TRAUMA OF PARTITION AS REFLECTED IN THE

POEM "DAWN OF FREEDOM" AND"LEARNING

URDU"
A Dissertation
Submitted to the P.G. Department of English.
Panchayat Degree College Bargarh
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
Degree of B.A ( English Hons )

PANCHAYAT DEGREE COLLEGE,

BARGARH
2019-2022
Supervised By,
Prepared By,
Prof. Manabhanjan Panigrahi
Anup Kumar Majhi
Assistant Professor
+3 6th Semester
P.G Department of English
College Roll No: BA-19-273
Panchayat College Bargarh
University Roll No : S04519ENG012

Registration No:

Date of Submission :
 DECLARATION OF THE CANDIDATE
I hereby declare that my present dissertation on the topic"TRAUMA OF
PARTITION AS REFLECTED IN THE POEM "DAWN OF FREEDOM" AND"LEARNING
URDU" which in submitted to PG Department of English, of Panchayat Degree
College, Bargarh, is of my own and it is not submitted to any other
College/University or published at any time before.

Anup Kumar Majhi

B.A. (English)

College Roll No: BA-19-273

University Roll No: S04519ENG012

Registration No:

Mobile No: 9556329769

Panchayat Degree College, Bargarh

i
 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project "TRAUMA OF PARTITION AS REFLECTED IN
THE POEM "DAWN OF FREEDOM" AND"LEARNING URDU" Submitted by – Anup
Kumar Majhi in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Award of B.A. Degree
in English at the Panchayat Degree College, Bargarh is an authentic work carried out
by him under my supervision and guidance.

To the best of my knowledge, the matter embodied in the project submitted

to any other University for the award of any Degree.

HoD (English) Supervisor

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to convey my bounden respect and regards to my esteemed teacher
guide Sri. Manabhanjan Panigrahi, for their kind approval of the topic “TRAUMA OF
PARTITION AS REFLECTED IN THE POEM "DAWN OF FREEDOM" AND"LEARNING URDU”
and also their sincere interest and kind advice.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my Parents for their constant care and

encouragement and also one of my dearest friend to stand by me & keep me
motivated in my crunch time.

Lastly I convey regards from the inner most recesses of my heart to my

reverend some of my college friends for their help and affection for writing this
dissertation.

Anup Kumar Majhi

B.A. (English)

College Roll No: BA-19-273

University Roll No: S04519ENG012

Registration No:

Panchayat Degree College, Bargarh

iii
 "TRAUMA OF PARTITION AS REFLECTED IN THE POEM "DAWN OF
FREEDOM" AND"LEARNING URDU"

TABLE OF CONTENTs
Chapters Details Page No.
Declaration I

Certificate Ii

Acknowledgement Iii

Table of Contents Iv

Chapter : 1 Introduction 1-2

Chapter : 2 Critical Evaluation of the poems 3-6

i. Dawn of Freedom
ii. Learning Urdu
Chapter : 3 Trauma of Partition 7-9

Chapter : 4 Style and Structure 10-13

Chapter: 5 Conclusion 14-15

Work cited

iv
 Chapter 1 - Introduction

Faiz Ahmad Faiz was born in 1911 at Sialkot and is one of the most highly regarded
Urdu poets of the 20th century. As a poet, Faiz began writing on the conventional
themes of love and beauty, but soon these conventional themes got submerged in larger
social and political issues of the day. The traditional grief of love gets fused with the
travalls of the afflicted humanity, and Faiz used his poetry to champion the cause of
socialistic humanism.

The poetic works of the late legendary poet has won the hearts of the people of South
Asia. His first published accumulation was naqsh-e-faryadi, which inspired many young
poets. In 1971, after the bifurcation of united Pakistan, the newly elected government
appointed him as a cultural adviser, the period, in which he laid the foundation of the
Pakistan national council of arts(PNCA). Faiz’s poems flash a deep background against
righteous and impishness, though he tried to pull out these things from the society so
everyone could leave with peace and love. His remarkable books were nuskha-e-
haiwafanaqsh-e-faryadidast-e-sabazindannama and dast-e-tah-e-sang.

Faiz was the first Asian poet who was awarded with the Lenin peace prize by the former
soviet union in 1963. He was also nominated for the noble prize shortly before his death
in 1984. He remained extremely influential in Pakistan and his work continues to
influence the country’s literature and arts. Faiz was publicly honored by the Pakistan
Government after his literary work was publicly endorsed and posthumously honored him
with nation’s highest civil award, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, in 1990 Faiz is a poet of beauty and
love. His message is the reign of beauty and love in the country. The passion for
enjoying the beauty of life, his deep attachment to love of self and the agony of the
world, his love of humanity, his patriotism, his passion for revolution, his sense of justice,
are all metaphors of the agony of love. That agony of love which is the soul of his
imagination and feeling, on account of which he illuminates the beauty of both worlds
with the desolation of his heart.

At the ceremony held in grand Kremlin hall in Moscow, Faiz received the award with
stage full of Russian attendees, Faiz thanked the Russian government for conferring the
honour, and delivered the acceptance speech at the ceremony, which appears as a brief
preface to his collection Dast-i-tah-i-Sang (Hand under the rock) is a great piece of
humanist literature, as he delivered:

1
Faiz Sahib has said that poetry is not only seeing, it is also struggle and in this struggle,
one’s participation according to one’s ability is not only a demand of life, it is also a
demand of art. Faiz was one the greatest urdu poets. He gave a new dimension to Urdu
poetry by introducing new phrases and innovative terms in it. He wrote on various
subjects. Most of his poetry is autobiographical. His poem ‘Yad’ is one of the
masterpieces of Urdu poetry. His love poems are as appealing as his political poems,
and he is considered primarily responsible for shaping poetic diction in contemporary
Urdu poetry.

2
 Chapter 2 - Critical Evaluation

i. Critical Appreciation of Dawn of Freedom

Faiz Ahmad Faiz was an influential, intellectual and revolutionary poet. Faiz’s poetry has
a more naunced relationship with religion in general and with Islam in particular. He
wrote to arise patriotic feelings in people of the country. Due to this reason, he was
sentenced by government for a short period of time. His writing style was influenced by
Ghalib in diction and style. His language is simple with elite diction.

The Dawn of Freedom is a bitter lamentation of the false dawn of independence and the
betrayal of the ideals of the movement to gain freedom, dignity and economic justice.
Faiz’s poem “Freedom’s Dawn, August 1947, captures the desolation of independence
and partition. It is a lyrical rendition that represents the aesthetic mood of an unrequited
love and shies away from the violence and dehumanisation of partition. Crucially the
journey to freedom remains unfinished.

In the poem “Freedom’s Dawn”, there is a sense of tragedy. Faiz wrote this poem in
August 1947 when Pakistan came into being. In the poem, there is an expression of
tragedy and possibility of ordinary people caught in the world wind of historical events
such as refugee crisis, communalism, rape and horror of partition. The poet says that
although this is the same dawn, we have been waiting for a long time. We expected this
morning of freedom be filled with brightness, sense of security and victory but it is not so.
The poet is hopeful of finding such a dawn:

Dil kay aywaan main liye gulshada shamon ki qatar

Noor Khurshid say sehmay huay uktaiy huay

Husan-e-mehboob kay sayal-e-tasawar ki tarah

Apni tariki ko bhenchay huay lapetay huay

He resembles the hope of finding peaceful place to live with the hope of finding water in
desert or finding the last group of star before rising sun. His claiming of sky as desert is
dejecting which shows that he is worried for his country’s miserable condition. He still
has the hope of fearless and peaceful meaning without injuries or suffering. He says
continuous struggle can fulfill our dream of restful dawn, a dawn without worries,
bloodshed and sorrows of losing our dear ones in wars, bomb blasts or other acidents.
He says that the time of pain is moving slowly but we should be hopeful that the bad time

3
will vanish soon. The hurdles which we are facing due to partition would be leapt soon,
our emotional anguish would find rest, is the hope of the poet.

He says that when youth sets out on mystic journeys to win the battle of their rights,
there are many people who attempts to stop them; their family, home, relations, comforts
etc. But the charm of freedom has far more attraction in it. They want to see the nation
(muslims) free from the oppression of tyrant rulers, so that they can live happy and with
contment. The dream of separate homeland is dearer to tiredness, sufferings and
troubles

But when the battles of freedom came to an end, there is the waiting of fruits of struggle.
But at the moment, what observes is that success is a journey and not a destination.
There is much to be done. Apart from other grief, there is another problem which people
are going to face. The grief is corrupted behaviour of leaders. He says that although
there should be the scenes of joy and celebration but there is something which is making
the dawn sorrowful. Perhaps he wants to say that tyranny of foreign people is sad but the
disloyality of own people is heart breaking. He asks himself that if the war is over then
why there is no feeling of security. The lights and brightness of freedom are still dim. He
advises his companions in the end, that war is not over yet. It is just the change of
phase. Our enemy is changed now. The enemy, now, is more strong and clever. We still
need to work harder and harder to reach the destination of what we dreamt for, a place
to live according to riles of Islam.

ii. Learning Urdu Critical Appreciation

Agha Shahid Ali was one of the prominent poets who belonged to Kashmir but spent
most of his life in the United States of America. Most of works revolve around the
Kashmir conflict and even today, several years after his death, prompt all the readers to
introspect and look back at what India has become since independence and the partition,
a part of history that still evokes hatred in our hearts. One of Agha Shahid Ali's poems
which has not been critically analyzed by many, bears the title 'Learning Urdu' Thus in
his memory, this article attempts to shed light on the gravity of the poet' s words.

The poem captures the emotions that were involved during the partition of 1947.
Throughout the poem the poet tries to distance himself from the dilemma that Kashmiris
face post the partition - a sense of lack of belonging to either of the two countries. The

4
partition left Kashmiris divided in their understanding of who and what comprises of India
and what distinguishes India from Pakistan. The poet tries to analyze the current
devastation and situation in Kashmir by asking Dogri, the language in which Kashmiris
speak, to explain the cause of this mayhem.

Dogri has the unique ability of being written in both Arabic as well as Devnagri script,
making it the ideal combination of Urdu and Hindi, the commonly spoken languages in
India and Pakistan, the two divided countries. Through the first stanza the poet sheds
light on the background of the theme of the poem. He makes the reader aware of the
partition of the Indian subcontinent into two nations full of anger and hatred. The poet
does so by mortalizing a language. By asking the reader whether like any other mortal,
even the fate of Dogri will result in nothing but death. The poet uses metaphors such as "
men dissolved in alphabets of blood" and "syllables of death' to stress upon the fact that
the simplest way of killing a language, is by using it as a means to spread hatred.
Moreover, it is made apparent that the only common language is the language of
bloodshed. The partition stole the people off the common string that bound them all
together. It stole from them off their language, leaving the fate of their language to be
undecided.

The poet then evokes pain in the heart of the readers by telling the tale of Dogri. By
mentioning the lack of sense of belonging that the language is facing. The use of
phrases like " half the word" are a reference to the loss of identity. The language has
been uprooted from its homeland. A land which was once called Hindustan, but has
today been divided into India and Pakistan. The language can no more identify itself by
the village which has been broken up into two, with the two halves lying across "the line
of blood" or the Line of Control. The language also hints at its extinction, and the only
reason for the same would be the divide created between Kashmir, a place where
cultures used to converge. But now history cannot be undone, " friends dissolve across
the borders leaving only enemies, forcing each half to cling onto the little that is left of
their common language. The half understanding of the world only fuels hatred, giving rise
to " bitter stanzas" of a frustration and anger which cannot be contained. A hatred with
no reason or direction. The reference to the dead poet" can have two meanings. Firstly, it
could mean the people who divided the country into two, created angst and then just
stepped aside and let the avalanche of anger destroy humanity. However this could also
be a reference to the misinterpretations of the language that have become prevalent. A

5
situation where words of another are put into the wrong context in order to aid the
devastation.

The poet decides to break out of the story that Dogri is narrating and tries to analyze his
own position in the aftermath of the partition. The poet cannot sympathize with the
language because he fails to understand the reason behind the partition, the need for the
insurmountable sufferings. Shahid Ali is himself so traumatized by the series of events
that his heart is unable to attach a degree to the amount of pain he feels. He is so
overcome with emotion that he has become immune to it. All he wants, is answers.
Answers about what led to such " bitter couplets" from arising.

Chapter 3 – Trauma of Partition

i. Dawn of Freedom

The poet writes this work on the eve of Indian independence, with a sense of melancholy
about the fruits of labour, he verifies that this is not the independence that was sought

6
after. The poem begins on a dark note with disillusionment, the bittersweet nature of the
triumph. It goes on to describe the single mindedness with which the voyages of this
journey resisted the temptations of fancy., and when dawn finally appeared, when the
storm clouds cleared then came a sense of clarity between the struggle and the goal.
The poet then goes on to describe that the comrades are changing, how in which
gratification is sought more than angst, and the pain of partition does not weigh on their
apparent disposition. The fine breeze of dawn has just passed by and the wayside lamp
barely noticed. The gravity of night has not lightened, and the time for redemption has
not yet arrived, so the poet urges his comrades and compatriots to keep walking, for that
destination is not in sight.

The isolated experience of confinement led Faiz Ahmed Faiz to compose verse. The
theme of this emotionally charged poems is the disillusionment surrounding the partition
of India. In an evocative poem entitled Subh-e-Azad (Freedom’s Dawn) Faiz has alluded
to Indian Independence in 1947 as a “much-stained radiance”. His disappointments
originated from the belief that despite the acquisition of political freedom from pre-
partition tyranny, the scope for economic freedom was still very bleak

ii. Learning Urdu

Dogri then continues his narrative by describing how his once famous stature has now
dissolved" into letters of blood". How the letters which once came together to bind a
community, were today being used to abuse one's neighbour. How the one thing that
identified culture, became the source of its destruction. In the concluding stanza, it
seems as if the poet assumes the role of the famous Urdu poet, Ghalib. He stands at the
crossroads of language", the point where language, culture and identity intersect. But
Ghalib is being forced to choose a side, to choose between the Kashmir that has been
divided into India and Pakistan, even though it retains the same culture, lifestyle and
language. He masquerades as a beggar in order to disguise himself from being
identified, from being asked to choose between the two. From being asked to choose
between his religion and his country.

Learning Urdu Critical Appreciation

Agha Shahid Ali was one of the prominent poets who belonged to Kashmir but spent
most of his life in the United States of America. Most of works revolve around the
Kashmir conflict and even today, several years after his death, prompt all the readers to

7
introspect and look back at what India has become since independence and the partition,
a part of history that still evokes hatred in our hearts. One of Agha Shahid Ali's poems
which has not been critically analyzed by many, bears the title 'Learning Urdu' Thus in
his memory, this article attempts to shed light on the gravity of the poet' s words.

The poem captures the emotions that were involved during the partition of 1947.
Throughout the poem the poet tries to distance himself from the dilemma that Kashmiris
face post the partition - a sense of lack of belonging to either of the two countries. The
partition left Kashmiris divided in their understanding of who and what comprises of India
and what distinguishes India from Pakistan. The poet tries to analyze the current
devastation and situation in Kashmir by asking Dogri, the language in which Kashmiris
speak, to explain the cause of this mayhem.

Dogri has the unique ability of being written in both Arabic as well as Devnagri script,
making it the ideal combination of Urdu and Hindi, the commonly spoken languages in
India and Pakistan, the two divided countries. Through the first stanza the poet sheds
light on the background of the theme of the poem. He makes the reader aware of the
partition of the Indian subcontinent into two nations full of anger and hatred. The poet
does so by mortalizing a language. By asking the reader whether like any other mortal,
even the fate of Dogri will result in nothing but death. The poet uses metaphors such as "
men dissolved in alphabets of blood" and "syllables of death' to stress upon the fact that
the simplest way of killing a language, is by using it as a means to spread hatred.
Moreover, it is made apparent that the only common language is the language of
bloodshed. The partition stole the people off the common string that bound them all
together. It stole from them off their language, leaving the fate of their language to be
undecided.

The poet then evokes pain in the heart of the readers by telling the tale of Dogri. By
mentioning the lack of sense of belonging that the language is facing. The use of
phrases like " half the word" are a reference to the loss of identity. The language has
been uprooted from its homeland. A land which was once called Hindustan, but has
today been divided into India and Pakistan. The language can no more identify itself by
the village which has been broken up into two, with the two halves lying across "the line
of blood" or the Line of Control. The language also hints at its extinction, and the only
reason for the same would be the divide created between Kashmir, a place where

8
cultures used to converge. But now history cannot be undone, " friends dissolve across
the borders leaving only enemies, forcing each half to cling onto the little that is left of
their common language. The half understanding of the world only fuels hatred, giving rise
to " bitter stanzas" of a frustration and anger which cannot be contained. A hatred with
no reason or direction. The reference to the dead poet" can have two meanings. Firstly, it
could mean the people who divided the country into two, created angst and then just
stepped aside and let the avalanche of anger destroy humanity. However this could also
be a reference to the misinterpretations of the language that have become prevalent. A
situation where words of another are put into the wrong context in order to aid the
devastation.

In the third stanza the poet decides to break out of the story that Dogri is narrating and
tries to analyze his own position in the aftermath of the partition. The poet cannot
sympathize with the language because he fails to understand the reason behind the
partition, the need for the insurmountable sufferings. Shahid Ali is himself so traumatized
by the series of events that his heart is unable to attach a degree to the amount of pain
he feels. He is so overcome with emotion that he has become immune to it. All he wants,
is answers. Answers about what led to such " bitter couplets" from arising.

9
 Chapter 4 - Style and Structure

Symbolism in Faiz’s Poem ‘Dawn of Freedom’

First of all Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of the twilight before sunrise. Dawn
means the first appearance of daylight in the morning.

As a symbol, the dawn can have most of the meanings generally associated with light.
More particularly, the dawn is the emergence of a new stage of life, a new
understanding, or a new start, and the emergence from darkness.

Ye dagh dagh ujala, ye shab-gazida sahar,

Wo intizar tha jis-ka, ye wo sahar to nahiñ,

Ye vo sahar to nahiñ jis-ki arzu lekar

Chale the yar ke mil-jaegi kahiñ na kahiñ;

In the first stanza Faiz has drawn the picture of dawn. He has used the imagery with the
words “day break”, “desired crack”, “stars in the sky”. From this imagery he has
conveyed the enriching situation of the Muslims of that day. He has referred to the
struggle of the independence of Muslims of the sub-continent. The meaning beneath this
stanza refers to that ideology for which Muslims of the sub-continent fought against.

Falak ke dasht main taroñ ki akhiri manzil,

Kahiñ to hoga shab-e sust mauj ka sahil,

Kahiñ to jake rukega safina-e-gham-e-dil.

In the second stanza Faiz is hopeful for the day and the misery and struggle will come to
an end. He has symbolized the struggle that is going on within Muslims community, mauj
ka sahil, and safina-e-gham-e-dil. In the next two lines he has represented the tragedy of
Muslims as ‘Jawan Lahu’ which in English is something “exicted or passionable in
nature”. The aim of the Muslims to get an independent state was fresh but on the other
hand Faiz says that ‘Chale jo yar to daman pe kitne hath pare’ in English represents the
hurdles as well as hindrances which stopped Muslims to achieve their purpose.

Jawañ lahu ki pur-asrar shahrahoñ se

Chale jo yar to daman pe kitne hath pare;

10
In the above two lines of third stanza the poet depicted the thoughts of Muslims. It is
about what they thought while fighting for a separate nation. They had a lot expectation
with this demand for separate nation. He closed the words which inspires soul to the
poem. He has told us that how firm believe Muslim had in this demand they thought
independent nation will bring a full stop to their tragedies. This paragraph has captured
the temptation that was residing in Muslim’s heart. This is about their faith, their hope
and expectations.

Language

Faiz’s Dawn of Freedom was written in August 1947 on the 60th anniversary of India’s
Independence and the eve of Bhagat Singh’s Birth Centenary.

Its words are as hauntingly familiar, as evocative, as inspiring as they were 60 years
ago. Then, its view of “this night-bitten dawn”, stained by the communal bloodshed of
partition,

mocked at the triumphalism of Nehru’s Tryst With Destiny speech which announced that
“India will awake to life and freedom”.

His tone varies from stanza to stanza for example in his first stanza pessimistic tone has
been found as it reminds us of gloomy and dark situation .In the second stanza deep and
reflective tone has been found that analyze the content of the independent war. His third
stanza is satirical and realistic. He has told us about the harsh realities but in the end he
gives faith to Muslim that destiny is not much far. In the last stanza the poet adopts harsh
tone and he seems to be in satirical mode. He declares that fancy has become the reality
but it has not brought the fruit “that all the battles have been fought” but he stress that
the main aim for which the struggle was set on is yet unfulfilled. He symbolizes this
independence as a “false dawn”. He does not consider this independence as a real
independence and he forces that this desire remained unfulfilled.

The whole poem can be summed up in one line where he asks “when did it comes and
where has it gone”. He is saying that we have forgotten our real aim and adopted a false
one. The real aim was establishment of a peaceful society in a cordon with this aim
where no anarchy flourishes but the outcome has been opposite to what it should have
been. Last four lines reflect Faiz’s in the union of humanity when he negates “the
moment of our freedom”. He dictates us the lesson of brotherhood and unity. He says
that we can only reach to our freedom and destination when we believe in peace.

11
The poet writes this work on the eve of Indian independence, with a sense of melancholy
about the fruits of labour, he verifies that this is not the independence that was sought
after. The poem begins on a dark note with disillusionment, the bittersweet nature of the
triumph. It goes on to describe the single mindedness with which the voyages of this
journey resisted the temptations of fancy., and when dawn finally appeared, when the
storm clouds cleared then came a sense of clarity between the struggle and the goal.
The poet then goes on to describe that the comrades are changing, how in which
gratification is sought more than angst, and the pain of partition does not weigh on their
apparent disposition. The fine breeze of dawn has just passed by and the wayside lamp
barely noticed. The gravity of night has not lightened, and the time for redemption has
not yet arrived, so the poet urges his comrades and compatriots to keep walking, for that
destination is not in sight.

This paper aims to highlight the stylistic features of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poem "Subh-e-
Azadi 1947" (Dawn of Freedom).The style which the poet has adopted to highlight the
main theme of his poem is critically analyzed. Step by step stylistic analysis revolves
around five levels i.e. grammatical, phonetic, phonological, graph logical and lexical
level. It will help readers to better understand the complex syntactical patterns and poetic
devices used by the poet. Style, Stylistic analysis are the presentation of something i.e.
the way in which any author presents his writings. The term Style is not restricted to just
literary genera s only rather it belongs to everything in this world. It can be found in
written texts, spoken words and also in gestures. Style is actually dress of thought i.e. it
reflects the thoughts a person. When we look at a text, the words of that text tell us about
the style of an individual writer that why it is said that style presents an individual. In a
literary text, a poet or a writer uses different literary styles and lexical patterns using
different literary devices and tools. The main focus of style is on esthetic values of the
text. Graphological level There are total 236 words in this poem. There are four stanzas
in the poem. 1 st stanza 2 nd stanza 3 rd stanza 4 th stanza Lines

 Learning Urdu

Dogri has the unique ability of being written in both Arabic as well as Devnagri script,
making it the ideal combination of Urdu and Hindi, the commonly spoken languages in
India and Pakistan, the two divided countries. Through the first stanza the poet sheds
light on the background of the theme of the poem. He makes the reader aware of the
partition of the Indian subcontinent into two nations full of anger and hatred. The poet
does so by mortalizing a language. By asking the reader whether like any other mortal,
even the fate of Dogri will result in nothing but death. The poet uses metaphors such as

12
”men dissolved in alphabets of blood” and ”syllables of death” to stress upon the fact that
the simplest way of killing a language, is by using it as a means to spread hatred.
Moreover, it is made apparent that the only common language is the language of
bloodshed. The partition stole the people off the common string that bound them all
together. It stole from them off their language, leaving the fate of their language to be
[Link] poet then evokes pain in the heart of the readers by telling the tale of
Dogri. By mentioning the lack of sense of belonging that the language is facing. The use
of phrases like ”half the word” are a reference to the loss of identity. The language has
been uprooted from its homeland. A land which was once called Hindustan, but has
today been divided into India and Pakistan. The language can no more identify itself by
the village which has been broken up into two, with the two halves lying across ”the line
of blood” or the Line of Control. The language also hints at its extinction, and the only
reason for the same would be the divide created between Kashmir, a place where
cultures used to converge. But now history cannot be undone, ”friends dissolve” across
the borders leaving only enemies, forcing each half to cling onto the little that is left of
their common language. The half understanding of the world only fuels hatred, giving rise
to ”bitter stanzas” of a frustration and anger which cannot be contained. A hatred with no
reason or direction. The reference to the ”dead poet” can have two meanings. Firstly, it
could mean the people who divided the country into two, created angst and then just
stepped aside and let the avalanche of anger destroy humanity. However this could also
be a reference to the misinterpretations of the language that have become prevalent. A
situation where words of another are put into the wrong context in order to aid the
devastation.

13
 Chapter 5 - Conclusion

Subh-e Azadi” (“Dawn of Freedom”) by the brilliant Urdu Marxist poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz,
best expresses to me the sense of tragedy and possibility of 1947 for ordinary people
caught in the worldwind of historical events: an independence brokered through ethnic
cleansing, refugee crisis, communalism, rape, and horrors of partition.

The poet writes this work on the eve of Indian independence, with a sense of melancholy
about the fruits of labour, he verifies that this is not the independence that was sought
after. The poem begins on a dark note with disillusionment, the bittersweet nature of the
triumph. It goes on to describe the single mindedness with which the voyages of this
journey resisted the temptations of fancy., and when dawn finally appeared, when the
storm clouds cleared then came a sense of clarity between the struggle and the goal.
The poet then goes on to describe that the comrades are changing, how in which
gratification is sought more than angst, and the pain of partition does not weigh on their
apparent disposition. The fine breeze of dawn has just passed by and the wayside lamp
barely noticed. The gravity of night has not lightened, and the time for redemption has
not yet arrived, so the poet urges his comrades and compatriots to keep walking, for that
destination is not in sight

14
The darkness of the night has not ended yet. The moment of liberation of hearts and
minds Has not come yet. Keep going, for we have not come To the end of our journey
yet!? The Dawn of Freedom is a bitter lamentation of the false dawn of independence
and the betrayal of the ideals of the movement to gain freedom, dignity and economic
justice. So, Faiz’s poem Freedom Dawn also symbolizes Muslims faith, their
expectations, their hope, their determinations as well as their sufferings in particular.

15