Dogs

Or how to fight oppressors.

Some years ago, a group of us were regulars at a protest against a draconian legislation. On the biting cold winter nights, long after our fellow protesters had gone home or drifted away to sleep in their tent encampments, we would lit a bonfire by a blockaded road and discuss sundry things politics. Some days we would recite poetry from various languages. One day a friend recited a Faiz Ahmad Faiz poem that I had never heard of. I was instantly smitten by it. The poem titled “Kutte” (Dogs) is provocative. It is easy to misconstrue it, but it is a work of genius — which Faiz undoubtedly was one.

Faiz takes the word “kutte” (dogs) and its many connotations in the Indian subcontinental context and weaves a beautiful poem about the state of the common folk, the reasons for their plight, and what it would take for them to change their condition. It is a protest poem. However, it goes further than mere protesting and gives a manual for the resistance of the oppressed against their oppressors.

Published in 1941, when Indians were still trampled under the brutal colonial boots of the British, many of whose establishments in the country proudly displayed “Dogs and Indians not allowed” signs at their entrances, Faiz used the metaphorical device to get around the heavy-handed British censors. Faiz talks about the state of the street dogs, the uncouth conditions in which they spend their entire lives. They are not just denied a decent living but are also constantly subjected to scorn by everyone. In the last six lines of this 16-line poem, the legendary poet — channeling the totemic PB Shelly message: “Ye are many — they are few!” — instructs the suffering dogs on what they need to do to overcome the depredations they are subjected to.

Spoken through the fate of dogs, the underlying message in the poem is crystal clear: why are you suffering? Do you know how much power you possess? Why don’t you overthrow the oppressors? Here, I tell you what it takes to overthrow them.

Here’s a transliteration of the poem (originally in Urdu), followed by an adaptation of Muntasir Dalvi’s English translation:

ye galiyon ke aavaara be-kaar kutte
ki baḳhsha gaya jin ko zauq-e-gadai
zamane ki phatkar sarmaya inka
jahan bhar ki dhutkar in ki kamai

na aaraam shab ko na rahat savere
ghalazat men ghar naaliyon me basere
jo bigden to ik dusre ko lada do
zara ek roti ka tukda dikha do
ye har ek ki thokaren khane waale
ye faaqon se ukta ke mar jaane waale

ye mazlum maḳhluq gar sar uthae
to insan sab sar-kashi bhuul jaae
ye chahen to duniya ko apna bana len
ye aqaaon ki haddiyan tak chaba len
koi in ko ehsaas-e-zillat dila de
koi in ki soi hui dum hila de

Translation:

These aimless dogs of the street
bestowed with a taste for beggary
the world’s scorn their wealth
the world’s rebuke their salary

Neither rest at night nor comfort at daybreak,
homes in filth, in gutters they make
should they dissent, domestic strife must be bred
in their face, dangle a piece of bread
they, who endure the boot-lashes of each person,
condemned to perish, piteous with starvation

Should they, the oppressed, ever raise their heads
humankind would rue every condescension
should they desire to rule the world, they could
and chew upon the very bones of their masters
if only they were alerted to their deprivations
O! For someone to tug on their sleeping tails!

The word “kutte” — which can mean both the singular “dog,” or the plural “dogs,” depending upon the context — is a provocative way of referring to the suffering masses, especially in a language in which the word “kutte” is used as a term of abuse for someone considered uncouth or lecherous.

But once you get hold of the metaphor, the genius of the poem shines through.

In the current context, when a genocide is in full swing for the last eight months and is still showing absolutely no sign of stopping despite legal and military attempts to halt it, the onus has shifted to the masses. At a time when the political leadership, especially in the West, has completely abdicated its responsibility and aided and abetted the ongoing monstrous crimes by the genocidal tyrants in Israel, it is incumbent upon the people to take matters into their own hands. The masses, to their great credit, have been in the streets ever since these crimes began and they remain relentless in their anti-genocide advocacy.

They have recorded some big victories as well. Palestine Action in the United Kingdom has permanently shut down three factories of Elbit Systems — the biggest Israeli weapons manufacturer. The Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement too is making a huge impact on the companies that are supporting the Zionist regime. KFC has been forced to shut several shops in Malaysia. Starbucks, which cut down operations in Morocco late last year, has been compelled to downsize in the Middle East. McDonald’s recently “missed quarterly profit estimates for the first time in two years.” Notably, earlier this year McDonald’s CEO had taken the full creative license and then some to lament “meaningful business impact due to the war and associated misinformation.”

However, the one protest movement that has affected the Zionist genocidaires the most, as evidenced by their furious reaction to it, has been the student encampments across campuses in the United States. The protesting students have been met with the boot-lashes of the oppressors and their attack dogs. They have been beaten, expelled, and arrested.

The oppressors can’t tolerate the wrath of the downtrodden “dogs,” and just like the “Dogs and Indians not allowed” proclamation of the British, the oppressors of today won’t allow the conscientious anti-genocide students to mingle with the next generation of oppressors, the pro-genocide students in the classrooms. For them, the classrooms must remain pro-tyranny, pro-racism, pro-ethnic cleansing, pro-genocide.

In the aftermath of the latest barbarism in Rafah, the show of solidarity with the Palestinians has intensified worldwide. Since the latest round of inhuman assault on plastic tents housing the innocent and the helpless, protests have raged in Paris, Istanbul, Mexico City, Bologna, Liverpool, Tangier, among a whole of host of other major cities. Protestors in Mexico City took the matter into their own hands. They fired Molotov cocktails into the Israeli embassy and attempted to break through the barricades guarding the building.

If it is seen as an escalation in the intensity of protests, it is hard to begrudge it. The marches and the creative signs and banners over the past several months have failed to budge the oppressors of today. In his landmark Ballot or the Bullet speech, Malcolm X laid out what it takes to protest in a way that makes the authorities change their course:

This is part of what’s wrong with you — you do too much singing. Today it’s time to stop singing and start swinging. You can’t sing up on freedom, but you can swing up on some freedom. Cassius Clay can sing, but singing didn’t help him to become the heavy-weight champion of the world — swinging helped him become the heavy-weight champion. This government has failed us; the government itself has failed us, and the white liberals who have been posing as our friends have failed us.

Once the authorities stop respecting the mandate of the people, they lose all legitimacy. Malcolm remarks that in such a scenario it becomes incumbent upon the people to look for solutions elsewhere, and without delay:

And once we see that all these other sources to which we’ve turned have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a self help program, a do-it-yourself philosophy, a do-it-right-now philosophy, a it’s-already-too-late philosophy. This is what you and I need to get with, and the only time — the only way we are going to solve our problem is with a self-help program.

We are living through a time when even peaceful protests are being outlawed. Authorities in the West, especially in Germany, the UK, and the US, are doing all they can to suppress the voices of conscience and continue with their barbarism unopposed.

However, despite the brutality of the authorities, who have typically brought the full force of the state on those protesting, there is much hope in seeing the “dogs” finally wagging their sleeping tails — and with such vigour. Faiz and Malcolm would be smiling. But still more vigour is needed if the ongoing carnage is to be brought to a permanent end.

To wake up — and stay awake — to the oppressors and their oppressions in all their overt and covert forms is the only way to achieve liberation for Palestine and ourselves. Now that many of us are awake, we can’t afford to slumber. May this vigorous tail wagging gain more strength. May we come up with more self help, do-it-yourself, and do-it-right-now programmes to overthrow our oppressors. And may we continue until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea.

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