The 110th birth anniversary of legendary poet and writer Faiz Ahmed Faiz is being observed today. A master poet at work, that is always what Faiz Ahmad Faiz will be known as, and rightly so, since his poetry transcends time itself.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who portrayed equal rights and tolerance in modern times through poetry, opened his eyes on 13th February 1911, in Sialkot. Faiz’s poetry has long reflected a syncretic spirit, both across place and across time.
It found a place among many local cultural traditions and also beyond. Today, on his birth anniversary, let’s have a look into Faiz Ahmed’s life and his works, that’ll stay with us for years to come.
Early Life and Education
Faiz was born in incredibly turbulent times for the world at large, and particularly for the Indian subcontinent. Though born into an affluent, aristocratic family (his grandfather had been a provincial governor in Afghanistan), Faiz did not go abroad to study like some of his peers from wealthy families.
His upbringing was Muslim, he was trained in the classical Persian poets Rumi and Hafiz. He started his career as a junior lecturer in a college at Amritsar. He graduated from the Scotch Mission in 1927 with honours. He studied philosophy and English literature in Lahore and finished with an MA in Arabic.
Marriage and “Kulsoom”
During his time in Amritsar, Faiz also met his future wife Alys in 1938 at the house of Mohammad Din Taseer, another colleague at the college. Alys was a British national and a member of Communist Party of the United Kingdom.
Mohammad Din Taseer had helped draft the original manifesto of the Progressive Writers’ Association in England where he had married Alys’s older sister, Christobel. Alys had come to India to visit her sister.
Later, with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, she was unable to return to England. Faiz and Alys shared the ideals of freedom and love for humanity and justice, and even though in some ways they had the opposing temperaments, Alys was a strict disciplinarian while Faiz was a typical, at times rather disorganised artist, they eventually fell in love.
Faiz’s mother, a traditional Muslim, was not entirely happy that her favoured, brilliant son had chosen to marry outside his religion. However, she gave in when she saw how happy Faiz was. She chose the Muslim name ‘Kulsoom’ for her daughter-in-law to be.
Faiz and Alys were married at the house of M.D. Taseer in Srinagar in October 1941. Their nikah was performed by Sher-i-Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, the leader of the National Conference. It was a simple wedding ceremony, ending with an informal house party attended by the progressive poets.
The Rawalpindi Conspiracy case
Faiz was friends with several military men from the days he had served in the army during World War II. One of these was Major General Akbar Khan, a senior member of the Pakistan Army.
Akbar Khan and many of his colleagues in the army had become frustrated and disillusioned with the civilian government of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan over what they perceived as the lack of material and moral support that had been given to the Army during the fight over Kashmir.
Akbar Khan requested Faiz to arrange a meeting with Sajjad Zaheer who was the Secretary General of the fledgling Communist Party of Pakistan. In March 1951 Faiz and Zaheer had another meeting with Akbar Khan in Rawalpindi.
After listening to suggestions about a military revolution, both, on behalf of progressives as well as the party, rejected the idea since it would likely have no popular support.
Faiz and Zaheer were also convinced that the situation was not bad enough to call for militant resistance. The meeting ended with a decision to avoid any such extreme measures.
Unfortunately, one of the participants of the meeting got cold feet and informed his superiors who promptly informed the authorities. The next day Faiz was arrested from his house in Lahore.
Incredibly, Faiz was treated as the ‘chief conspirator’, representing communists, since Zaheer could not be arrested for another three months. For Faiz, this resulted in an imprisonment lasting four years.
Exile and Return
Finally on 2 April 1955, Faiz’s sentence was commuted by the Prime minister Huseyn Suhrawardy, and he departed to London. In 1958, Faiz returned but was again detained by President Iskander Mirza, allegedly blamed Faiz for publishing pro-communist ideas and for advocating a pro-Moscow government.
However, due to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s influence on Ayub Khan, Faiz’s sentence was commuted in 1960 and he departed to Moscow. He later settled in London, United Kingdom.
In 1964, Faiz finally returned to his country and settled down in Karachi, and was appointed Rector of Abdullah Haroon College. Having served as the secretary of the Pakistan Arts Council from 1959 to 1962, he became its vice-president the same year.
In 1972, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto brought him back when Bhutto appointed Faiz as Culture adviser at the Ministry of Culture (MoCul) and the Ministry of Education (MoEd). Faiz continued serving in Bhutto’s government until 1974 when he took retirement from the government assignments.
Awards
Although living a simple and restless life, Faiz’s work, political ideology, and poetry became immortal, and he has often been called the “greatest poet” of Pakistan. In 1962, Faiz was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize which enhanced the relations of his country with the Soviet Union which at that time had been hostile and antagonistic relations with Pakistan.
In 1976 he was awarded the Lotus Prize for Literature. He was also nominated for the lenin Prize shortly before his death in 1984. In 1990, he was belatedly honoured by the Pakistan Government when ruling Pakistan Peoples Party led by Prime minister Benazir Bhutto, accepting the recommendation, and posthumously awarded Faiz, the highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Imtiaz.
