Dareechah-e-Nigaarish

Modern Punjabi Poetry and Punjabi Language in Pakistani Punjab

See my BlogPost on WordPress about Reviving Punjab but also nurturing Urdu in Pakistani Punjab

Unfortunately, the start of the year 2021 has witnessed the launch of an extremist social campaign on social media about the future of the Punjabi language in Pakistani Punjab.
 
A group of Punjabi writers and scholars are advocating that Urdu is a foreign language in the Pakistani Punjab and should be removed from this province while Punjabi should be revived.
 
These writers and scholar are advocating that Urdu no longer needs to be taught in the schools, colleges and universities of Pakistani Punjab nor should Urdu be allowed to remain the official language in Punjab Provincial Government offices, courts, provincial assembly et cetera.

Instead, they argue that Punjabi should be made a mandatory subject in schools and at the intermediate level in colleges throughout Pakistani Punjab at the expense of Urdu. They believe that Urdu is not needed as "raabtay kee zubaan" which would allow Punjabi people to communicate with Sindhi, Balochi, Pushtoon, Kashmiri, Gilgati and Balti people residing in the various provinces of the Pakistani Republic.

I feel that this is an extremist view and that BOTH Urdu and Punjabi should be taught in schools, colleges and universities of Pakistani Punjab. There could be many solutions possible. One option would be to make the teaching of Punjabi an Optional subject at the school and college level while keeping Urdu a Comnpulsory subject in schools and colleges. Another solution could be to make BOTH Punjabi and Urdu a Compulsory subject in schools and at the intermediate level in colleges.

I am all for an open, transparent debate on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube et cetera on this topic and I urge Pakistani Punjabis to remain polite in these social media debates and refrain from hate speech. This is the minimum that one can ask from a society nowadays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ایس  پنجابی شاعری دے سیکشن وچ ایہناں شاعراں دا کلام  رکھے آ گیا اے

پنجابی  شاعری  کمپیوٹر وِچ  ٹائپ کرں ڑ  وِچ  مشکلاں

شِو کمار بٹالوی سوانحی خاکہ

شِو کمار بٹالوی  نظماں

شِو  کمار  بٹالوی   گیت

شِو کمار بٹالوی میوزک وڈیوز

نسرین انجم بھٹی

سیّد آصف علی شاہکار

منظور جھّلا  گیت

منظور جھلّا میوزک وڈیوز

احمد راہی پنجابی گیت تے وڈیوز

تنویر نقوی پنجابی گیت تے وڈیوز

حزیں قادری گیت تے  وڈیوز

پنجابی لوک گیت

پنجابی لوک گیت وڈیوز

پنجابی لوک گیت آڈیو گیلری

شاہ حسین کافیاں

سرائیکی گیت

نویں پنجابی گیت

پنجابی فیوژن میوزک گیت
 

 

 

Modern Punjabi Poetry

There are personal reasons for my decision to set up a Modern Punjabi Poetry Section on Dareechah, a web site dedicated solely to modern Urdu poetry.  I belong to a "Kashmiri-Punjabi" family of Lahore and Punjabi is in my blood, so to speak.  Also, Urdu and Punjabi have common roots in the ancient  linguistic past of South Asia. 

 

This section will feature the most brilliant modern Punjabi poets who wrote from the 1930's to the present.   In my college days in the late 1970's in Lahore, I was inspired by the poetry of Ahmad Rahi and Munir Niazi.  In recent years  (2005-2011), I discovered the poetry and songs of Shiv Kumar Batalvi, thanks to a few web-related and some non-internet sources including

APNA web site, probably the largest Punjabi literature and Punjabi multimedia web site on the internet run by Safir Rammah (based in the U.S.)  who also organizes World Punjabi Conferences in Lahore where writers and thinkers from Pakistani and Indian Punjab can exchange views and have a dialog.  The link for APNA is :

 http://www.apnaorg.com/

 The second source which introduced me  to Shiv Kumar Batalvi's poetry was the publishing house of Maan Bolee Lahore which has been publishing books and a Punjabi literary magazine (Maan Bolee) for many decades from Flat #2, Ali Arcade, Moon Market, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Lahore.

 

The third source to Shiv Kumar Batalvi's poetry was the "Collected Poems of Shiv Kumar Batalvi" (Kulliyaat Shiv Kumar) which was compiled by  Iqbal Qaiser with help in this huge endeavour by Naseer Ahmad.  These collected poems were published by the avant- garde publishing firm of Fiction House, 18 Mozang Road, Lahore.

 

Another recently discovered source is a fantastic audio collection of many classical Punjabi songs, Kafis etc. on the web site Folk Punjab which is run by Sohail Abid.  These audio files can be downloaded as .mp3 files for free !!

Finally, the YouTube channel Wichaar WebCast has a series of thrilling and informative talks by Dr. Manzur Ejaz covering many Punjabi poets!