|
Remembering Amrita
Pritum
I.K.Gujral
In the words of a famous writer -
Gulzar Singh Sandhu. " Amrita Pritum put the Punjabi literature on
the world map. No other writer as as synonymous with the Punjabi
literature as she-hers was a familiar name even for those not
acquainted with Punjabi. She cocked a snook even for those not
acquainted with Punjabi. She cocked a snook at convention and
defied social norms. There was no split between life and
literature for Amrita because was her life...:
With the passing away of Amrita
Pritam, a charming friend and a more charming writer is no more.
Recipient of the coveted Jnapith
Award, Amrita Pritum was a symbol of fight for women's rights
amongst the contemporary Indian writers. She was a valiant
crusader for various causes that she fought so courageously, Much
maligned for her bold narrations of some happenings in her life,
she, invariable evinced courage of conviction and eminently
vindicated a writer's inalienable right to speak out his or her
heart and mind.
It was a long and arduous journey
that Amrita Pritum traversed. Starting her career of a poetess who
talked about her passions in the garb of traditional symbols, her
works came to be peopled with incestuous fathers and mothers
eloping with their sons. A sensitive artist, she did al this by
weaving it in the fabric of social reality. Never for a moment she
offends good taste though she may be treading on orthodox toes.
She had come a long way from the old fairy tale magic of her
poetry of youth. There is defiance against all that is outworn and
obsolete in her writing today.
Amrita Pritum has constantly highlighted man's disaffection to
woman and has written poetry and fiction of ardent passion on this
themes.
A poem entitled "Kumari" ( The Virgin) in Kaghiz te Canvas
(named for the Jnapith Award) tells the story of a modern girl
with all the sophistication of a protagonist of change in the
poetess:
When I moved into your bed
I was not alone - there were
two of us
A married woman and a virgin
To sleep with you
I had to offer the virgin in
me
I did so
This slaughter is permissible
in law
Not the indignity of it
And I bore the onslaught of
the insult
the next morning
I looked at my blood-0stained hands
I washed my hands
The way I tidied the foul-smelling organs
But the moment I stood before the mirror
I found her standing there
The one whom I thought I had slaughtered last night
- Oh God!
- Was it too dark in your bed
- I had to kill one and I
killed the other?
-
I know that she is equally popular in Pakistan,
chiefly, due to her famous poem " Aj Akhan Waris Shah Nuri" ( I invoke Waris
Shah today), lamenting the plight of Punjab during the holocaust of 1947. Some
eminent critics believe that " Amrita Pritum was at her best in Sunehe (Messge)
published in 1955 in which she mixes the romantic and the sentimental within
whith the progressive callings outside. It was also the time when she was moving
away from conjugal bindings. This collection won her the Sahitya Akademi Award,
followed by invitations from a host of literary societies. She was also awarded
honorary doctorates from more than one university. Her national and
international acclamations soared to the skies. At this point, her prose
writings, especially fiction, got the better of her mainly because of the
instant popularity of this genre amongst the Hindi-reading public."
Let me conclude be once again joining you all to
recall her immortal ode to the legacy of our own Waris Shah:
|
Ajj akhan Waris Shah nu
Kitte kabran vichon bol
Te ajj kitab-e-Ishq da
Koi agala varka phol
ik royi si dhi Punjab di
Tu likh-likh mare ven
Ajj lakhan dhian rondiyan
Tainu Waris Shah nu kehan
|
- I call out to Waris Shah today
- To speak out form the grave
- And open another leaf
- From the book of love
- When one daughter of
- Punjabi hap wept
- You wrote a million daughters are warping
- And they are looking up to you,
- Waris Shah, for solace
|
|
