Little Maharashtra in Punjab village

Vandana Shukla

On Friday morning, Ghuman in Gurdaspur district woke up to see colourful rangolis adorning the streets and common spaces. In Punjab, people don't make rangolis, but no one is stepping over them, showing respect for the effort of their 7,000 guests who have arrived from Maharashtra in this border hamlet to express their love and appreciation. They are there to revive a bond, fastened in the 13th century by Sant Namdev, saint-poet of Maharashtra, whom the locals have also embraced as their own.
In the vibrant rangoli colours — red, purple, yellow and green — the words embossed in Marathi read “ghasava shabd, tasava shabd, talava shabd, bolya purvi” (polish the word, chisel it, weigh it, before you speak). The locals may not read Marathi, but they know the meaning of the words well — the relevance of shabad, the spoken word, the bani, is sacred to them.
Maharashtrians have a long tradition of not only reading and writing, but also celebrating the written word along with the quest for knowledge. It produced many firsts in terms of women’s literacy and empowerment to pioneer several social reforms. The annual event of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (ABMSS) in Maharashtra is thus a congregation of writers, poets, playwrights, kirtankars, intellectuals and above all, readers who assemble in large numbers to germinate fresh ideas and celebrate what has been written over centuries. This tradition propagates and strengthens their deep-rooted culture of love for knowledge.
The event takes place within Maharashtra, but at times, they step out to absorb other cultural streams too. In the past, they have celebrated the event at places like Baroda and Kolkata. For their 88th annual celebration, the organisers zeroed in on Ghuman because of its link to Bhakti saint Namdev. The 13th century saint is said to have walked hundreds of kilometres from Maharashtra to Ghuman, which he founded. Locals say he lived here for over 20 years and left his imprint on the Sikh faith. Sant Namdev's 62 abhangas are included in the Guru Granth Sahib as ‘Namdevji ki Mukhbani’.

Temple gurdwara
The local gurdwara is named after the Marathi saint, which has his samadhi. Though native Pandharpur in Maharashtra also has a samadhi of, who they call, Sant Shreshth, there is no dispute among his followers about his place of death.
The gurdwara is unique in more ways than one. It also houses a temple within the sanctum sanctorum, where the Granth Sahib is placed. Two beautiful idols of Radha and Krishna are happily sharing this space along with a tiny Shivalaya. The devotees do not discriminate, they bow their head before the Granth Sahib and the idols too. The cave-like rooms within the gurdwara are housing the guests these days. This example of unpretentious secularism makes room for gods and humans alike.
The gurdwara is called dehura, because of the presence of the idols. This is the only gurdwara in Punjab that is not controlled by the SGPC, though it had gone to court to get it under its patronage, but lost.

United colours of celebration
As the day progressed, the gurdwara courtyard witnessed a strange spectacle of what has been touted as national integration from political platforms. An unusual celebration of knowledge, piety, literature and cultural bonding, lasting over seven centuries, reverberated with the sounds of Maharashtrian chaugda and jhanjh and Punjabi dhol. Dance steps from the two diverse cultures mingled, so did musical notes. Even the community kitchen embraced Marathi dishes.
A flag, propagating literary tradition, was hoisted in the outer courtyard by eminent authors of both languages, Punjabi and Marathi. Punjabi poet Surjit Pattar, Jaswant Jafar, Gurbhajan Singh Gill, former president, Punjabi Sahitya Akademi and Madhavi Vaidya, president, Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal, Bharat Desadla, Sunil Mahajan, FM Shinde, outgoing president of ABMSS, and other members of the organising committee unfurled the flag, announcing the commencement of the 88th annual celebration of the ABMSS. They also pulled a flower-bedecked Granth dindi carrying the sacred written words — the poetry collections of Sant Namdev and Sant Gyaneshwar, and their biographies. In Maharashtra, the books are carried in a palanquin that is carried on the shoulders of the outgoing and incoming presidents of the ABMSS.
Later, a procession of brightly clad men and women, in thousands, took the procession of books through the streets of Ghuman, singing and dancing, carrying huge cutouts of the pictures of Sant Namdev and his sayings on placards, to reach the newly erected Guru Nanak Dev Hall, the venue for the inauguration of the convention, where a galaxy of political leaders were expected to arrive.
Usually, the annual convention of ABMSS is the time for Marathi publishers to reap the harvest of publishing Marathi books through the year, but their absence is conspicuous. The Marathi Publishers Committee had objected to the event being held at Ghuman, where Marathi readership is nil. Even though there is a ceremonial inauguration of a book exhibition, its significance is lost in the overbearing din of political announcements — accompanying the literary event — made for the welfare of the town. And, there are very few books in Punjabi. The organisers did not contact publishers in Punjabi, only the last-minute contact with Punjabi Sahitya Akademi could bring to the exhibition what was visible with difficulty in the name of Punjabi literature.  

Political hues
Sanjay Nahar, founder of Sarhad, an NGO that helps displaced children in Pune, and whose brainchild the local event is, remains unfazed by the political colour acquired by the literary event. “Source of all literature is politics, so why keep away from politics? Moreover, this is just the laying of the foundation stone of a new concept, building abhi baki hai (the building is yet to be raised)."
Though piqued at the poorly coordinated literary event, dominated by the late arrivals of politicians, Surjit Pattar is optimistic about the relevance of this literary confluence. Punjabi literature is doing well, he says, especially poetry and ghazal. Novels too are written by pravasi Punjabis. But in the subcontinent of such diverse languages that are producing vibrant literatures, the richness of such diversity remains veiled in the absence of translation activity. Only 2 per cent of our regional literature gets translated.
Hoping to get a pan-Indian readership through English or Hindi translations is not happening due to multiple factors. Moreover, the culturally rooted literatures lose their cultural flavour in English translation, unless the translation is of supreme quality. This keeps the readership confined.
If two languages come together, like Marathi and Punjabi, it can expand the readership base of both literatures. “I would suggest that 20 poets, both from Punjab and Maharashtra, should stay together for a month, in a residency, and translate each other’s poetry. Programmes like these in other genres will help literatures of both languages to expand the readership base,” Surjit Pattar says. As president of Punjab Sahitya Akademi, he had initiated such projects between poets of Punjab and Rajasthani, and Konkan.
Gurdial Singh, Jnanpith awardee in Punjabi, was to inaugurate the sammelan, but could not make it due to ill-health. When the organisers went to his village to record his message, the renowned author pointed out, “Hum pranton me bikhre hue log hain (we are divided by regionalism). We need to become Bharatiya, and the hosting of the 88th chapter of the ABMSS in Ghuman is a good effort in this direction.”

Why now?
Locals say the visit is being touted as a unique event, but it is factually wrong. People from Maharashtra have been visiting their poet-saint's village for years, during the Maghi mela, though not in such huge numbers and not with such political hullabaloo. The condition of the roads has improved overnight. Two new roads have come up and sanitation has improved phenomenally for this mega event. A couple of years ago, Sushil Kumar Shinde, former Union Home Minister, visited Ghuman and was aghast to see the poor state of the gurdwara.
Gurdwaras are ostentatious places across Punjab, often marbled. Some visitors from Maharashtra say this could be because Namdev was a Dalit saint. Also, in Maharashtra, Namdev was almost forgotten, for he was a shimpi, a low caste tailor, overshadowed by the saints of higher caste, like Sant Gyaneshwar, a Brahmin, and Sant Tukaram, who was a baniya. Shinde brought the focus back on Namdev.

Religion and symbolism   
One also observes iconisation of the poet-saint in progress at Ghuman, through political interface. Religious communities in India have preserved their pasts and, in turn, created their own historical narratives, even in the absence of political patronage. Is the significance of this event blown out of proportion due to the mixing of religion with literature, which creates a broad base for vote bank? For instance, a Sikh body has demanded that land be allotted to it at Pandharpur, a holy city of Hindus in Maharashtra, to build a gurdwara. Madhavi Vaidya refutes this vehemently, "Namdev and Gyaneshwar were litterateurs of the highest order, religion has no role in this endeavour. This is a literary festival in letter and spirit."
Since a few short stories of Amrita Pritam and a novel of Gurdial Singh 'Pharsa' are the only Punjabi works in Marathi translation, the literary base between the two languages, for the time being, is narrow.
At the venue, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who laid the foundation stone for Baba Namdevji Government Degree College and upgraded two schools of the town, was flanked by leaders Sharad Pawar and Nitin Gadkari. The stage was named “Lal Baal and Paal vyaspeeth” (referring to political luminaries of the past, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal). This was perhaps an attempt at literary pun. All announcements were made in Marathi, which were not translated for the Punjabi audience. The Punjabi compere stood almost mute. The local audience was fidgety through the event, as against the enthused Marathi audience.
Dr Sadanand More, ABMSS president and scholar on the literature of saints, and a descendent of Sant Tukaram, offered reciprocation to the people of Ghuman by sharing and extending the joys of discovery of knowledge. “The eureka moment does not care if you have clothes on your body or a roof over your head. Such is the joy of knowledge and we celebrate it together here. While we celebrate the knowledge shared by our ancestors, it's also time to examine ourselves, how we can contribute to this long tradition of knowledge and discovery.”
Gurbhajan Singh Gill, however, expresses his doubts, “We Punjabis haven't taken shabad Guru in its true spirit. We use the term shabad Guru, but we don't follow shabad prakash, which means the light of the written word, of knowledge. I would like to request the CM of Punjab that while its good to give much in terms of knowledge institutions to the town, by upgrading schools and giving a new college, Punjabis can’t move forward unless something is done for the love of books, for publication and reading culture. Else, all these efforts would lose meaning —  like an old coin, out of circulation.