The World of
Kartar Singh Duggal
By Dr Afzal Mirza
Maryland, US
There
were few Sikhs who made their name in the realm
of literature in the pre-partition India and Kartar
Singh Duggal was one of them. He is perhaps one
of the senior most progressive writers alive today,
the other being our own Hamid Akhtar.
The other notable Sikh writers of that period were
Rajinder Sing Bedi, Balwant Singh, Takht Singh,
Iqbal Singh, Amrita Preetam, Prof Mohan Singh and
Khushwant Singh. Out of these Bedi, Balwant Singh
and Takht Singh wrote in Urdu while Amrita Preetam,
Bedi and Mohan Singh wrote in Punjabi and Iqbal
Singh and Khushwant Singh were primarily English
writers. Duggal however wrote in all the three languages
with equal prowess. He wrote poetry, dramas and
stories thus trying his hand in all genres of literature
and bagged many awards.
An appraisal of Duggal’s life as shown in
his memoirs entitled Kis nun kholan ganthri
(Before whom should I unpack my baggage) depicts
him as an interesting character being a product
of the times when the society was liberal enough
to accommodate inter-faith friendships and relationships.
Duggal was born in Dhamial – a place in close
proximity of Rawalpindi. Dhamial of 1930s represented
the life of the pre-partition India where Hindus,
Muslims and Sikhs were living together peacefully.
Duggal therefore would fraternize with people of
all religions. Not only that he went to school with
his Muslim friends but he would also go to their
homes and was treated as a member of the families
he visited. While studying in the Gordon College
for his BA, Duggal also appeared in Honors in Punjabi
exam and passed it with distinction. He was therefore
given the job of teaching Punjabi in the same College.
In those days he wrote Punjabi poetry and prose
and his name gradually came to be known in the literary
circles.
Duggal derived his first literary inspiration from
Davinder Satyarathi, a literary figure of the 1930s,
who used to travel from village to village to collect
Punjabi folklore. Duggal described his meeting with
Satyarathi in these words, “While sitting
in the library I met Davinder Satyarathi for the
first time. He had locks of hair resting on his
shoulders, wore a long coat and held a big bag full
of papers, books and copies… He showed me
his English article published in Asia magazine and
then later on I read a number of his articles all
written on Punjabi folklore in Modern Review of
Calcutta… I took him to my village and started
collecting folk songs. Once he wrote an article
on those folk songs in my presence which was later
on published in magazine Pareet Larri. So I thought
if he could write and get published why couldn’t
I do the same… One day he told me that he
met Iqbal as well. I felt envious of the man who
had met such a big man. Satyarathi told me that
he met Iqbal to get his advice on his (Satyrathi’s)
tendency to commit suicide because those days he
was jobless and fed up with life. Iqbal told him,
‘Look you are a Hindu. Hindus believe in avagvan
(reincarnation). If you will commit suicide you
will be born again. Then either you will get a better
life than what you have now or worse than it or
.the same as you have now. So there are only 33
percent chances of your betterment in the next life.’
Iqbal’s advice opened his eyes; he never thought
of suicide again.”
Duggal once attended a lecture by Sir Abdul Qadir
in Rawalpindi where the latter told the audience
many anecdotes about Allama Iqbal. He said, “Allama
started writing in Urdu because Punjabis used to
consider Urdu as their mother tongue. Punjabi was
not taught in the government schools. Again when
love for his mother tongue woke up in his heart
he realized the greatness of Bullhe Shah and Waris
Shah but then he had gone too far and had started
writing in Persian as well…Sir Qadir told
that before his death Iqbal had expressed his desire
to hear Bulleh Shah’s kafi… Many a time
I thought that had Iqbal written in Punjabi our
language would have attained a great importance.”
In Rawalpindi Duggal also met Sarojni Naido. “She
was reclining against a big pillow (gao takya) wearing
a greenish sari and chewing paan. She looked like
a queen… I praised her poetry but she said,
‘Leave it brother. Now it is a struggle for
independence.’ I liked her a lot because she
was cutting jokes and laughing all the time,”
he writes.
After graduating from Rawalpindi, Duggal shifted
to Lahore for his MA in English and joined FC College.
Prof Mohan Singh, an important Punjabi writer, was
his teacher there with whom he developed friendly
relations. Mohan Singh used to live on Maclagan
Road and published magazine Punjdarya. He was devoted
to the publication of that magazine While still
a student Duggal started reciting his poetry in
Radio mushairas and wrote Punjabi features in which
the singers of that period namely Malika Pukhraj,
Eidan Bai, Zeenat Begum, Shamshad Begam, Tamancha
Jan and Munawwar Sultana sang his songs and Amrita
Preetam read the dialogues ” Those days Khushwant
Singh had come to Lahore after completing his studies
in England to start his legal practice. He used
to live in a flat in front of Lahore High Court.
Duggal writes, “When I met Khushwant I was
stunned by the beauty of his wife Kanwal…After
every week or fortnight there used to be a gathering
at Khushwant Singh’s flat which was attended
by selected writers. There Mohan Singh and Davinder
Satyarathi also used to come. Once or twice perhaps
Amrita Preetam also came who was known as Amrit
Kaur at that time….There used to be new books
in Khushwant’s library which he offered to
his friends to read…I remember that when he
wrote his first story in English he was extremely
nervous. He had got it typed but was not showing
it to any one. But in due course of time he became
a top journalist of the country. Those days he was
impressed by Aldous Huxley and had all his books
in his library.
In 1942 Duggal joined All India Radio and was posted
in Lahore. Professor Ahmad Shah Bukhari (Patras
Bukhari) was its director general and according
to Duggal that was the reason why the atmosphere
in Radio stations was like that of an academic institution.
Most of the meetings used to take place at the residence
of the director and there used to be a relaxed atmosphere
in those meetings. “We used to get work from
girls of red light area but the moment they entered
the radio station they used to behave like ladies
of noble families. Whenever Bukhari sahib would
come to Lahore a wave of excitement used to run
in the station not because he was the DG but because
every one loved him. He used to hold parties every
evening where writers and intellectuals were invited.
Once he was invited at Imtiaz Ali Taj’s residence.
Bukhari complained to Taj sahib that he had stopped
writing dramas for the radio. Taj sahib said that
Duggal used to extract dramas from me. Taj sahib
was very close to me. He would talk to me about
everything including the matters related to Hijab
Imtiaz’s sickness or Yasmin’s studies….During
British days when the government was filling the
jails with freedom fighters once Bukhari sahib to
the chagrin of British rulers gave shelter to Congress
leader Aruna Asif Ali in his residence. When in
1946 Patel became in-charge of broadcasting Bukhari
sahib started wearing khadar dress so every one
followed him and started wearing khaddar. Bukhari
sahib did not want to go to Pakistan but Patel was
an iron- hearted man. So he was compelled to go
to Pakistan…”
Rajinder Singh Bedi had also joined the radio. He
was made in-charge of feature programs. Then Bedi
wrote his famous drama ‘Khawaja Sara’
which caused a great deal of controversy in the
press on charges of obscenity. The matter went to
Bukhari who read the manuscript and cleared it.
Duggal says Bedi used to smoke which is not allowed
among Sikhs. Once he was caught by an elderly Sikh
who scolded him for smoking. Bedi said to him politely,
“I’m ashamed Sardar Ji . The problem
is that I have become a Sikh from a Muslim and I
have left all other bad habits but can’t leave
smoking.”
When Duggal was working at Lahore Amrita Pareetam
used to write for the radio sometimes. She used
to broadcast as well. He writes, “Amrita was
a beautiful woman of her time… There was never
any dearth of her admirers. She knew all the ways
of attracting them… Those days she was more
known for her good looks than her poetry. She was
especially kind to me…. After partition when
I saw her in Delhi she was married to Sardar Pareetam
Singh.” Then she had already written her masterpiece
poem ‘Aj Akhan Waris Shah Nu’.
Talking of the artists that were working in Lahore
Radio he fondly remembers Achla Sachdev, Om Parkash,
Rafi Peer and Mohini Das. About Mohini he writes,
”Artists like Mohini are very rarely born.
She could make every character live. She had a beautiful
voice but was very ordinary looking... but still
there used to be queues of her admirers. She married
a program officer named Hameed and became Mohini
Hameed. No doubt she was an employee of the radio
but she was always treated as if she was a special
guest of the radio station.” [Well in her
nineties Mohini now lives in Seattle. She can’t
talk and see and shuns company. Such are ways of
nature. (A.M.)]
As the partition of the sub-continent became imminent
Duggal wanted to continue living in Pakistan. He
had a strange knack of befriending Muslims especially
the women. One wonders how he reconciled his extreme
religiosity with the ideology of the progressive
writers’ movement. With the arrival of refugees
from India the conditions in Lahore deteriorated
and on August 2 1947 he had no option but to migrate
to India. In Delhi he married a Muslim woman named
Ayesha who was the sister of poet Ali Sardar Jafery’s
wife Sultana Jafery. Thenceforth started another
chapter in his life.
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