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A literary treasure of
epic import Book Review by Nadir Ali
The residents of the city say
there are only three places worth visiting in Amritsar: the Sikh Golden
Temple, Jallianwalla Bagh where the British Brigadier Dyer in 1919
massacred unarmed Indians ---and the Wagah border. Indeed the
flag-lowering ceremony at the end of each day on the India-Pakistan border
at Wagah in Punjab has over the years become a tourist destination,
attracting predominantly Indians and Pakistanis on the respective sides of
the border, with a sprinkling of foreigners.
A major addition
Nadir Ali
Shah Hussain stands tall among
the all time greats of the Punjabi poetry. Although not a definitive list,
they were Baba Farid, Guru Nanak Damodhar, Shah Hussain, Hafiz Barkhudar,
Sultan Baahu, Bulhe Shah, Waris Shah, Sachal Sarmast, Main Mohammad Baksh,
Khawaja Farid, Najm Hosain Syed, Bhai Gur Da, Qadir Yar and Najabat.
Vignette of Punjabi
movement Nadir Ali
At the time of independence,
Punjabi reading and publishing were thriving in West Punjab. Based in
Lahore, it consisted of qissas and cheap prints of Punjabi classics
printed in hundreds of thousands. Urdu nevertheless ruled supreme, in
newspapers, magazines and prestigious publishers, radio and TV. The only
'patrons' of Punjabi at the time were a couple of bureaucrats and that too
on account of their tussle with Urdu speaking bureaucrats, e.g. Mumtaz
Hassan and N.M. Khan etc.
A reader's guide to Bulleh Shah
Nadir Ali
Muzaffar Ghaffar is a remarkable person. For
the last 15 years, under the Lahore Art Forum, he has been bringing
together writers, poets, scientists, musicians and painters to speak,
perform and demonstrate. The forum, almost a one-man show, is culturally
very active, may be because Muzaffar Ghaffar has diverse interests in
life. Literature may be his first love -- he is a published poet in
English -- but his interests range far and wide, from physical sciences,
business and administrative sciences to Punjabi poetry and Sufi and Zen
practices.
About Shah Husayn and Madho
Nadir Ali
In book reviews we are long on accolades,
but short on credibility. I would like the reader to take a careful look
at this review. The twenty seven volumes, of which two on Bulleh Shah were
reviewed on these pages in September 2005, and three are under review, are
an epoch-making work. It indeed is the publishing event of the year. I can
only fall short of compliments. It represents 15 years of meticulous hard
work with the best scholars of Punjabi literature studied and consulted.
Two hundred years later
Nadir Ali
Waris
Shah is much misquoted and misunderstood as a poet but the scholarship
needed to separate chaff from his poetic grain may not be in the offing at
all Most of the people, who thronged to the annual urs of Waris Shah last
week at Jandiala Sher Khan in Sheikhupura, haven't read his Heer. Nor they
can recall any passage from the book. This was unthinkable 50 years ago,
when in every village in Punjab and in other Punjabi speaking areas,
listening to live Heer singing was the most popular form of entertainment.
When someone asked, "Can you read the book?," the book always meant Heer
Waris Shah.
Victim of ignorance
Nadir
Ali
Sheikh
Muhammad Sharif Sabir is, perhaps, the best living scholar of Punjabi
language in Pakistan. He has edited at least half a dozen of Punjabi
classics ranging from Puran Bhagat in 1972 to Heer Waris Shah in 1986. The
latter work took ten years of rigorous hard work before getting published
and is valued throughout the Punjabi reading world. Had there been no
editors like Sheikh Abdul Aziz, barrister-at-law, and Sharif Sabir, the
future scholars of Heer would not have known the real Waris Shah from the
spurious one.
Elegies
of nature and mother tongue
Nadir Ali
I consider Najam Hussain Syed's writings on
literary criticism to be his greatest contribution to Punjabi literature
though his literary work, comprising 22 books, covers other subjects like
poetry and drama as well. But I am writing this article on his poetry
rather than on his critical writings. This may be because poetry is
usually thought to be more representative and personal of a writer's work.
Even in its transcendental and universalised forms, poetry remains a
deeply personal expression.
She without an S
Nadir
Ali
Characterisation of 'woman' in Punjabi literature is unique
in more than one ways. For instance, she is portrayed as the lover rather
than the beloved -- the ma'shooq of Persian ghazal; she is described as a
member of the female collective -- trinjan or aatan; she is shown in the
dialectics of mother-daughter relationship and finally the poet entirely
or frequently assumes the voice of a woman. Shah Hussain sings entirely in
a woman's voice; Bulleh Shah, Sachal Sarmast and Khwaja Farid frequently
do this; Guru Nanak, Sultan Bahu and countless others resort to it
occasionally.
A class
view of poetry
Nadir Ali
There is some
of Najm Hosain Syed's work, where you can tell the earlier writings from
his later ones, at least in his poetry, but not in his prose, criticism or
drama. This book is a collection of newspaper articles written by him in
his mid 20s. But it is as mature and authoritative as his later work in
the last forty years. It is a measure of the classic quality of his work,
right from the outset. The book under review is the only one in English,
all the rest of his 23 books are in Punjabi.
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