Poem: ‘We Have Witnessed’: A Tribute to ‘Hum Dekhenge’

Sutputra Radheye

[A community of students singing Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s famous Urdu poem ‘Hum dekhenge’ at an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest, resulted in the premier institution of IIT Kanpur setting up a panel to determine whether the poem is “anti-Hindu” in spirit.  The following is a poet’s appropriation of the poem for the current times.]

We have witnessed.

It is certain that we, too, have witnessed

the day when the dream ruptures,

promised in the preamble of the midnight born.

When the cotton freezes into mountains

of tyranny, with masked faces and rods in hand.

When under the feet of the oppressed men

the earth lies dead, pregnant with dust bowls

and on the head of the ministers in power

the sky showers soothing rain.

In the Zion of brotherhood

when gods of segregation rise,

dividing souls with perjury,

When the angels of truth are thrown

into prison to live in isolation,

When the crown buys the sky

to dictate lightning, and the sea to dictate tsunami.

When the regime plays with the rights

of those whose hearts are in the left.

When the police are lapdogs of the crown,

assassinating the flowers that differ.

The time when only the voiceless survive,

in solitude, repeating commands

without sculpting an opinion,

reflecting with precision all orders,

as a spectator and blasphemer

against the constitution.

We have witnessed.

We are, and shall witness the same

without accepting rainbow names.

Janata Weekly does not necessarily adhere to all of the views conveyed in articles republished by it. Our goal is to share a variety of democratic socialist perspectives that we think our readers will find interesting or useful. —Eds.

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Bharat Jodo Yatra Kicks Off – 2 Articles

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