He was eighty when he died. It seems a long life if we keep in mind the average age granted to us on this planet. But in terms of cosmic time, it’s less than nothing. “The world (of individual), a night’s dream that lasts as long as it takes to bat an eyelid,” says poet Hafiz Barkhurdar in his tale of Sahiban in which the dauntless male protagonist, named Mirza, is cut down in young age who incidentally happens to be Afzal Ahsan Randhawa’s favourite hero. He, as a writer, idealises the person who, instead of submitting or fleeing, goes down fighting in a conflict situation. His love for such a character perhaps stems from subterranean longings of the Punjabis to be tough, facing barbarians and invaders from the North, the South and the East because of their fertile land and wealth.

Randhawa started his literary carrier with the publication of his novel ‘Deva Tay Darya (The Lamp and River)’ in 1961which created stir among the writers and readers of Punjabi literature who were anyway in small number at that point of time. His very first novel showed great promise and established him as a fiction writer in young age. The act of writing in Punjabi was culturally and politically highly significant in the sense that it was an act of defiance. That’s why in that period one could count the names of the writers on the fingers of one hand who wrote in their mother language this side of the Punjab.

The newly created state and the people at the helm not only denigrated Punjabi language but also perceived it as a potent threat to the national unity which was ill-conceived to say the least. Brave creative minds such as Joshua Fazaldin, Ustad Daman, Ahmed Rahi, Sharif Kunjahi, Afzal Khan, Ainul Haq Faridkoti, Safdar Mir, Sardar Mohammad Khan, Asif Khan, Shafqat Tanveer Mirza, Najam Hosain Syed, Afzal Pervaiz, Baqi Siddiqi, Anwar Ali, Saleem Khan Gimmi, Zafar Lashari, Akbar Lahori, Irshad Punjabi, Tanveer Bukhari, A.D. Ejaz, Nawaz, Riffat and Munir Niazi had a flame of passion for the culture of Punjab and carried forward the tradition of writing in the mother language in the 1950s and 60s against all the odds.

After his early success as a writer Randhawa never looked back. He became active in the movement launched by the writers and cultural activists whose sole aim was to get the legitimate rights of mother language and people’s culture recognised. Such an activity was not as simple as it may seem at the face of it because of peculiar politico-ideological conditions in the aftermath of bloody partition of the Punjab. Demand for the rights of mother language alarmed and outraged the power holders to the extent that they declared it subversive. The activists and writers were dubbed as Indo-Soviet (erstwhile Soviet Union) agents with the agenda to harm the national unity and harmony by raising the issue of language. Majlis Shah Hussain, a literary and cultural body was banned on the charge of unpatriotic activities by Ayub Khan’s dictatorial regime in 1960s.

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Randhawa, being a conscious writer, was proud to be in the vanguard of Punjabi language movement. He remained active in the cultural politics till his last years despite the painful situation created by the sudden death of his only son some years ago that emotionally devastated him. Death of Professor Aysha Randhawa, his wife, last year further filled him with anguish.

Randhawa was a versatile writer; he composed poetry, wrote novels, short stories and plays, and did translations. If we look at his oeuvre, certain themes stand out, such as defiance of and resistance against oppression, haunting memories of united Punjab and powerful image of chivalrous male. His characters, grounded in our cultural reality, at times evoke our past creating a dimension which we rarely find in our contemporary prosaic existence. He was temperamentally not interested in pigmies that symbolised mundane nothingness of modern times. What appeared larger than life to him stirred his imagination. That’s perhaps the reason why he created stories and characters from the innards of undivided Punjab which was richer in the sense of being far more diverse and pluralistic. And consequently, it was culturally far more robust. Now Punjab is a pale shadow of its past. East Punjab stands cleansed of the Muslims while West Punjab looks horribly monotonous after having wiped out the Hindus and the Sikhs from its entrails. In Randhawa’s imaginative world, we inherit this ancient land of rivers as Punjabis, not as Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs et al.

He was a towering figure literally as well as metaphorically and was loved both sides of Punjab for his political stance, cultural vision and creative writings. He can undoubtedly be counted among the pioneers of modern literary practice that continues to shape our creative expression and expand the limits of our imagination. Some of his writings will definitely stand the test of time and will continue to inspire the generations to come.