The Poetics and Politics of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s Poetry
Sohini Saha
DOI https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13292542
Abstract: 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.
Keywords: Urdu Poetry, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Love, Resistance, Politics.
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Dr. Sohini Saha is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous) Kolkata, India. She also acts as a Visiting Faculty in the Department of Sociology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Her research interests lie in the field of Gender and Masculinity studies, Sexuality studies, Sociology and Anthropology of the Body, Anthropology of Health, Poetry, Politics and Resistance.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9779-194X
sohini1220@gmail.com & sohinisaha@sxccal.edu
The Poetics and Politics of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s Poetry by Sohini Saha is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 
