PVLF 2025

Misplaced without translation, Punjabi yearns for International Publishers

on Jun 03, 2022

Since the United Nations recognises the role of translators in "bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue, understanding, and cooperation," the Punjabi language, which is spoken by millions of people on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, can be interpreted as a site for an evolving cultural dialogue. A language written in two scripts, Shahmukhi (Pakistan) and Gurmukhi (India) (India).

Desraj Kali, a Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer, encapsulates the situation when he describes how his works were recently translated into Urdu script by a Karachi-based publisher while retaining the original flavour of Punjabi. It is the same cultural bridge that ensured Pakistani Punjabis mourned the death of Sidhu Moose Wala. The Punjabi story then becomes a subcontinental mythology. Nonetheless, the language is still in need of translators and interlocutors to help it spread over the world.

A portion of this story began several centuries ago, when the Sikh empire had not yet fallen to the British East India Company's armies. In the 18th century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh ruled over undivided Punjab, and the literary tradition of Punjabi Sufi poetry — begun by Baba Farid in the 12th century — had just found its first woman poet in a prostitute named Peero Preman. However, once she exited Lahore's Hira Mandi, where she had been sold to a brothel, the public cheering had practically stopped. While her poetry questioned religious orthodoxies and identities, Peero broke all the rules in order to achieve self-realisation. In her fiery writings, she freely addressed herself as 'Randi' and 'Kanjari.' Following her death, she was interred beside her guru-partner, Gulab Das, in a single tomb at Chathian Wala, which became a shrine for Gulabdasi sect adherents. Following the partition, the entire sect moved to India and settled in Haryana from Sindh and western Punjab. Peero, a spiritual icon for Gulabdasis, continues to elicit both reverence and disdain to this day.

Any publisher would have gladly accepted Peero's poetry collection in English, but it's more difficult with Punjabi literature. Neeti Singh, who translated Peero's poems, has been trying to get the book published for almost three years. "Finally, Speaking Tiger has shown some interest," says Neeti, an associate professor of English at The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, adding that Peero is not an unusual example. Obtaining a global English publisher is difficult, despite the fact that translation of Punjabi literature has significantly increased in recent years, with the exception of religious books.

"One of the reasons for the delay appears to be that Peero remains a pariah or is disregarded with silent derision because of her revolutionary ideals," Neeti explains. "Celebrities are frequently preferred as writers by publishing houses over content."

Her manuscript includes a chapter about the life of the mystic poetess. "Peero is a wonderful woman." A restrictive society forced her to be degraded to the role of a sex object. Peero, on the other hand, refused to embrace patriarchal conventions. She lived her life on her terms. "She helped many other prostitutes reclaim their lives with Gulab Das, who was no ordinary man," adds Neeti, who has written and translated five books so far.

Desraj Kali's acclaimed work Shanti Parav (Treatise on Peace, 2020) has also been translated into English by Neeti from Orient Blackswan. It examines the condition of Dalits in the post-colonial caste-religion-politics matrix via the lens of competing narratives about freedom struggle, terrorism, state violence, capitalism, and democracy.

Desraj tells Outlook about the International Booker Prize for Geetanjali Shree's novel, "Punjabi writing can also acquire international respect." The sadness, though, is that our work is not being translated into English." Punjabi fiction has a 100-year history, but he claims that, aside from some writers like Amrita Pritam, it has not been effectively translated into English, let alone published by an international publisher.

Punjabi poetry is fated. Local publishers have recently begun translating Punjabi literature and history from Shahmukhi to Gurmukhi and vice versa. Desraj, however, laments the unavailability of books published by Pakistani publishers in India, saying, "Do you know where I obtained the copies of my translated novels from?" England. The publishers were unable to send them immediately to me." Similarly, he reports that certain publishing firms in Indian Punjab have begun printing the work of Pakistani Punjabi poets and authors in Gurmukhi as well. "This is a really beautiful trend that is developing in the Punjabi literary world," he explains. "Punjab is culturally one!"

A 25,000 Canadian dollar Dhahan Prize — an annual award founded by a Canada-India education foundation for excellence in Punjabi fiction — provided the language with a much-needed international stage in 2014.

Nain Sukh, a Lahore-based writer, won the award last year for his book of short stories written in the Shahmukhi script. Among the contenders were Amritsar-based writer Sarghi Jammu for his short story collection Apne Apne Marseia and Delhi-based novelist Balbir Madhopuri for his work Mitti Bol Peye. They both write in Gurmukhi script.

Beyond linguistics, the prize provided shared joy to citizens on both sides of the border at a time when diplomatic ties between the two countries were at an all-time low following the Pulwama tragedy.

However, Paul Kaur, a renowned literary and feminist voice in Punjabi based in Ambala, emphasises that, with a few exceptions, publishers on both sides of the border remain mostly reticent to publish translated work from either side for obvious reasons. Paul is the author of nine poetry collections. Hun Nahi Mardi Nirmala, her most recent poetry collection, was released in 2020. She has also edited several volumes of poetry, including Balde Khatan De Sirnaven, written during the 1980s when Punjab was in the grip of militancy, as well as translating selected poems by Octavio Paz into Punjabi and a book on eminent writer Amrita Pritam, Katehre Vich Aurat: Amrita Pritam De Ang Sang (2019).

Paul, a retired professor of Punjabi literature, views last year's farmers' movement as a "historic event," with protest poetry serving as one of the campaign's driving impulses. "At least three volumes of poetry about the farmers' movement have been published in Punjabi so far," she adds, adding, "This poetry must be translated into all the main languages of the globe, in addition to Indian languages."

When a work wins the Sahitya Akademi prize, it is translated into several Indian languages; however, many writers believe that institutions such as the Punjabi Academy, Punjab Art Council, and Punjabi Sahit Academy should take translation more seriously.

The translations undertaken by underfunded government agencies, according to Nirupama Dutt, a famous novelist, translator, and journalist, do not achieve the anticipated literary standards. "Though Punjabi translation has improved in the last 2-3 decades, it still lags behind Bangla, Malayalam, and even Hindi," she says in Outlook.

Many people in Punjab's literary circles argue that works written by prominent Punjabi writers like Balwant Gargi are only available in Punjabi. "Translation work was never profitable in terms of recognition and remuneration," Nirupama argues, referring to the vast majority of Punjabi translations as "vanity translations."

"There are a few people who are doing fantastic work out of real love for the language," she adds, praising Rana Nayar, a retired English professor from Panjab University, for his English translation of Jnanpith awardee Gurdial Singh's work. She thinks that institutions such as the Indian Novels Collective and the New India Foundation will benefit Punjabis as well.

Marhi Da Deeva and Anhe Ghore Da Daan, two of Gurdial's works, were turned into famous Punjabi films in 1989 and 2011, respectively. His work, Addh Chaanani Raat, which earned him the Sahitya Akademi award, was translated into English as Night of the Half Moon by Macmillan, and his novel, Parsa, was translated into English by the National Book Trust. The works reflect the plight of Dalit Sikhs and peasants in Punjab.

Nirupama is well-known for her contributions to Dalit literature, having translated the memoirs and poems of Punjab's Dalit revolutionary poet Lal Singh Dil and writing The Ballad of Bant Singh: A Qissa of Courage (2016). The book is a reflection on landless Mazhabi Sikhs in Punjab, and it describes the tribulations of the singer-activist, who was attacked while conducting a legal battle against upper-caste men who had gang-raped his young daughter. "We are living in the age of Dalit writing." "My next book will be an English translation of Punjabi stories concerning Dalits," she explains. "The best literature is born out of difficulty."