Punjabi and other languages suffered due to state patronage going exclusively to Urdu - some of the best known post-partition Pak. writers Qasmi, Ashfaq Ahmed, Amjad Islam Amjad, Qasmi Brothers, Munnoo Bhai are from Punjab and for reasons unknown they chose to adopt Urdu.

One of the reasons (that i have heard) of this gross violation and injustice is State’s relentless effort to forge a TNT based monolithic Paki Identity. The shoving down of urdu to pakistani peoples happened to be one of the main dividing issues at the time of pakistan’s very own partition.

But i think this whole spiel is slightly off the topic of this thread. my apologies.

By the way, there is some mind blowing sindhi short story writing out there. I came across a few translated stories in jang newspaper once. In contemporary sindhi verse, Sheikh Ayaz is a good name to look for. I read a few of his verses, not much but he was gooooood.

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If Punjabi has suffered it’s because it lacks a specific written script ... at least that’s what I read last week in some newspaper article that tried to look at exactly this problem.

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language in Pakistan is tied strictily to the class structure .
Its a similar case in India.English belongs to the upper end,while Hindi and the regional language may change positions in the 2nd and 3rd spot. Urdu has had a raw deal. There was that so called three language formula. But despite all the efforts of the government to push Hindi down the throat of all Indians, I think Urdu still has it better in Pak in terms of a status symbol than Hindi in India. There is a certain urbaneness that is associated with the urdu speaking class. It is punjabi that has really suffered. Is that correct?

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’’And what about literary mags in other languages like urdu and punjabi?’’

umm.. There used to be several urdu literary mags. ifkaar, nuqoosh etc. I have only read their names on Jang Newspaper’s Literary page. These publications supposed to be run by famous writer guys like Qasmi,etc. and i guess due to limited readership and after the inception of Zia’s pious Caliphate couldnt make it into the 80s and 90s.

You might want to know that language in Pakistan is tied strictily to the class structure and so there are many Arundhati-wannabes writing in English. Smart, well traveled, Upper Class types are supposed to write in English (this is my impression). Kamila Shamsie is one good shining example of this mediocrity. There is one, a regular columnist right here on chowk who could be another but she is not from Pakistan.

Anyone more in touch with Punjabi lit. scene which seems to be having a revival with fakhar zaman et al. or contemporary urdu literature scene in karachi should come forward and write about it as i for one would definitely be thankful.

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Bina, is this a periodic publication like a magazine or an anthology?
And what about literary mags in other languages like urdu and punjabi?
And by the way, I notice some chowkies like Kyla and Nadia. Are there any else?

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