Across India, citizens have risen in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. And they have been singing poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz's iconic piece, Hum Dekhenge, in hope and defiance.
On the same lines, a new cover of the song has been released by a singer named Samin Raza, featuring several Bollywood actors, such as Javed Jaffrey and Sushant Singh.
Samin Raza is a musician based out of Mumbai. He was born and brought up in Lucknow and has been actively following the current scenario of the country. He used his music to express his dissent by creating a rendition of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s nazm ‘Hum Dekhenge’.
He shot this video with some active anti-CAA protestors. The shoot was initiated in Lucknow with shots of protesters like Sadaf Zafar, Deepak Kabir, Hussain Afsar and many others. Post this, he reached out to many film artists who showed their disagreement against this CAA. The shoot was soon scheduled in Mumbai with film artists like Zeeshan Ayyub, Onir, Javed Jaffery, Sushant Singh, Sayani Gupta, Geetika Vidya, Ankur Tiwari, Roshan Abbas, Aamir Aziz and Rajat Bramecha featuring in it.
While the poem was always famous, it received a whole new level of attention in 1986 when it became a universal anthem of protest after ghazal singer Iqbal Bano's renderings were smuggled from Pakistan.
The poem was written as a mark of protest against the regime of Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq, whose government was communal and regressive.
Here is the translation:
We shall witness
Inevitably, we shall witness
the day that has been promised
that has been etched on the pages of eternity
When mountains of tyranny
shall be blown away like cotton
when beneath our worn feet
the earth's heart shall beat
And upon the heads of our tormentors
lightning shall crackle and crash
Only His name will remain
He, who is both invisible and ever-present
who is both the spectacle and the beholder
And the clarion call 'I Am the Truth' shall ring
The truth that is I and that is You
And all of God's creatures shall rule
Those who are I, and those who are you.
We shall witness, Oh We Shall witness
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