Hum Dekhenge
Revolutionary Urdu poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz
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Hum Dekhenge (Urdu: ہم دیکھیں گے - In english We shall see) is a popular Urdu nazm, written by the Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz.[1] Originally written as Wa yabqā wajhu rabbika (And the countenance of your Lord will outlast all),[2] it was included in the seventh poetry book of Faiz -- Mere Dil Mere Musafir.
| Hum Dekhenge | |
|---|---|
| by Faiz Ahmed Faiz | |
| Original title | وَيَبْقَىٰ وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ |
| Written | 1979 |
| First published in | 1981 |
| Language | Urdu |
| Lines | 21 |
Background
The nazm was composed as a medium of protest against Zia Ul Haq's regime.[3] It gained a rapid cult-following as a leftist[4][5] song of resistance and defiance,[6] after a public rendition by Iqbal Bano at Alhamra Arts Council[7][8] on 13 February 1986,[9] ignoring the ban on Faiz's poetry.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]
However, scholars of Urdu such as Rauf Parekh and others argue that while Faiz was critical of Zia, this poem wasn't written with him in mind but as a tribute to the 1979 Islamic revolution of Iran, this poem having been written just a few months after the revolution. This also explains the poem's Islamic symbols and Sufi motifs.[17]
Muhammad Azam Nadwi translated Faiz's this nazm into Arabic under the title "Naḥnu Narā'" (Arabic: نحن نرى).[18]
Themes
Faiz employs the metaphor of traditional Islamic imagery to subvert and challenge Zia's fundamentalist interpretation of them; Qayamat, the Day of Reckoning is transformed into the Day of Revolution, wherein Zia's military government will be ousted by the people and democracy will be re-installed.[15][19]
In popular culture
Media
The song was recreated in Coke Studio Season 11 on 22 July 2018, under the aegis of Zohaib Kazi and Ali Hamza.[20][A] In the movie The Kashmir Files, it was depicted as being sung by students of a left-leaning Indian university to as a song of protest [22]
Protests
Pakistan
The poem gained importance in protests against Pervez Musharraf in the early 2000s.[23][24]
India
During the Citizenship Amendment Act protests in India,[25] faculty members of IIT Kanpur took issue with Hum Dekhenge being sung by protesting students in the campus, and alleged it to be "anti-Hindu".[26][B] The IIT instituted a commission to look into the issue.[27] The student media body rejected the charges as being misinformed and communal, which divorced the poem from its societal context.[28][29]