Hum Dekhenge: Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Lasting Legacy and the CAA protests
Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s iconic Urdu poem ‘Wa-yabqa-wajh-o-rabbik,’ a Quranic verse that translates to ‘The face of your Lord’ is commonly known by its refrain ‘Hum Dekhenge’ or ‘We shall see’. The poem was written in 1979, two years after a military coup by General Zia-ul-Haq and the onset of his tyrannical regime, fashioning Pakistan as a rightist Islamic state. By borrowing verses from the Quran, the poem served as a powerful tool that used traditional Islamic iconography to attack the current political structure and protest against the oppressive Islamic dictator.
Hum Dekhenge became a universal anthem of protest when it was popularized by Pakistani ghazal singer Iqbal Bano in 1986. Bano’s rendition of the poem was an attack on General Zia-ul-Haq’s oppressive regime and an attempt to restore democracy in a time when public gatherings were proscribed. Her attire was an act of rebellion as well, as she donned a black sari while performing, displaying two-fold defiance as the sari was banned in Pakistan, and black was the color of protest. Faiz’s grandson, Ali Madeeh, who was present at Bano’s performance described the reaction of the crowd as thunderous, and their deafening cheers and slogans of “Inquilab Zindabad!” or “Long Live the Revolution” forced Bano to stop singing, though an encore was recorded and the copy survives today. Copies of Bano’s performance were smuggled out of Pakistan, leading to a ripple effect in India as well, and years later, it became a slogan of protest in the anti-CAA protests that India witnessed.
On December 17, 2019, students gathered at IIT Kanpur in support of students of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi who were subject to assault by police during their agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act that heightened discrimination against Muslims in India. The protest included a recitation of Faiz’s Hum Dekhenge, with a crowd of listeners applauding and cheering. This show of solidarity soon became the center of controversy when a member of faculty at IIT Kanpur lodged a complaint claiming that the poem contained verses arousing communal sentiment. A panel was set up to investigate the complaint and caused great debate with journalists, poets, and intellectuals dissecting the poem and its implications.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed on December 19, 2019 in India, proposed citizenship for Hindu, Jain, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, and Parsi refugees on the basis of identification papers. The list notably excluded Muslims who constitute 14.2% of India’s population and was reflective of a fundamental shift from citizenship based on residence to that based on religion, consequently discriminating against a large section of Indian society. Faiz’s legacy was central to the anti-CAA protests in India, with Hum Dekhenge being recited and sung extensively in protests around the country. The poem was sung outside Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi in response to violence suffered by faculty and students by an armed mob in December, 2019. The anthem also inspired artists and a woman-led protest at Shaheen Bagh, Delhi, involved sheets of paper folded into boats in the shape of a heart with verses from the poem written at the base. The installation included a toy tank whose miniature size in comparison to the boats formed a metaphor for the military’s power in comparison to powerful poetry. These protests were a reflection of the highly influential words penned down by Faiz decades ago, and Hum Dekhenge remains an extremely popular revolutionary poem today.
Sources: