IIT investigates Faiz

Democratic India has had a long-standing tradition of court cases filed by individuals whose "religious sentiments" are hurt by various slights. In line with this tradition is the news from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, that a committee has been instituted to investigate whether one  of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poems is "anti-Hindu".

As reported by various media outlets (for example, here) a complaint against a student march claimed that the Faiz nazm (poem) sung at the march was "anti-Hindu". The poem in question is known by its refrain, "Hum Dekehnge" (हम देखेंगे), and was composed by Faiz in 1979, in opposition to the fundamentalist dictatorship led by Zia Ul Haq in Pakistan. In 1986, a year or so after the death of Faiz, Iqbal Bano, a well-known ghazal singer, sang this song in a Lahore stadium in front of fifty thousand people. She wore a black sari as a mark of defiance against a ban on the sari imposed by the Zia government.

There are many places on the web where you can find the whole nazm. The indispensable Rekhta allows you to read it in Roman script. Via a dropdown, you can switch to Devanagari or Urdu script if you so wish. Of the translations available on the web, one of the better ones  is https://ghazala.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/hum-dekhenge/:

We shall Witness

It is certain that we too, shall witness

the day that has been promised

of which has been written on the slate of eternity

When the enormous mountains of tyranny

blow away like cotton.

Under our feet- the feet of the oppressed-

when the earth will pulsate deafeningly

and on the heads of our rulers

when lightning will strike.

From the abode of God

When icons of falsehood will be taken out,

When we- the faithful- who have been barred out of sacred places

will be seated on high cushions

When the crowns will be tossed,

When the thrones will be brought down.

Only The name will survive

Who cannot be seen but is also present

Who is the spectacle and the beholder, both

I am the Truth- the cry will rise,

Which is I, as well as you

And then God’s creation will rule

Which is I, as well as you

I am having trouble seeing what is anti-Hindu about this.

Maybe I should try and understand the reasoning of Vashi Mant Sharma, a faculty member at IIT Kanpur (some of whose fevered output can be seen here). According to this livemint article, Sharma filed a complaint with the institute's director:

Sharma said that the poem was communal: “Two lines in the poem, when literally translated from Urdu to English, read ‘When All Idols Will Be Removed…Only Allah’s Name Will Remain’," he wrote in the complaint.

That was evidence, Sharma said, that the “gathering was orchestrated by certain nefarious elements and aimed at radicalizing innocent students, spreading hate against India, the faith of billions, and communally vitiating the atmosphere of the institute," he said. 

OK, so let's look at the original lines.

jab arz-e-ḳhudā ke ka.abe se

sab but uThvā.e jā.eñge

ham ahl-e-safā mardūd-e-haram

masnad pe biThā.e jā.eñge

sab taaj uchhāle jā.eñge

sab taḳht girā.e jā.eñge

bas naam rahegā allāh kā

जब अर्ज़-ए-ख़ुदा के काबे से

सब बुत उठवाए जाएँगे

हम अहल-ए-सफ़ा मरदूद-ए-हरम

मसनद पे बिठाए जाएँगे

सब ताज उछाले जाएँगे

सब तख़्त गिराए जाएँगे

बस नाम रहेगा अल्लाह का

Thanks again to the wonderful Rekhta, we can translate the verse word by word, phrase by phrase. Here is what that results in:

When, from the Kaaba  of God's earth

All idols will be lifted

We, the pure people, those excluded from the sanctuary

Will be seated on the cushioned throne

All crowns will be tossed

All thrones will  be made to fall

And only God's name will remain 

The Kaaba is the large cubical building inside the most important mosque in Mecca. It is considered to be the most sacred site in Islam.  As Shoaib Danyal explains, the lines in this verse refer to an event in which, according to Islamic tradition, Muhammad had the idols (representing "false gods") in the Kaaba  removed after his army conquered Mecca.

As I see it, there are two choices available to us: we can either interpret the lines literally or metaphorically. Metaphorical interpretations can vary widely, and reasonable people can disagree on what a poem really means. However, Sharma is interpreting the lines literally, so let's see if his conclusions follow from a literal interpretation.

Sharma chooses only lines 2 and 7 (numbering as in my literal translation of the verse). The missing lines are obscured by the convenient ellipsis, but it is more important that he chooses to exclude the first line of the verse, which explicitly mentions the Kaaba.  Read this with the second line, and it is clear that the idols referred to are those from the Kaaba, and so of pre-Islamic Arabic gods. Thus, it is totally illogical to connect the lines with "anti-Hindu" sentiment.

I find it sad that people who lack basic logical rigor can still become faculty members at one of India's premier educational institutions. Sadder still, was that the deputy director of the institute tried to paper over this lunacy

Agarwal, the deputy director, said the “students should not worry about anything unless they have something to hide". He hopes that the resolution of this controversy will make the students realise that different views must be appreciated.

“It was insensitive to read the Faiz poem at that time and place. Different people can have different views that need to be respected. That is the sense we would like to bring to campus," Agarwal said.