Does Faiz's nazm, 'Hum Dekhenge', hurt Hindu sentiments? IIT Kanpur sets up inquiry committee after controversy

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur set up an inquiry committee on Thursday to investigate certain events pertaining to an incident of protest organised by the university students on campus against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The committee was needed after a complaint was lodged against one of the students present at the protest, who allegedly recited a noted poem by Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, ‘Hum Dekhenge’, to “hurt the sentiments of Hindus”. The IIT-K administration said that a team led by Deputy Director Manindra Agarwal has been appointed to look into the matter and only after completion of the inquiry, stringent action will be taken against any culprit that the inquiry report names.

Agarwal said that about 300 IIT-K students had held a ‘very peaceful protest’ on December 17 at the IIT Stadium on campus. The protests were held inside the campus of the engineering institute since there were curfew restrictions outside in the city, where Section 144, CrPC had been enforced. Thus, the students who were unable to go out due to enforcement of prohibitory orders staged their protests inside the campus, despite not having any permission to do so from the administration. It is here that a student allegedly recited the popular Urdu nazm ‘Hum Dekhenge’ by Faiz, an eminent Pakistani poet also revered in India, especially considering the fact that Faiz was one of the most celebrated writers of the Urdu language.

Soon after this incident, however, some students had complained to the IIT-K administration regarding the matter. The complaint said that it was a poem that had the potential to spread hysteria along religious lines. A complaint filed by Dr Vashimant Sharma, a temporary faculty member, and about 16 others, explicitly pointed out that the poem "hurt the sentiments of Hindus". However, the IIT administration was initially silent on the matter. Now, while cleaning up on the controversy, authorities said that the matter is under investigation. The inquiry committee will find out what slogans were raised in the demonstration. 

It may be recalled that earlier in December, there was a clash between police and students during a protest at the Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) University in Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act. The Delhi Police had been accused of using excessive force on the students to quell dissent. The students from Kanpur IIT had been protesting against this incident, during which, it is said, one of the students recited the famed nazm by Faiz.

But is raising such hue and cry over a poem by a celebrated figure of Urdu literature really justified? We will find out.

The famous poet, author, and journalist, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, was born on February 13, 1911, in the Narowal district of Punjab in undivided India. Among his accomplishments lies the feather for being one of the only individuals who had influenced much of Urdu literature and the arts in a significant manner, even being nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature once. Faiz left for Pakistan after the Partition and remained a lifelong figure of resistance against the Liaquat administration’s authoritarian reflexes. With the help of his pen and powerful verse, Faiz never failed to raise his voice against injustice and oppression prevalent in contemporary Pakistani society. The edge of Faiz’s pen became sharper, more rebellious, especially when Zia-ul-Haq overthrew Faiz's friend Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977 and hanged Bhutto after three years. Forever a figure of rebellion, Faiz’s verse has always been used in protests against authoritarian stances in the Indian subcontinent, as has it been the subject of much academic discourse in literary circles. 

The nazm in question in question was composed as a medium of protest against Zia Ul Haq's oppressive regime and soon after, gained fame in Leftist circles for being a protest song of resistance and defiance. The poem employs the metaphor of traditional Islamic imagery to subvert and challenge the Zia regime's fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, thereby standing up against religious fundamentalism. It is only ironic that years later, the poem once again becomes a subject of controversy centred around religious fundamentalism.