June 30, 2002

Ask an average, educated Punjabi if she or he has ever heard of Bulleh Shah, Baba Farid or Waris Shah and the prompt reply would be in an affirmative. Emboldened by this, ask specifically about the works of those great Sufi poets. The answer would be an uncomfortable shifting from one foot to another, followed by a squint of the eyes to indicate a desperate attempt at recollection.

‘Hmm, what was the name......... Oh! How could I forget the last title I read?’ and so on, till you unfasten the defendant from the embarrassment of being put in a straitjacket of Punjabi literature. But the same person’s answer would be different if asked to name a few of Shakespeare’s plays. The rapidity with which they will be enunciated will beat the speed of light!

This is where Punjabi literature stands today. Abandoned and neglected, it is one of the few patois of Pakistan to be bullied and systematically oppressed by the educated elite of the Punjab to accommodate English, the lingua franca of the global village. Spoken by over 60 million people, efforts have been made by a few, select supporters to extricate Punjabi from that endearingly nurtured colossus called, the English language.

Those select few supporters have joined hands to salvage the language (or what is left of it) of the agri-centre of Pakistan to launch an exclusive, privately run, publishing house, the Kitab Trinjin, specializing in selling and publishing works in Punjabi. Not strictly a cornucopia of Punjabi literature, it is nevertheless, a long awaited answer to the fraying world of the Punjabi academia.

Amassing well over 500 books, Kitab Trinjin’s proud claims to being the only publishing house and bookstore in Pakistan to offer complete volumes of all the great Sufi poets of the Punjab do not sound exaggerated. Neither is it too far-fetched to expect the English translations of famous Punjabi works like Bulleh Shah: mystic poet of the Punjab, translated by C.F. Osborne in 1905 or an unabridged biography of Maharajah Ranjit Singh and other rulers of the Punjab. The complete poetry of Baba Farid, Shah Hussain, Najam Hussain Syed and other writers have attracted quite a few readers to the Kitab Trinjin raising hopes of Punjabi literature’s resuscitation.

So, should it be assumed that Punjabi has been given a lifeline? Not quite as much as Zubair Ahmed, Kitab Trinjin’s secretary, would like it to be. “It’s true that we are the only Punjabi publishing house in Pakistan, but the elite are too alienated from the language to make it part of mainstream reading,” explains Zubair Ahmed.

Under the patronage of some revivalists, the Kitab Trinjin was launched in 1997, as a non-profit centre, for the promotion of Punjabi literature in Lahore. The only other publishing house, which comes close to Kitab Trinjin, is the Punjabi Adabi Board whose minimum grant of over Rs 300,000 exceeds the overall budget of the relatively small, publishing house and is the largest publisher of Punjabi literature.

“Kitab Trinjin is modest by comparison, but we have managed to sell more books in a short time,” reveals the secretary and administrator of Kitab Trinjin.

In the early 70s, an attempt to put back Punjabi on the bookshelves, alongside other literature, saw in the opening of a bookstore called, the Punjabi Adabi Markaz. Within two years of staying in business, the shop closed down after selling a humble number of editions. “We are proud of the fact that those books which were published 30 years ago by the Punjabi Adabi Markaz, have been printed and sold by us. Some of them have run into their third and fourth printing editions,” claims Zubair Ahmed.

“Besides the promotion of reading and writing in Punjabi, we also try to focus on giving access to quality literature and publications in Hindko, Potoharee and Seraiki,” continues Mr Ahmed. Kitab Trinjin aims to increase the publication from its current number to 3000 titles a year. These titles would not be limited to the literature of the West Punjab, but would include the works of writers and poets from East Punjab too. “Our own publications come to 18, which include Anaarah wala vehra and Goothlee by Amarjeet Chandan,” says Zubair.

Even though the books are reasonably priced, the only customers to visit the compact Kitab Trinjin on Temple Road, in Lahore, are either students of Punjabi literature or those, who have not succumbed to the ravages of English. Perhaps that is why Zubair Ahmed is usually the only one sifting through the titles of the books lining the walls of the bookstore. “There’s not much of a reading culture here, anyway. And Punjabi is certainly not popular enough to become pastime reading,” regrets Zubair Ahmed. Does that mean that in a few decades from now, Punjabi will become obsolete? No, not if Kitab Trinjin survives.

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