New Delhi: Top poets and writers including Javed Akhtar, Rahat Indori and Vishal Bhardwaj on Thursday described attempts to paint Faiz Ahmed Faiz's revolutionary "Hum Dekhenge" as anti-Hindu and pro-Islam, a "ridiculous" and "narrow-minded" attempt.
They were responding to IIT-Kanpur forming a committee to inquire into a complaint against the recitation of 'Hum Dekhenge' on campus by students to express solidarity with their peers at Jamia Millia Islamia in their protest against the amended Citizenship Act.
Faculty members and some students filed a complaint against a student for reciting the poem, which they claimed provoked "anti-Hindu" sentiments.
"It seems we are negotiating with people who have no sense of history, have no idea who this great poet was, who have no idea what poetry is, who don't know the language in which it was written, they don't know anything. This is written against a fundamentalist, regressive, almost Talibani mentality holding dictator. This poem was banned under his regime," Akhtar said.
Filmmaker-composer Vishal Bhardwaj, who had used Faiz's 'Gulon Mein Rang Bhare...' in his critically-acclaimed, Kashmir-set 2014 film "Haider", said those interpreting it as pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu lack "emotional intelligence".
Faiz's daughter Saleema Hashmi, in an exclusive interview to PTI, said she found the whole controversy "funny" and hoped that ultimately her father's words will win over the hate.
"I suppose poets and their words are claimed wherever and by whoever they are needed. They provide the words that people cannot find for themselves," she added.
Indori, whose 'nazm' 'Sarhadon par bahut tanav hai kya" (There is lot of tension on the borders, find out if an election is nearby) and 'kisi ke baap ka Hindustan thode hi hai' (Hindustan is no one's property), have also emerged as popular anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest anthems, said calling Faiz anti or pro any religion is laughable.
"People first need to understand who has written this poem before understanding what the poem means. He was a communist and had no connection with religion. He did not believe in any God, Ishwar or Allah.
The poet said he was also sad that people were giving religious colour to his poem even when he has written that everyone's blood is mixed in the soil of this country.
"How can you brand it or attach it to any religion," Indori asked.
"Sacred Games" writer and lyricist Varun Grover mocked those behind the panel, saying they should do what even the then Pakistani government could not do, that is arrest Faiz.
