Dr. Ikramul Haq
| Faiz in his youth |
Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1910-1984)—great poet, teacher, editor, critic, human rights activist, trade unionist, journalist, thinker and revolutionary—was part of a 20th-century pantheon including the likes of Pablo Neruda, Nazim Hikmet and Mahmoud Darwish. All of them worked under the banner of Afro-Asian Writers’ Association—a progressive organisation raising the voice of the downtrodden in post-colonial era. Faiz was editor of its prestigious magazine, Lotus. Since Faiz, Nazim, Mahmoud and Neruda were very close ideologically, their works have astounding resemblances, disseminating a universal message of quest for peace and justice for humanity at large.
Faiz was born in Sialkot in the Punjab, then a part of India under British rule. He hailed from a well-to-do landowner’s family. Faiz’s father was a prominent lawyer, who was interested in literature, and whose friends included several prominent literary figures, including Allama Dr. Muhammad Iqbal (1873-1938), national poet of Pakistan. Faiz received his education at mission schools in Sialkot in the English language, but he also learned Urdu, Persian, and Arabic. He studied English and Arabic literatures at Government College, Lahore, receiving in 1932 his M.A. in English, and in Arabic from Oriental College, Lahore. Besides formal studies, Faiz actively participated in the literary circles, which held meetings at homes of established writers. After graduating, he worked as a teacher from the mid-1930s in Amritsar and Lahore.
The work of Faiz has left lasting impression on the world of literature. It enjoys global recognition—Faiz became the first Asian poet to win Lenin Peace Prize in 1962. Faiz was essentially a humanist, anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist. In the post-independence period and during the Cold War era, Faiz asked his country fellows “chale chalo ke wo manzil abhi nahi aye” (keeping on marching that destination has yet not reached). The reason was obvious that oligarchy of the rich and mighty, rulers in mufti and khaki created by colonial masters, captured power denying people their due rights—the situation unfortunately prevails even today, after 77 years of independence.
In his tribute to Faiz, Moin Qazi, author of the bestselling book, Village Diary of a Heretic Banker noted: “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….”
In the 1930s, Faiz joined the famous leftist progressive movement under the leadership of Sajjad Zaheer (1905-1973). During World War II, Faiz served in the Indian army in Delhi, and in 1944, promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. With the division of the subcontinent in 1947, Faiz resigned from the army and moved to Pakistan with his family.
Alys Faiz (1914-2003), whom he had married in 1941, later published a book of memoirs, Over My Shoulder (1993). Faiz became editor of the English daily, the Pakistan Times. He also worked as managing editor of the Urdu daily Imroz, and was actively involved in organizing trade unions.
In 1951, Faiz and a number of army officers were implicated in the so-called Rawalpindi Conspiracy case (sic) and arrested under Safety Act. The government authorities alleged that Faiz and others were planning a coup d’état. He spent four years in prison under a sentence of death and was released in 1955.
Faiz became the secretary of the National Council of the Arts. After the military takeover of General Ziaul Haq on July 5, 1977, Faiz was once again under trouble—he was forced to exile. After a period of exile in war-torn Lebanon from 1979 to 1982, Faiz returned to Pakistan and died in Lahore on November 20, 1984.
Faiz during his exile, while editing the magazine, Lotus, published English translations of many poems of Pablo Neruda, his close friend. Faiz, in his many editorials, while paying tributes to Neruda, aptly called him poet of humanity, ‘great voice of our time’, ‘true representative of masses’ and ‘poet of all times to come’. The same holds true for Faiz as well.
On the centenary celebrations of Faiz, held in London in 2011, rich tributes were paid to him for his relentless struggle for freedom from colonial subjugation and cause of the downtrodden in the post-colonial period.
Faiz’s first collections of poetry, Naqsh-e faryadi (1943), Dast-e saba (1952), and Zindan Namah (1956), include his experience of imprisonment. Faiz describes his life behind the walls, in confinement, finding consolation in the thought that “though tyrants may command that lamps be smashed/in rooms where lovers are destined to meet/they cannot snuff out the moon…”
Faiz’s poetry is a tool of resistance against colonial and post-colonial legacy of control, exploitation and denial of rights to the masses. He was an active player in the anti-imperialist struggle and not mere an idealist poet, sitting on the other side of the fence, criticizing others. This makes him distinguishable from many contemporary poets and writers, who believed in “art for the sake of art” and sided with the rulers of the day, either by their silence or by inactions. This is why the great thinker, Professor Edward W. Said (1935-2003), during his life always admired Faiz for his courage and resilience.
Faiz has written extensively and his contribution in poetry and prose is enormous. In Culture and Identity: Selected English Writings of Faiz, Sheema Majeed and Mohammad Reza Kazimi have presented valuable work of Faiz. Faiz’s poetry stems from the main theme of making his homeland and the world at large a better place for the downtrodden—‘the wretched of the earth’, a phrase masterly coined by Frantz Fanon.
The remarkable thing about Faiz is that in spite of his overwhelming revolutionary ideas, he never allowed ideological epiphany to burden his poetry with shoddy rhetoric. He was master of art and craft—a quality lacked by many revolutionary poets of his time.
Faiz’s poetry is epitome of message of hope and commitment for creating a true democratic polity in which the forces of exploitation have no role to play. He waged relentless struggle to see human beings living in peace and tranquility. Faiz is truly is a messenger of peace, equality and justice. His poetry reflects the aspirations of masses. His work has both classical authenticity and modern sensibility. Faiz is considered even by his critics, great master of poetic expression and authentic builder of new tradition of resistance in literature.
Faiz legacy is universal and everlasting—for nearly six decades he inimitably articulated the suffering of the downtrodden, the agony of dispossession and exile. Ismail Kadare—winner of 2009 Spanish literary prize, considered as one of the greatest writers and intellectuals of the 20th century—narrated in the same masterly language and style the tragedy of his land (Albania), an incessant battleground.
It was, in fact, not a story of one land alone. It is tragedy of millions of others as well—living in troubled lands around the globe where wars, civil strife, state repression, hunger, terrorism and militancy are posing problems of day-to-day survival. The ongoing tragedy of the dispossessed and the exiled in Gaza and plight of the Kashmiris in held Kashmir are a bitter reminder that humanity has still a long struggle ahead to get rid of the oppressors and exploiters, warmongers and religious bigots.
Today, great poets like Faiz, Mahmoud Dervish, Nazim Hikmet and Pablo Neruda are not alive, but the courage they demonstrated in their work and actions is a permanent source of inspiration for all the leading poets, writers and social activists of the world, who are striving for the cause of the downtrodden, oppressed, peace, justice and tranquility.
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Dr. Ikramul Haq, Advocate Supreme Court, Adjunct Faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), member Advisory Board and Visiting Senior Fellow of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), holds LLD in tax laws. He was full-time journalist from 1979 to 1984 with Viewpoint and Dawn. He also served Civil Services of Pakistan from 1984 to 1996.