The Faiz controversy

There is a new controversy in India. An investigation is being held over whether a poem by noted Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz is anti-Hindu. The ‘Hum Dekhenge’ poem is being sung by various groups protesting against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and authorities there are not pleased.

The move is rather absurd as Faiz was a secular person. He was banished to the Soviet Union and was even offered the Lenin Peace Prize. The poem was handed over to Iqbal Bano who defied all odds to recite it at a public gathering gather in Lahore in 1985 against the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq.

What has irked Indian authorities to consider that the poem was anti-Hindu? It is the word ‘buut’ (idol) that had become objectionable and seen as a reference to Hindu ‘murti’ (idol). This has now become a communal issue and an unnecessary controversy has been made of an irrelevant issue.

Every language has a poetic tradition but Urdu poetry expresses the voice of the human heart in a rather powerful and elegant manner. This andaaz-e-bayaan (way of presenting) allows poets to express themselves more openly and even indirectly. Urdu poetry has a literal meaning but also a metaphorical one. This is used by poets in repressive regimes when it becomes difficult to even talk e.g. the military rule period during which Faiz wrote the said poem.

Faiz’s poetry was used to attack the dictatorship and restore democracy. The absurdity of Indian authorities even at liberal institutes can be gauged from the fact that certain lines are considered against idol worship and hence anti-Hindu.

The poem instead attacks the rulers who oppress their own people, and expresses a conviction that the public will one day rule their own destiny. Faiz used religious symbolism and words to protest against the unpopular government.

This controversy goes back much further. When Pakistan declared Urdu as the national language, it was shunned and neglected in India. Those speaking Urdu were perceived  as pro-Pakistani and thus anti-state. Despite that, Urdu is spoken by millions in India and had been recognized as one of the official languages in the Indian constitution.

It is rather interesting to note that poets celebrated in Pakistan are inspiring India’s protesters. Not just Faiz but even Habib Jalib and Allama Iqbal are an integral part of the protests that have defied the BJP leadership gaining massive popularity.

While a report is yet to come on Faiz’s couplets, thousands of protesters continue to sing the same poem as they march against the contentious law. To these agitators, it doesn’t matter whether they were written by a Pakistani poet or an Indian one, but that they are meaningful and appropriate.