IIT-Kanpur constitutes panel to decide if Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed's poem hurt Hindu sentiments

The move came after some faculty member complaint that on Dec 17 some students sung a few lines of a poem by Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz as a mark of protest against CAA and police crackdown on Jamia students.

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New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has set up a committee to look into whether Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's couplets 'Hum Dekhenge' is offensive to Hindu sentiments.

The move came after some faculty member complaint that the students who took out a peaceful march in the campus on December 17 against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and in solidarity with Jamia Millia Islamia students sung it as a mark of protest. The complaint was made to the Director Abhay Karandikar after which the panel was constituted to dwell into the matter. 

The panel will also probe whether the students violated prohibitory orders clamped in the city on the day of the march, whether they posted objectionable content on the social media and whether the Faiz poem is anti-Hindu. IIT Kanpur will reportedly take strict action on the basis of findings and suggestion of the panel. 

The poem reads thus -- "Lazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge. Jab arz-e-Khuda ke kaabe se. Sab bhut uthwaye jayenge, Hum ahl-e-safa mardood-e-harm. Masnad pe bithaye jayenge. Sab taaj uchale jaenge. Sab takht giraye jayenge. Bas naam rahega Allah ka. Hum dekhenge." It was the last line that has turned into a bone of contention. Translated into English, it means, `When thrones will vanish, only Allah`s name will remain` -- implying the misleading translation by the professor.

Meanwhile, reacting to the controversy, famous lyricist Javed Akhtar said that those who are speaking against 'An-al-haq' in Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's iconic poem, 'Hum Dekhengey...' are speaking the language of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. "An-al-Haq means 'Aham Brahma', this is not an Islamic thought. This was started by the Sufis. Those who are speaking against an-al-haq should know that they are speaking the language of Aurangzeb. He had the same thoughts, he cracked down on those who used term," said Akhtar.

"Now how to speak to such illiterates who don`t understand that the term is Sufi, it is in sync with advait philosophy," he added. 

Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz was a revolutionary, a communist and an atheist, who was jailed several times for his writings. "Hum Dekhenge" remains one of his best-remembered compositions, written in 1979 against Pakistan dictator Zia-ul-Haq.

Since the enactment of CAA on December 12 last year, protests have erupted in various parts of the country including the national capital. The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

(With ANI inputs)