Although incorrectly attributed to Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the author of the poetry was Indian poet Bismil Azimabadi. Written in Urdu as an ode to the freedom struggle against British colonial rule, the activists were chanting the poetry to raise awareness of the Student Solidarity March on November 29.
"Asia will be red" was a part of the activists' refrain, highlighting the socialist political leanings of the activists.
Twitter users were quick to express their judgement on how the activists seemed like "confused desis". Many fixated their attention on the clothing of the female activist leading the poetry's recitation, saying that she was a LUMS alumnus and had little idea about the actual problems of the common man.
"This kind of revolutionary crap doesn't look good from a crowd which will likely disperse and go home in their air-conditioned civics," tweeted @XilleIlahi.
Since then, other users have been quick to correct assumptions that activists are in any way associated with the Lahore University of Management Sciences. The woman who led the poetry has been identified as Arooj Aurangzeb, a graduate of the Punjab University, whereas the people she was flanked by were graduates of the Government College in Lahore. They are all associated with the Progressive Students Collective, and are believed to also be involved in the Haqooq-e-Khalq movement.
Some commented that the reaction the video received was because a woman was leading the sloganeering.
Sabahat Zakariya, who runs the Feminustani Youtube channel, wrote: "We clearly feel uncomfortable with a woman looking this sure of herself."
Although the activists are all graduates of public universities, another Twitter user, Hurmat Ali Shah, wrote that their social background was ultimately irrelevant, even if they were part of a social class that could afford private universities.
"The taunts of privilege and class are not only misplaced, they also narrow down who should be part of the struggle and who shouldn't be. There is no point in being apologetic for what class they belong to," he tweeted.
Sociologist Nida Kirmani wrote: "It’s bad enough that most people don’t do anything to protest the injustices in our society, but it’s maddening when those people sit behind their keyboards & make baseless accusations against those who are actually trying to make the world a better place."
