The hope and longing of Faiz, now in a new translation
In this new compilation of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s verse in English, translator Baran Farooqi gives us an authentic sense of the original masterpieces as well as of lesser known gems. An introductory excerpt.
By Baran Farooqi (Translator) Publisher: Penguin Books Pages: 192 Price: Rs 499
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. He studied philosophy and English literature in Lahore and finished with an MA in Arabic. He started his career as a junior lecturer in a college at Amritsar. What was it like to be Faiz Ahmed in those times (for Faiz hadn’t yet adopted for himself the pen name Faiz Ahmed Faiz)?
It was 1934–35. Anti-British, or nationalistic sentiment, the desire for freedom, to rid the country of the foreigner, was everywhere in the air. So was, unfortunately, the feeling of “communal” conflict between the two main communities of Hindus and Muslims. Leftwing thought was making its presence felt, but it was generally side by side with N TIO FIC the nationalist struggle and was mixed with it, not alien to it. The Communist Party of India had been founded i in 1925, but its identity was often the same as the Indian National Congress, the main political party in the country at that time. Nevertheless, life in Amritsar ran to a sweet, slow tenor, and the young Faiz could indulge in discussion and debate with his young friends, read voraciously and compose poetry. The tradition of the mushaira was strong and poetry was still something of a public affair at that time. Even Iqbal, whose poetry was philosophical and complex, was as much a public figure in the Amritsar of the 1930s as any major political leader like Mahatma Gandhi.
Poetry recitation at small or large gatherings inevitably led young poets to do “more of the same”. Suggestions from and even participation by the audience in such recitations gave poetry a reality and a place in public life which now seems to have been appropriated by the film song. The All India Radio, founded in 1930, was also becoming a medium to disseminate and share music and poetry among large audiences. Faiz must have felt inspired to compose more and more. In spite of the largely conventional image that Urdu poetry had at that time, patriotic fervour was bound to make its appearance in any poetry being written at that time. Urdu was no exception and, in fact, led the field in patriotic songs and poetry. In their twenties at that time, Faiz and his friends and peers felt the urge to come up with a line of thought capable of not just combating the colonial presence in the motherland but also of making a stand against the forces of communalism.
The struggle against pov- A gorgeous new edition of the Hogwarts Library containing three much loved classics—Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages and The Tales of Beedle the Bard—from the wizarding world. These handsome hardback editions feature stunning jacket art by Jonny Duddle and beautiful interior illustrations by Tomislav Tomic—they are irresistible reading for all Harry Potter fans. erty and the fight against the forces of capitalism gave young Faiz’s poetry a sense of direction. The fight against political and social exploitation provided a common platform for poets who did not recognize the Hindu–Muslim divide, a divide which could have been a concern in Faiz’s poetic imagination. But a common platform for the larger struggle for freedom and social change made communal consciousness irrelevant and superficial. The Marxist ideology, which gave primacy to economic and social forces governing human life in history, and which regarded the struggle for emancipation through revolution an imperative of history rather than a transcendental view of time and change, served the cause of communal harmony well, leading to the rejection of parochial concerns which seemed to be fanning the fires of communalism in those times.
By 1939, Faiz had made a name for himself in poetic circles. By that time he was also spending his time mingling with the working class, teaching them how to read and write and also refining their political sensibilities.
It is an interesting fact of Indian social history that the Muslim leftist intellectuals of those times came mostly from affluent families, or in fact even from what could be described as “the ruling elite”. Brought up in the shadow of the Russian Revolution and nurtured on the populist notions of the French Revolution, they felt drawn to Marxism because of their dissatisfaction with the sociopolitical structure of the times, the oppressiveness of the British rule and a strong sense of the need for change.
They were inveterate idealists, and though they were later derided for being “armchair socialists” who wouldn’t soil their hands with the sordid dirt of real life, they were true dreamers and idealists. Some well-known names among them are Sajjad Zaheer, Rashid Jahan, Mahmud-uz Zafar, Z.A. Ahmed, Muhammad Habeeb, Sibt-e Hasan, Kaifi Azmi, Sardar Jafri, Muhammad Ashraf, Abdul Aleem and Faiz himself. These wealthy or upper-middleclass intellectuals belonged to different regions but shared the same ideology and the same dream: the world needed to be changed, and Marxism was the force that could bring about the change. The Progressive Writers’ Movement, founded in 1935 in London by Sajjad Zaheer and Mulk Raj Anand, among others, was the literary form of that dream.
To be sure, both Ideology and Dream suffered many shocks in the years to come. The first one was the ugly, nakedly imperialist truth of the pact between Stalin and Hitler which in any case couldn’t prevent Hitler from invading the Soviet Union. But that truth was revealed later; the Soviet war and Hitler’s comeuppance in that war came before. Yet, the Communist Party of India didn’t pause to consider why Stalin didn’t join the war against Hitler as other Western nations had done. The war was viewed in communist circles as an ‘imperial war’, which perhaps it was not, but which quickly became the ‘ War against Fascism’ when Hitler invaded Soviet Russia in 1941.
The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union gave the Progressives the opportunity to express their sense of shock and dismay and protest by joining the British Indian Army. By doing so, Faiz had joined the war against fascism, fighting the oppressors, siding with the oppressed.
Then came Indian independence. His poem Subh-e Azaadi (The dawn of freedom, August 1947) records the disappointment that he personally, and the communists as a party, felt with the way things ultimately turned out for the Indian subcontinent. The Partition served a massive blow, not just to leftist ideals but also to the Progressive Writers’ Movement. When Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic, Faiz expressed his sense of deep loss by actually attending Gandhi’s funeral in Delhi, despite the fact that Hindu–Muslim relations at that time were more fraught with tension than ever before in history.
By 1939, Faiz had made a name for himself in poetic circles. By that time he was also spending his time mingling with the working class, teaching them how to read and write and also refining their political sensibilities.
Extracted with permission from Faiz Ahmed Faiz: The Colours of My Heart, by Baran Farooqi, published by Penguin Books