Daily Times

My exposure to Mushtaq Soofi for umpteen years now has been as a creative television producer as he spent considerable time of his life in Pakistan television Corporation.

He is humble, soft spoken person and an ardent reader, writer, poet and column writer. Before writing on his traits I must reproduce an answer to most of the Punjabi writers as to why we have resisted adopting Punjabi as our official language and including it in the syllabus in schools. He wrote concisely the following in one of his columns in a local daily five years ago.

Soofi contends, “We Punjabis don’t need the language bequeathed to us by our forefathers because we are Muslims and Pakistanis. In very simple words, this is the kind of logic we use to debunk the rationale of adopting our natural tongue as our official language. Our warped mind in the face of incessant ideological onslaught has turned the logic on its head by creating logicality of what is absolutely illogical. Everyday experience bears testimony to the truth of the ancient Arabic adage – the speech of the ruler is the ruler of speech. When British colonialists occupied the Subcontinent, the English language inevitably became the socio-cultural emblem of power; a tool that enabled the ‘native’ to get closer to power, or at least achieve the semblance of power. Persian, the lingua franca of the old elite, was gradually replaced by English, spoken by the new foreign elite”.

I have seen Mushtaq Soofi as an ardent music producer mostly producing music programmes for Pakistan Television Corporation where he worked for most of his life till he reached superannuation age. Although he is a versatile producer, his productions were mostly geared towards Kafis and folk music where his interest and knowledge of Sufi poetry was best made use of. Being a creative producer he resisted taking an administrative poet and instead worked on productions but he had to work as Programmes Manager, PTV for some time. His love for classical music was seen in Pakistan Television Corporation’s programme ‘Raag Rang’ for a number of years. He played the role of keeping this form of music alive and artists were provided with, this vocation till the management stopped telecasting this format of music for just want of sponsors. The same happened at Radio Pakistan as its programme ‘Ahang-e-Khusrovi’ was stopped. This unilateral action taken by the managements of the State owned media killed the art and the artists as the private media is just interested in producing cheap comedy shows.

However Mushtaq Soofi highlights another aspect of Sufi Saints’ contributions by the governments for their ulterior motives. About Sufi Saints and their descendants Mushtaq Soofi says “Sufismin the aftermath of havoc played by the emergence of political Islam is being flaunted as soothing merchandise that is thought to be capable of calming the frayed political nerves. Political Islam as a notion was manufactured by political thinkers and fine-tuned by military strategists in the capitals of the advanced world in 1960s to stall the thrust of communism, real and imagined”.

Though Punjabi was present in many collages, now in many departments of Universities also and also a part of F.A. and B.A. in syllabi, but the policy that was working at this time was quite wrong. It was being spread from the top downwards. It was like flying sand in the air or like a tree downwards with no roots. The natural method should have been going from the ground level upwards. It means that it should start from Primary school then to middle class, secondary education then onwards to higher education, but for Punjabi it has happened the wrong way, from Masters in the university down towards to schools and this has meant a great loss. Our language has been lost because of that distance, Mushtaq Soofi contends.

Mushtaq Soofi felt that the above system had deprived the children of sticking to their language, culture and history. This process basically started with the arrival of British Rule in Punjab. He wrote in one of his Punjab Notes “As the English arrived in 1849 and annexed Punjab, the Punjabi language that was here, was taught through old traditional system. Because the society of Punjab was quite colourful, just like the whole subcontinent, there were three communities – The Muslims, The Hindus and the Sikhs and each had its own traditional schools. Muslims had their Madrasas, which were attached to some mosques. Similar Sikhs had their schools attached to some Gurdwaras, whereas Hindus Mandirs ran their Pathshalas. In the Gurdwaras Punjabi was taught beside other kind of teaching. Prof. Dr. Gotlieb was instrumental in the foundation of the University of the Punjab in 1882. He founded many schools, literary associations, public libraries and academic journals, while at the same time dedicating him to the study of the cultures of the Indian subcontinent. During this period he wrote a scholarly and comprehensive book in Urdu, History of Islam, in two volumes, with the help of an Urdu Muslim scholar, Maulvi Karim-ud-Din, who was at that time District Inspector of Schools in Amritsar, Punjab. These two volumes were later published in 1871 and 1876. Following the passage of the Royal Titles Act 1876 which declared Queen Victoria Empress of India, Prof. Leitner coined the title Kaysar-i-Hind as the new Empress’ official title.He retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1886) wrote a report in the year 1869 revealing peculiar arrangement of indigenous education. This report is quite comprehensive survey addressed to give details of traditional education system of Punjab before the British Rule. Report also tells how this system was gradually replaced by the new system introduced by the system. How Urdu and English were introduced and as a consequence of this policy, the level of literacy went down among Punjab’s population. You see in the earlier time a lot of people used to learn their own language and this is what Lietner argues that in India with similar surveys of other areas there was evidence of Punjabis being the most literate. It says even women could read and write. But with the arrival of British, as soon as Urdu and English were introduced English became the language of upper class while Urdu served the middle class. So the common people and in particular the rural folks were deprived of their own language and culture. Similarly the common people in the town and the cities that are to working classes and their children had difficulty in learning languages and the new language was the foreign. So as a result of new policy children dropped out and it was a loss for Punjabi language. Then much later, as the Pakistan idea gathered pace i.e. to say Pakistan movement started there were various ideological factors responsible for it. Muslims had started the process of identification based on Urdu language that Urdu is part of their social identity. Similarly Punjabi Hindus emphasized their link with Hindi language. So we were left with Sikhs only. If their book religious scripture books were not in Punjabi language, they might have learned other language. But in any case they kept Punjabi as a part of their language. This was the reason Punjabi was neglected by the Muslims and this process started during the Muslim Rule. As you push out the language from schools and college, its future is jeopardized because if the children won’t learn their language, where they will get jobs? But if they were to read Punjabi they could hardly expect jobs because jobs were tied to the learning of languages which were foreign. It wasn’t Punjabi, so Punjabi suffered a great loss. This process continued even after the formation of Pakistan. In fact this process became more extreme in the 1960s when anyone who talked about Punjabi language, that person was treated as an enemy and unpatriotic. He/she was accused of breaking up of Pakistan because there was a fallacy prevailing or call it misunderstanding which argued that, the country could maintain its unity if this has just one language while the unity requires several other factors. Although a single language helps to unify the country but there are so many countries in the world which are multilingual. So in history, there are many factors as far as language is concerned. There are many factors making a nation state or a country or a country’s unity. After the creation of Bangladesh, new constitution for Pakistan was made. It addressed this issue and provided successful solution that different states of Pakistan have right to teach their own languages. They could make their languages as part of their administration and so on. As a result of this Sindhi language was recognized. This became the teaching language in that province. It is about two years back KP Government has implement a language policy. More recently in Baluchistan to its assembly has passed a bill about teaching its own language.

The activists in Punjab hope that Punjab legislatures shall make Punjabi its official language. For the time being, people carry on using Punjabi in their communication. Common people speak the language in comfort and the language that we so called educated class speak there is quite a gulf between the two. It is historic fact because as Punjab emerged from the tenth or eleventh century and its language Punjabi emerged and its literature as it was written, this was also centered around Lahore as the center of Punjabi culture is an established fact. So this was of course was not cultural capital of Punjab, Lahore was the capital of Punjab province also. Punjabi has supported a radical kind of resistance. It is what Baba Farid, Guru Nanak, Bulle Shah, Shah Husain and many others who through their creative works were against the established order, against the state; they were never part of the court. They were always part of the common people. These creative people knew Sanskrit and Arabic also or Persian but they used common people’s language for conveying their ideas. They want to reach the common people. Their own world view was sympathetic to common people. So Punjabi has dominant theme of resistance against invaders and local exploiters. This is tradition which is matter of pride”.

Birth, studies and interest in Punjabi language and literature:

Mushtaq Soofi was born in Sahiwal. Sahiwal is nearly one and a quarter miles west of Lahore. His family arrived from Jalandhar to Sahiwal in 1914. This was due to agriculture colonization as canals were dug for irrigation and his family migrated as part of that development. His primary education was at Sahiwal. He continued education there up to Intermediate level. Then he joined Government College, Lahore for his higher studies and obtained Masters in English literature. But he was more interested in writing in Punjabi language. That is a question often asked to him but when selected to become Secretary ‘Punjabi Mileage’ Society, it gave him exposure to linkage with Punjabi literati. He would listen to his seniors and narrate Punjabi stories as a youngster on this forum.

On division of Punjab:

About division of Punjab, Mushtaq Soofi is very clear. On March 16, 2020 he wrote in his column Punjab Note in a local daily “A painful fact of our life is that policies made by power wielders in the country are generally marked by illogic and inconsistency. But the situation becomes dreadful when a serious question of carving of new provinces, which is fraught with multiple ethnic, political, economic and cultural implications, is taken for short-term political gains of uncertain value. Further bifurcation of provinces the way it’s being conceived in the official quarters can have lethal effects; it may be the beginning of unraveling of the federation held together by a fragile constitution. A hullabaloo suggests that Punjab would be the first “like a patient etherized upon a table” and dissected for its ‘crime’ of being big. But let it be remembered that the demand for new provinces is not limited to Punjab. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) people of Hazarajat have been agitating for a separate province for decades. Muhajirs want Karachi to be separated from the feudal-dominated rural Sindh and declared an autonomous province. Brahvis too resent the Bloch domination in Balochistan. All such demands muted and loud stem from the phenomenon of diversity which is a historical legacy of all these regions.

Let’s see if diversity could be reason for the division of the Punjab? The fact is that Punjab of all the regions is most homogeneous geographically, linguistically and culturally. There is no natural barrier between different parts of Punjab. It’s one contiguous mass with slight variations. Two persons from Attock and Bahawalpur can talk in their own dialects and can still understand each other. People across Punjab with same ethnic roots have similar rituals, social habits and cultural practices. The panjandrums of cloudland who think otherwise should come out of their cocoon and look around to discover the ground reality. Can you say this about KP, Sindh and Baluchistan? Can a Makrani from Gawadar understand Loralai’s Pashto or vice versa? KP is Tower of Babel if you care to know. Can speech of a person from upper Sindh be intelligible to an Urdu speaker of Karachi? It’s merely a question of empirical data which one can collect if one dares to leave one’s sound proof office. If diversity is touted as a reason for the carving of a new province in the Punjab, rest of the three provinces be divided first to create new provinces because the phenomenon of diversity is much more deep-rooted and pervasive there.

Let’s now have a look at another reason – administrative convenience – dished out to justify the division of the Punjab. The Punjab is too big, they cry. Is it bigger than Baluchistan (in terms of area)? Is it bigger than Uttar Pradesh in India [in terms of population]? Let it be said for the comfort of patricians and plebeians: the Punjab despite all its failings and deficiencies is better administered than all other provinces. And that may ironically be one of the reasons for resentment. Should being big be a disadvantage? The biggest state of the USA is the most prosperous state. If the perceived exploitative role of the Punjab is the reason for unnaturally reducing its natural size, then you need to change the prevalent economic and political system. And what you say about KP which is over-represented in all walks of national life? Another reason given out is that new province is a popular demand. But look at the results of the last two elections. Parties/ groups including Pakistan People’s Party advocating the creation of a new province were thoroughly routed out in the south of the Punjab. If someone wants people’s consent they should arrange a referendum on the question.

Trifling with the boundaries of the Punjab will never stop the exploitative machine from grinding. The real problem is rooted in the twin phenomena of uneven-development and concentration of power. Uneven development is product of a host of natural and man-made historical factors such as terrain, weather, geographical location and conducive or non-conducive conditions for business and connectivity with trade routes or lack of it etc. Concentration of power is directly linked with political structures and institutional linkages between centers of power. Centre and periphery uneasily co-exist in a state of perpetual low intensity conflict. The center by virtue of being what it tends to assume greater and greater power with the objective of administering and controlling the periphery to a point that peripheral forces are denied agency which transforms their resentment into a rebellion.

Unfortunately Pakistani state, a rehash of colonial state, hasn’t jettisoned the colonial habit of centralization which is thinly concealed over-centralization. Colonial forces did it in the name of order and ‘civilizing mission’ and post-colonial state does it in the name of national unity and integration. Long-term remedial measures are needed to offset the effects of process of uneven development. Political point scoring would not salvage the situation. If we really feel we should create more provinces out of the existing ones, we must evolve a formula at the national level applicable all across the country. It’s foolhardy to think that slicing the Punjab would have no repercussions. The ill-conceived division of Punjab is fraught with danger and is sure to trigger a process that would pave the way for the creation of new provinces everywhere. Don’t take Punjab for granted. What would happen when Punjab gets disenchanted with the federation of Pakistan in the process of its mutilation and dismemberment? Islamabad, Imagine if you can”.

As a writer:

After his service with PTV Mushtaq Soofi spend few years in running Sachal Studios, one of the best audio recording studios in Pakistan, equipped with state of the art equipment. Owned by Izzat Majid, a businessman from UK, this studio restricted itself to its own quality recordings. It was a surprise for this reviewer that Sachal Studios is also publishing literary books; one of the kind is a prose criticism titled ‘Ashiq – Akhri Keh Nawain’ (Lover – Last or the latest) in Punjabi language written by Mushtaq Soofi, protruding into and rationalizing the real character of Mirza from Mirza Saheban. In my review published on February 26, 2012 in a local daily, I observed “Mushtaq Soofi’s thesis starts with the question as to why Hafiz termed Mirza as the last of the lovers. Was it a prediction that none of that caliber would appear in future? Other important question is whether Hafiz followed the folk tradition or was it the other way round? Traditionally the lovers have been portrayed as oblivious of sex. Then why was Mirza termed as the last of the lovers? Was it because he trespassed the sex line? Was it because Mirza’s death made him eternal and he was given the classic status. Is it not that sex and love are two waves hitting each other! Another question is that can the relation between a man and a woman be free of sexual contact? Traditionally not, the world over and even in our history, contends Soofi. Writers of folklore have narrated their stories like Warris Shah filling pages and pages in describing the sexual encounter between Ranjha and Heer. Hafiz goes less into the physical aspect of love and goes more into the details of the journey Mirza endeavours to undertake but Mirza has been wrongly alleged to have violated the tradition of love code. Heer Ranjha’s symbol was therefore used by the Soofi poets for their spiritual journey. Bulleh Shah was the only exception when he said ‘Ishq Hori Heerey Wal Dhaei/Taan Ranjhey Nei Kan Parwaei/Saheban Nun Jad Weyhan Aei/Sir Mirae Da Warya Ei/Reh Reh Keh Ishqa Marya Ei’ (Page 10) (Love tilted towards Heer/That is why Ranjha had made holes in his ears/when Sahiban was being wed/the head of Mirza was put forward/Love was therefore killed). Bulleh Shah is a deviation from the normal Soofis. His poetry is based on his personal experiences. He does not believe in bookish Soofis. Human pains and its aftermath are more important for him. It is only because of this approach that Bullah believes that Mirza was the last of the lovers”.

Publications:

Mushtaq Soofi has so far published six collections of poems and one book of folk songs, one book on literary criticism, and a translation of Bertolt Brecht’s poetry and co-edited legend of Sabiban Mirza by classical poet Hafiz Barkhurdar, as discussed above.

The writer is the recipient of the prestigious Pride of Performance award. He can be reached at doc_amjad@hotmail.com