By Raza Rumi (The year 2011 will be celebrated worldwide as the
centenary of the great poet of Southasia, Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Himal‘s forthcoming January 2011 issue will carry cover features
on Faiz and his poetry. Over the year, we will also be posting
fresh material on our website www.himalmag.com.) Over the course
of human history, intellectuals and artists have helped broaden
the scope of citizenship and the nebulous contours of citizen
rights. Southasia is no exception. Despite its colonial past and
internal fault-lines, it can boast of extraordinary individuals
who have stood up against tyranny and reaffirmed the innate
strength of the human spirit. A tradition of resistance by
artists and intellectuals that was built up in colonial times
continues to thrive in the Subcontinent. Arundhati Roy in India
remains undeterred despite being charged with sedition or ‘the
attempt to excite disaffection towards the Governmentestablished
by law in India’, a penal provision defined by the British
colonial government i