Sreejit Datta

PhD Student

Centre for Comparative Literature

Visva Bharati, Santiniketan

Email: sreejit.datta@gmail.com

Phone: 9051238503/8013932260

Title: Plurality of Voices within Revolutionary Punjabi Poetry of the Naxalite Movement:
Poetry of Avtaar Singh Sandhu “Paash” and Laal Singh Dil

[Abstract: The poetry produced in the Punjabi language by poets Avtaar Singh Sandhu “Paash”
(1950-1988) and Laal Singh Dil (1943-2007) from the late sixties onwards is what we focus
upon in this paper. The ‘plurality’ mentioned in the title arises out of a diverse nature of stress
laid upon in their respective works, which sets the poetic tone of each of them. Avtaar Singh
Sandhu “Paash”’s poetry treats the subject of an imminent revolution through imageries of a life
and its not-so-ambitious dreams and hopes of fulfillment, lived in a largely agrarian background
and of a passionate love affair which becomes the metaphor for the longing for a better society.
The unique treatment of the personal to make it speak of the social marks the poetry of Paash,
and it is quite similar in the case of Laal Singh Dil, though in a very different way due to the
difference in the social ‘locations’ of these two poets. Dil uses his caste position as a ‘chamar’,
an outcaste to be precise, as the point of departure in his poetry. This indeed made him able to
relate to the class war waged by the Naxalite movement and resulted into his involvement in the
same. His poetry turned into the channel through which the Dalits of Punjab found a voice, and
into a narrative of the oppression of the upper castes as unfolded in his Naglok and other
collections of poems. By comparing the relative stresses in the poetic utterances of these two
faces of a revolution -- which was not only political-social but also a literary revolution in
Punjabi literature -- we hope to lay the ground for creating a framework to identify the different
strands in the politics and poetics of the Naxalite movement.]

Changing modes of revolution and conflicting ideas of democratic structure of a state are
interrelated, in the sense that a societal movement from monarchy to aristocracy to democracy
takes place through revolutionary changes. That revolution may either be of a violent nature or a
peaceful, bloodless one, but their interrelated nature becomes apparent from the fact that
whenever there emerged a conflict over the idea of “the most efficient democratic structure” for
a state, it was resolved through revolutionary intervention. In some cases, violent struggles
ensued and the notion that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” became the
ideological justification for the means to achieve the end of a more democratic space in the polity
of a state. In other cases, peaceful means such as marches, strikes and non-cooperation with the
repressive state apparatuses were employed to achieve the desired goal. Some of both these
means turn out to be successful to gain the desired end, some go down in history as instances of
political failure. Now in order to seek whether the living poetics that works within the bounds of
a cultural-political milieu is at all affected by the changing modes of revolution and consequently
by conflicting ideas of democracy we must look closely at the instances available to us from the
poetic works that flourished during the lifetime of two different modes of revolution which
manifested themselves consecutively over time in a common geographical region. In the South
Asian context, such an instance of a shift in the mode of revolution due to a conflict regarding
the idea of democratic structure is the shift in the idea of the means of revolution to be employed
to achieve a classless society, within the Communist Party of India and its subsequent splitting
up into three distinct parties with stark differences in their ideological basis – all within a span of
only 4 years. These ideological differences are mainly concerned with the means, as the end
declared by all three parties was to create a socialist state and the dissolving of all class-
differences. Literary works by party members and sympathizers, from across all three brands of
Indian communists in the period from 1940’s to 1980’s, poured into the public domain despite
state repression, censorship and before independence and post-independence such works were
either hailed or censored and even banned according to their affiliation. The hardliners within the
CPI(M) found it increasingly hard to propagate their writings out in the public following their
split from the party beginning from the time of the Naxalbari uprising in North Bengal. The
poetry of Avtaar Singh Sandhu “Paash” and Laal Singh Dil is largely the product of this period.
While capturing, explaining and propagating the ideals of the Naxalbari uprising, which was
looked upon by them and their comrades as the spark that would ignite the Indian revolution in
the way to a classless society, they created a poetics which differed from the one just preceding
theirs in their disillusionment with parliamentary and electoral politics that became a
functioning, if not entirely ideological, comfort zone for the CPI and the CPI(M). Let us go
directly into the poetry of these two revolutionaries to identify the commonalities as well as
where and how they diverge; hoping that this exercise will help us in laying the ground for a
framework to identify the different strands in the politics and poetics of the Naxalite movement.

Let us first take the poetry of “Paash”. Let me read out a few lines from one of his rather well
known poems.

सबसे खतरनाक होता है , हमारे सपनों का मर जाना

मेहनत की लूट सबसे ख़तरनाक नहीं होती

पुलिस की मार सबसे ख़तरनाक नहीं होती
ग़द्दारी और लोभ की मुट्ठी सबसे ख़तरनाक नहीं होती
बैठे-बिठाए पकड़े जाना - बुरा तो है
सहमी-सी चुप में जकड़े जाना - बुरा तो है
पर सबसे ख़तरनाक नहीं होता

कपट के शोर में  

सही होते हुए भी दब जाना - बुरा तो है
जुगनुओं की लौ में पढ़ना -बुरा तो है  
मट्ठि
ु यां भींचकर बस वक्‍़त निकाल लेना - बरु ा तो है
सबसे ख़तरनाक नहीं होता

सबसे ख़तरनाक होता है  

मुर्दा शांति से भर जाना
तड़प का न होना सब सहन कर जाना
घर से निकलना काम पर
और काम से लौटकर घर जाना
सबसे ख़तरनाक होता है
हमारे सपनों का मर जाना

सबसे ख़तरनाक वो घड़ी होती है

आपकी कलाई पर चलती हुई भी जो
आपकी नज़र में रुकी होती है

सबसे ख़तरनाक वो आंख होती है

जो सबकुछ दे खती हुई जमी बर्फ होती है  
जिसकी नज़र दनि
ु या को मोहब्‍बत से चूमना भूल जाती है
जो चीजों से उठती अंधेपन की भाप पर ढुलक जाती है  
जो रोज़मर्रा के क्रम को पीती हुई 
एक लक्ष्यहीन दहु राव के उलटफेर में खो जाती है  

सबसे ख़तरनाक वो चांद होता है

जो हर हत्‍याकांड के बाद
वीरान हुए आंगन में चढ़ता है
लेकिन आपकी आंखों में मिर्चों की तरह नहीं गड़ता 
The use of a direct mode of address, as if the poem is being read out to a gathering of people, is
the first thing that strikes us when we encounter it. This creation of an imaginary audience by the
very language of the poem is a trace of continuity from the work of an earlier generation of poets
of the Progressive Writers’ Association. We must keep in mind that “Paash” published his most of
his poems in books and literary magazines, one of which, called the Siarh (or The Plow Line) he
himself edited. Possible influences of Brecht and Neruda, who were “Paash”’s favourite poets,
might have shaped his notion of poetics which resonates with a revolutionary purpose that he
came to have as a legacy of his land of birth. Familiar with the notion of ‘inqilaab’ from his
voracious reading in and out of school (we get to know that his school education was interrupted
for some time), “Paash” soon grew out of a taste for romanticizing the history and geography of
his beautiful land. His personal disillusionment with the parliamentary electoral system of the
post-independence Indian state, which also impelled many of his generation to seek an
alternative system of democracy, marks the tonality of his poems. In another of his well-known
poems he regrets leaving behind his land and his loved one, for he could not write a sort of
much-cherished “magnum opus” of a poem about them. Thus spake “Paash”:

अब विदा लेता हूं

अब विदा लेता हूं
मेरी दोस्त, मैं अब विदा लेता हूं
मैंने एक कविता लिखनी चाही थी
सारी उम्र जिसे तुम पढ़ती रह सकतीं
उस कविता में
महकते हुए धनिए का जिक्र होना था
ईख की सरसराहट का जिक्र होना था
उस कविता में वक्ष
ृ ों से टपकती ओस
और बाल्टी में दहु े दध
ू पर गाती झाग का जिक्र होना था
और जो भी कुछ
मैंने तुम्हारे जिस्म में दे खा
उस सब कुछ का जिक्र होना था
उस कविता में मेरे हाथों की सख्ती को मुस्कुराना था
मेरी जांघों की मछलियों ने तैरना था
और मेरी छाती के बालों की नरम शॉल में से
स्निग्धता की लपटें उठनी थीं
उस कविता में
तेरे लिए
मेरे लिए
और जिन्दगी के सभी रिश्तों के लिए बहुत कुछ होना था मेरी दोस्त
लेकिन बहुत ही बेस्वाद है
दनि
ु या के इस उलझे हुए नक्शे से निपटना
और यदि मैं लिख भी लेता
शगुनों से भरी वह कविता
तो उसे वैसे ही दम तोड़ दे ना था
तुम्हें और मुझे छाती पर बिलखते छोड़कर
मेरी दोस्त, कविता बहुत ही निसत्व हो गई है
जबकि हथियारों के नाखून बरु ी तरह बढ़ आए हैं
और अब हर तरह की कविता से पहले
हथियारों के खिलाफ यद्ध
ु करना ज़रूरी हो गया है
युद्ध में
हर चीज़ को बहुत आसानी से समझ लिया जाता है
अपना या दश्ु मन का नाम लिखने की तरह
और इस स्थिति में
मेरी तरफ चुंबन के लिए बढ़े होंटों की गोलाई को
धरती के आकार की उपमा दे ना
या तेरी कमर के लहरने की
समद्र
ु के सांस लेने से तल
ु ना करना
बड़ा मज़ाक-सा लगता था
सो मैंने ऐसा कुछ नहीं किया
तुम्हें
मेरे आंगन में मेरा बच्चा खिला सकने की तुम्हारी ख्वाहिश को
और युद्ध के समूचेपन को
एक ही कतार में खड़ा करना मेरे लिए संभव नहीं हुआ
और अब मैं विदा लेता हूं

“Paash” had lived enough to see the decline of Naxalite uprising of the 70’s and a sense of
withdrawal is apparent in the statement he made in the poem where he broods over not being
able to compose a poem that he dearly wanted to. Is he talking about the revolution here? If yes,
then one must emphasize the phenomenon of equating the twin acts by the poet: that of bringing
revolution and that of composing poetry. Personal aspirations and the simple wishes for the
perfect home by a young heart that yearns for the dreams he had forego due to the repressive
attitude taken by the state against his brand of politics become the tools with which he carves out
this poetics. His recurring mention of the farewell in the poem before he starts for the warfront
may well symbolize both his going to the war and his loss of the opportunity to live his dreams.
This was more or less the story of the majority of middle class and lower middle class educated
youth of the 60’s and the 70’s, who grew up in a milieu which was strongly nostalgic about the
glorious struggle for independence and at the same time who profoundly lamented the separation
that resulted from the partition of India and the creation of borders across Bengal and Punjab
(interestingly, the extremist hardliners among the freedom fighters and the supporters for the
Naxalbari uprising have been features common to both Bengal and Punjab).

Curiously, our next poet of interest, Laal Singh Dil’s first poem included in his first collection of
poetry published in 1971 is titled “Satluj Di Hawa” after the river by which “Paash”’s village in
the Doaba region in Punjab is situated. Laal Singh Dil was born to a ramdasia chamar family,
considered an outcaste in his locality. Unlike Paash’s family, Laal Singh’s family had no land
and they could only perform menial agricultural labour. Still he somehow managed to finish
schooling, entered college but left it before finishing the course when the “thunder spring” of the
Naxalbari uprising was already all over the place. During this time, he writes the following lines:

“Jo ladna nahi jaande

Jo ladna nahi chahnde
Wo ghulam bana liye jaande ne”

Being treated as an outcaste, Laal Singh Dil knew very well how one turns into and why one
stays a “ghulaam” all their life. His poetry voices the woes and frustrations of the “doubly
oppressed”: the Punjabi Dalits. For him, poetry turns out to be a medium of venting the anger of
this section of the Punjabi people. While most other communists tended to ignore caste as
category, Dil employed it as a point of departure. It is not just a motif that recurs in his poetry, it
is the reason why he could feel the heat of injustice in his society in the first place and as a
reason joined the movement, leaving behind his studies. Let me read out another poem by him,
this one in an English translation:

Caste
You love me, do you?
Even though you belong
to another caste
But do you know
our elders do not
even cremate their dead
at the same place?

This angst is translated by Dil into the revolutionary will, which is, when compared to “Paash”’s
work, seems less sophisticated and more aggressive in its tone. It is said that his poetry was read
to small gatherings of agricultural and menial labourers at the heyday of the Naxalite movement
in Punjab. This is significant as it gives his poetry another dimension – that of an oral
performative and for that reason it impacts its target audience in a different way than Paash’s
poetry does. This fearlessness that allows Dil to be different on the grounds of his lived
experience is what, I think, distinguishes him from his peers: “Paash”, Harjit Mangat et al. He
dares to fall in love with upper caste women, and writes romantic poetry about his falling in love.
His friends criticize the romantic tone of his poetry, but he himself never considered love and
caste-oppression to be categories which never converge. His experiences made him see it in
clearer terms. In his own words: “He (Mangat) would try very hard to purge my mind of my
romantic stories about upper-caste girls. And it was on his suggestion that I went to Bahilolpur to
do my Basic Teacher’s Training course. It was there that I wrote the poems on the wretched of
the earth amidst whom I had grown up — the bonded labourers, the daily-wagers, the roving
tribes and the poorest of the poor. In my poem Evening Tide, they seem to be Indian martyrs who
refused to be crushed by the Aryans and continue their struggle even today.” Though he himself
feeling the turmoil of questions such as whether the Cultural Revolution would precede the
political revolution, Dil kept writing (and reading out) poetry that harshly criticized social
prejudices around him.

While we reflect on the poetics of this period in the revolutionary Punjabi literature as
exemplified by the works of these two poets, we must remember that no single, usual parameter
used in the criticism of the so-called revolutionary poetry can explain the dynamics of these
works. They are a product of a time which is at the same time unique and tense. The tones in
these works are consequently tense. The divergence arises out of the difference in the way how
each poet recognizes their location in the society – and in that recognition they find themselves
in different zones which intersect each other in a wish to end oppression. In that common wish,
their poetry reflects similarities. In that socio-economic zonal difference, their poetry spells out
polyphony.

Bibliography:
1. Gill, Tejwant Singh. Pash. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1999. Print.
2. Dutt, Nirupama. Poet of the Revolution: The Memoirs and Poems of Lal Singh Dil . New
Delhi: Penguin India, 2012. Print.