Celebrating Faiz

The officially sponsored two-day celebration to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Faiz Ahmed Faiz by the Indian government, with both the president and prime minister of that country lending their support, indicates the extent to which the arts can unify and bring people together. The celebration in India also highlights the cultural and linguistic links between the people of India and Pakistan. Despite the distorted histories taught to people of both countries, the nations are intertwined, bound together by a past shared in common and links that include music, heritage, poetry, dance and a great deal more.

Faiz has been translated into hundreds of languages. But it is in India, where the beauty of his words can be understood in their original language, that he is revered much at the same level as in his own country. The journey made across the border by eminent Indians, including Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar, to mark his centennial in Pakistan was just one example of this. The celebration in India, the breaking of animosity, the official patronage and the many demonstrations of pride in a subcontinental poet who ranks among the literary giants of his age would have delighted Faiz — as a pacifist and as a man who sought friendship between the divided people of the subcontinent.

Both nations need to work harder to take matters forward. The attempts to pull Pakistan away from its roots in South Asia and its long years of a shared past with India make no sense at all. The recognition of Faiz in India is to be welcomed. We need to do our bit to promote what we have in common with our neighbour to the East by making a greater effort to unite people and allow them to exchange ideas, thoughts and literary pursuits. By doing so, we would be paying tribute to Faiz and other men of peace, including Allama Iqbal, whose works too, like those of Faiz, continue to be heard in India.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2011.