Academician, writer and social activist Zaheer Ali in Conversation with
Subhash Gatade about his latest book ‘RomancingWith Revolution : Life and Works of Faiz Ahmed Faiz' (Aakar Books, Delhi, 2019)
and why Faiz is ' extremely relevant in today's India'
This is the hour of madness, this
too the hour of chain and noose You may hold the cage in your control, but you
don’t command The bright season when a flower blooms in the garden. So, what if
we didn’t see it? For others after us will see The garden’s brightness, will
hear the nightingale sing
(This Hour of Chain and
Noose (Faiz, Tauq o darkaMausam, 1951)
Like Ghalib, it is rather
difficult for anyone to recollect when and how Faiz entered our lives.
When did one first read his 'MataeLauhoKalam..'
or 'DarbareWatan Me Jab Ek Din..' or his depiction of beloved's 'SamundarAakhein'..
or heard about the travails and tribulations he faced in his life or the
tremendous love and affection he was showered with wherever he went.
In fact, with passage of time
one's fascination for Faiz seems to be increasing and it is a marker of his
growing popularity that despite publication of quite a few books, monographs
and articles on Faiz, one's thirst to know him does not seem satiated.
Prof Zaheer Ali's book 'Romancing
the Revolution - Life and Works of Faiz Ahmed Faiz' is a welcome addition to
this ever growing collection. We posed few queries before Prof Zaheer Ali and
here follows his response :
SubhashGatade (SG) : Prof Zaheer
Ali, Congratulations for this beautiful book on Faiz, which has very succinctly
brought out various facets of Faiz's life. My first query is to you as a
person. We have known you more as a social activist and an academician -
basically a political scientist - who has many books to his credit as well and
now a full book length study on Faiz but these are formal details, can you tell
us more about yourself ?
Zaheer Ali ( ZA) : The
first query is about me personally. You got a bit surprised to see my book length
study of Faiz because you are not aware of my works in Urdu. Prior to this
study of Faiz I have written a book in Urdu dealing with “Allusions in the
Poetry of Faiz”. I have other books mostly literary criticism in Urdu. I am
known to Urduwallahs more as a literary critic than a social scientist and
activist.
SG : In the preface of the book
you emphasise how Faiz is 'extremely relevant in today's India'. It has been
more than three decades that Faiz breathed his last (1984) and situation the
world over has undergone tremendous changes. For a layperson it is rather
difficult to fathom this idea of relevance. Can you please explain why do you
think so ?
ZA : My comment about his
relevance is in the sense that all those who believe in liberty, equality, justice
and intend to transform the socio-economic and political conditions, in
particular, in the Indian subcontinent may seek inspiration from his poetry.
The reason is that, Faiz all his life was struggling against the dictators and
the unjust social order. We in India are faced with fascism. In the Preface to
my book I have also commented that organized fascism is much more dangerous and
threatening to human values than dictatorship. So the progressives of myriad
hues in India may seek inspiration from Faiz. In this sense he is relevant.
SG : For quite a few people, who
have read, sung and admired Faiz all their lives and still draw inspiration
from him, there are two episodes in his life which rather give a discomforting
feeling. One is his reaction ( or say the lack of it) when British ruled India
was partitioned into two countries and the second concerns separation of
Bangladesh from Pakistan after a very bloody civil war.
The chapter 'Faiz : The Man' (
Page 83) you also mention 'Faiz lamented the lack of true independence in the
'independence... in his famous poem, 'YehDaagDaagUjala..'.he as such, did not
take a stand against the division of the country'
We are also told that Faiz rather
maintained a similar ambivalence when Pakistan army led by its Generals
resisted the creation of Bangladesh. Is it true ?
How does one explain this
ambivalence of a man who was a Marxist and as you write sticked to humanism all
his life ?
ZA : There are two posers in your
third query. First of all we must not lose sight of the fact that Faiz was
neither a card holder of the Communist Party nor he was a freedom fighter in
the sense the term is used in India. Immediately before the dawn of purported
‘independence’ he was in the British Indian army and you know why. You must
also keep in mind that the CPI did not keenly opposed the partition of the
country. Faiz never thought that what we got by way of independence was a sham
and his famous poem on the subject is testimony to the fact.
On the issue of Bangladesh, his
studied reticence naturally surprised many of his true admirers. After all he
was a father of two daughters without a proper source of income, he was ageing
and a marked man in Yahya Khan’s Pakistan.. This made him vulnerable though it
does not justify his ambiguous standpoint on the massacre of the Bengalis by
the Pakistani armed forces.
SG : Whenever one thinks of Faiz,
one is reminded of Alys (1914- 2003) who started her life as a member of the
British Communist Party at the age of 16 and who in the words of a commentator
"..gave her today for a better tomorrow of the South Asian People",
who was an accomplished journalist and activist as well and one gets a feeling
that a proper evaluation of her role has to be done yet ? Any comment ?
I cannot stop myself from quoting
one of her poems which she had written for Faiz :
I Will Sing of You Later, / When
the tread of a thousand feet / the unending roll of sorrow / the breath of
roses enfolding / the eulogies, the warranted praise / the drawn out memories
of others / the grief of recalling, / the total acceptance of death are
over.
Then I will sing, / Not to the
tread of thousand feet, / nor to the roll of sorrow / Nor will I lift the roses
nor echo praise nor recall, nor accept / My song neither begins nor ends / It
is eternity. (A Poem for Faiz written by Alys)
ZA :Alys was indeed a great lady,
a committed Marxist, a devoted wife and a doting mother. I have quoted her at a
couple of places in the book. A British Marxist lady whose husband was accused
of sedition surviving with two daughter in a fanatically religious nation of
Pakistan was itself a great achievement. I agree that her role with Faiz and as
an individual should be properly assessed in a study. I am also looking forward
to such a book.
SG : What are your future plans?
My future plan includes a book on
Averroes (Ibn e Rushd), a 12th century Spanish Muslim scholar
who is truly known as the father of secularism. The major difficulty for me is
that some of the reliable sources about the life and works of Averroes are
still available in Arabic only, a language that I don’t know. So, if this does
not materialize, then I will write something on political Islam.
Author(s)
:Zaheer Ali , Page No. : 335 | Year : 2020, ISBN :
9789350026298, INR : 1295)
