Women in Punjabi folk songs
SWAANIAN TEY LOK GEET… compiler Izhar Husain Awan; pp 120; Price Rs100 (Pb); Publishers New Line Publishers, 3/8 E. Street No 6, Cavalry Ground, Lahore. E-mail: newline2100@yahoo.com.uk.
The compiler and researcher of the songs collected from Pothohar area is no more in this world. Izhar died in 2008 at the age of 43 while he was serving as a teacher in a college in his ancestral town Bhuchhal Kalan in Chakwal district. In brief, at the early stages of his life he was not interested in having higher education. After secondary school certificate, he left and then after many years he cleared his FA and BA and joined the Punjabi Department of the Punjab University and earned good reputation as a brilliant student. In that position he wished to write a thesis on ‘women in the perspective of Pothohar’s folk songs’ and he was assigned to write… the subject to which an Indian (Pakistani before 1947) scholar Vanjara Bedi had already made a solid contribution followed by Afzal Parvaiz, a progressive writer, poet, musician and journalist. He collected folk songs from the same area and meanwhile his articles and pieces he had gathered were published in installments in the now defunct Urdu daily Imroze.
The most unfortunate aspect of his labour was when he saw the same songs lifted from his articles published in a book form under the title of “Pothohari Lok Geet”….. There were two separate volumes carrying almost the same material with names of different authors. One of them was a well-known teacher and poet of Urdu also while the second one was some unknown fellow. Those were the days when Punjabi was recognised by the Punjab University as one of the oriental languages. The three-tier examination was also offered privately and after clearing these examinations, one was allowed to appear in the English and earn the BA degree. That is why a small space was created for Punjabi books.
Izhar had most probably also gone through that way and reached the Oriental College to be assigned the subject of “Status of Woman in Pothohar folk songs”. The other books from which he sought help were Awan Kari compiled by the late Prof. Shaheen Malik, Pothohar by Aziz Malik and Dhan Malooki by Prof. Anwar Beg Awan.
The story of this work apart from the tale of the compiler needs more attention. He suddenly fell ill and lost his two legs and two arms. Some parts of his second arm including the thumb were saved and he emerged as shining hope out of total hopelessness. He did his MA, joined as lecturer in the college of his hometown where in the light of his own experiences he established an NGO Irada Centre. Before his sudden death, he had established two schools for disabled persons and a limb center also. Izhar, basically a disabled man got the art to drive a three-wheel motorcycle which made him all the time mobile. From his personal example you may call him an example personified. The only credit he had and with that his moving spirit collected, tapped the required sources for establishing Irada Centre. Its two tiers were completed and on the third, he wanted to get it inaugurated from some known personality and the ceremony was to be held in December 2008. October heart-attack could not spare another two months to Izhar who had in his last days had a look on his MA thesis which saw the light of the day in July 2011.
For Izhar the area in Pothohar falls includes: Thhal (Pind Dadan Khan to Kandiwal, Vanhar (from Manara to Kalar Kahar), Soon (Noshehra, Khabakki), Pakharr (Chinji, Talagang), Ghetbi (Jand, Pindi Gheb), Khttarr (Attock), Dhan (Neela, Chakwal), Kahoon Malot Fort (Dulmial) and Jhangarr (Katas Raj, Choa Saidan Shah). It also includes the whole of Taxila, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Gujjar Khan tehsils.
Izhar has without any need had very narrowly marked the area of Pothohar, otherwise it is much wider area between river Jhelum and Sindh known as Sindh Sagar Doab.
Though the political interpretation of the folk songs was not part of Izhar’s research but Aamar Riaz in his foreword asserts that the history of the ancient Punjab is found scattered in the folk legacy of the Punjab which needs attention of the scholars who want to put the Punjab in its real perspective. A folk song from the semi-hilly areas of the Punjab has following lines.
(I have spread millet on top of the roof, but immediately will come crows who would spoil the corn. That is another problem for me).
Here “crows” are outsiders-invaders of all times. The Punjab has faced innumerable invasions and about the attacks of Nadir Shah, a folk song’s opening lines are:
Nadir has invaded our country and my husband is either among those who want to fight back or he has already been captured by the enemy).
(It is the regime of the Farangis and they have let loose hell on us. Famine forces me to eat Pohli instead of wheat… Pohli a self-grown corn of very inferior quality usually destroyed by the farmer just to have good crop of wheat). — STM
No comments:
Post a Comment