It is amazing how over centuries writers, poets, journalists, scientists and scholars of every shade have been persecuted for venting ideas contrary to those who rule their lands. Lahore has been no exception, if ever more so.

When the French king Louis XIV announced proudly: “L’Etat c’est moi” (I am the State), such thinking led to the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy. The entire establishment and those in arms faced the guillotine, a rather expected and understandable end to say the least. But then a democratic norm replaced it, only for Napoleon to take over, who again was defeated, and democracy came about. This was a logical outcome.

As I was going through the poetry of Masud ibn Saad-i-Salman (died 1131AD) his verse on Lahore attracted me: “Lahore, my love, without me how are you?” It got me thinking of my friends who even today suffer exile still because our dictators then did not like what they said. The bitter truth somehow seems to cut through rulers who sadly believe that their ideas are the ‘truth’. Invariably, it is the other way around.

Poet Masud ibn Saad, who is known as the ‘prisoner poet of Lahore’, was born in Lahore in 1046AD. His father came to Lahore on the orders of Sultan Mahmud, the Turko-Afghan invader and looter. In Lahore he learnt astrology, calligraphy and various languages including Arabic, Persian, and a variety of local languages. In 1085, he was imprisoned for allegedly writing a poem that was seen as part a conspiracy to topple the then Afghan ruler. Things have still not changed. He was released 11 years later, only to be made the court librarian.

Within two years he was again jailed for eight years and wrote some famous ‘qasidas’. His sorrow can be gauged from just one line: ‘I am a fallen person with a thousand sorrows … with no sin I am a prisoner, with no reason for being imprisoned’.

Over the ages we have seen scores of rulers who because of the power that they yield imprison people with a mind of their own. No matter what they claim, yet within a few weeks of ceasing power their intolerance emerges. Let us take up the case of a few Lahore poets.

We all know of Ustad Daman, or Habib Jalib, or Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Their verses and words upset our rulers. When released from prison once Ustad Daman commented: “Thank the Lord they did not find an armoured tank in my small room”. Once as a college student I visited Ustad Daman and mentioned these constant arrests. He commented in a verse of Shakespeare: “The evil that men do lives after them.” It is so true, because all these dictators do leave behind terrible reputations.

We know a lot about how the rulers, and hence the Punjab police, seeped as it remains in colonial-era practices, treated Habib Jalib. His verses still stir people into action, and it is for this reason even today our media avoids mentioning him. Things just seem to get worse with every new dictator, hidden or otherwise.

We know about the years the great poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz spent in prison in what is known as a ‘conspiracy’ case. A lot of journalists of the now defunct ‘The Pakistan Times’ were roped in and whipped. A few escaped to England. It was in prison that Faiz wrote most of his finest poetry. Almost a thousand year’s earlier Masud ibn Saad too wrote his finest verses in prison. Both victims of the wrath of the men in power. It clearly is the dictum of ‘arms dictating not their minds’.

Most of the journalists of the now long-defunct daily ‘Musawat’ were arrested and whipped and jailed without reason. It is interesting how rulers invariably think that any word against their policies is a threat to the State. They seem to forget the fate of the French monarchy.All these matters make one think just why Lahore has degraded to a place that is intolerant to ideas different from those of the rulers. After a considerable discussion with ‘saner’ friends’ one reached the vague conclusion that people who are corrupt tend to impose their will on others. That is why democracy evolved to bring about tolerance and honesty, delayed that it has benn of recent.

But then the fact remains that even though our beautiful city – minus the smog – faces such rulers, the finest minds continue to emerge from the streets and lanes of our city. For this reason alone, one never loses hope.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2023