Biography

Faiz Ahmad Faiz (Punjabi, Urdu: فیض احمد فیض, pronounced [fɛːz ɛɦ.məd̪ fɛːz]; 13 February 1911 – 20 November 1984) was a Pakistani poet and author of Punjabi and Urdu literature. Faiz was one of the most celebrated, popular, and influential Urdu writers of his time and his works and ideas remain widely influential today in Pakistan and beyond. Outside of literature, he has been described as "a man of wide experience" having worked as a teacher, military officer, journalist, trade unionist, and broadcaster.Born in Sialkot District, Punjab, during the British rule, Faiz studied at Government College and Oriental College and went on to serve in the British Indian Army. After the partition of India, Faiz served as editor-in-chief of two major newspapers — the English language daily Pakistan Times and the Urdu daily Imroze. He was also leading member of the Communist Party before his arrest and imprisonment in 1951 for his alleged part in a conspiracy to overthrow the Liaquat administration and replace it with a left-wing, pro-Soviet government.Faiz was released after four years in prison and spent his time in Moscow and London, becoming a notable member of the Progressive Writers' Movement. After the downfall of Ayub Khan's government, and the separation of Bangladesh, he worked as an aide to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but exiled himself to Beirut after Bhutto's execution at the hands of Zia ul-Haq.Faiz was a well-known Marxist and is said to have been "a progressive who remained faithful to Marxism." Critics have noted that Faiz took the tenets of Marxism where Muhammad Iqbal had left it, and relayed it to a younger generation of Muslims who were considered more open to change, more receptive to egalitarianism, and had a greater concern for the poor. Literary critic Fateh Muhammad Malik argues that while initially Faiz was more of a secular Marxist he eventually subscribed to Islamic socialism as his life progressed, as his poems getting more religious in tone over the years demonstrate, even suggesting that Faiz ultimately aimed for an Islamic revolution, having endorsed the 1979 Iranian revolution.Faiz was the first Asian poet to be awarded the Lenin Peace Prize (1962) by the Soviet Union and was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature. He was posthumously honoured when the Pakistan Government conferred upon him the nation's highest civil award — the Nishan-e-Imtiaz — in 1990.