By Rehan Aslam Piracha

The News Karachi Edition

That language and politics are interlinked is a foregone conclusion especially in the South Asian context where Hidi-Urdu and Urdu-Bengali controversy are deemed by many as one of the determining factors in the region's troubled history of the last few decades.

But Maqsood Saqib, a Punjabi short story writer and poet, says the movement for Punjabi language's acceptance as a medium of instruction and as official language of Punjab attempts at unification rather than division. Saqib -- who has been working for the cause of Punjabi language for the last 25 years and is the editor of a Lahore-based Punjabi literary monthly, Pancham --says after 50 years of Pakistan's existence as a country we have managed to create a belief in a Pakistani culture but this imaginary concept is not rooted in the land and the people. Basing a national culture on indigenous languages and cultures strengthens rather than weakens it, he adds. Maqsood Saqib is not averse to the concept of a national language but says it should be chosen from among the indigenous (his favourite alternative for word regional) languages. "If for the purposes of impartiality and to serve as a lingua franca, however, it has to a non-indigenous one like Urdu then its teaching should only be functional and should not try to thwart the development of the indigenous languages. Thus Urdu should be taught as a functional language and the state should not try to produce Ghalibs, Nazeers and Ruswas out of the local populace by launching an Urdu blitzkrieg in schools, colleges and media".

A staunch advocate for literary causes, especially the one related to Punjabi language, he does not buy the idea that most writers took up writing in Punjabi after failing to make their mark in Urdu. This, he says, is because "Punjabi's readership is very low and creating Punjabi literature is not as financially lucrative as compared to the one produced in Urdu". He, however, concedes that there are some bilingual writers who "belatedly and condescendingly jumped onto the bandwagon of Punjabi literature in order to 'better' the language by their august presence".

Maqsood Saqib's concern for Punjabi is not accidental. He still remembers how his mother would recite Waris Shah's poetry, Mian Muhammad Bukhsh's Saiful Malook, Boota Gujrati's Harfian and Maulvi Abdul Sattar's sermons. His father would often ask him to recite Waris Shah's poetry. He laments the fact that nowadays most people do not have Punjabi literary classics with them though some fifty years ago these were present in almost every Punjabi household. "This is distancing them from their cultural and literary heritage."

His strong imagination forced him to dabble in writing when in secondary school. Interestingly he first wrote in Urdu which, he says, had taken him into a land of fantasy, away from the green fields and rustic surrounding of Sheikhupura where he was brought up. His writings were published in a couple of Urdu literary magazines like Adbe Latif but soon he gave up writing in Urdu. "Whenever I wrote in Urdu its grandiose words overpowered my thoughts. It was not me that was writing but the words that were dictating me," he explains.

"I once threw away Manto's book after reading his short story Naya Qanoon. Imagine a Punjabi rustic, a kochwaan, speaking Urdu! The Punjabi language has it own set of words to describe the cultural peculiarities of its speakers. Urdu can't faithfully describe a Punjabi context." This awareness deepened as he entered college and discovered Punjabi as a medium best suited to describe his experiences. He started a magazine, Ruth Lekha while at the Punjab University in 1973-74. It was devoted to the development of modern thought in Punjabi and to bring about a renaissance in Punjabi literature. He next launched Maan Boli in the 1980's which gave way to Pancham in 1998.

He says in Pancham he tries to use Punjabi words instead of their Urdu alternatives as is the case with most Punjabi writers in Pakistan. "You don't write a Urdu ghazal with Punjabi words," he explains.

Saqib says the Britishers' exploitative policies were responsible for Punjabi's neglect. "The Britishers who subdued the Sikhs to conquer Punjab after tough fight set about obliterating what the Punjabis cherished the most, their culture and language. They were aided in this by the rising Indian bourgeoisie who advocated the use of Urdu over Punjabi. Many bourgeoisie writers from Punjab including Iqbal, Faiz, Manto and others espoused Urdu to advance their class interests but to the detriment of Punjabi, their mother tongue." He says it was only the Sikhs that remained faithful to the Punjabi language while the Hindu and Muslim Punjabis took to Hindi and Urdu respectively. The need of teach in the mother tongue, he says, is all the more strongly felt in this information-driven age because Punjabi is a living language rooted in the people against "Urdu which is a fossilized remnant of the imperial and decadent Mughal culture. Teaching in a language other than the mother tongue creates dissonance and lack of comprehension."

Saqib says the common perception of a weak prose tradition in Punjabi is not correct. To prove his point he cites the example of 16th Century sermons of Nosho Gunj Baksh. "The prose tradition in Punjabi is even older than the one in Urdu."

But he stresses that the onus of strengthening the prose tradition lies with the people and not with the language. He also criticises the view that Punjabi does not have language structures that a novelist requires. "This means that there are divinely endowed novelistic and non-novelistic languages. Secondly, the writer who takes up Urdu for this reason is not well off either, he should have better placed if he tried to write in Russian which can boast of a high number of great novels." And how come that Punjabi novels were written despite this lack of suitable structures, he asks and gives the names of Punjabi novelists like Kirdar Singh Dugal, Guru Dial Singh, Amreeta Preetam, Sardar Guru Buksh Singh and Jaswant Singh Kanwal to drive his point home. Saqib is against using the term Sufi poetry to mention Punjabi classical poets as Baba Farid, Shah Hussain, Waris Shah, Sultan Bahu, Bulleh Shah, Khwaja Farid and Mian Muhammad Bukhsh. He sees it as an effort to reduce the poetry to a limited sphere.

He regards Najam Hussain Syed as the greatest living Punjabi poet because of his modern sensibilities. Najam Hussain, according to him, is in the vanguard of Punjabi poetry, drama and criticism. He also rates highly the poetry of late Prof Asif Khan. He appreciates Zafar Iqbal for being well-versed in Punjabi tradition but he thinks Muneer Niazi is a traditionalist.

Maqsood Saqib says calling Seraiki an independent language is meant to delay official recognition of Punjabi. "Seraiki has never been considered separate from Punjabi, rather the classic Landha accent of Punjabi is more akin to Seraiki than other dialects. Every area has its own dialect and an exchange between people people living in different areas of the same region will eventually lead to a standard language. They all will form the rainbow of Punjabi." He believes the recently-held World Punjabi Conference was organised to bring Punjabis scattered all over the world together and work towards official recognition of their mother tongue in their respective countries. It was not meant to reverse history, he says and sees no immediate need for a common script for all Punjabis. But he adds that a new script has to be attuned to meet the needs of modern day science and technology.

Maqsood Saqib has two short story collections, Kahanian and Sucha tilla aur kahanian, to his credit. He has also written poetry in traditional Punjabi genres like Dhola, Boli, Kafi, Waar, Nazm and Harfi, which have been published in various literary magazines. His wife Faiza is also a poetess and the co-editor of Pancham. "Our marriage resulted more out of ideology than love," he quips.