LITERARY NOTES: Faiz centennial year celebrations across the globe

Faiz Centennial Year celebrations are on. Unusual warmth and reverence for the poet has been witnessed in all of these events. In Karachi several cultural centres and literary bodies have paid homage to the poet so far.
Progressive Writers Association PWA; the Karachi Press Club; Azad Khayal Musanaffin, KASBIC University and Pakistan Study Centre, Karachi University have held befitting functions. The enthusiasm of the speakers as well as of the audience was remarkable.
The Centennial events are being observed all over the world. In Pakistan the ceremony was also held at the presidency as well, in which Iftikhar Arif presented a set of books on Faiz Ahmed Faiz to President Zardari, and Mushtaq Yusufi participated. Lahore and Islamabad have also contributed their share so far.
One may ask as to what has made him so popular that his centennial celebrations have outstripped those of Ghalib and Allama Iqbal in 1969 and 1977. No Urdu poet has drawn more attention than Ghalib. Allama Iqbal is easily the next celebrity. Being a national poet of Pakistan his centennial celebration was easily a pompous one. Yet Faiz has sidelined Iqbal. Faiz's celebrations are being held not only in Pakistan but in India and in the west. India regards Faiz Ahmed Faiz as an Indian poet as he was born in undivided India. A recent publication of Sahitya Academy, country's foremost literary academy has not minced any words in owning up Faiz! Faiz enjoys the reputation of being a Ravian (Government College, Lahore) where he taught for sometime. Inder Kumar Gujral, the former Indian premier was his student and his collection of Urdu writing, "Gujral Ke Mazameen" published in Karachi, has a touching article on his teacher. Not only Gujral but quite a few retired high-ups in India's Administrative & Foreign Service were proud of Faiz Ahmed Faiz as their teacher. Later on Faiz had moved on to teach at M.A.O College, Lahore.
In fact Faiz Ahmed Faiz, being a link between the old Ravians of India & Pakistan, enjoyed as much warmth and reverence in New Delhi as in Lahore. May be a lot more in New Delhi. May be his secular outlook made him more acceptable in India because secularism & socialism are part of venerable values in India.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz was the last poet in Urdu's classical tradition which heavily drew upon Persian tradition. Incidentally his teacher Syed Mir Hasan was also Allama Iqbal's teacher. Also Yousuf Saleem Chishti, Maulvi Muhammad Shafi - were his teachers.
Born in Sialkot on February 13, 1911, his father Barrister Khan Bahadur Sultan Muhammad Khan was Afghanistan's Ambassador to United Kingdom. Khan Bahadur had a very humble upbringing and he got higher education due to the patronage of Afghan-Consul-General in Lahore who was so impressed by Faiz's father that he took the responsibility to provide higher education to him.
Faiz was conscious of his humble background and it is no wonder then that he stood for the down-trodden people throughout his life. His service at MAO College gave the opportunity of coming closer to Sahibzada Mehmood-uz-Zafar, Principal of MAO College and his wife Dr Rasheed Jahan, in 1935.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, due to the influence of Dr Mehmood-uz-Zafar and Dr Rasheed Jahan, was attracted to the Progressive movement and became of its founding member and secretary of the Punjab branch of the PWA. He also developed a liking for Sajjad Zaheer and this friendship lasted till the last breath of Sajjad Zaheer, so much so that he travelled with Sajjad Zaheer's dead body from Alma Ata and composed a memorable poem "Sajjad Zaheer Ke Naam" in 1973 recalling the old associations binding him with his late friend.
Faiz's circle of friends was very large and it was not confined to the sub-continent. Victor Kiernan, Ralph Russel, David Mathews of UK, Louis Fischer of Paris, Pablo Neruda of Chile, Ludmila Vasilivea and quite a few others in USSR, top notchers of Persian, Turkish and Arab Literature and some outstanding intellectuals of North America like Milton Israel and Naomi Lazard are only a few to name. Marxist historian Victor Kieman, a Scott, has written a Foreword of his collection of poetry, Sar-i-wadi-e-Sina.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz was undoubtedly a legend of his times. It is seldom that a poet gets off to a flying start with his first collection. But Naqsh-i-Faryadi, his first collection, proved to be a unique publication. Faiz's lyrical poetry, embedded with poet's ideological stance, became so popular that a shy person like him couldn't cope with his fans' fervent accolade in his youthful days. Baad-e-Saba, Zindan Nama, Dast-i-Tahe Sang, Sar-i- Wadi-e-Sina, Sham-i-Shehr-e-Yaran, Mere Dil Mere Musafir and Ghubar-i-Ayyam were his other collections published later. He had become an international personality in 50s when he was arrested in Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case in 1951 along with some military officials and civilians. He remained in jail for more than four year and was released in 1955 after the tribunal trying him was declared illegal later on; what an irony! He was kept in captivity for a crime he couldn't be tried for.
He got Lenin Peace Prize in 1964 to be the first Asian to be so rewarded. He was short listed for Nobel Prize, but his ideological leanings, perhaps, didn't clear him for the Prize.
This writer has enjoyed his Aashirvad and in an interview he termed me as one of the five Urdu critics he admired. I cherish his approbation as a great tribute from a very generous person.
Faiz centennial celebrations are a good sign for all of us. Our country, bedevilled by terrorism, needs the message of love and peace for all irrespective of caste, colour and creed. He stood for these values and undoubtedly the celebrations are sending a strong signal to the forces which were working against them.