Was Faiz a poet of his own land or a poet of lands across borders and boundaries? Was he a voice of peasants, workers, clerks, tonga riders, railway and postal workers, fishermen, students and political sufferers of Pakistan, or the poet of Vietnam, Palestine, Iran, Africa, China, Beirut, USA, former Soviet Union, Bangladesh and Turkey? Was he a singer of South Asian social change or a torchbearer of world revolution? Was Faiz a poet of the so-called post modernist global village or a true internationalist in letter and spirit? Was he the poet of a Punjabi village or the universe? As he himself suggested in one of his verses:

Des pardes kay yaran-e-qadah khawar kay nam
Husn-e-Afaq, Jamal-e-lab –o –rukhsar kay nam
I dedicate my aching for the day of meeting
To cup-drinking friends in this country and abroad
To the beauty of the world, to the fairness of lips and cheek (Faiz as translated by V.G. Kiernan, n.d. pp.236-237).

‘Many observers view globalisation as an evolving process of imperialism, oppression, and exploitation…. Just a new form of imperialism’ (Sundaram and Khoo 2003, p.1). Indeed, globalisation has become a menace which is an anti-people and anti-humanist doctrine of capitalism in the present uni-polar world.  Faiz did not live long enough to be exposed to this doctrine; the term became popular in late 80s and 1990s. However, his poetry has always countered the old and new forms of globalisation.

Besides poetry, Faiz also spoke for international solidarity and world culture in his editorials and other Urdu and English writings. In my paper, I would like to suggest that Faiz also wrote comprehensive essays about a ‘planetary culture’, ‘de-colonisation’ of literature and role of the artist in strengthening bonds between international communities. In his creative expression, Faiz always took the position of an international humanist and stood against the ugly interests of the globalisation. I will conclude with the point that interestingly the term ‘globalisation’ was introduced immediately after his death.

References
Faiz A. Faiz (n.d.), Poems by Faiz, translated by V.G. Kiernan, Vanguard Books, Lahore, Pakistan (originally published by George Allen and Unwin Limited as UNESCO Series of Poetry Translations, 1971. The present reprint was authorised by Mrs. Alys Faiz and by UNESCO for publication in Pakistan by Vanguard Books (Pvt.) Ltd. Lahore.

Sundaram, J. K. and Khoo, K. J. (eds.) 2003, Globalization and its discontents, Revisited, SEPHIS-Tulika Books, New Delhi, India.