Punjabi intelligentsia revisited

Harris Khalique

 
A few weeks back a note to the Punjabi intelligentsia was published in this space. The response it received was overwhelming and I continue to get a message or two from some worthy reader courtesy the access and availability of all that gets printed on these pages through the internet. While some readers argued for or against what was submitted after reading the whole piece, some others, it seems, found it hard to finish the 1300-odd words and jumped to conclusions after reading a couple of paragraphs. 

Most interestingly, those campaigning for Punjabi cultural and language rights and those struggling for the economic and social rights of the peasantry and working classes in Punjab for decades found themselves largely in agreement with what was being said. Those who think they are bestowed with the divine duty of protecting the national identity of Pakistan as it is defined and propagated by the vested interest of the elite and affluent middleclass and the powerful state institutions dominated by north-central Punjab and Karachi, were bitterly critical. 

From being a Jewish conspirator, a Christian fanatic (for my mother had put two Rs in my first name), a Hindu agent, a parochial Sindhi, a prejudiced Mohajir to a self-hating Punjabi, I got so many gratifying labels. It is ironic that Punjab as a cultural entity continues to contribute so much to the amalgamated South Asian civilisation, so much so that it virtually defines the compositeness of this civilisation, but is hampered by the politics of its elite in Pakistan to help develop a shared, inclusive, fair and composite Pakistani identity. Punjabis belonging to the dominant economic and social class only need to look back and look around them a little, reflect and realign their political choices. 

Let me remind the readers of some often-quoted lines from Zafarnama, the epistle of victory. This intensely defiant message composed in chaste Persian verse, consisting of 111 stanzas, by Guru Gobind Singh was addressed to the Mughal emperor Auranzeb by the Guru himself in 1705. He said: “The dark times are like a knife/The kings are butchers/Dharma has taken wings and flown/In the dark night of falsehood/The moon of truth/Cannot be seen.” He further said: “When all has been tried, yet/Justice is not in sight/It is then right to pick up the sword/It is then right to fight.” 

It is this message from Punjab to the perpetrators of injustice, believers in imperialism and defenders of colonialism that had come out through the campaigns of Abdullah (Dulla) Bhatti against the oppressive revenue system of the Mughals before the Guru and resonated over centuries to come after the Guru. People like Bhagat Singh and Faiz Ahmed Faiz to Amrita Preetam, Ustad Daman and Habib Jalib repeated this universal message of truth, humanity and freedom through their words or deeds. 

In more contemporary times, from Najm Hossein Syed to Mazhar Tirmazi, similar words are echoed and brought to us. You may wonder why I begin with celebrating Punjab’s resistance to imperial or state power when speaking about the Pakistan of today. I would respond by asking: what is more purposive and worthwhile in a society or a state than to speak against oppression and treachery? What will be a more constructive and useful activity in terms of both values and purpose than siding with the wretched and the condemned, the weak and the poor – be it the struggling classes or nations and nationalities?

Guru Gobind Singh’s cadres were fighting battles locally but the spirit behind their effort was universal. Guru’s struggle in blood and ink in itself is a victory of human liberation and spirituality over soullessness, deceit, naked aggression and lust for power. Zafarnama should be seen as a charter of warriors with a conscience – those who take up arms when it becomes necessary for the survival of human values and freedom of peoples. 

Much later, in the early twentieth century when Bhagat Singh joined the ranks of freedom fighters belonging to other parts of the Subcontinent like Chandreshekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Sukh Dev and Ashfaqullah and soon helped form the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, he chose to struggle for the freedom of the whole Subcontinent. He did not limit himself to freedom from the British colonial rule; he wanted the poor and the dispossessed of the Indian Subcontinent to break the shackles of poverty and get liberated economically and socially. Undoubtedly, Bhagat Singh’s impact on the psyche of political workers, activists, defenders of people’s rights and people at large is phenomenal.

If we look at the development of the enlightened, politically progressive and socially informed literature in Pakistan, Punjab produced political workers, writers, poets, artists and thinkers who made significant contributions in their fields and participated in movements that were wider in nature and scope. Their struggle went much beyond Punjab. 

Today, it is Faiz Ahmed Faiz whose poetic eloquence reverberates within and outside South Asia like no other. You may disagree with their politics of violence but even the Naxalites use his poems as anthems against the inherent caste system and subsequent marginalisation of the poor practised by the Indian society. Faiz symbolises that resistance poetry from South Asia which is deeply humanistic in nature. In Pakistan, it was Habib Jalib who ferociously challenged autocratic military and civilian rulers, powerful elites and religious orthodoxy through his verse. His is a household name across the country. 

Speaking of writing and writers from Punjab, it is important to recognise that Urdu, one of the key symbols of composite Pakistani identity in the making, owes its modern literary development in the 20th century, majorly if not entirely, to Punjab. From Saadat Hasan Manto, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Balwant Singh, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Krishan Chander and Bano Qudsia to Allama Iqbal, Meeraji, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Noon Meem Rashid, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majeed Amjad, Munir Niazi and Kishwar Naheed, all belong to Punjab. Kishwar and some other writers not mentioned here may have been born elsewhere but were nurtured by Punjab. 

In the nineteenth century, when Sir Syed Ahmed Khan began his reformist movement for Indian Muslims, one of his literary stalwarts, Mohammed Hussain Azad, established himself in Lahore. The other, Altaf Hussain Hali, belonged to Panipat. Lahore has established itself as the centre of Urdu writing and publishing since long. That is the reason you see literary icons like Intizar Hussain, Altaf Fatima and Saleemur Rehman who came from other parts of the Subcontinent but chose to live in Punjab. 

Let me give a few examples from the traditional inclusivity of Punjab which is being challenged by its power-hungry elite and middleclass today, knowingly or unknowingly. From the film industry, which was quite sizeable in the recent past, it will be interesting to note that the family of the true star of Punjabi cinema, the quintessential hero Sultan Rahi, originally came from Saharanpur. He is considered the icon of Punjabi manhood. The most popular villain, Mustafa Qureshi, comes from Sindh. So did character actor Saqi Baloch and comedian Esha Shikarpuri. Rangeela and Lala Sudhir were Pakhtuns.

The first Punjabi film released in Pakistan after Partition was Neeli. Its hero Santosh Kumar, whose real name was Syed Musa Raza, hailed from Lucknow. Even today there are male and female actors performing in Punjabi film and drama who are not Punjabis but celebrated by Punjab with an open heart. I had written about the cosmopolitanism of Lahore in yesteryears and its huge embrace for all in my previous column.

I wanted to reemphasise and elaborate on what I said. For I believe that unless the Muslim Punjabi intelligentsia and middleclass, the representative of the majority of Pakistani people, does not find its own progressive identity within the larger federal identity of Pakistan and is proud of it, sides with the weak and the oppressed in its own folds, it will never understand the fundamental issues of dispossession and struggle for the rights of other people living in our country.

The writer is a poet and author based in Islamabad.

Email: harris.khalique@gmail.com
Curtsey:The News, Nov 27, 2013 .
Being Punjabi like Asad