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Pull of Punjabiyat
A fact that was obliterated in the communal turmoil visiting Punjab on the eve of Independence is that the Punjabis never wanted Partition. They did not vote for it. In fact, when the modalities of Partition of the subcontinent were being hammered out, the Punjab had a Unionist Government headed by Khizar Hyat Tiwana. The latter had Hindus and Sikhs, along with Muslims, in his cabinet giving due representation to the leading political parties in the state. Another fact that gives lie to the Partition of the Punjab is that the Communist Party of India, which accepted and advocated Partition, was completely wiped out in the assembly elections. The electorate did not return even one member of their party. Though communal frenzy wrecked Khizar’s government, he remained committed to the inviolability of punjabiyat, (Punjabi identity) which he felt could successfully undo the unnatural divide of the Punjab. A staunch critic of the
two-nation theory, as recorded by his son in Khizar’s memoirs, he met
Jinnah and pleaded that Tiwanas were Muslims as well as Hindus and
Sikhs, how on earth could they be two different nations? No one listened
to him. Punjab was divided. Broken-hearted, Khizar Hyat left Punjab soon
after Partition and spent most of his time in exile. In 1964, while
addressing a London audience he said: |
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An inveterate believer in the secular character of the Punjabi spirit, a week before he died in San Francisco in 1975, he asserted: "Some kind of a new socio-political order would emerge in the subcontinent which would transcend the artificial 1947 Partition." Though Khizar Hyat passed away with his vision of Punjabi-speaking people "transcending limitations of the geographical map", the Punjabi identity that came to be known as punjabiyat, continues to be reflected in Punjabi writing both in the West and East Punjab. It has refused to die. Starting with Amrita Pritam, who in the midst of communal rioting in August 1947, evoked the spirit of Waris Shah, the renowned Punjabi bard, with her immortal poem Aj aakhan Waris Shah nun kite kabran vichon bol (Today I ask Waris Shah to speak out from his grave), Mohan Singh, the most eminent poet of the day invoked Guru Nanak. There is agony in his words, a dirge in the phrase. O Baba tera watan hai veeran ho gaya Jugan di sadi sabhta pairin chitad gae Sadian de sade khoon da nahan ho gaya. (O Baba, your land has been devastated. Our age-old culture is molested under feet. And our blood of centuries alienated.) The fight against the religious divide continues in both parts of the Punjab. This, despite the political hazards and physical distance since flights have been stopped, trains discontinued and flow of reading material from one country into the other has been prevented. Here is a young, not-too-well-known Pakistani poet disagreeing with Iqbal who is said to have conceived the establishment of Pakistan: Sabh ton pehle main karda han nindya yaro! Bale de is khab di, Main nahin manda main nahin manda Wand apne Punjab di. (Friends! in the first instance I traduce, Iqbal’s misled vision. I don’t accept, I don’t accept My dear Punjab’s division.) The latest is a heart-rending story which has travelled through the Meer, a Punjab quarterly. In the story, Ilyas Ghuman, a Punjabi writer in Pakistan (who frequently figures in the newspapers and journals in the East Punjab) paints agonising moments of the passing away of Ahmed Rahi, the most popular Punjabi poet of West Punjab who wrote songs and scripts of some of the unforgettable films like Heer Ranjha, Sassi Pannun, Murad, Mahi Munda and Bazi. The story in Ilyas Ghuman’s words: "He had a severe attack of paralysis. He was brought to Mayo Hospital in a precarious condition. All the eminent physicians of Lahore were trying their best to save his life. But he showed little improvement. Half of his body had been paralysed. His speech had become incoherent. His condition was deteriorating every moment, when all of a sudden, those standing around his bed noticed a movement in his limbs. As the patient’s lips seemed to move, the nurse took her ear near his mouth to listen what he wished to communicate. From her facial expression, it appeared that she was striving hard. Then all of a sudden she realised what the patient said. Bewildered, she removed herself from the bed and told all those present — Baba ji says, "take me to Amritsar". Hearing this everyone around had tears in their eyes. The patient was Ahmed Rahi born in Koocha Dharamsala Soodan, Katra Bhai, Amritsar on November 12, 1923." |
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