My Interview with Faiz Ahmed Faiz
By Dr Basheer A. Khan
Garden Grove , CA
I don’t remember the exact year and month; it was in early seventies before the 1971 war when Faiz Ahmed Faiz visited Mysore to attend a conference and stayed at the Writers Home (Aaloka).
In those days I was a student aspiring to become a journalist but my mother wanted me to be a doctor. To hide my continuing interest in journalism from my family I used to write under the pen name of Baseer Mubassir for a provincial Urdu daily, Aazad. It was published from Bangalore and we were its regular subscriber. Abdul Hadi Raf’ath was its Editor and he had accredited me as his rep at Mysore.
Like many youngsters with a flare for Urdu literature, I was also a great fan of Faiz Ahmed Faiz. I had memorized many of his poems and ghazals from his collections Daste Saba, Daste Tahe Sang, Naqshe Faryadi and Sare Wadie Seena. Like many other youngsters I was also inspired by his powerful poetry and romanticized with the thought of changing the world for the better for everyone.
The news that Faiz Ahmed Faiz was in Mysore was a dream come true. As I was planning a questioner for the interview and trying to reach the authorities in Aloka to fix an appointment, I had my own apprehensions as well. Will he and the authorities controlling his visit permit me this meeting and the interview? I had read about the bad temperament of most of the celebrity poets which was also dampening my spirits.
After some hesitation and lot of efforts in that tortoise age of communication I was able to contact Mr. Kartar Singh Duggal over phone. He was an official of the Indian Information and Broadcasting Ministry in charge of this conference. Mr. Duggal was known to me as a short story writer contributing to Biswin Sadi, a well-known literary Urdu magazine of India . Mr Duggal complained to me about the people of Mysore for neglecting the visit of such an important foreign visitor. He told me that Faiz will be leaving tomorrow before noon after attending the last session of the conference. He asked me to join it and if possible talk to him later. The excitement was beyond words and I had very little sleep that night.
When I reached Aloka the next morning, there were about thirty people sitting in a circle under the shade of a tree in a picturesque surrounding. Remembering my conversation with him the previous evening Mr. Duggal came out of the group to receive me and offered me a chair. I was moved by this courtesy.
As I sat on the chair I realized that it was Faiz who was speaking. Seeing Faiz Ahmed Faiz for the first time after having romanticized with his poetry for a long time was a pleasure beyond words. His personality was striking, his voice was inspiring and his poise was imposing. For the turbulent life that he led in the past three decades he enjoyed good health because of the disciplined life that he led for the cause which he loved. It was a thick commanding voice with a marked force of conviction.
He was expressing himself freely in a country which enjoyed absolute freedom of speech. The topic of discussion was if the Two-Nation Theory was relevant and if the people of Pakistan who were badly involved in linguistic and provincial divisions still believed in it.
Faiz was roaring and I am paraphrasing from what I remember of his utterances: Religion has always been abused for political and economic reasons. If the wealthy Hindus educated in the Banaras Hindu University had not felt threatened by the possibility that the wealthy Muslim landlords educating their children in the Aligarh Muslim University would grab some of their political power, jobs and other economic opportunities, and if Muslims did not have the same fear with regard to the Hindus, there would have been no partition. Partition was caused because of the desire by both the Hindus and the Muslims to have a lion’s share in Independent India. As a divided India would have given unfettered power to these leaders over their subjects and resources in their separate countries they decided to divide India. They could not have told this ugly fact to the poor Hindus and Muslims in plain words as no sane Hindu or Muslim would kill each other in order for their leaders to enjoy power.
Therefore Hindu leaders instilled the fear of Muslims amongst Hindus and Muslim leaders instilled the fear of Hindus amongst Muslims. For this they used instances of treatment of each other in the past. Thus they played the religious card for their political advantage. These leaders and their wards are enjoying the fruits of independence in Pakistan more than the ordinary people because of the feudal system and dictatorships. The Two-Nation Theory was a creation of these leaders and not a conviction of their people. Despite the difference in religion there is little difference between Hindus and Muslims in other aspects of their cultural life. Their dress, language, food habits, music, etc. are same. We share a common heritage. He argued against the proposal to change the script of Urdu from Persian to Devnagiri so that Urdu and Hindi could become one language, Hindustani. His suggestion to the people of India and Pakistan was to understand these forces of division and keep them at bay and not to kill each other at their behest in the hope of improving their lot.
The conference concluded with Mr. Duggal’s remarks. Mrs and Mr Rashid Ali, both professors of Urdu in local colleges, had already arrived to pick Faiz Ahmed Faiz and take him to the Bangalore airport. Mr. Duggal introduced me to Faiz Sahib. He was happy to meet me but was not prepared for the interview because people who had to take him to the airport had already arrived. I told him that there is lot of time for him to travel to Bangalore and catch his flight and that Mr. Rasheed Ali and his wife will not mind waiting for a few minuets for this interview. He agreed. As Faiz had not packed his suitcase, he suggested that we go up to his room and talk as he is packing. I agreed. Requesting the couple to make themselves comfortable on the chairs in the lawn, Faiz Sahib walked with me to his room with his hands on my shoulder. This warmth of his personality put me at ease to start the conversation.
As I was trying to gain momentum towards shooting the questions which I had prepared for this interview through the usual introductory talk, Faiz stopped me and said: we have very little time therefore ask me what you want to ask. I opened the little notebook with a question on each page with the rest of it empty to scribble the answer. I don’t remember all the questions I asked and the answers I got. My interview with him was published in the following two issues of Daily Aazad on a full page. Dr. Hashim Ali, Professor of Urdu at Mysore University, paid rich complements to me on it. Unfortunately, I lost the copies of it in the many changes of residences and countries that I made in the last four decades.
One of the questions I remember asking him was about the trend in Urdu literature that was rocking Urdu literature those days in the name of Adab Barai Adab. I asked him as to how he views the trend as the founder of the movement of Taraqqi Pasand Writers. He said, and I am paraphrasing again, the purpose of literature is to make better human beings. If some of the foolish people who have no capacity to think and understand about the problems of life, nor write about them objectively, think that the job of a writer and a poet is to present raw thoughts as they arise in their mind without caring about their literary value and consequences on the people, they are trying to do great harm to literature and society. I am sure that neither the literary circle nor the society will accept this trend and it will die its own death. Faiz was so true in his prediction about the future of this trend. Despite the efforts of some very influential but unsuccessful writers and poets to promote themselves under the guise of this trend in the name of modernity, and patronage of some journals, Adab Barai Adab died down very soon after a brief flutter. Conscientious poets and writers fought this challenge with all the force of their minds and their pens. As a result, Urdu literature became more representative and more expressive of the feelings and aspiration of the people and remained the pulse and the barometer of their dreams and their aspirations. The movement which intended to destroy the utility of Urdu literature gave a fresh boost to it.
As we entered into the room where Faiz spent his last few nights, I felt the aura and energy of his restless thoughts waiting to gain expression through his pen. Multiple wrinkles on the bed sheet of his bed were telling the tale of his tossing and turning in the bed as he waited for the maiden of sleep to arrive and put him to sleep so that he could wake up fresh to wrestle with these and other thoughts the following day.
I watched him pack the suitcase as I was listening to him and writing down key words of his answers to my questions, but my mind was focused on the simplicity of his lifestyle that was reflected in his belongings. I realized that it is only people with simple lives that can afford to have the luxury of big dreams not for themselves but for their countries, for its people and for mankind. People who live in luxury by destroying the dreams of others are always afraid of people like Faiz. They harass, incarcerate, and expel them in the false hope of suppressing the voice of reason which is driving them crazy about their own unreasonable behavior.
As I was consumed by these thoughts and the others instilled by his answers, I found that my questions as well as his packing was complete. I brought his suit case out to the porch and put it into the car. After a warm handshake and embrace we parted. But the memory of this brief meeting with him remains one of the cherished memories of my life.
As I was returning home these couplets of Faiz were ringing in my ears.
Dil na-ummeed to nahi.n, na-kaam hi tho hai
Lambi hai Gham ki shaam, magar shaam hi tho hai
Dast-e-falak me.n, gardish-e-taqadeer tho nahi.n
Dast-e-falak me.n, gardish-e-ay-yaam hi tho hai
DaKhir tho ek roz kare-gi nazar wafaa
Wo yaar-e-Khush_Khasaal sar-e-baam hi tho hai
As I was pondering about the meanings of these couplets I realized that Dast e Falak he is referring to in these couplet is not the hand of God, but the routine movement of earth and the moon; and Yaar e Khush Khasaal is not the bad tempered earthly love of this world but the Ever loving and pulsating God in our jugulars. This discovery enhanced the pleasure of hymning the couplets and my respect for Faiz. Had we not attributed literal meaning to the metaphorical references and metaphorical meanings to words used in their literal context in these and other couplets, we could change our image of Faiz as an atheist and pleasure-seeking, left-leaning liberal to a Sufi poet in quest of truth and justice. For this we should have the purity of Nizamuddin Aulia and the knowledge of Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi who took pride in the company of Ameer Khusrow and Jigar Moradabadi respectively.
It is high time that the liberal and the conservatives both move away from their extreme and irrational stance and return to the moderate and just position to save the world from the abyss into which we have pushed it by our extremist and self-righteous attitudes.
