‘Sanjh’ A New Punjabi Literary Magazine

In the past few decades, on both sides of India Pakistan border, Punjabis have experienced with pain the consequences of physical divisions created by foreign and local political interests. This has prompted many of us to increase our efforts to communicate with each other as people. For years, human rights and cultural activists in Pakistan and India have worked together to form a consensus on this issue whereby both governments are lobbied, for example, in favor of less restrictive borders. From West Punjab, Fakhr Zaman, Karamat Ali, Mohammad Tahseen, Imtiaz Alam and Ahmad Salim are among the many people who have worked hard on the ground to bring about discussions and joint actions among Punjabis.
We have not had that same clarity when dealing with the gaps created by our diversity; foremost among them, the usage of two different scripts. In this case, instead of yielding the ‘bad guys’ such as the local governments in case of divisive borders, the discussion on the diversity of Punjabi language scripts leads to a level of confusion where intellectuals and cultural activists shirk back before a consensus can be formed in our literary and cultural communities.
The issue of two scripts raises many questions pertaining to our history as Punjabis, and the fact that the Arabo-Persian script was instituted by Muslim invaders replacing the indigenous script does not endear it to many Punjabis. Also, the ambivalence created by this situation manifests itself in larger communities where the two major respective religions of Punjabis, Sikhism and Islam, begin to take ownership of the language turning the scripts into scriptures. In this equation, each religious stream develops their ‘own’ script overlooking the other. A glaring example of it is found in the ‘Sikh Chairs’ in the institutions of learning around the world that blatantly exclude the Shahmukhi script and with it the literature of 60% of Punjabis by patronizing Punjabi language courses pertaining to Gurumukhi alone. Likewise, in West Punjab, authors recognized by authorities are the ones writing in Shahmukhi