This article is part of Saha Sutra on, an open online resource on the arts, cultures and heritage of India. Nirupama Dutt is a poet, journalist and translator based in Chandigarh. ( All poems translated from the Punjabi by Nirupama Dutt) Main Tainu Phir Milangi (‘I Will Meet You Yet Again’), dedicated to her partner Imroz, today enjoys an iconic status next only to her ode to Waris Shah: This would be followed by a line from one of her poems: ‘ Maan suche Ishq da hai, hunar da dava nahi’ (‘I cherish my chaste dedication and make no claims to the craft’). She often said of her poetry: “I have just returned what I learned from the saints, sufis and fakirs of the land of the five rivers!” A few Pakistani writers collected three green chadars (sheets) from the tombs of Sufi poets Waris Shah, Bulleh Shah and Sultan Bahu from across the border and presented her with the line: ‘You are the Waris (heir) of our Waris!’ Such was the love she inspired.Īlso read: Twenty-Seven Fragments of Love on World Poetry Day As she battled illness towards the end of her life, a precious gift came her way. Through her writing and her life, Pritam paved the way for freedom and choice for young writers, especially girls. The personal was indeed the political for her, and she wrote openly about her life, including the smoking of cigarettes - a religious taboo among the Sikh orthodoxy: She walked out of a loveless marriage, had an intense yet platonic romance with the famed Urdu poet Sahir Ludhianvi and, finally, a live-in relationship with artist Inderjit Imroz for nearly half a century. Her many honours also included receiving awards from Bulgaria and France.Ī crusader for gender equality and a woman’s right to live, love and write sans constraint, Pritam was often at the receiving end of unjust criticism.
She did her language proud by winning the Jnanpith Award in 1982 for Kagaz te Canvas ( Paper and Canvas), the first person to win the award for writing in Punjabi. Pritam had many firsts to her credit not only was she the first female Indian writer to receive the National Sahitya Akademi Award for Sunehade ( Messages) in 1956, she also received the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards as well as a nomination to the Rajya Sabha. It relates the story of a Sikh girl who was abducted by a Muslim because of a land feud, as his aunt had earlier been abducted by Sikhs. The other Partition work that came out some years later was Pinjar ( The Skeleton), which was made into a well-received Hindi film. He said, ‘Those few lines she composed made her immortal, in India and Pakistan!”Ī poster of the film Pinjar, based on Pritam’s book. Writer-journalist Khushwant Singh was the first to translate it into English. When he was released, he found many people had a copy of the poem in their pockets. Pritam recounted those times in her autobiography: ‘The most gruesome accounts of marauding invaders in all mythologies and chronicles put together will not, I believe, compare with the blood curling horrors of this historic year.”įaiz Ahmad Faiz later read it in jail in Pakistan.
She wrote it during a train journey from Delhi to Dehradun in 1948, as a 28-year-old refugee from Lahore: After that, there was no looking back.Īs 2019 heralds her centenary celebrations, we remember the poem that immortalised her, the first dirge to Partition by a Punjabi poet writing in any language: Ajj Akhan Waris Shah nu (‘Waris Shah, I Call out to You Today’).
However, it was at 16 - with Thandiyan Kirnan ( Cool Rays) - that she received critical acclaim and became the first modern poet of Punjab, eventually being considered a pillar of Punjabi poetry. Tutored by her father in rhyme and metre, she came out with her first book of poetry, Amrit Lehran ( Waves of Nectar), written in the spiritual tradition, at age 13.
Poetry and daydreams became companions to the lonely child. The daughter of Nand Sadhu (Kartar Singh Hitkari) and schoolteacher Raj Bibi, a Khatri Sikh couple, Pritam was born with a verse in her heart as her father was a spiritual poet in both the oral and written traditions.Īt the age of eight, she helped her father compose poetry. Immensely popular, she nurtured two generations of writers, including well-known names like Gurdial Singh, Dalip Kaur Tiwana and Shiv Kumar Batalvi. She also edited a Punjabi literary journal called Nagmani for 36 years. She authored 100 books in different genres-poetry, fiction, essays, biographies, memoirs-as well as a famous autobiography titled The Revenue Stamp ( Raseedi Ticket, 1976). Although she wrote in a regional language, Pritam enjoyed an iconic presence that was not just pan-Indian but international.
0 kommentar(er)
