There is always a mystery in the affairs of human beings especially of those who are catapulted to the height of fame by historical factors that make them radiate as signs of what is purely human but appears larger than life.
It’s also times and circumstances that can make certain things said and done significantly enduring investing them with historical import which otherwise would have not survived the ravages of time. But it’s not circumstances alone that make inerasable what is etched on the patina of time by individuals. It is also content of what is etched which makes it significant. In the matter of content in such a situation apart from its depth and profundity what matters most is its significant relevance for contemporary times and future.
Imagine Raja Porus in the aftermath of war genuflecting in front of Alexander on the banks of the River Vitasta [Vehat/ Jhelum]. Obsequiousness would have reduced him to a less than a footnote in the margins of history books. His bold words ‘treat me like a king’ to the most formidable warrior of his times transformed Porus’s apparent defeat into a personal victory. This act in the face of a mortal danger made Porus, who ruled over a small territory, much more honourable than the mighty Persian emperor Darius III who filled with dread fled the battleground leaving his troops at the mercy of Greek cavalry.
Imagine Amrita [1919-2005] had composed a love poem, of which she was amply capable, instead of “Aja akhan Waris Shah Nu [Today I invoke poet Waris Shah]” in the aftermath of bloodied Partition of Punjab from which ensued unparalleled carnage in the history of the subcontinent. Could that make her what she has been for her contemporaries and posterity? When she, we all know, touched the tragic historical experience of the brutal Partition, she emerged as the voice of the voiceless, ‘sigh of the oppressed’ and ‘soul of the soulless conditions’ in an audio landscape strewn with cries of the innocent dead. Her line “Belay laashan wich hiantelahu di bhari Chenab [The forest strewn with the corpses and the River Chenab full of blood]” became a dreadful image of wanton death and destruction to the eternal shame of the people of diverse religious persuasions in Punjab.
The verses shook the soul of the people and grimly touched their imagination who were utterly devastated by an unimaginable tragedy of gargantuan dimension. The verses triggered a stream of visceral fear; it was the same iconic river which had been celebrated in our folklore and classics in equal measure but altogether different reasons. “Wugwug way Chanah dia paania, tery kandhian te aashiqan ne maujan maanian [Flow you waters of Chenab/ here on your banks the lovers make their joyful noises]”, says a line of a folk song. “Ishiq wahey nae Chandlay, naddiyyinneerwugan [Love flows in the river Chenab/ other rivers just carry waters]”, proclaimed inimitable Hafiz Barkhurdar in the 17the century who composed the immortal tragic love tale ofSahiban and Mirza. It wasn’t a hollow utterance.
Three of the greatest heroines of Punjab namely Heer, Sahiban and Sohni can rightly be called the daughters of the Chenab. The river wasn’t far away from the Amrita’s ancestral home in Gujranwala either.
You may fault Amrita for some real and imagined deficiency in literary skills but not her commitment to grasp apocalyptic happenings that defied reason and changed the course of history in the region. Her verses in-question continue to haunt connoisseurs and commoners alike as they carry the reverberations and rumblings of horrors committed by all against all in the wake of the Partition that unleashed the demons of rabid communalism.
Amrita’s single poem miraculously removed all the hurdles on her road to stardom. Another factor -- in addition to her diverse creative expressions -- that added lustre to her career was her personal life which firmly established her celebrity status.
In the long literary tradition of Punjab two elements are obviously visible; poets’ non-conventional lives and vivid organic link between creative expression and personal life. Nobody can, for example, separate the poetry of Baba Farid, Shah Hussain and Bulleh Shah from their personal lives. We see their personal life intermingling with their creative expressions. Their poetry reflects their way of living and their way of living forms the bedrock of their poetic vision. And our classical poets’ way of living has been quite unconventional; it defied the traditional norms in a search of existential freedom. It shouldn’t be surprising that rebel in Amrita consciously or unconsciously followed in the steps of great poet-saints when she chose to live a life of an emancipated woman rejecting the traditional constraints imposed by obnoxious patriarchy. Her choice to love the man/ men she loved and live with someone she loved without being legally married scandalised the pious but made her a heroine in eyes of many who celebrate the defiance of traditional cultural and social norms though they themselves lead a mundane life due to the dead weight of a host of factors beyond their control. So among the literati some generously and some grudgingly conceded that Amrita Pritam was the star that outshone the rest in the literary and cultural firmament of the 20th century Punjab. She in fact blazed a trail both as a writer and woman in creative field and social life. The traditionalists and narrow-minded Marxists tried to rile her but she rarely showed signs of being ruffled. Such was her conviction. She stands tall in her homeland and beyond as a goddess of letters and feminism.
Amrita like our immortal classical heroines is an epitome of love, defiance and freedom. She embodied a stunning blend of beauty, courage and creativity who effortlessly broke the perimeter wall of tradition that restrained individual’s right especially of woman to freedom. Shall we ever see a woman like her again in our life? Most likely not! But she says “I shall see you yet again”. And we will see her again in the sigh of a lover and in the cry of a woman.
Note: Year 2019 is the centennial of Amrita Pritam’s birth.
Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2019
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