Over the past three centuries, Urdu has produced an immensely diverse set of poets. There is the simple yet appealing lover-next-door in Mir, the brilliant philosopher and thinker in Ghalib, excellent wordsmiths in Dagh and Josh, a revivalist and messenger in Iqbal, and a freedom fighter in Hasrat. The role of the critical rationalist and revolutionary was filled by Faiz.
It is the poet's task to find, invent and create a special language that alone will be capable of expressing his personality and sentiments. Born in 1911 in Punjab, Faiz Ahmed Faiz was to become such a master. It is crucial to recognise the importance of his work in the evolution of contemporary Urdu poetry – both what he had inherited from tradition, and what he added to it, through the analysis of his period's socio-political conditions.
Of course, all great poets would have been influenced by their contemporary political contexts. In giving voice to the reality around them, however, poets tend to use indirect expression, through metaphors and symbols. In this process, dominant literary traditions have often been brushed aside. Faiz drew his inspiration less from classical models of perfection and more from the varied and vital nature of human beings, their attitudes and behaviour; he also explored new avenues of intellectual thought. His poetic collection is subsequently infused with a kind of rebellion against established convention and decadent societal practices.
In the last years of the 19th century, a new style and attitude arose as a reaction against formalism and traditionalism. 'Progressivism' created a desire of rationality, originality and curiosity in literature and initiated much of modern political activity. This had a profound impact on Faiz. He conceived the universe as something more mysterious, meaningful and rational, and very unlike a machine. In his poetry, readers can discern a transfer from the universe conceived as a machine, to the society conceived as a well-knit organisation.
With a few exceptions, Faiz's works are replete with themes of social realism. He lived through a time when forces of capitalism were radically changing the internal structure of the Subcontinent. With deep empathy for his surroundings, Faiz talked not about the philosophy of life, but about life's problems. As a freethinking man searching for a solution to the suffering and exploitation of humanity, he turned to socialism. This brought him closer to the day-to-day struggles of India's workers. The grief of one's love can no longer be separated from the grief of the suffering humanity, he wrote.
New classicism
The increasing political participation of the working classes and the peasantry a process that the British quickly dubbed a 'communist threat' to India significantly influenced the perspective of the Indian intelligentsia, including Urdu intellectuals. Many of those who wrote in Urdu (and other Indian languages) became aware of a new type of reality: massive oppression, and the denial of humanity. His own personal outrage moved Faiz to become increasingly politically active within Pakistan's Progressive Writers' Association. He recalls:
Those were the days when smiles on the faces of children were suddenly extinguished. Ruined farmers moved to the cities to labour, abandoning their fields and farms. Daughters of very respectable families were forced into prostitution.
In Faiz's poetic style can be found traces of both Ghalib and Iqbal. He is a lover, a socialist, a revolutionary, a critic. However, what gave Faiz an edge over his contemporaries was that he never compromised with his cherished beliefs and principles, nor allowed changes to creep into his poetic diction. Instead, Faiz demonstrated how a poet could transcend the circumscribing restrictions of convention. Even as he infused those conventions with socio-political thought, he brilliantly retained their universal structures. Throughout his canon, his imagery is classical but pregnant with contemporary meaning. In his poetry, Aashiq, a lover, becomes a patriot or a revolutionary; Maashuq (beloved) is the country and people; Raqeeb (rival) symbolises imperialism, capitalism, tyranny and exploitation; Haq (truth) becomes socialism; Visal (union), a revolution or social change; and Junoon (sublime madness) is the zeal for social justice.
Faiz's critical rationalism is particularly poignant in the way that he described the 'freedom' of the Subcontinent, for instance in "Subhay-e-Azadi" (The Morning of Freedom), written in 1947 on the eve of Partition:
This stained light, this night-bitten dawn —
This is not the dawn we yearned for …
The earthen lamp shakes it head in despair.
The night is as oppressive as ever.
The time for the liberation of heart and mind
Has not come as yet.
Continue your arduous journey.
Press on, the destination is still far away.
Despite India's impending 'freedom', Faiz was clearly disenchanted with the country's institutional chaos. According to him, the real freedom was that of thought and expression; as long as that was not achieved, freedom held no meaning.
Lover's protest
After Independence, Faiz continued to pursue his intellectual discourse, which found an effective outlet through the Pakistan Times. He also became increasingly engaged in political activities as vice president of the Trade Union Congress and as secretary of the Pakistan Peace Committee. In 1951, Faiz was arrested on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the government, a major setback to the Progressive Writers' Movement. Jail did not shatter his spirit though, as attested to by his own account of the detention:
Being imprisoned itself is a basic experience which is similar to falling in love. First, all your sensations become sharpened … all the glow of sunrise, the shadows of the evening, the blue of the sky, the soft touch of the breeze regain their impact on your curiosity. Secondly, the intimacies and the distances of the outside world become negated. And thirdly, the leisure of separation from the object of your love provides an opportunity to attend to the sensual ornamentation of The Muse.
Faiz's imprisonment actually proved fortuitous for Urdu poetry. Over the course of his time in prison, he came up with Dast-e-Saba and Zindan Nama, two of his best poetic collections.
Matters not if one niche lacks its candle; when the entire place besides is ablaze with light. These lines embody some of the poet's most moving and paradigmatic sentiments: in spite of oppression and tyranny, the struggle for peace and freedom continues. Such ideas became more apparent in Faiz's poetry while he was in prison, and continued after he was released with both indirect and direct writings against what he viewed as Pakistan's oppressive regime. Being away from the day-to-day struggles of the working class and peasants while in prison, Faiz addressed his nation by combining traditional romantic imagery with the harsh material realities of oppressed societies. Even while he often addressed his beloved, he was actually questioning the state and bureaucracy. Today I ventured into my world of sorrow, he wrote. Today I remembered you the most.
This is how Faiz attempts to reconcile his politics and his art. He protests, but his protest is in the language of a lover. Although such an approach provided a new synthesis, some feel that Faiz's protests became muted due to their diffused nature, as well as the fact that they were directed not at a particular object, but at tyranny in general. Nonetheless, because of his creativity and lucid language, Faiz became the prophet of a new insight and trend in Urdu literature. No other Urdu poet dissected the illusions and conflicts that Faiz explored with the same poetic flair for language, expression, imagery and symbols. His canon has amounted to a new literary program, taste and truth.