This collection of Punjabi journals features key publications from the 1950s and 1960s that provide a fascinating insight into the world of Punjabi print in West Punjab. The digital copies of these journals were donated by Dr. Julien Columeau, a researcher affiliated with CEIAS/EHESS, Paris, who collected them in the course of his PHD research on the 'Movements in favor of Punjabi in Lahore between 1947 and 1960' (under the supervision of Dr. Michel Boivin), which he defended at EHESS, Paris in October 2019. In what follows Dr. Columeau provides a comprehensive introduction to three of the journals, which will be of use to researchers and students alike.
Punjabi began being published in September 1951 and was published monthly until March 1960. Its publication was interrupted between December 1953 and September 1955 (due to lack of funds). Its editors were Faqir Muhammad Faqir and Abdul Majid Salik.
The format of Punjabi was similar to that of Punjabi Darbaar (Joshua Fazal Deen's Punjabi literary journal published between 1928 and 1933), but also to contemporary literary journals in Urdu (Adab-i-Latif, Adabi Dunya, Savera): Each issue was between 50 to 60 pages long, opened with an editorial and contained a mix of essays, short stories, plays and poems.
Completely funded by Faqir, it targeted not only a readership of educated Punjabis but also of Urdu speaking migrants from India eager to become acquainted with Punjabi. The first issue of Punjabi opened with a statement by Faqir Muhammad Faqir in which he declared that his aim was not to challenge the role and importance of Urdu but to help develop Punjabi, by making it a scientific language and expanding its literature.
This last objective was achieved by the journal for the body of written worked it produced is impressive: Between September 1951 and March 1960 (the date of the last issue) 145 news articles, 106 essays, 25 short plays (for the most part radio plays), 15 autobiographical pieces (hadwarti), 318 poems (nazm), 77 ghazals, 48 songs (geet) were published.
Punjabi published veterans who wrote in Punjabi before the 1947 Partition, such as the poets Firozuddin Sharf, Pir Fazal Gujrati, Syahposh, Karam Amritsari, Lal Din Qaisar, Maula Bakhsh Kushta, the fiction writer Joshua Fazal Din and the playwrights Agha Ashraf and Sajjad Hyder. However, Punjabi also published also writers who began writing in Punjabi after partition : Poets such as Sufi Tabassum and Ghulam Yaqoob Anwar, short-story writers such as Shafi Aqil, Qasir Amritsari, Akbar Lahori and Nizamuddin Tawakkuli. Playwrights, such as Nazr Fatima, and academic essayists, such as Taj Muhammad Khayal, Abid Ali Abid, Muhammad Baqir and Shahbaz Malik were also published in Punjabi.
Some Indian writers such as Chatrik, Aawara, Amrita Pritam, Gurcharan Singh Tej, Man Mohan Singh Diwana, Hira Singh Dard were also published in Punjabi, but their contribution was minimal.
Punjabi also published progressive writers, such as Sharif Kunjahi, Abdul Majid Bhatti, Ahmad Rahi, Qateel Shifai, Afzal Parwez, Shafqat Tanvir Mirza, Munnu Bhai, and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi. It is notable that if some poetic pieces by Kunjahi, Rahi and Qasmi were published, no essay written by them was published, in order to avoid Marxist (or progressive) views being represented in the journal. Faqir retained absolute control over the editorial line of the journal and avoided publishing articles expressing political lines different from his own. Faqir was himself the greatest contributor to his journal: Between 1951 and 1960, he published 49 essays and countless editorials (in which he expressed views close to those of Nawa-i-Waqt and Chattan) in Punjabi. Faqir also dominated the poetry section, in which 92 of his poems were published.
Beyond this literary contribution, Punjabi offered a great linguistic contribution. It is in Punjabi that a series of articles by Sardar Khan were published, in which he attempted to fix a norm for the Punjabi written in Pakistan. It is in Punjabi that Waqaar Ambalvi launched the concept of Pakistani Punjabi, or the Urdu-ized version of Punjabi. It is also in Punjabi that the first lexicographical attempts of Sardar Khan appeared (pages of his dictionary were published in 1956). At the end of 1959, a few months before its final issue, some essays devoted to Pothohari and Siraiki (then called Multani) appeared in Punjabi.
Punjabi adab began publication in January 1960. Although the title page of the journal bears the names of Hakim Nasir and Sufi Tabassum, the main editors of this journal were Asif Khan and Raja Risalu. Shafqat Tanwir Mirza joined them in 1961. Punjabi adab continued the efforts of Punjabi Majlis, providing a platform to a new generation of activists such as Safdar Mir, Shafqat Tanvir Mirza and Major Ishaq, and modernist/experimental writers (Anis Nagi, Jilani Kamran, Munir Niazi, Zafar Iqbal , Iftikhar Jalib, Anwar Sajjad, Afzal Randhawa, Hussain Shahid and Ahmad Saleem). From 1963, Punjabi adab was closely associated with the 'Majlis Shah Hussain', an important organization for the promotion of Punjabi founded by Shafqat Tanvir Mirza and Najam Hossain Syed. It is in this journal that were published, in 1963 and 1964 the first poems and essays of Najam Hossain Syed.