want!" What could
the poor father say to these lively young girls?'
(from Chapter Five of गोदान. See context.)
The nouns हिम्मत and साहस
'courage; nerve' can be used in ways similar to these uses of मजाल, either with an infinitive (3 & 5) or with a
कि-clause (4 & 6):
3. मालती जल गयी
-- आपकी हिम्मत न पड़ी
बाहर निकलने की।
'Mâlatî countered sharply, "You
didn't have the courage to come out (to compete)."'
(from Chapter Thirteen of गोदान. See context.)
4. राय साहब की हिम्मत
है कि मुझे जेल ले
जायँ ?
'Does Rây Sâhab have the courage
to cart me off to jail?'
(from Chapter Sixteen of गोदान. See context.)
5. उसका जी चाहता
है पहले झुनिया से मिलकर अपना
अपराध क्षमा कराये; लेकिन अंदर जाने का साहस
नहीं होता।
'He really wants to meet Jhuniya first and
get her to forgive him for what he has done, but he doesn't have the
courage to go inside.'
(from Chapter Twenty of गोदान. See context.)
6. औरर अब
उसमें इतना साहस न था कि सामने आकर
कहे -- हाँ, मैंने चिंगारी
फेंकी थी।
'And now he didn't have the courage to come
forward and say, "Yes, I was the one who set the spark."'
(from Chapter Twelve of गोदान. See context.)
However, हिम्मत and साहस
differ from मजाल in two respects: Only
मजाल is able to occur in its clause
without a supporting verb [see examples (1), (7), and (9)]. This is not
possible for हिम्मत or साहस. Perhaps related to this is the greater degree
of emotional outrage or of extreme challenge that can be expressed by
using मजाल. By using मजाल the speaker is making an accusation of
temerity: 'How dare he...!' Constructions headed by हिम्मत or साहस are
more matter-of-fact.
Note: If the मजाल-clause is in the past tense then a जो-clause dependent on it may be in the past
subjunctive. Compare the ले
जायँ of (7) with the ले
जाता of (8):
7. तो फिर
पहले मैं उन्हीं से जाकर समझता
हूँ। उनकी यह मजाल कि मेरे द्वार पर
से बैल खोल ले
जायँ ! यह डाका
है, खुला हुआ
डाका !
'First I'm going to have a word with him.
How dare he take the bullocks from right in front of my door! Robbery,
that's what this is, plain and simple robbery!'
(from Chapter Twenty of गोदान. See context.)
8. तुमने गाँव
में किसी से कुछ कहा नहीं,
नहीं भोला की मजाल थी कि
तुम्हारे द्वार से बैल खोल
ले जाता !
'You didn't say anything (about buying the
cow) to anyone in the village. Otherwise, Bhola wouldn't have dared take
(her) away from your door.'
(from Chapter Seventeen of गोदान. See context.)
Since the word मजाल comes from an Arabic word that meant 'power'
or 'scope' it is not perhaps surprising to find it used sometimes in the
meaning of 'opportunity' or 'possibility' in situations where there is no
question of temerity:
9. बाज़ार का
चढ़ाव - उतार कोई
आकस्मिक घटना नहीं। इसका भी विज्ञान है। एक बार
उसे ग़ौर से देख लीजिए,
फिर क्या मजाल कि धोखा हो जाय।
'The market doesn't move up and down
at random. There is a science to it, too. Once you study it carefully,
there is no more possibility that you will be fooled.'
(from Chapter Seven of गोदान. See context.)
10. क्या मजाल है कि जी
औरर साहब बिना सुने किसी को हटना
पड़े।
'There is no way that anyone would
have to step aside without hearing a deferential "jî" or
"sâhab" addressed to them.'
(from Part One of उसने कहा था. See context.)
While मजाल is, strictly speaking, a noun, it is an
unusual one, one that functions at times as if it were itself a verb. This
ambiguous identity is reflected in मजाल 's ability to appear without a supporting
verb and in its peculiar ability to survive deletion of a negative element
(such as नहीं or क्या ) without reversal of meaning:
11. जमाल की
मजाल ( नहीं
) जो जीजी जान की
जानिब घूरकर देखे !
'How dare Jamal stare at Jiji Jan!'
The phrase क्या
मजाल has evolved into an idiomatic negative adverb in
the sense of 'not so much as...':
12. लेकिन क्या मजाल
उसने कभी भी किसी काम के लिये एक
पैसा भी माँगा हो !
'But he never so much as
asked for a single paisa for anything he did!'
(from a story by नरेंद्र कुमार
सिन्हा in his collection अधूरे सपने, p. 30.)
*
* *
Comments from कुसुम
जैन: Notice that the deletion of नहीं entails the use of a
different intonation on मजाल.
Furthermore, the noun हिम्मत
seems to have the same property:
13. उसकी हिम्मत ( नहीं ) ( है ) कि
मेरे घर में पैर धरे
!
'How dare she set foot inside my
house!'
*
* *
To exercise on use of
मजाल, हिम्मत, and साहस.
Other sections dealing with negation:
1. V-नेवाला to express disapproval, disbelief, defiance or
denial.
2. मार
खाए बिना नहीं मानता : Without V-ing.
3. रहा
नहीं जाता : Passive of incapacity
4. बनाए
न बने : Paired
verbs and incapacity.
5. जाने का नाम नहीं लेता
: Empahtic
negation.
To index of grammatical notes.
To index of मल्हार.
Drafted 19-21 Jan 2001. Posted 21-22 Jan 2001. Checked by KJ 29
Jan 2001. Augmented 30 Jan 2001. Corrected 2 Feb 2001. Augmented
and reformatted 26 Apr 2001. Augmented again 28 June 2004 & 1
July 2004. Cross-referenced 22 Aug 2004.