Today is the 110th Birthday Anniversary of Faiz Ahmad Faiz. His story is incredible.

Joined the Indian Army in 1942 (WW2).
Supported the Naval Mutiny.
Attended Gandhi’s funeral in Delhi.
Nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature.
Received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962.

#Thread

Just like Bhagat Singh, Faiz was considered a Hero in Undivided British India. During WW2, Faiz served with a unit led by Akbar Khan, a left-wing officer and future Pakistan Army general.

Faiz rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

There was a mass recruitment of Indians especially socialist & communist activists into the British Indian Army and RIN (Navy) for war efforts against Nazi Germany after 1941.

However, once the war was over, the newly recruited men turned against the British, 1946 Naval Mutiny.

His poem Subh-e Azaadi (The Dawn of Freedom, August 1947) records his disappointment with the partition of the Indian subcontinent.

Faiz was imprisoned for more than 4 years after partition in a fake case popularly called "Pindi Conspiracy Case".

Communist party of Pak was banned soon after that Rawalpindi Conspiracy case.

He was held in solitary confinement in Sahiwal and Hyderabad (Sindh) jail and was even deprived of writing material. Faiz was again imprisoned in 1958 (Ayyub Khan’s martial law).