India has become the hub of negativity against Muslims and therefore they are doing every possible thing to remove what’s left behind by legendary Muslims. In the past recent years, violence against Muslims increased like a rocket, and very less Bollywood celebrities raised their voices.
Among them, veteran Naseeruddin Shah stands tall and has always made his point to demolish BJP’s plans. He did it again when the Indian government announced to remove all Faiz’s verses from school textbooks.
The hatred against Muslims and Islam has reached another level. Faiz Ahmed Faiz is one of the legendary poets, whose poetries included in Indian textbooks are now ready to be removed as per the command of the Indian government.
Soon the news spread, and none other than Naseeruddin Shah came in front to highlight the matter in his way. Naseeruddin Shah quotes Saudi human rights activist Manal al-Sharif, saying, “’
The rain begins with a single drop.’ However, in our country, that first single drop was of acid rain, and it fell when Narendra Modi was elevated to Chief Minister of Gujarat as a reward for being the charioteer of L K Advani’s hate-fuelled ‘rath yatra’, which opened the floodgates of the othering of the Muslim community.”
Naseeruddin Shah spoke up on the removal of Faiz’s poetry
Naseeruddin Shah is one of the finest and most legendary actors of Indian Cinema who loved Urdu poetry. He wrote the article for Indian Express in which he addressed the criminalization of triple talaaq in his country, “a stroke of genius designed to alienate Muslim men and women from each other.”
He also highlighted the “inherent irony” in Modi’s declared concern for solely Muslim women, and never men, naming it a “hypocrisy” and lauded ‘behen, betiyan’ become traitors instigated by a “foreign hand”.
Not only that, he also called out Modi’s attempts to later “tar” the protesting farmers as “andolanjeevis and parasites”, to add, “Millions of Modi’s apologists, of course, will argue that the PM is not personally responsible for every ill-deed and cannot be expected to comment on everything, including the barbaric instigations spewed forth almost every day by Hindutva clerics. That open calls for a genocide of Muslims elicited no response (forget condemnation) at all is proof, if proof were needed, that the rot begins at the top.”
‘Taj Mahal and Qutb Minar were ‘Hindu temples’ – Naseeruddin Shah
Shah Saheb believes the right-wing Hindu populace inspired by examples of Aurangzeb and Mahmud Ghaznavi are merely used to aggravate imaginary wounds. “who resisted the British with all his might is not safe from vilification.” He then writes, “of course, the Taj Mahal and Qutb Minar were ‘Hindu temples’ converted into Muslim memorials,” he claimed all of it before pointing out the main thing Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Hum dekhenge was written during the rule of Zia-ul Haq.
He further wrote, “He [Faiz] penned Aaj bazaar mein… during his imprisonment by the Ayub Khan government — neither despot bothering with even putting up a pretense of democracy. The removal of his verses from school textbooks indicates the chilling fact that protest of any kind is no longer permissible,” asserts Shah.
“Is someone afraid that these poems will resonate with the imprisoned intellectuals, activists, and teachers in our country? Or is it just that Faiz is Pakistani?
The removal of Hum ke thehre ajnabi… is baffling as it was written to heal, not rub salt in, wounds when Faiz visited the newly created Bangladesh. I wonder if the worthies on the education board who forbade these poems have even read or understood them,” the actor significantly articulates and analysis the whole circumstances in India.
Hum dekhenge
He then pointed out the faculty member of IIT Kanpur, who suggested that the verse “Sab taj uchhale jaayenge, sab buth ukhaade jayenge”, was a glorification of Ghaznavi.
Shah asked, “Does someone with such tunnel vision and limited understanding of imagery deserve to be teaching at an IIT or anywhere at all?
The supreme irony is that Hum dekhenge… was considered anti-Muslim by right-wingers in Pakistan at that time!”
Naseeruddin Shah wonders now what would happen. Whether Faiz’s or any Urdu poetry or literature would be banned from all textbooks, as it’s been declared Urdu a foreign or Muslim Language.
“The speed with which attempts to erase all traces of India’s Muslim past are underway while our Pradhan Sevak addresses the nation from ramparts of Red Fort, which of course was built by ‘Hindu kings’ and for which the marauding Mughals “falsely” claim credit!”
The love for literature and especially for Urdu Naseeruddin Shah recently made a surprise appearance at Karachi Literature Festival.
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