“HUM DEKHENGE” & ‘SHAHEEN BAGH’ INDIA ERUPTS TO PROTECT ITS CONSTITUTION, SECULARISM, DEMOCRACY AND PLURALISM

Masood N. Khan M.D.

BJP’s “Hindutva”, as being unfolded into hate-induced divisive governmental policies, has shaken the very spirit and conscience of India. It has forced people to reevaluate their position in regard to a fundamentally challenging question; What is the very “idea of India”.

The widespread and stirring agitations against NPR, NRC and CAA, throughout the country, show that people of India, in their very psyche, spirit and intellect, are inseparable from freedom, democracy, secularism and pluralism. India is not a country where its constitution demands an enforced abidance, rather it is the people who let their spirit shine and adorn its constitution, so abidance is a given. May be, that is the reason the constitution of India starts with the preamble not as “India the State” but “We the People”. Every coming day in India today, is making it clearer that India will never cease to be a liberal, secular and constitutional democracy.

Yet, tragically and quite antithetically to the very idea of India, an assault on its spirit is planned by the current ruling party of BJP who is an ideology driven party with a fascist agenda to convert India into a Hindu state with exclusivity.

For the people of India this can never be acceptable and they have risen up to reject it vehemently. It is morally so rejuvenating to see that the country has come together to fight against an exclusive India for Hindus. Rampant scenes of a unified nation standing rock solid to protect its constitution, secularism, democracy and pluralism are amazingly beautiful. The protest started by Aligarh Muslim University students and taken up soon by students of Jamia Millia of Delhi, has now been adopted by students throughout the country. When police brutally tried to silence the students at the campuses of AMU and Jamia, the students controlled themselves, remained peaceful and answered the brutality with the revolutionary poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. His poem, given below with its translation into English, has now become the Anthem of Revolution” sung by students all over the country despite BJP trying to condemn and communalize it. For them a poem that is written by a poet from Pakistan containing words like Allah, Kaaba and degradation of idols, was definitely “anti-Hindu” and needed to be rejected. But the students of India unmoved by this hateful and nonsensical logic, continued to sing it and paid precious tribute to Faiz and proved to the world that the fight against injustice and oppression knows no boundaries of region or religion.

While this was going on, India’s moms, aunts, wives and sisters came out of their homes with their children in their laps and assembled at Shaheen Bagh of Delhi. It started with a small gathering which in no time swelled to thousands. This was an extraordinary act of courage and conviction, perhaps unique in the history of countries around the world. It was as if India’s soul had reincarnated into the feminine beauty of India. These women have been sitting in a ‘DHARNA’ constantly at Shaheen Bagh, now for almost two months.

DEDICATED TO PEOPLE’S UPRISING IN INDIA

Empowered by this demonstration of resolve and strength, replicas of Shaheen Bagh emerged in many big cities of India where women from all walks of life, irrespective of cast and creed cried “shame on BJP”. Shaheen Bagh thus became a sacred symbol of resistance that will be recorded with golden words in the annals of Indian history.

ہم دیکھنگے۔ لازم ہے کہ ہم بہی دیکھنگے

وہ دن کہ جس کا وعدہ ہے ۔ جو لوح ازل میں لکھا ہے

جب ظلم و ستم کے کوہ گراں ۔ روئ کی طرح اڑ جاینگے

ہم محکو موں کے پاوں تلے ۔ جب دھرتی دھڑدھڑ دھڑ کیگی

اور اہل حکم کے سر اوپر۔ بجلی کڑ کڑ کڑکیگی

جب ارض خدا کے کعبہ سے ۔ سب بت اٹھواے جاینگے

ہم اہل صفا مردود حرم ۔ مسند پہ بٹھاے جاینگ ے

سب تاج اچھالے جاینگے ۔ سب تخت گراے جاینگ ے

بس نام رہے گا اللہ کا ۔ جو غائب بھی ہے حاضر بھی

جو منظر بھی ہے ناظر بھی ۔ جو میں بھی ہوں اور تم بھی ہو

اٹھیگا عن الحق کا نعرہ ۔ جو میں بھی ہوں اور تم بھی ہ و

اور راج کریگی خلق خدا ۔ جو میں بھی ہوں اور تم بھی ہو

We will see!
We are of course, sure to see!
The “Day of Promise”,
Written on the tablet of eternity

When massive mountains of oppression and tyranny
Will be blown away like fluffs of cotton;
When from beneath the steps of the down-trodden
The earth will quake and shudder
When skies above the heads of the tyrants
Lighting will split asunder

When from the sacred Kaaba on the God’s land
All idols of tyranny will be uprooted:
When the homeless and the rejected
Will come to be seated at pedestal of honor
When all crowns will be tossed into dishonor
And all thrones of vanity will come timbling to the ground
Only the name of God will prevail
God who is invisible yet omnipresent,
Who is Himself “the view” and the “viewer” alike
“I am the truth” will be the slogan raised,
The truth that embodies I and you alike
The people will rule that day…
The people – that is I and you alike.