Celebrated writer Amrita Pritam, who believed in living life on her own terms, would’ve turned 102 today. By Khushbu Kirti
This Punjabi author, novelist, poet and essayist, was the first Indian woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award for her magnum opus Sunehadey (Messages) in 1956. Amrita Pritam was an exemplar who received almost every Indian award you can name — Jnanpith Award (for Kagaj Te Canvas), Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan. She was born, on this day, in Gujranwala, Pakistan and migrated from Lahore to India, post-Partition. Pritam had also received the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, an award given to ‘immortals of literature’, for lifetime achievement in 2004.
The writer was extolled for her elegy Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu (I Say Unto Waris Shah). The poem invoked Waris Shah, the renowned historic poet, who wrote the popular version of the Punjabi love tragedy of Heer Ranjha.
‘Aaj akha Waris Shah nu, ki tu kabra wichu goe
Ki ajj kitabein ishq da koi agla var ka koe...’
(I summon Waris Shah today, speak from thy grave, and find the next page in the Book of Love.)
The poem describes the natural environment and the hearts of the people of Punjab which were poisoned during the Partition. The land of love and beauty, known for its religious tolerance and secularism, was polluted. The love and respect had vanished and was replaced by cruelty, bloodshed and all the vices present. She takes the trope of Heer Ranjha and sadly expresses how thousands of Heers were raped, killed, and buried and how the Ranjhas had forgotten their lessons of love.
In Pinjar, she created her indelible character Puro, an epitome of violence against women, the loss of humanity and the ultimate surrender to existential fate. Pinjar was later, in 2003, made into an award-winning film.
The writer’s sensibility towards the plight of women and towards love arose from her own life. Following her failed marriage, her immense love for Sahir Ludhianvi could not be consummated. It was only later that she found solace in the companionship of the artist and writer Imroz. She spent her last 40 years with him. Imroz designed some of her book covers and often painted her portraits. Their life together is also the subject of many books. One of them is Amrita Imroz: A Love Story.
The title of her autobiography came from a conversation that she had with writer Kushwant Singh. The name carried with it immense significance and was a testament to how strong the woman was. He commented on her failed relationship with Sahir Ludhianvi, stating, publically, that her love-life was sufficient to be penned down on a ‘raseedi ticket’. The sarcastic comment inspired her and she turned it around in her favour. She boldly called her autobiography Raseedi Ticket (English: Revenue Stamp). Therein, she openly indited her life story, her love life, her journey as a litterateur, a famous writer, and as an academy award winner. The script was in Gurumukhi.
Pritam was a child bride, engaged at the age of four, and had lost her mother when she was very young. While she, initially, had a good relationship with her father, who was a pious and religious man, the relationship suffered a blow when she decided to become a writer. He wanted her to follow the path of religion, while Pritam felt betrayed by the same. She felt that all her life, she was lied to by her elders about the power of prayers. She was married to an older man, Pritam Singh, and had two children with him. Despite her failed marriage and subsequent divorce, she retained his name because she believed that her husband had greatly contributed to what she became.
She went on to become a seminal litterateur and was a single woman who openly expressed her love for a man who was not her husband. And one can imagine how big a deal and huge a controversy that was in the 1950s. Her reputation was smeared. She was termed as a ‘siren’ and her works were often considered lewd and sexually explicit, due to which she was not considered a serious writer. Despite being an accomplished author, her works were often side-lined. Like any other woman who wanted to be independent and stand up for herself, Pritam, too, had to bear the onslaughts on her character, endure the constant comments and interference in her life, merely because she was honest about it and not apologetic for her choices. She possessed clarity in life, something not everyone can claim to do.
The Padma Shri awardee opened up, in her memoir, about how the wives of other writers prohibited them from attending international events which Pritam, too, was a part of. This was due to the fear that she would ‘steal’ their men. Pritam had once mentioned that she had received more love abroad than she had received at home. She garnered wide acclaim internationally.
Despite all the obstacles, here was a woman challenging all conventions of a society that was recently coming out of a Partition, still very much dogmatically patriarchal, enveloped with conventions of tradition, and a society that had not stepped yet into the modern idea of ‘live and let live’. It was very simple to question the character of women and subjugate them. However, Pritam was ahead of her times, both in her works and actions. There was a revolutionary zeal in her writings
Love and passion defined her life and purpose. She pointed out that the problem of the society was that people thought they could bind love in the fetters of bonds and relationships. The last work she wrote was a poem for her beloved Imroz, called Main tenu Phir Milangi in 2004. Her writing style was simple as if she was narrating a story. The narration was done in an honest and straightforward manner. Pritam produced hundreds of works, over a span of 60 years, and frequently spoke of the society of her time, the position of women in it, their place in literature, the culture of Punjab and about her life and relationships.
