The Journal 'Panjābī' and the Pakistanization of Punjabi Language and Literature (1951-1960).

Presenter:

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Abstract

‘Panjābī’ is the first journal in Punjabi language published in Pakistan after its independence. This journal was published in Lahore between 1951 and 1960 by Faqeer Mohammad Faqeer, a Pakistani nationalist close to right-wing circles, and he attempted in its issues to present a specifically Pakistani version of Punjabi language and literature, as this language was in Pakistani Punjab stigmatized as that of the Sikhs. Faqeer Mohammad Faqeer published on a regular basis in ‘Panjābī’ some political texts and made Punjabi the vehicle of a nationalist and Islamic ideology that had been, until then, expressed mainly in Urdu. He also developed a defense strategy of Punjabi, highlighting the richness of its literary corpus and disconnecting it from the Sikh and Hindu communities. This zeal to pakistanize Punjabi lead two collaborators of ‘Panjābī’ (Sardar Khan and Waqar Ambalvi) to present a proposal for a standardization of Punjabi in Pakistan which would distinguish it from Indian Punjabi (this new standard was subsequently named by Waqar Ambalvi ‘Pāk panjābī’). This journal had also the ambition to produce and showcase a specifically Pakistani Punjabi literature. Between 1951 and 1960 it published 734 texts, written by 284 authors, from all poles of the literary field (Marxists, conservatives, modernists). The literary corpus of modern Pakistani Punjabi was thus considerably enriched, and this remains its most notable contribution. I will analyze in this paper the various fields of intervention of ‘Panjābī’, its contribution, and its role in the defense and diffusion of Punjabi in Pakistan in the years which followed partition.