Abdus Salam the Punjabi

I co-ordinated World Punjabi Conference held in Coventry in April 1984. It was the first ever academic meet on the theme of Punjabi nationality and identity. Mulk Raj Anand and Professor Attar Singh participated among others. That time East Punjab was going through an acute political crisis. Two months later Indian armed forces were to storm the Golden Temple Harmandir Sahib and few months after that anti-Sikh pogroms took place in Delhi and other parts of India .

The conference was the precursor of England-based Punjab Research Group and the International Journal of Punjab Studies later taken over by the University of California at Santa Barbara . Faiz refused to go though he was in London in self-exile. He saw ‘Indian hand’ behind the conference and preferred to be in the company of his American female translator.

Abdus Salam was also approached on his visit to London where he had his third home in Putney. He could not attend as he had prior engagements. He worked in Trieste Italy .

The dated note handwritten by Salam on 3 June 1983 on the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission yellow letter head is my treasured possession.

As we all know, Salam was a staunch supporter of introducing his mother tongue Punjabi as a medium of instruction from primary school level in West Punjab . It never happened. All true Punjabis hold their heads high when they see his photograph receiving the Nobel prize wearing Punjabi dress – pugRee turban and salwār with khussa - Punjabi shoes.

On the note one can see three names – Masud Khadarposh, Justice Cornelius and Ali Arshad – who were all supporters of the Punjabi cause. Salam called them theth –genuine - Punjabis. While talking in chaste Punjabi in Jhāngi accent, he was writing down the names to be invited to the conference and at the same time scribbled notes about physics.

When I see the note I always wonder what was then really going on in the beautiful mind of the great son of the Punjab ? Was it some elegant scientific thought revealed to him that moment when he was thinking of his homeland?

– Amarjit Chandan

Feb 2010