Amrita Pritam

Amrita Pritam is one of the most important figures in the oeuvre of Indian literature. She was born Amarit Kaur, on 31 August 1913 in Gujranwala (now in present Pakistan). She was born in a literary environment, receiving formal lessons in early childhood. Amrita’s father was a poet and scholar who wrote in Braj bhasha. With more than a hundred literary works, Pritam is celebrated as the first eminent female Punjabi writer of the twentieth century. Pritam was awarded the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1956 and became the first writer to receive this award for a work in Punjabi. In 1969 Pritam was recognized for her literary contribution with Padma Shri. She was awarded India’s second-highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan in 2004.

Pritam’s oeuvre of literary works is vast. One of her most celebrated works is Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah nu (Today I Invoke Waris Shah). The poem was set during the partition of British India in 1947 and addressed to Waris Shah- the writer of Heer Ranjha.

Pritam’s poem revolves around the theme of Desolation where she vividly describes the misery of Punjab after partition, where the land is filled with corpses, and the river Chenab water has turned red with blood. The water of the five rivers that flow through the land was tainted and is now destroying the land and the sky weeps endlessly.

Invocation to Waris Shah is at the center of the poem where she asks the writer to rise from his grave and record the painful events in his immortal verses. A new chapter should start in the history of Punjab.

In Heer Ranjha, Waris Shah portrayed one woman’s suffering (Heer), but now numerous daughters of Punjab cry out to him. The once fertile land now sprouts venom, and the sky echoes with anguish.