Punjabi writer Dalip Kaur Tiwana will be remembered for lyrical prose

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 31

What Amrita Pritam says in verse, Tiwana depicts in prose. That is how Punjabi writer Kartar Singh Duggal summed up Dalip Kaur Tiwana’s vast body of literary work around three decades back. A prolific writer of more than 50 books, she passed away after a brief illness on Friday at a private hospital in Mohali. She was 84.

Tiwana’s literary career, which started with the short story Maran Rut in the mid-1950s, is spread over seven decades. She has to her credit 33 novels and 14 anthologies of short stories. Even before falling ill, she was giving final touches to a novel.

Tiwana’s husband, Prof Bhupinder Singh, a sociologist, says she was so much in love with writing that around three weeks ago, he noticed the manuscript of her last novel lying on her bedside at a hospital in Patiala.

Her novel Eho Hamara Jeewana is considered a masterpiece and won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1971. Punjabi poet Surjit Patar, who was Tiwana’s student, says her novels will live for centuries for their lyrical language. “Rarely any other Punjabi writer has beautifully used conversations in his or her writings the way she has.”

Tiwana’s works were often set in Malwa and revolved around the plight of orphaned girls, widows and women married to self-centric men.

Drawing a parallel between Amrita Pritam and Dalip Kaur Tiwana in A History of Punjabi Literature, Duggal says both write about the plight of the women in a “manmade society”. “The only difference is that while Amrita Pritam’s milieu is mainly urban, at times even universal, Tiwana is rooted in the soil, her own tradition and folklore, economic exploitation of and the social curbs inflicted upon the other sex in society in the Punjab.”

Born at Rabbon village in Ludhiana district, she was raised by her uncle, who was a police officer, in Patiala. She joined Punjabi University, Patiala, as a lecturer in early 1960s. She retired in 1990s as Dean (Languages). Even after retirement, she was admired by her students, who were always welcome to her house.

Patar says when he completed graduation in 1967, the masters course was available in several universities and colleges of the state. “But I was attracted so much to her writings that I didn’t mind leaving Kapurthala for Patiala. She was an amazing teacher who would never ask students to take notes but her usual question used to be: which book did you read last. She would engage with every young mind present in the class.”

Tiwana was given almost every award meant for literature in the country: be it the Shiromani Sahitkar Award or Sahitya Akademi Award, Punjab Sahit Ratan or Saraswati Samman. In 2004, she was also awarded Padma Shri, which she returned in October 2015 during the writers’ award returning movement against rising intolerance in the country.

Condolence resolution

Chandigarh: The Cabinet on Friday passed a condolence resolution on the demise of Punjabi litterateur Dalip Kaur Tiwana (in pic). It described her as an embodiment of Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiyat, as she contributed to the promotion of Punjabi language, art and literature through her prolific writings, which would remain a source of inspiration for budding writers and millions of her readers. TNS

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