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Rich
Heritage of Punjabi Dalit Literature -
Raj Kumar Hans -
xploring
histories of Dalit literature in different languages of I The Punjabi dalit literary tradition begins with Bhai Jaita alias Jeevan Singh (c1655-1705) who was very close to Gurus’ household as he was the one who had carried the severed head of Guru Teg Bahdur from Delhi to Anandpur and in his late years composed a devotional epic ‘Sri Gur Katha’ around Guru Gobind Singh’s life somewhere around 1699-1700. Historical significance of this epic lies in the fact that Bhai Jaita provides an eyewitness account to a few centrally important events in the life of Guru Gobind Singh and Sikh history. That he was not just a poet but a thinking poet is attested from his composition when he says: Jal
bin jeevan hohe na kabhun, Garab
maih jeev kau gyan na hohe hain. Jiv
chintan bin cheet na hoye hain, Ar
chintan bin janam na koye hain. Iv
janani dharni chintan ki, Chintan
jeev kai chit ki loye hain. Ar
sab chintan dharan te hoye hain, Ta
kar dharni janani hoye hain. (There
can be no life without water and a human being cannot have knowledge while
in mother’s womb. As there cannot be any knowledge without thinking,
there can be no life without ‘thinking’. As this earth gives birth to
all knowledge, thinking is the light of the living being. Since all
thinking grows from the womb of Earth that is reason it is called the
Mother.) Our second dalit saint-poet Sadhu Wazir Singh (c1790-1859) attained the status of ‘Brahmgyani’ and prolifically composed philosophical and cultural poetry, both in Punjabi and Braj bhasha. A small part of his published poetry as selected by Shamsher Singh Ashok in Siharfian Sadhu Wazir Singh kian is a window to a wide range of his knowledge, from religious and spiritual to social and political. He questions all religious establishments and argues for a non-dualistic approach to life. Since he was engaged in deep thinking and in giving creative expressions to his thoughts numerous disciples including poets joined his dera. All the five of his identified poet disciples including two young widows came from the high castes. One of them is veer Singh Sahgal while Nurang Devi turns out to be the first Punjabi poetess groomed under his tutorship. His assertion on going beyond the established religions is well captured in his 12th Siharfi where he says: Kaaf-
kade Koran di lod naahin, vekh pothian thothian paarde han. Rehras
namaz di khahash naahin, dharamsal masit nun saarde han. Gang,
Gaya Pryag nun tiyag keeta, gor marhi niyaz na chaarde han. Hoye
aap nirpakh Wazir Singha, pakhan dohan di khed nun taarde han. (We
don’t need Koran as we also tear the empty granths. There is no desire
for Rehras (referring here to Guru Granth Sahib), as we burn temples and
mosques. We have abandoned the Ganges, The
next dalit intellectual writer Giani Ditt Singh (1852-1901) emerged as a
poet, teacher, polemicist, journalist, orator and ardent Sikh missionary
who turned out to be the pillar of the Singh Sabha movement. Ditt
Singh’s scholarly talents came in handy for the Sikh movement. Lahore
Singh Sabha floated a weekly newspaper, the Khalsa
Akhbar in 1886. He assumed editorship of the paper in 1887 that he
continued till his death in 1901. Meanwhile, he was also appointed as a
professor of Punjabi at the Our
next dalit intellectual poet is Sadhu Daya Singh Arif (1894-1946) who came
to master the Gurmukhi, Urdu, Persian, Arbic and Sanskrit scripts and
languages with the help of several non-formal teachers who were stunned by
his sharp intellect. Not only that he had studied Vedas, Puranas, Smritis,
Granth Sahib and Quran during his teenage, he also had read wide range of
secular literature and as also reached the stage of ‘Brahmgyani’
through meditation and contemplation like Sadhu Wazir Singh which is
apparent from his assuming the title of ‘Arif’. His first poetical
work ‘Fanah-dar-Makan’ was published when he just turned 20. This was
written in sadh bhasha and
emphasised the quintessential element of mortality in human existence. Due
to somewhat difficult language and style of composition he was advised by
Baba Sawan Das, his Sanskrit teacher, to revise it and write in simple
language. He was bursting with so much of creative energy that he
altogether produced another kissa
entitled ‘Fanah da Makan’, first published in 1915, which became very
popular throughout the Daya Singh comes to the theme of prevailing communal division again and again. Listen! What he says in his discourse on 56th Year in Zindagi Bilas: Unity
I see all around, wherever my eyes rove Superior
claims of faith, Hindus and Muslims fight over Mere
jugglery of words, Essence of Ram and Rahim the same Of
Castist belief untouchability born, both made of the soil same Children
of same parents, if they just see Origins Forsaking
God, they worship false objects, get astray into aimlessness Give
up evils for salvation, devils you remain sans praxis Daya
Singh has left partisanship, in every sector, every deed Daya Singh was aware of all the competing revivalist tendencies and religious polemical wars around the turn of century as he says in the ‘Fanah da Makan’: Varnas
and religions all, exclusive claims of purity Hindus
with Har Narayan, hold their principles True Pastors
and Dayanandi Aryas pronounce, no deliverance without them Exclusive
rights in Heaven say Muslims, no place for Hindus there God
has no enmity with Hindus, keeps no exclusive place for Muslims Fight
they all over religion, without knowing the Unknown Filthy
n empty sans good deeds, paupers they are, without a penny Daya
Singh false claims the world may make; no recognition without actions He holds Brahminical ritualism with same contempt as did bhagats and Sufis. He is deadly against idol worship. The Islamic influence on his mind is quite obvious as he has used 18 aayets in his 3 qissas. Similarly, Sufi influence is manifest in his insistence on murshid, guru without whom the seeker cannot reach the Divine. The concept of ishq is present at several places in Daya Singh’s works. Towards the close of Zindagi Bilas in ‘Uttam Updesh No. 39’ he says: Creator
is happy loving his Creation, be happy in the service of that creation No
knowledge without guru, beseech murshid
for the purpose Death
is premium for lovers’ union, emboldened you be like true lover Be
reformed thoroughly before counselling others with confidence Elated
be not with worldly joys, be soaked in ishq’s
spring Reads
He your heart’s letters, send your sweetheart an urgent telegram The
importance of Sadhu Daya Singh is manifold. First and foremost, he is the
first Dalit Punjabi poet to attain the widest possible popularity, the
kind of popularity enjoyed by Waris Shah, in the undivided The
rise of Ad Dharm movement in Gurdas
Ram Aalam (1912-1989), who was born in a poor Dalit family of Bundala
village in Jallandhar district, happens to be the first Punjabi poet with
dalit consciousness. Aalam was not able to go to school and learnt basic
Gurmukhi letters from his friends. Even though illiterate, Aalam emerged
as one of popular folk-poets of stage before the Partition. All the four
books of his poems were full of social and economic issues of the deprived
and oppressed caste-communities. On political and social issues, Aalam
wrote like a revolutionary. No wonder, even Pash (who has become symbol of
Punjabi revolutionary poetry) considered Aalam the first revolutionary
poet of Hazara
Singh Mushtaq (1917-1981) was different from his predecessor dalit poets.
He was an ardent nationalist, flag-bearer of Indian National Congress and
was also jailed a few times during the late-colonial rule for his
nationalism. Of his seven books published, Kissa
Mazhbi Sikh Jodha (1955) directly reflected his dalit concerns. Though
he does not chide ‘ The
revolutionary rise that The two powerful revolutionary dalit poets were an upsurge on the Punjabi literary stage which had remained dominated by the upper-caste, upper-class litterateurs and they became a major source for the bursting of dalit literary energy in 1990s. If their poetry was looking for a revolutionary class change, it had the vivacity of dalit identity which was capable of challenging the hegemonic discourses. Sukhdev Singh Sirsa puts this change in perspective: The
question of dalit identity has given a new ideological context to the
contemporary Punjabi literature. The new Punjabi poetry has given a new
expression to the dalit concerns of existential and social identity. This
new perspective disentangles itself from the class-conflict approach to
the understanding of dalit identity in the Contemporary poets include Balbir Madhopuri, Siri Ram Arsh, Sulakhan Mit, Gurmeet Kalarmajri, Madan Vira, Manjit Kadar, Bhagwan Dhilon, Buta Singh Ashant, Manmohan, Mohan Tyagi, Mohan Matialvi, Jaipal, Iqbal Gharu, Harnek Kaler, Sadhu Singh Shudrak. They are assertive about their dalit identity as dalit political assertion in the past few decades has empowered them to re-read historical traditions and situate themselves by providing a pride of space in the otherwise historical trajectory denied to them. This is obvious from the following lines of two contemporary dalit poets. Manmohan in ‘Agaz’ raises his voice: It
is said to me The
colour of your poem is black Flat
features Tattered
dress Full
of patches Asymmetrical
rhythm.... Sorrow
appears before pleasure does Pains
peaks before peace.... Tell
me now If
i don’t write poems like this What
should i do? Listen what Balbir Madhopuri has to offer in his ‘Bhakhda Patal’ (Smouldering Netherworld): For
smoked skinned people like me I
do want My
poems Should
be part of that anthology That
contains Stories
of Eklavaya and Banda Bahadur Struggle
of Pir Buddhu Shah Sensitivity
of Pablo Neruda The Punjabi short story had remained a story of the dominant Jatts or the urban elite for long time, although stray empathetic notes could be seen in the second generation of story-writers in the 1950s-60s. It is only in the 1970s with Attarjit’s ‘Bathlu Chamiar’ that Punjabi short-story weaves a complete dalit character from dalit perspective. His collections of story ‘Maas-khore’, ‘Tutde bannde Rishte’, ‘Adna Insan’, and ‘Anni Theh’ construct the assertive dalit consciousness. Similarly if Prem Gorkhi and Bhura Singh Kaler bring vitality to the dalit short story, Lal Singh and Nachhatar’s stories give a distinct personality to dalits. During the 1980s and 90s dalit story consolidates itself with Makhan Maan, Bhagwant Rasulpuri, Ajmer Sidhu, Des Raj Kali, Jinder, Gurmit Kadialavi, Sarup Sialvi, Gulzar Muhammad Goria and Mohan Philoria who declare themselves as dalits with pride and élan as they are inspired by Ambedkar’s ideology. The
Punjabi novel was the product of the early twentieth century and its
nature was religious in context and content. It is only after independence
that its scope gets widened. From Gurdial Singh’s dalit character Jagsir
who is still seen in the dominant-subordination landed relations, the
novel enters into different terrain of dalit consciousness. Gurcharan
Singh Rao’s Mashalchi (1986), Karnail Singh Nijhar’s Sarghi da Tara, Surjit Sokhi’s Aurat
te Aurat (1983), Karamjit Singh Aujhla’s Ooch Neech (2000), Nachhatar’s Buddhi Sadi da Manukh (1988)
and ‘Nikke Nikke Asman’ (2004), Gurmel Madahad’s Dulla and Des Raj
Kali’s Parneshwari (2007) have
chartered a speedy journey of producing the fulsome dalit novels.
Gurcharan Rao’s Mashalchi
holds untouchability practiced by high castes responsible for educational
backwardness of dalits. Nachhatar’s weaves a progressive story of dalit
march onward as compared to some of the jatts who sometimes come to them
to borrow money. Even on the question of sexuality one finds role
reversals where girls from upper castes fall in love with dalit boys
especially the educated ones. Madahad’s protagonist in Dulla
is a dalit woman Tej who does not consider herself less than any man. Not
only that she adds to the meagre family income but by igniting the dead
body of her mother to cremation, otherwise prohibited to women by social
practice, she raises the status of women in general. Tej emerges as a
courageous, strong and intelligent woman who shows independence of
character. She is conscious of good living, struggle to progress in life
and does not succumb to anybody. In Parneshwari, Des Raj Kali looks deep into the Dalit past, seeking to
lend them an identity when the contemporary social realities fail to
respond to their aspirations. His work is rooted in One
important genre used by dalit writers that becomes an explicit expression
of dalit consciousness is autobiographical writing. It authenticates the
real world of exclusionary orders and practices; of social ostracism,
caste discriminations, economic and sexual exploitation, and political
subordination; of wants, miseries, insults, humiliations but also the
world of dalit dreams, aspirations, struggles, sacrifices and rise.
Understandably, the dalit autobiographies appeared late on the Punjabi
literary horizon. The first such work happens to by Pandit Bakshi Ram’s Mera
Jeevan Sangharash [My life Struggle], hardly known and referred to as
it was not published by any established publisher but by Punjab Pradesh
Balmik Sabha, Jalandhar, a caste-community organization, in 1983 and
Balmiks happened to be the lowest of the low, mainly working as scavengers
in the towns and cities. Lal Singh Dil’s Dastan
is a poignant account almost poetic (essentially being a poet, his prose
in Dastan reads like a poem) of
his life as a dalit, as a revolutionary, as a person on the margins of
every facet of life. He goes into those issues of everyday life where he
felt humiliated, neglected, ignored, despised, dismissed and tortured as
he also records those who befriended, encouraged, stood by, helped and
consoled. Balbir Madhopuri’s autobiography Chhangia
Rukh (The Lopped Tree) appeared in 2003 and stirred the Punjabi
literary world by baring the real rural social life the way it was not
done before. It is a powerful portrayal of dalit life-world. Equally
important is the 2007 autobiography by another dalit writer Gurnam Aqida
called Kakh Kande: Nij ton Haqiqat
Val [Blades of Grass and Thistles: from Self towards Reality]. Said in
a novel stylistic prose it is a poignant account of rural-urban continuum
as far as the dalits’ position is concerned. It challenges the dominant
strains and takes dalits’ story forward in a progression. He looks at
the changing times with a positive glare where a silent ‘revolution’
seems to be taking place with the dalits’ movement from villages and
getting free from the upper-caste’s day-to-day exploitation and
oppression. His account hints at the steady rise of dalit consciousness
and assertion. Being an upright and honest journalist he had to face the
caste prejudice and attacks where he came to be considered as a kanda (Hindi kanta-thistle)
by his corrupt superiors and jealous colleagues. The autobiography of
Attarjit adds another dimension to the dalit life-world of II The essay had begun with a comment on state of literary histories that how the elitist approaches in history writing have systematically excluded dalit writers only because of their caste and social marginalisation. We have seen above a rich heritage of Punjabi dalit writings, the vitality of dalit creativity and the best informed in Punjabi literary circles and historians are either just ignorant of these fascinating figures or they feign ignorance. Even when one can understand ignorance about writings of Bhai Jaita and Sadhu Wazir Singh as they came to light only in the last three decades how one makes a sense of this neglect when one talks of Daya Singh Arif’s poetry which ruled the Punjabi minds for a century? This section would take account of writings on histories of Punjabi literature even while focussing on Daya Singh’s case. The first ‘path-breaking’ A History of Punjabi Literature in English was written by Mohan Singh Oberoi Diwana in 1932. He was a sound scholar with facility in Punjabi, Urdu, Persian, Hindi and English languages besides being a creative writer. Sadhu Daya Singh was Diwana’s contemporary and by the time the latter wrote his history the former had made a mark as one of the most popular poets of his times. It is unlikely that Diwana would be ignorant of Daya Singh’s work, and yet he does not mention his name even in his chart of minor poets of the British period. One can give him the benefit of doubt in his first edition. But omitting Daya Singh in the second edition of his history published in 1956 is not easy to understand. Here, Tejwant Singh Gill’s observation seems to be apt about “his haughty temperament that led him to deal arrogantly with his contemporaries.” (“Studying Punjabi literature of the Past” in Muse India (e-journal), http://www.museindia.com/showcont.asp?id=67) In the case of Daya Singh, Gill’s further assessment of Diwana appears to be problematic when he continues: “So much so, while dealing with the modern period, he had the audacity to ignore them altogether, and mention only those who wrote in the commonplace idiom and did not have claim to literary achievement worth the name.” One does not know whom he has in mind when he talks about Diwana’s ‘ignoring them altogether’ because Diwana talks very highly of Bhai Vir Singh (1872-1957), Dhani Ram Chatrik (1876-1954) and Puran Singh (1881-1931) and celebrates them as ‘three pioneer Lyricists-Intellectualists’. He surely accommodates several such who to Gill ‘did not have claim to literary achievement worth the name’. Daya Singh could surely be counted among ‘those who wrote in the commonplace idiom’, and yet he does not even get mentioned in Diwana’s list where only writers’ names and their works are given. Mohan
Singh Diwana was a pioneer, the trend-setter in the historiography of
Punjabi literature. While he wrote in English, the English the English
would write, those following him in this respect and writing in Punjabi
followed him literally as a revered authority. If Diwana included or
excluded someone in/from the history, his successors would not do
otherwise. This is remarkable for the culture of history writing in The
writer would indeed have willingly omitted not a few of the minor authors
in pure literature, and devoted his space only to the masters. But each of
these springs from an underwood, as it were, of thought and effort of men
less conscious whom it were ungrateful and is practically impossible to
pass by in silence. (History,
1956, p. V) Diwana adds to what Lang was saying: “The reader has his orthodoxies and heresies; so has the writer and it will be much good if both recognize…” Surely, Diwana had right to his ‘orthodoxies’. But if he was pitching in Lang as an authority on history of literature one would expect him to follow the master of the game in spirit if not in details. Even if Daya Singh was a ‘minor’ poet in Diwana’s eyes, which he was not as highlighted above, Daya Singh certainly wielded capacity to ‘spring from an underwood of thought’ not to be bypassed ‘in silence’. Yet Daya Singh was indeed silenced as if popular lips who sang him in bazaars and in the fields were being stitched together. It is
in 1971 that Kirpal Singh Kasel in the 2nd volume of his
‘Punjabi Sahit da Itihas’ takes some note of our neglected poet. At
least he writes 3 lines about Sadhu Daya Singh. The historian admits that
Daya Singh wrote so well that he has been very popular among common
people. But even in these 3 lines Kasel errs on the titles of both the
works that he cites. He writes Jindagi Bilas as Jindagi
Vilas, a minor error, and Fanah
da Makan as Fanah da Muqam. Diwana’s exclusion is carried through decades to an authoritative work of historiography of Punjabi literature produced by Sahitya Akademi in 1992. Sant Singh Sekhon and Kartar Singh Duggal like Diwana do not mention Daya Singh even as a minor poet in their ‘A History of Punjabi Literature’ although in the interregnum a well-researched monograph on the poet had appeared in two prints (Atam Hamrahi’s Sadhu Daya Singh Arif was published by the Publication Bureau of Punjabi University in 1970. The book was out of print in the late-1980s; hence a second print was brought out in 1990). There
should be no doubt that Sant Singh Sekhon was a towering Marxist figure of
Punjabi literature. In the last phase of his life, he also turned to
writing history of Punjabi literature. There is a gap of nearly 60 years
between Diwana’s and Sekhon’s histories. Much water had flown in the This in short, is the history of ‘coverage’ of Sadhu Daya Singh and his works in the 70 years of historiography of Punjabi literature. Indeed, it is a history of selective ‘silence’, of neglect and above all of exclusion. Not that Daya Singh’s contemporary ‘minor’ poets and writers get the similar treatment at the hands of historians. In the first place, Daya Singh is not a minor poet as discussed in this paper. He is one of the most popular poets of the first half of the twentieth century. But obviously he gets shadowed by the much lionised and valorised trio of Bhai Vir Singh, Puran Singh, and Dhani Ram Chatrik. Undoubtedly the three were towering literary figures, and are held at high pedestal not without foundation. But all of them also happened to be very rich as also they hailed from ‘upper castes’. On the other hand, Sadhu Daya Singh was born in an ‘untouchable’ poor family of labourers where social stigma and heaps of insults in daily life were surely detrimental to any comfortable creative activity. Being born a Dalit was a sufficient reason to be excluded from the charmed circle of high-caste writers. And surely, this treatment was not only ‘reserved’ for Daya Singh alone. Another popular Dalit poet chronologically following him has also been treated in the same cavalry fashion, in this respect without discrimination. Gurdas Ram Aalam was born in a poor Dalit family of Bundala village in Jallandhar district. Even though illiterate, Aalam had emerged as one of popular folk-poets of the stage before the Partition. He used to share the stage with the better known names in the Punjabi literary circles, viz. Kartar Singh Ballagan, Vidhata Singh Teer, Nandlal Nurpuri and Dhani Ram Chatrik. Unlike Daya Singh who focussed on moral and spiritual crises confronting the universal man, Aalam clearly grew up with Dalit consciousness and composed his poems and lyrics on the working people. All the four books of his poetry were full of social and economic issues of the deprived and oppressed caste-communities. He wrote with commitment and convictions and publicly presented his poetry powerfully on stage. On political and social issues, Aalam wrote like a revolutionary. Such a widely known, popular poet like Daya Singh was also written off from the pages of histories. There must be social structural and psychological reasons for their exclusion. An attempt needs be made to unravel the sources of such silences, neglects and exclusions. <> Indian
Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla |