'Come to a head'.

Byline: Shahzad Sharjeel

IDEAS shape narratives that in turn shape history. Even ideas need words for conception and expression. In a way, idea and narrative must coincide to give birth to a movement. To overcome the bitterness of the past and for an objective look at the present, new narratives are required. Different challenges and times call for different narratives. We currently find ourselves faced with the demons of militancy and extremism. The state apparatus historically associated with such forces is at least making a show of distancing itself from them. The progressive, liberal segment of society, particularly its youth, is exerting itself after decades of repression. The narrative, alas, is not in keeping with the changed realities.

An anthem from the Indian subcontinent's freedom struggle has sprung to life from the simmering remains of the colonial crime ie the post-colonial power grab. No literature festival, no political protest is complete without someone breaking into that pulse-racing, heart quickening chant; 'sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamarey dil mein hey: dekhna hey zor kitna bazu-i-qatil mein hey' (we have a yearning in our hearts to lay down our lives: let us test the strength of the murderer's blow).

The creator of such a moving verse and the genre he used deserves a little recognition and acknowledgement before we proceed to assess the suitability of the narrative that springs from it. Syed Shah Mohammad Hassan, popularly known as Bismil Azimabadi, was born in 1901 in Patna, Bihar, in British-ruled India. He wrote it as a ghazal, a genre of Persian and Urdu tradition usually associated with romance as opposed to nazm which is considered better suited to revolutionary and resistance anthems.

Bismil wrote it as a 20-year-old in an environment reverberating with the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh and other atrocities let loose by the British colonialists. The poem was made great by a freedom fighter who happened to not just share his nom de plume but was a poet in his own right, Ram Parasad Bismil. According to A History of Indian Literature 1911-1956 - Struggle for Freedom: Triumph and Tragedy by Sisir Kumar Das, sentenced to death for his 'revolutionary activities' referred to as the Kakori Conspiracy in 1925. Ram Parasad Bismil, 30 at the time, walked to the gallows chanting 'sarfaroshi ki tamanna'.

We the citizens have a struggle on our hands.

While in the death cell, Ram Parasad also penned his famous song Mera Rang...