| Hum Dekhenge | |
|---|---|
| by Faiz Ahmed Faiz | |
| Original title | ویبقی و جہ ر بک |
| Written | 1979 |
| First published in | 1981 |
| Language | Urdu |
| Lines | 21 |
Hum Dekhenge (Urdu: ہم دیکھیں گے - In english We shall see) is a popular Urdu nazm, written by the Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz.[1] Originally written as Va Yabqá Vajhu Rabbika (And the countenance of your Lord will outlast all),[2] it was included in the seventh poetry book of Faiz -- Mere Dil Mere Musafir.
The nazm was composed as a medium of protest against Zia Ul Haq's oppressive regime.[3] It gained a rapid cult-following as a leftist[4][5] song of resistance and defiance,[6] after a public rendition by Iqbal Bano at Alhamra Arts Council[7][8] on 13 February 1986,[9] ignoring the ban on Faiz's poetry.[10] [11][12][13][14][15][16]
Faiz employs the metaphor of traditional Islamic imagery to subvert and challenge Zia's fundamentalist interpretation of them; Qayamat, the Day of Reckoning is transformed into the Day of Revolution, wherein Zia's military government will be ousted by the people and democracy will be re-installed.[15][17]
The song was recreated in Coke Studio Season 11 on 22 July 2018, under the aegis of Zohaib Kazi and Ali Hamza.[18][A] In the movie The Kashmir Files (2022), it was depicted as being sung by students of a left-leaning Indian university to as a song of protest [20]
The poem gained importance in protests against Pervez Musharraf in the early 2000s.[21][22]
During the Citizenship Amendment Act protests in India,[23] faculty members of IIT Kanpur took issue with Hum Dekhenge being sung by protesting students in the campus, and alleged it to be "anti-Hindu".[24][B] The IIT instituted a commission to look into the issue.[25] The student media body rejected the charges as being misinformed and communal, which divorced the poem from its societal context.[26][27]
