FAISALABAD: Speakers at a session on women’s role in the Punjabi literature decided to form a society of the literati to work for the promotion of the language.

The festival “Lyallpur Punjabi Sulaikh Mela” concluded at the Arts Council on Tuesday.

The speakers discussed the Punjabi story, novel, theatre and books on Punjab’s history. They paid a tribute to Nasreen Anjum Bhatti, a Punjabi poet who had recently passed away.

Dr Asima Ghulam Rasool of the Government College University, Faisalabad, said women were making the Punjabi literature strong with their contribution. “Women are the backbone of a society and they have played a key role in education, health, agriculture and wars. There are women pilots and filmmakers too,” she said.

Amina Zaman, sharing her experience of village women, said scores of families in villages were working as maids in cities and they learn Urdu. “The maids think Urdu is a language of the elite and they start considering the entire Punjabi-speaking family inferior.”

“We could not tell people what is the mother language because Urdu is being promoted by bureaucrats’ families,” she said and suggested that Punjabi should be introduced as a subject in schools.

Dr Asim urged the Punjab government to introduce Punjabi as a compulsory subject so that students could get knowledge of this rich language.

Sara Kazmi said poets like Bulleh Shah and others are dominating the Punjabi poetry but they never ignored women’s role in society. She said Punjabi was considered a vulgar and complex language and it’s the need of the hour to promote it.

Ms Kazmi sang a Kafi, while Dr Asima said a literary society of the women should be formed to work on the Punjabi language. She said: “We have to make the poetry of village women public.”

A session on books on Punjab’s history was dedicated to the late Shafqat Tanvir Mirza. Aamir Riaz said Punjabi and Punjab are not different as both have permanent connection. He said no one was against the change but dominance of Urdu and English had entangled us.

Books on Punjabi had been written before the British era and before and after the Partition. “We have to learn a language without being influenced by clans,” he added.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2016