See Faiz Ahmed Faiz's 'Hum Dekhenge' In Correct Context: Gulzar

After 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; film director, lyricist and poet Gulzar asserted that his lines were taken ‘out-of-context’ and it is wrong on the part of people who are using it as protest anthem.

Gulzar when quizzed about the probe by IIT-Kanpur over recitation of 'Hum Dekhenge' on Jamia Millia Islamia campus in their protest against the amended Citizenship Acts said, “Faiz Ahmed Faiz was the founder of Progressive Writers movement and using a work that was written as a form of protest against Pakistani military dictator Zia-ul-Haq is not suitable. Whatever he has written has to be seen in its correct context and that is what needs to be done.”

Faculty members and some students filed a complaint against a student for reciting the poem, which they claimed provoked "anti-Hindu" sentiments.

"This poem was written against a fundamentalist called Zia-ul-Haq, a dictator. It is interesting that fundamentalists, all kinds of, don't like this poem," Akhtar told India Today TV.

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".

"It sounds totally ridiculous. To understand poetry, you need to feel it first. You need a certain standard of emotional intelligence, which seems to be completely lacking in those who are interpreting it as pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu," Bhardwaj told PTI.               

Faiz's daughter Saleema Hashmi on the other hand found the whole controversy "funny" and hoped that ultimately her father's words will win over the hate.

Meanwhile, The protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act at the Jamia Millia Islamiahas entered its third week, with several students continuing to throng the streets outside the university.

The Jamia students, who has been demanding withdrawal of the amendments in the law, questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark that his government has never discussed the National Register of Citizens (NRC) after coming to power for the first time in 2014.

The students asked how many detention centres will the government build if all Muslims, Christians and other minorities are "outsiders" and "illegal migrants".