The Jamia Milia University student protests in New Delhi just took an interesting turn. Apparently, these protesters have taken Faiz Ahmed Faiz ‘Hum Dekhenge’ to greater heights, by reciting it outside police headquarters in Delhi.
Protests erupted not only in New Delhi but all across Indian following the Modi government’s decision to pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019. CAB 2019 is being presented as legislation to help refugees and minorities that fled to India to gain citizenship. However, it is a black law, since the part about existing citizens having to prove their origins in India and the National Registry of Citizens is being left out.
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When the NRC Act 1971 was imposed, Bengali Hindus were granted citizenship in Assam while Muslims were singled out and deported to Bangladesh. Given the prejudice, persecution, and horrors of NRC 1971, now people know better. They want the CAB 2019 law to be repealed.
Protesters, particularly the Jamia Milia Islamia students, were subjected to wanton violence. Police baton-charged these students and used tear gas on them, despite being aware that students had not incited any violence.
Because these protests have gone viral, Indian students are turning to that timeless ode to resistance – Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s ‘Hum Dekhenge.’
The Jamia protesters assert they will be heard even out the New Delhi police HQ.
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Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s ‘Hum Dekhenge’ was written in 1979 during General Zia’s regime. As history tells us, Zia’s regime also sought a clampdown on all rational and intellectual thought. Faiz’s nazm was a poem for the resistance and now it has become an anthem for resistance across borders.
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As the Jamia protesters assert that they will be heard, some speculate this might even be the anthem for revolution across borders. Oddly at the Faiz Festival 2019, students recited ‘sarfaroshi kī tamanna ab humare dil mein hai‘ by Bismil Azadi.
The performance was a prelude to student protests for the restoration of student unions.
