“… मेहनत की लूट सबसे ख़तरनाक नहीं होती
पुलिस की मार सबसे ख़तरनाक नहीं होती
ग़द्दारी और लोभ की मुट्ठी सबसे ख़तरनाक नहीं होती…”

(roughly translated as: being looted of your hard work’s earnings is not the most dangerous thing. Beatings by the police are not the most dangerous thing…)

“सबसे ख़तरनाक होता है
हमारे सपनों का मर जाना…”
(most dangerous thing is the death of our dreams)

Revolutionary poet Avtar Singh Sandhu ‘Pash’,  just referred to as Pash by his readers, wrote of struggle, survival, and the revolution that lay within ordinary people. Pash is hailed as one of the most influential modern poets, his Punjabi poetry, especially the most well known one titled: “सबसे ख़तरनाक (Sab Ton Khatarnak in the original Punjabi version, can be translated in English as: The most dangerous thing), is an anthem of sorts that one day may well be translated into many more Indian languages than it already has been, because his words are relevant today, and reflective of the struggles of the ordinary citizen of India. His words, ring true even now, over three decades after his death

Pash was born today, September 9, 1950, in Talwandi Salem, Jalandhar district, Punjab. His father Sohan Singh Sandhu, was a soldier in the Indian army is credited as an early influence as he too would write poems. However, it is Pash who rose to become a  major revolutionary poet. According to the Punjabi Kavita portal, Pash was “one of the major poets of the Naxalite Movement” . In 1972, he started a magazine named ‘Siar’ and in 1973, founded ‘Punjabi Sahit Te Sabhiachar Manch’. As listed by the portal. his poetic works are: Loh Katha (1971), Uddade Bazan Magar (1974), Saade Samian Vich (1978), Khilre Hoey Varkey (1989, posthumously). He was assassinated on March 23, 1988) by Khalistani militants. Sab Ton Khattarnak. one of his most powerful poems remains an anthem of resistance, and dissent movements even today.  (Pash’s poem “सबसे ख़तरनाक” taken from Kavita Kosh. The entire poem can be read here: https://kavitakosh.org/kk/सबसे_ख़तरनाक_/_पाश  The poem has been recited beautifully by motivational speaker Simerjeet Singh 

Pash’s words seem prophetic, describing the times we are navigating today, the social and political challenges that the nation faces, and the need to speak truth to power. He had warned that it was the most dangerous thing to be oblivious, and immune to what was going on in society, to become a slave to routine, to bear whatever was levied, including injustice. Above everything the most dangerous thing was the death of dreams. A 2017 essay written by Nirupama Subramanian in the Indian Express explored, ‘Why a Punjabi poet killed by Khalistanis is ruffling feathers in contemporary India?” She wrote that ‘Sab Ton Khatarnak’ has been translated into Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, and is an integral part of “resistance” politics, and recalled that the vilification of Pash, by politicians too was nothing new, “in the Rajya Sabha in 2006, when a BJP member, now also a minister, said the Pash poem should be removed from school books because he was a Naxalite.” The essay quotes Rana Nayar, former professor of English at Panjab University, explaining that “it is also possible to see Pash’s work as part of an evolutionary chain beginning with the Gurmat Sahit (of the Gurbani) literary tradition. ‘All the Sikh Gurus faced harsh social and political realities and all of them responded to these realities. Gurmat Sahit has a very strong component of social and political commentary. Pash realised its revolutionary potential and gave it a new twist’”.

RSS and Pash

 The ministry for human resources development (MHRD) under this regime has been approached by a extremist right wing outfot affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) –Dinanath Batra’s Shiksha Bachao Andolan– to remove Pash’s poetry from texts in the NCERT for school chidren.

Why is Pash so Critical to a Growing Mind?

Pash alias Avtar Singh Sandhu was gunned down by Khalistanis on March 23, 1988, at his village Talwandi Salem in Jalandhar. He was then 37 years old

Influenced by Punjab’s Naxalite movement in 1960s, Pash is often hailed as a revolutionary poet for having introduced a new paradigm in Punjabi poetry with his bold imagery

Pash wrote three anthologies of poems — Loh Katha (The Iron Tale) in 1970, Uddiyan Bazan Magar (In Pursuit of the Flying Hawk) 1974 and Saadey Samiyan Vich (In Our Times) in 1978

Khilre Hoey Varkey (The Scattered Pages) was published posthumously in 1989

More than a decade ago (in 2006), the Hindi translation of Pash’s famous poem ‘Sabh Ton Khatarnak’ (The Most Dangerous) was introduced in the Class XI Hindi textbook — the only Punjabi poet to have earned that privilege. Besides Pash’s poem, Batra now wants the NCERT to remove Rabindranath Tagore’s thoughts, Mirza Ghalib’s poem and extracts from MF Husain’s autobiography.

The Most Dangerous
Most treacherous is not the robbery
of hard earned wages
Most horrible is not the torture by the police.
Most dangerous is not the graft for the treason and greed.
To be caught while asleep is surely bad
surely bad is to be buried in silence
But it is not most dangerous.
To remain dumb and silent in the face of trickery
Even when just, is definitely bad
Surely bad is reading in the light of a firefly
But it is not most dangerous
Most dangerous is
To be filled with dead peace
Not to feel agony and bear it all,
Leaving home for work
And from work return home
Most dangerous is the death of our dreams.
Most dangerous is that watch
Which run on your wrist
But stand still for your eyes.
Most dangerous is that eye
Which sees all but remains frostlike,
The eye that forgets to kiss the world with love,
The eye lost in the blinding mist of the material world.
That sinks the simple meaning of visible things
And is lost in the meaning return of useless games.
Most dangerous is the moon
Which rises in the numb yard
After each murder,
but does not pierce your eyes like hot chillies.
Most dangerous is the song
which climbs the mourning wail
In order to reach your ears
And repeats the cough of an evil man
At the door of the frightened people.
Most dangerous is the night
Falling in the sky of living souls,
Extinguishing them all
In which only owls shriek and jackals growl,
And eternal darkness covers all the windows.
Most heinous is the direction
In which the sun of the soul light
Pierces the east of your body.
Most treacherous is not the
robbery of hard earned wages.
Most horrible is not the torture of police
Most dangerous is not graft taken for greed and treason.

Backhround: In 2006 BJP MP, Ravi Shankar Prasad during a debate on NCERT books had told Parliament (RajyaSabha) that Paash was a Naxalite. The NCERT had prescribed Paash’s poem “The Most Dangerous” in Hindi textbooks for class XI students from 2006 onwards. This is part of an arrangement whereby 20% literature is translated from other languages. This poem was selected for all India syllabus of NCERT. Recently in a press conference in Delhi after Gauri Lankesh’s dastardly killing, (and after he had condemned trolls for being abusive on her death) Prasad was on air again saying that Gauri’s brother had said that Naxals were behind her killings.

The attempt to erase the works of Paash from Indian textbooks should be resisted. The original poem in Punjabi reads as follows:

ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕ
 
ਕਿਰਤਦੀਲੁੱਟਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਨਹੀਂਹੁੰਦੀ
ਪੁਲਸਦੀਕੁੱਟਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਨਹੀਂਹੁੰਦੀ
ਗੱਦਾਰੀ-ਲੋਭਦੀਮੁੱਠਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਨਹੀਂਹੁੰਦੀ
ਬੈਠੇਸੁੱਤਿਆਂਫੜੇਜਾਣਾ-ਬੁਰਾਤਾਂਹੈ
ਡਰੂਜਿਹੀਚੁੱਪਵਿੱਚਮੜ੍ਹੇਜਾਣਾ -ਬੁਰਾਤਾਂਹੈ
ਸਭਤੋਂਖਤਰਨਾਕਨਹੀਂਹੁੰਦਾ
ਕਪਟਦੇਸ਼ੋਰਵਿਚ
ਸਹੀਹੁੰਦਿਆਂਵੀਦਬਜਾਣਾ, ਬੁਰਾਤਾਂਹੈ
ਕਿਸੇਜੁਗਨੂੰਦੀਲੋਅਵਿਚਪੜ੍ਹਨਲੱਗਜਾਣਾ -ਬੁਰਾਤਾਂਹੈ
ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਨਹੀਂਹੁੰਦਾ।
ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਹੁੰਦਾਹੈ
ਮੁਰਦਾਸਾਂਤੀਨਾਲਭਰਜਾਣਾ,
ਨਾਹੋਣਾਤੜਪਦਾ, ਸਭਸਹਿਣਕਰਜਾਣਾ
ਘਰਾਂਤੋਂਨਿਕਲਣਾਕੰਮਤੇ
ਤੇਕੰਮਤੋਂਘਰਜਾਣਾ,
ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਹੁੰਦਾਹੈ
ਸਾਡੇਸੁਪਨਿਆਂਦਾਮਰਜਾਣਾ।
ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਉਹਘੜੀਹੁੰਦੀਹੈ
ਤੁਹਾਡੇਗੁੱਟ ‘ਤੇਚਲਦੀਹੋਈਵੀਜੋ
ਤੁਹਾਡੀਨਜ਼ਰਦੇਲਈਖੜ੍ਹੀਹੁੰਦੀਹੈ।
ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਉਹਅੱਖਹੁੰਦੀਹੈ
ਜੋਸਭਦੇਖਦੀਹੋਈਵੀਠੰਢੀਯੱਖ਼ਹੁੰਦੀਹੈ
ਜਿਸਦੀਨਜ਼ਰਦੁਨੀਆਨੂੰਮੁਹੱਬਤਨਾਲਚੁੰਮਣਾਭੁੱਲਜਾਂਦੀਹੈ
ਜੋਚੀਜ਼ਾਂ ‘ਚੋਂਉਠਦੀਅੰਨ੍ਹੇਪਣਦੀਭਾਫ਼ਉੱਤੇਡੁਲ੍ਹਜਾਂਦੀਹੈ
ਜੋਨਿੱਤਦਿਸਦੇਦੀਸਾਧਾਰਣਤਾਨੂੰਪੀਂਦੀਹੋਈ
ਇਕਮੰਤਕਹੀਣਦੁਹਰਾਅਦੇਗਧੀ-ਗੇੜਵਿਚਹੀਰੁਲਜਾਂਦੀਹੈ।
ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਉਹਚੰਨਹੁੰਦਾਹੈ
ਜੋਹਰਕਤਲਕਾਂਡਦੇਬਾਅਦ
ਸੁੰਨਹੋਏਵਿਹੜਿਆਂਵਿੱਚਚੜ੍ਹਦਾਹੈ
ਪਰਤੁਹਾਡੀਆਂਅੱਖਾਂਨੂੰਮਿਰਚਾਂਵਾਂਗਨਹੀਂਲੜਦਾਹੈ।
ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਉਹਗੀਤਹੁੰਦਾਹੈ
ਤੁਹਾਡੇਕੰਨਾਂਤੱਕਪਹੁੰਚਣਲਈ
ਜਿਹੜਾਕੀਰਨਾਉਲੰਘਦਾਹੈ
ਡਰੇਹੋਏਲੋਕਾਂਦੇਬਾਰਮੂਹਰੇ-
ਜੋਵੈਲੀਦੀਖੰਘਖੰਘਦਾਹੈ।
ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਉਹਰਾਤਹੁੰਦੀਹੈ
ਜੋਪੈਂਦੀਹੈਜੀਊਂਦੀਰੂਹਦਿਆਂਆਕਾਸ਼ਾਂ ‘ਤੇ
ਜਿਹਦੇਵਿਚਸਿਰਫ਼ਉੱਲੂਬੋਲਦੇਗਿੱਦੜਹਵਾਂਕਦੇ
ਚਿਪਟਜਾਂਦੇਸਦੀਵੀਨ੍ਹੇਰਬੰਦਬੂਹਿਆਂਚੁਗਾਠਾਂ ‘ਤੇ
ਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਉਹਦਿਸ਼ਾਹੁੰਦੀਹੈ
ਜਿਹਦੇਵਿੱਚਆਤਮਾਦਾਸੂਰਜਡੁੱਬਜਾਵੇ
ਤੇਉਸਦੀਮਰੀਹੋਈਧੁੱਪਦੀਕੋਈਛਿਲਤਰ
ਤੁਹਾਡੇਜਿਸਮਦੇਪੂਰਬ ‘ਚਖੁੱਭਜਾਵੇ।
ਕਿਰਤਦੀਲੁੱਟਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਨਹੀਂਹੁੰਦੀ
ਪੁਲਸਦੀਕੁੱਟਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਨਹੀਂਹੁੰਦੀ
ਗੱਦਾਰੀ-ਲੋਭਦੀਮੁੱਠਸਭਤੋਂਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕਨਹੀਂਹੁੰਦੀ।
 
The Hindi translation of the poem is as follows:
 
सबसेख़तरनाक
 
मेहनतकीलूटसबसेख़तरनाकनहींहोती
पुलिसकीमारसबसेख़तरनाकनहींहोती
ग़द्दारीऔरलोभकीमुट्ठीसबसेख़तरनाकनहींहोती
बैठे-बिठाएपकड़ेजानाबुरातोहै
सहमी-सीचुपमेंजकड़ेजानाबुरातोहै
सबसेख़तरनाकनहींहोता
कपटकेशोरमेंसहीहोतेहुएभीदबजानाबुरातोहै
जुगनुओंकीलौमेंपढ़ना
मुट्ठियांभींचकरबसवक्‍़तनिकाललेनाबुरातोहै
सबसेख़तरनाकनहींहोता
सबसेख़तरनाकहोताहैमुर्दाशांतिसेभरजाना
तड़पकानहोना
सबकुछसहनकरजाना
घरसेनिकलनाकामपर
औरकामसेलौटकरघरआना
सबसेख़तरनाकहोताहै
हमारेसपनोंकामरजाना
सबसेख़तरनाकवोघड़ीहोतीहै
आपकीकलाईपरचलतीहुईभीजो
आपकीनज़रमेंरुकीहोतीहै
सबसेख़तरनाकवोआंखहोतीहै
जिसकीनज़रदुनियाकोमोहब्‍बतसेचूमनाभूलजातीहै
औरजोएकघटियादोहरावकेक्रममेंखोजातीहै
सबसेख़तरनाकवोगीतहोताहै
जोमरसिएकीतरहपढ़ाजाताहै
आतंकितलोगोंकेदरवाज़ोंपर
गुंडोंकीतरहअकड़ताहै
सबसेख़तरनाकवोचांदहोताहै
जोहरहत्‍याकांडकेबाद
वीरानहुएआंगनमेंचढ़ताहै
लेकिनआपकीआंखोंमें
मिर्चोंकीतरहनहींपड़ता
सबसेख़तरनाकवोदिशाहोतीहै
जिसमेंआत्‍माकासूरजडूबजाए
औरजिसकीमुर्दाधूपकाकोईटुकड़ा
आपकेजिस्‍मकेपूरबमेंचुभजाए
मेहनतकीलूटसबसेख़तरनाकनहींहोती
पुलिसकीमारसबसेख़तरनाकनहींहोती
ग़द्दारीऔरलोभकीमुट्ठीसबसेख़तरनाकनहींहोती।

Pash published his first collection of poems “Loh Katha (Tales of Iron)” in 1970, when he was 20, stated the IE essay, adding that “It earned him accolades and immediate stardom. There were two other collections by him that same decade, with which he firmly established his place in Punjabi poetry.” The poet was arrested thrice, for the first time in 1970, allegedly for his alleged Naxalite links; then in 1972, during student unrest in Punjab; and once again in 1974, during an all-India railways employees’ strike, recorded the IE essay. 

It is also clear, that had he lived, and written his poems of resistance in India today, he would have been called an “urban naxal’, accused of breaking India, thrown in Jail like Varavara Rao and others, or gunned down outside his own home, like Gauri Lankesh. 

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From Paash to Lankesh: How the Indian State Continues to Discriminate between Minority and Majority Extremists

The post Most dangerous thing is the death of our dreams: Pash (9 September 1950 – 23 March 1988) appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Great poets like Faiz are warriors and serve as the sentinels of the collective conscience of their times. Countries have frontiers but the war against slavery and exploitation has no frontier. Faiz understood that a society without meaningful poetry is a society on the last legs of its wretched existence. It is a society bereft of dreams and thus, a society bereft of hope. Faiz’s verses wee redolent with  prison terms, privation, exile, protest, resistance.

Faiz espoused the cause of freedom and ranks with poets like Pablo Neruda, Nazim Hikmet, and Louis Aragon. His poetry, rich with the classical hue of Ghalib and Iqbal, acquired a characteristic tone and he excelled in the nazm and ghazal, the two major forms of Urdu poetry, blazing a trail of love and revolution.

At the hands of an artistic rebel like Faiz, even surrealism became a weapon in the advance of the proletariat. Faiz was traditional in the sense that he was inspired by the Sufi tradition of dissent and was progressive in the sense that he was an avowed Marxist.

Faiz became one of Pakistan’s most prominent and beloved poets of all time, next only to the legendary Iqbal. He realised at an early age that it was the content and not the form which was basic in the art of poetry. He firmly believed that originality had little to do with formal experimentation and was primarily a matter of a profound understanding of human existence in its totality and wholeness.

Faiz’s literary studies laid the foundation for him to construct a modern Urdu verse that took on larger social and political issues of his times while still retaining the polished style and diction of the ghazal. He consciously wrote poetry that reflected the concerns of the masses: Oppression, injustice, exploitation, poverty, the suffering of ordinary people and women.

Those who attempted to put labels on him didn’t understand the essence of his poetry. Or maybe labels were used to cover up their superficial understanding of these issues. Faiz’s lament at India’s independence is characteristic of his passion for freedom for the masses and not just for the country from colonialism:

“this is not the morning we’d fought for,
In whose eager quest, all comrades
Had set out, hoping that somewhere
In the wilderness of the sky
Would emerge the ultimate destination of stars…”

Faiz’s work is replete with religious symbolism but his understanding of religion was more in line with Sufi thought and not the obscurantist interpretations advanced by religious scholars. References to the beloved (which in Sufi is always the Creator) are most vital. He once said, “The true subject of poetry is the loss of the beloved.” His philosophy was one of inclusivity, collectiveness, love for all beings, and no anger or aggression. He didn’t resent even those who imprisoned him, maligned him and wanted him dead or silent. All of these are reflections of Sufi beliefs.

As a Marxist, Faiz rejected the notion of “art for art’s sake”. Referring to the poet Keats’s famous lines that beauty is love and love is beauty and a beautiful object is an eternal source of joy, Faiz says that, notwithstanding what Keats may have felt, beauty can only be eternal when it is creative, when it inspires the onlooker’s enthusiasm, thought and action with promoting more beauty. Faiz’s poetry reflected a syncretic spirit, both across place and time. He navigated the space between Hindus and Muslims with grace and his poetry resonated with the same poignancy in both cultures. The best English translations of his poetry have come from India.

Faiz’s poetry hybridised several styles and devices straddling centuries of literary history’ fusing classical forms like the 14th-century with   the free verse that the British had been importing into the subcontinent since the Raj took hold of it a century earlier. He was greatly influenced by W.H. Auden and it is likely that Auden’s poetry stimulated Faiz to use the modern British literary form.

Faiz’s work reverberated with the pathos of contemporary times which were both turbulent and significant markers of historical changes. His verses challenged both structures of power and the failure of governments to poetry itself—a revolutionary one. Most importantly, Faiz adopted and adapted the forms, themes, and images of Urdu poetry to galvanise the masses against the oppressive colonial regimes. In the words of Dylan Thomas his was this fervent belief :

“Do not go gentle into the good night/
Rage rage against the dying of the light’. 
This rebellious spirit is patent in his every verse:
“Speak, your lips are free.
Speak, it is your own tongue.
Speak, it is your own body.
Speak, your life is still yours.
See how in the blacksmith’s shop
The flame burns wild, the iron glows red;
The locks open their jaws, And every chain begins to break.”
Later came poetic gems like,
Shaam ke pech o kham sitaron se
Zeena zeena utar rahi hai raat
“From the winding stars in sky
Stair by stair descends the night”

Aside from being a poet, Faiz was a journalist, songwriter, and activist. He is the voice of conscience of the suffering humanity of our times. A voice which is a song as well as a challenge, which has a burning faith and cries out against the agony of its era, a constant endeavour and the thunder of the revolution, as well as the sweet recital of love and beauty. This had particularly affected the colonial economy of India. Thus, according to Faiz:

“My heart repents neither this love nor the other,
My heart is spotted with every kind of sorrow,
Except the mark of repentance.”
 
If Faiz had become a legend during his lifetime, it was because he was a versatile genius—a political thinker who was committed to Marxism in his early years, a distinguished poet, a liberal humanist and, above all someone who never compromised his integrity with the Pakistani rulers of his time. Faiz was, truly speaking, a citizen of the world who did not recognise any barriers between religions, languages, and countries. Being an irrepressible social and political activist, he spent many years in prison, and also as an exile in Lebanon and England. It is no wonder that prison emerges as an expanded metaphor in several of his poems.

Faiz made the transformation of the individual human being and his passage through the infinite variety of situations and moods   the subject of his poetry. He was concerned, above all, with the experience of the individual human soul in the long and arduous journey of revolutionary struggle. And yet love remained the leitmotif of his poetry.

Faiz is one of the great lyricists who has sung of nothing with greater passion than love which, he believed, was the primary engine for human progress. Faiz’s acceptance speech when he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize, which appears as a brief preface to his collection Dast-i-tah-i-Sang (Hand under the Rock), is a great piece of humanist literature:

“Human ingenuity, science and industry have made it possible to provide each one of us everything we need to be comfortable … However, this is only possible if the foundations of human society are based not on greed, exploitation and ownership but on justice, equality, freedom and the welfare of everyone….”

Courtesy: Counter View

The post Faiz’s poems reverberate contemporary pathos: Turbulent and marked with historical changes appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Learn your lines. Shutterstock

But Brother D could have added another word to his to-do list: “Versify”. Verse has a long history of resisting oppression and rallying opposition in the face of overwhelming odds. Here are five poets every protester should read.
 

1. Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni’s My Poem from 1968 is one of the key works of a group of young writers who came of age alongside the American civil rights movement. As demands for greater human rights and fewer governmental wrongs grew, the bloody violence that was meted out by the army and police saw an increasingly strident, anguished, and collective response in verse.
 

Giovanni (1943-) sums up the fear and the lack of privacy that any artist could encounter if they raised a voice in dissent. She states: “My phone is tapped, my mail is opened”, and laments that she’s “afraid to tell my roommate where I’m going / and scared to tell people if I’m coming”. The poem’s power lies in the defiant refrain that ends each of its five verses. Whatever the government or the poet herself may or may not do, Giovanni repeats the fact that “it won’t stop the revolution”.
 

2. Denise Levertov

Levertov (1923-1997) famously fell out with poet Robert Duncan over the best way to write political poetry. The issues that their argument raised were concerned with whether one should comment directly upon particular political issues or should write verse that engaged in a more abstract, less polemical manner. Of the two paths, Levertov took the former. Making Peace (1987) opens with a statement that affirms her desire to think through these problems:
 

The poets must give us / imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar / imagination of disaster. Peace not only / the absence of war.
 

As the poem continues, Levertov explores how poetry can make the world anew. She concludes with the hope that:
 

A cadence of peace might balance its weight / on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence, / an energy field more intense than war, / might pulse then, / stanza by stanza into the world, / each act of living / one of its words, each word / a vibration of light—facets / of the forming crystal.
 

3. Diane Di Prima

Di Prima’s Revolutionary Letters (1971) is one of the most powerful and thorough explorations ever written into the ways in which a poet can act to change the culture. Confident without being bombastic, confrontational and also compassionate, ecstatic as well as desperate, Di Prima brings the revolution home by initiating the change from home.
 

Kids, lovers, friends and opponents are all part of the struggle. One problem that political poets face is the question of how simple sloganeering can also be good poetry. Revolutionary Letters does this through giving the reader a domestic and particular world, written with a Beat poetics, within which is played out a very open and public politics. Revolutionary Letter #50 runs, in full:
 

As soon as we submit

to a system based on causality, linear time

we submit, again, to the old values, plunge again

into slavery. Be strong. We have the right to make

the universe we dream. No need to fear “science” grovelling

apology for things as they are, ALL POWER

TO JOY. which will remake the world.
 

4. Martin Carter

Carter’s poems locate their struggle in British-occupied Guyana in the 1950s. Poems of Resistance (1954) charts Carter’s growing political consciousness and his belief in the emancipation and empowerment of all oppressed people.
 

Carter (1927-1997) spent time in prison and time in government – a path that is far from unusual in 20th-century politics – and continued to write poems of rare humanity and power throughout his life. He is best known, however, for Poems of Resistance. I come from the Nigger Yard (1954) explores the circumstances of his life and traces his journey towards emancipation. It concludes:
 

I come to the world with scars on my soul

wounds on my body, fury in my hands

I turn to the histories of men and the lives of the peoples

I examine the shower of sparks, the wealth of dreams

I am pleased with the glories and sad with the sorrows

rich with the riches, poor with loss.

From the nigger yard of yesterday I come with my burden.

To the world of tomorrow I turn with my strength.
 

5. Nazim Hikmet

Hikmet (1902-1963), is a Turkish national hero, yet much of his life was spent in jail or in exile. A poet in the expansive, democratic mode of Walt Whitman and Vladimir Mayakovsky, Hikmet wrote tirelessly of the need to be free from any form of authority and about lives of the everyday people of Turkey. His poem about a child killed by the A-Bomb in Hiroshima is well-known in English as the song I Come and Stand at Every Door.
 

Hikmet was a courageous opponent of the mid-century Turkish government, and, in 1950, went on hunger strike to protest their record upon human rights. His constant question is: what should one do in the face of oppression? And his answer is: be ready to fight. In Some Advice to Those Who Will Serve Time in Prison he tells the world: “It’s not that you cannot pass / ten or fifteen years inside / and more— / you can, / as long as the jewel / on the left side of your chest doesn’t lose its luster!”
 

In fact, that’s the message of all five of these poets. Agitate, educate, and organise! Well, that and William Carlos Williams’ demand to fellow poets: “Write good poems!”
 

Tim Atkins, Reader, University of East London

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Let us analyse the iconic and popular poem ‘hum dekhenge’.

hum dekhenge
laazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge
woh din ke jiska waada hai
jo lauh e azal mein likha hai
hum dekhnege
[We shall Witness
It is certain that we too, shall witness
the day that has been promised
of which has been written on the slate of eternity]

Anyone who is acquainted with the basics of Quranic discourse, knows the meaning of the term ‘lauh e azal’. It has been used in Quran to refer to the eternal slate on which the destiny of the whole universe from start to end has been recorded. Besides, the slate metaphor is used for the Quran to refer to itself, lauh e mahfooz or the protected slate. In this introductory phase, Faiz is declaring that we are to witness that day which has been promised in the eternal slate. One might ask: promised by whom, and promised where? Promised by God, and promised in Quran. This is made explicit by the following stanzas:

Jab zulm-o-sitam ke koh-e-garan
Rooi ki tarah urh jaenge
Hum mehkoomon ke paaon tale
Ye dharti dhar dhar dharkegi
Aur ahl-e-hakam ke sar oopar
Jab bijli kar kar karkegi
[When the enormous mountains of tyranny
blow away like cotton.
Under our feet- the feet of the oppressed-
when the earth will pulsate deafeningly
and on the heads of our rulers
when lightning will strike]

The mountains blow away like cotton, the earth shaking under the feet of humans, or lightning striking the heads: all three are prominent Qur’anic tropes while describing the inevitable doomsday, which precedes the judgment day.

For instance:

It is the Day when people will be like moths, dispersed;  and the mountains will be like wool, fluffed up. [Quran 101:4-5]

When the earth is shaken with its earthquake, and the earth discharges its burdens, and man says, “what is [wrong] with it?” [Quran 99:1-3]

Jab arz-e-Khuda ke kaabe se
Sab but uthwae jaenge
Hum ahl-e-safa mardood-e-harm
Masnad pe bethae jaenge
Sab taaj uchale jaenge
Sab takht girae jaenge
[From the abode of God
When icons of falsehood will be taken out,
When we- the faithful- who have been barred out of sacred places
will be seated on high cushions
When the crowns will be tossed,
When the thrones will be brought down.]

In this paragraph, Faiz uses the image of a victorious Prophet Mohammad emptying Kaaba of hundreds of idols after the conquest of Makkah towards the end of his prophetic career. The term mardood e haram, i.e. barred out of sacred places, refers to Mohammad and his companion who were forced to leave Makkah 8 years earlier, because of the Islamic rejection of idolatry. The mardood e haram finally defeat the Meccan idolators, come back to the Haram [kaaba], and purify it from idols.

The connections are obvious between the basic Islamic slogan ‘la ilaha illa alla’ [no deity but the deity] and Faiz’s imagination of an idol-less world, where those who have been most oppressed by the false deities such as crowns, thrones etc. will finally be vindicated. This idol metaphor has been used in similar ways throughout the revolutionary Urdu poetry, for instance Iqbal invites the Muslims to break the modern idols of Nationalism, Capitalism etc.

In taaza khudaon mein bada sabse watan hai
jo pairhan iska hai woh mazhab ka kafan hai
[of all these recent deities, the nation is the greatest,
and the cloth that makes its clothes is the shroud of religion]

Now lets come back to the last stanza of hum dekhenge:

Bas naam rahega Allah ka
Jo ghayab bhi hai hazir bhi
Jo manzar bhi hai nazir bhi
Utthega an-al-haq ka nara
Jo mai bhi hoon tum bhi ho
Aur raaj karegi Khalq-e-Khuda
Jo mai bhi hoon aur tum bhi ho
[Only The name will survive
Who cannot be seen but is also present
Who is the spectacle and the beholder, both
I am the Truth- the cry will rise,
Which is I, as well as you
And then God’s creation will rule
Which is I, as well as you]

Faiz comes back to the issue of finitude of humans and their societies, and reminds us that besides God, every other entity is going to perish. Following the traditional Islamic discourse, Faiz defines Allah through contradictions, [cannot be seen but is also present], or [who is both the spectacle and the beholder]. In the last two couplets of the poem, Faiz talks about the legendary mystical quote of Islamic history: anal haq i.e. I am the truth. As Quran explicitly rejects religious mediation through any class clerical or otherwise, individuals themselves become careers of religious knowledge and enlightenment in Faiz’s Islamic imagination.

The poets of Islam, if one goes through a long list across languages, have taken the basic Islamic slogan of tauheed [monotheism] as the central idea, and have praised Muhammad as the greatest revolutionary, and Hussain as the greatest martyr of human history. Belief in Tauheed entails rejection of deities and superstition, and hence it is incumbent on a believer to destroy the false deities like race, class and images. In other words, tauheed defines the ideal by negation. When confronted with the Marxist ideas in post-1917 world, these poets incorporate leftist ideas such as class struggle etc, into their thought and poetry.

Some like Iqbal, whom Faiz considers the last Islamic thinker of his age, engage on the level of ideas with Marxist thinkers and prepare the base for others who follow. Others like Faiz and Hasrat, one of the founders of Communist Party of India, cooperate with Marxists very closely, and were active members of Communist parties. When asked why he supported communist movements in Pakistan inspired by USSR or China, he explained it by pointing out that although Islamic systems are superior to Communism, no Muslim country currently follows a better implementation than the regimes in USSR and China. However, if the Islamic systems are implemented in its true revolutionary spirit, or its faulty implementation is reformed, then results better than the Communist regimes can be achieved.

Faiz was a self-declared Muslim poet. He was brought up in a Muslim family, and trained in Islamic discourses early on in his life. He started memorising Quran, but had to give it up because of health issues, something that he regretted throughout his life. His declared murshid, i.e. spiritual and philosophical guide, was the legendary Muslim scholar and poet Maulana Rum or Rumi. His poetry is imbued with Islamic themes, goals, allegories and metaphors.

The famous poet Qateel Shifai asked Faiz about it in an interview:

Qateel: Islami adab ki tehreek ke silsile mein kuchh farmaiye.

[please tell us something about the movements in Islamic literature]

Faiz:     hamare khyaal mein muslim mamaalik mein musalmaan likhne walon ki adabi tehreek islam hi ka hissa hai.

[in my opinion, the literary movements of Muslim writers in Muslim countries is a part of Islam]

In Rudaad e Qafas, Major Ishaq, who was a companion of Faiz, mentions that when they were jailed together, Faiz famously taught Quran and Hadees to the prisoners in the Hyderabad jail. Faiz himself mentions that a colonel explicitly asked him, why he was teaching Quran when he was an atheist. When Faiz clarifies that he is a Muslim, the colonel starts appreciating his Quranic lessons.

His support for the Palestinian cause, which was expressed in Quranic terms [qad jaa al haq wa zahaq al baatil: the truth has arrived, and falsehood perished], his praise for the Iranian students who were bleeding for an Islamic revolution, and his ode to Prophet Muhammad which is his only Persian poem, his grand elegy for Hussain: all stand witness to the centrality of Islamic thought in Faiz’s poetry and his revolutionary spirit.

An illusion has been created over time, where Faiz is considered an atheist poet, who has no relation with Islam. This was done by the conservative Muslims, who wanted to dent his legitimacy among Muslims. The conservative and literalist Muslims were not afraid of non-Muslim revolutionary thinkers, they are always more afraid of revolutionary trends within Islam, and hence the declaration that Faiz is a kafir or a dahri (i.e. atheist). It is unfortunate that this orthodox Muslim propaganda has succeeded in convincing many Muslims as well as many progressive and liberal circles in the subcontinent that Faiz was indeed an atheist, or at least his revolutionary ideas had nothing to do with Islam. It is high time that this distortion should be rectified.

(The authors are currently pursuing their M.Phil at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, Delhi.)

Courtesy: Twocircles.net
 

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