Revolutionary poets Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Habib Jalib, and Ahmad Faraz’s anti-establishment resistance in Pakistan influenced progressive voices, which included the Leftist Laal band that revitalized protest poetry during military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s reign in the noughties
With his second novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), Mohsin Hamid put Pakistan on the map of world literature. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007, it earned global acclaim and inspired a generation of Pakistani writers. Mohammad Hanif’s satirical novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes (2008) about the possible reasons for military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq’s death in a 1988 plane crash continued a good run for Pakistani English literature by bagging the Commonwealth Prize and getting longlisted for the Booker.
Featuring confused generals and same-sex romance, A Case of Exploding Mangoes lampooned Zia’s reign in the 1980s. It continued a tradition of irreverence toward Pakistan’s powerful military, which has ruled the country for over three of its seven decades of existence and meddled in politics when out of power.
The military has been blamed for escalating a clampdown on dissent since Imran Khan was ousted from power in 2022 allegedly at its behest. The crackdown, one of the worst in Pakistan’s history, threatens the legacy of dissent against all odds associated with celebrated revolutionary poets Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Habib Jalib, and Ahmad Faraz.
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Faiz wrote his iconic Hum Dekhenge poem as part of the resistance against Zia. The poem took on the dictator for acting like a god, underlying ultimately only people have the right to rule. When Zia’s regime banned sari, Ghazal singer Iqbal Bano wore a black sari and sang this poem in defiance as her audience shouted: ‘Long live revolution.’
Faiz, who was arrested for his involvement in a failed Leftist coup in the 1950s, was allowed to leave Pakistan under pressure from the Soviets before he returned and was jailed again for opposing military rule. Jalib and Faraz also faced incarceration for standing up to the establishment, capitalists, and military rulers.
Food For Thought
Faraz, who was forced to go into a six-year exile in the 1980s for condemning Zia’s military rule, described the era as the ‘worst phase for our country’s writers’ but something that provided ‘ample food for thought for the poets and made protest poetry so popular in Pakistan.’ Faraz maintained his anti-establishment credentials and returned Pakistan’s highest civilian honour ‘Hilal-e-Imtiaz’ two years before he died in 2006 in protest against military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s policies.
Faraz’s contemporary poet, Jalib, was another unflinching voice against dictatorships and inequalities in Pakistani society. A revolutionary Left-wing poet, Jalib was born in March 1928 near Hoshiarpur in India. The violence Pakistan’s creation in 1947 triggered forced him to migrate to the newly-created nation.
Jalib struck a chord with the masses. His poetic style was simple and easier for them to understand. He came into his own with his opposition to military dictator Ayub Khan in the 1960s. Jalib sided with Fatima Jinnah, Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s sister when she took on Ayub Khan and contested elections against him. He recited revolutionary poems at her rallies.
The Refusal
Jalib first earned Ayub Khan’s wrath and landed behind bars after he veered off script and recited a poem live on state-run Radio Pakistan against a crackdown on pro-democracy forces. His finest poem ‘Dastoor’ was written in 1962 against the constitution Ayub Khan introduced. ‘Aisey dastoor ko, sub-he-be-noor ko, main nahin maanta, main nahin jaanta [This constitution, this dawn without light, I refuse to acknowledge, I refuse to accept].’
Jalib, who was posthumously decorated with Pakistan’s highest civilian award in 2009, spoke out against the military crackdown on Bengali nationalists in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). He was an equal-opportunity offender. Jalib also spoke out against Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom the Leftists in Pakistan thought of as one of their own. Bhutto jailed Jalib for opposing the dismissal of a provincial government. He also did not take kindly to Jalib’s criticism of the high-handed manner in which he dealt with separatist rebels in Baluchistan.
Jalib was at his acerbic best against Zia. He refused to call ‘zulmat ‘(darkness) Zia (light), cruelty kindness, darkness dawn, desert a garden, and a human being God. ‘The city was desolate. Was it a jinnee or was it a referendum?’ he wrote to mock Zia’s 1984 referendum to legitimize his rule.
Radical Feminist Poetry
Feminist poets Fahmida Riaz, who passed away in 2018, and Kishwar Naheed, both born in India before Pakistan’s creation, also came into their own during the 1980s. They stood up to Zia’s policies and produced some of the acclaimed radical feminist poetry challenging the military dictator. Riaz, who lived in exile in India briefly in the 1980s, has since been known for her iconoclasm and nonchalance. Her ‘Badan Dareedah (lacerated body)’ was Pakistan’s first collection of feminist poetry.
Riaz and Naheed followed in the footsteps of Faiz and Jalib, who continued the pre-partition tradition of progressive literature in Pakistan. Taimur Rahman, Mahvash Waqar, and Haider Rahman’s rock band Laal (red) carried forward the legacy. The band, whose members often wore shirts with Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara’s picture on a red star, came into prominence through its rendition of Faiz and Jalib’s protest poetry during the Lawyers’ Movement against Musharraf’s move to dismiss the country’s chief justice in 2007.
Laal earlier played at small gatherings for select audiences at workers’ rallies and colleges with audiences waiving Communist red flags. It expanded its activities after the 2007 movement that eventually led to Musharraf’s downfall. Laal’s songs became instant hits with their emphasis on the fight against injustice, prompting a big media house to sponsor and release its music CDs.
‘Umeed-e-Sehr (hope of dawn)’, the title track from Laal’s debut album, was a runaway hit. Laal resurrected the tradition of rock bands, which had declined since 1999 with media liberalization and the revival of cinema in Pakistan.
Zia’s puritanical regime ironically propelled a musical explosion in the 1980s. Pakistani pop and rock music industry peaked between the late 1980s and 1990s. Nazia and Zoheb Hassan, known in India for their chartbuster ‘Disco Deewane’ song, and Junoon band were among those who emerged as pop sensations during this period.
Sameer Arshad Khatlani is a journalist and the author of The Other Side of the Divide
