The Poetics and Politics of Faiz Ahmad Faiz's Poetry

This paper is an attempt to interrogate the supposed ‘political turn’ that Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poetry is assumed to have taken in Naqsh-e-faryādī (Remonstrance) through his popular nazm “Mujh se pahlī sī mohabbat mirī mahbūb na maaṉg” It is understood as marking a departure from his writings on the beloved (mahmoob) to turn towards the concerns of the society steeped in oppression. However, I argue against reading it as a ‘departure’ and instead see this as emerging from his love for his beloved, through a reading of “Raqīb se,” a nazm from Naqsh-e-faryādī. In doing so the paper engages with the poetics and politics of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poetry, in order to argue that his writings enmesh the themes of love and politics in a way that makes a separation between the two impossible. Lastly, the article argues, in reference to Faiz’s writings, that the concept of unrequited love, hijr (separation), vasl (union) of the traditional/classical Urdu poetry can itself be read politically. The paper thereby concludes that Faiz never really ‘departed’ from Classical Urdu poetry and neither did he make a fresh entry into the ‘political’, since the essence of love and affection remains, blends and informs his poetries on resistance and revolution.