Shiv Kumar Batalvi (1936-1973) – Life and Poetry
Safir Rammah
Academy of the Punjab in North America
Manu Sharma
Sarav Bharati Likhari Sabha International
Volume 9, Number 2, July-December 2002
The life and poetry of Shiv Kumar Batalvi - the most popular modern Punjabi poet and the youngest recipient of Shahitya Academy Award in 1967 - has been the subject of a large number of books and magazine articles, mostly written in Punjabi. Yet, a reliable and coherent study of his life has not come to light. The authors have attempted to put together a broad outline of Shiv’s life through detailed review of relevant published material, by interviewing a number of his contemporaries and family members and by conducting background research on people and places and the social and literary environment that shaped Shiv’s life and poetry. The authors also present an overview of Shiv’s poetry, highlighting its versatility and deep roots in Punjabi literary traditions. The authors have identified the main reason behind the extraordinary popularity of Shiv as his exceptional capability to embody the collective psyche of Punjabis and their traditional cultural identity in his poetry.
IntroductionOn the eve of the turbulent decade of 1960’s, a dynamic, exciting and controversial time for the youth around the world, who rose to challenge and redefine the established boundaries of politics, culture, literature and art of their societies, Shiv Kumar Batalvi, a young man of barely 20 years of age, appeared on the scene of Punjabi poetry in East Punjab. By living a brief and intense life that was devoted to writing deeply profound, passionate and enchantingly lyrical poetic expressions of the pathos of his time, and dying young at the age of 36, a fate that he had predicted and romanticized throughout his poetry, he attained the charisma of a modern day saint and a fallen-hero in the eyes of many of his admirers. The sixties was primarily a phenomenon of western societies but its resonance had also touched the literature and art in the third world and had produced new trends in all forms of creative expressions. It was perhaps not a coincidence that Shiv Kumar Batalvi came to age and quickly gained prominence at this crucial juncture when the emerging era of modernity was decisively and permanently replacing the traditional way of writing Punjabi poetry. It was the most opportune time for talented poets to get attention and fame at a young age as the authentic voices of the new times. The real wonder of Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s poetry is not that he mastered the new and innovative ways to express modern poetical sensibilities better than most of his contemporaries, but that he did it by masterfully and artistically combining and fusing them with the spirit of Punjab’s culture and with the age old charm of classical Punjabi poetry and folk songs. He evoked, and still continues to do so, strong emotions among the listeners and readers of his poetry. For a vast majority, he is quintessence of the absolute best that great poetry is supposed to be, while for some his poetry is an unwelcome distraction from the true goal of poetry as a tool to identify and expose the fault lines in the society and people’s reaction to them.
Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s Life:
The Village
Shiv was born on July 23, 1936, in a village, Bara Pind Lohtian, located in the northern part of pre-partition Punjab close to the border with the State of Jammu and Kashmir
[1]. Bara Pind Lohtian is about thirty miles east of Sialkot and 15 miles west of India-Pakistan border on Zafarwal-Shakargarh road, in district Narowal. Before partition, this area was in district Gurdaspur. Due to the proximity of Jammu and Kahsmir mountains, the weather here is relatively temperate compared to the extreme summer heat of the plains of the Punjab. A number of
nalas(small streams)
Aik, Daigh, Basantar, Tavi and others pass through the area. The village is located on the bank of
Basantar nala. At the time of the partition, the village had approximately 400 houses of Hindu and 100 houses of Muslim families. There was only one Sikh household in the village. Muslims were mostly poor while Hindus were generally affluent. They were landlords, merchants and moneylenders. Their houses were solidly built with small bricks and wood. Doors and windows were elaborately designed. The main doors had engraving of their religious figures. Hindus were the dominant faction in the village. They did not allow the slaughter of cows but other than that people in the village lived together with remarkable religious tolerance and communal harmony. They drank water from the same wells, and Hindu and Muslim children used to play together. The religious and seasonal festivals were the big events of their lives and were celebrated with a lot of funfair. The village life was by and large very peaceful. Disputes were settled by the
panchayat (council) of village elders and police never came to the village. No murders or other major crimes are reported in that area during those days.
The square of the village was an open space of about half an acre in area with a number of shops around it. Large mango orchards surrounded the village. On a clear day one could see the mountains of Kashmir and at nighttime lights of the city of Samba. An unpaved road passed through the village, coming from Jammu through Samba, Tanda, and Darman up to Amritsar. There used to be a diesel bus service between Samba and Amritsar that passed through the village once a day. The nearest railway station was Shakargarh, about 8 miles away. The village had a primary school for boys, an animal hospital and a small village council. There was no school for girls but a Hindu woman used to teach Hindu girls in a mandir (temple). Hindu women used to cover their faces with veils and usually did not go out of their houses. The land was very fertile and was irrigated through wells. The village was called Lohtian either because the businessmen of the area used to bring loha (iron) from Amritsar for selling, or more likely, because the cast of the Hindu Khatri clan that used to live there was Lohtia. Bara Pind Lohtian during pre-partition days was an ideal place for a sensitive and dreamy Hindu boy to grow up.
The Childhood
Shiv belonged to a middle-class family that had lived in that area for many generations. His father, Pandit Krishan Gopal, was the second-born among his three brothers and two sisters
[2]. He started his career as a
patwari (land recorder and surveyor) and eventually reached the post of
Qanoongoh (a mid-level supervisory position in the Revenue Department) and retired as the principal of Patwar School, Batala. Soon after passing the exam of
patwar in 1931, Krishan Gopal married a tall and beautiful girl, Shanti Devi, from a nearby village. Shanti Devi was known for her melodious singing voice that Shiv inherited from her. Their first son, Davarka, was born during the second year of their marriage followed by Shiv a couple of years later. By all accounts, Shiv had a happy and carefree childhood. He was known for his peculiar habit of wandering around in the village and its surroundings alone. Many times, his father would have to search for him, finding him lying down under the trees at the banks of
Bassantar nala or near a mandir on the south side of the village. At other times he would be found watching with fascination the tricks of snake charmers or absorbed in listening to the singings of
raas-daharis (a folk verse-play based on religious songs). Even today, the old folks in the village remember that ‘patwari's son’ was known as a
sheedai (obsessed) and a
malang (wandering faqir). He was very fond of taking part in
Ramlila (a musical verse play staged on the occasion of Hindu holy festival
Dussehra for nine consecutive nights based on
Ramayan) and other plays during religious festivals, usually in a female role.
Shiv studied at the boys’ primary school in the village where he got a scholarship in the 4th grade exam. His father was by then promoted to the position of
Girdwar (supervisor of patwaris) and posted at Dera Baba Nanak. Shiv also moved to Dera Baba Nanak with his father, mother and elder brother, Davarka.
[3] Next year in August 1947, while Shiv and Davarka were visiting Bara Pind Lohtian during their summer vacations from school, the partition of Punjab was announced. In the middle of the gruesome carnage that swept the Punjab in the wake of partition, Shiv left the village with other close relatives. They travelled through the state of Jammu and Kasmir and after many days arrived at Dera Baba Nanak where Shiv's parents were anxiously waiting for their sons. Shiv's family soon migrated to Batala, across from Bara Pind Lohtian on the other side of the newly carved border. The bloody partition of Punjab shattered Shiv's idyllic childhood and brought the happiest period of his life to an abrupt end.
[4]The impressions of this early period provided Shiv's poetry a nostalgic wealth of haunting imagery and metaphors, most of which can be traced back to the scenery and traditional village life of rural Punjab in the area where he grew up. The memories of his childhood stayed fresh in his mind . [Gargi 2000, ‘
Kaudian Wala Sapp’ ]. The traumatic disruption of Shiv's childhood caused by the events of partition was perhaps one of the sources of his deep sorrow and melancholy, although Shiv never expressed it directly in his early poetry. Only at the end of his poetic career, he addressed it in his poem
Dudh Da Qatal (Murder of Mother’s Milk), as part of a surgical and painful analysis of his inner sufferings, calling the pre-partition combined Punjab as his mother:
[5]I still remember it today, and you must remember it too
When, together, we murdered our mother.
My childhood was killed with the murder of my mother
And its cold corpse was left behind in your place.
Even now, I become quiet when I remember that
And lose myself in the thoughts of that half-a-body that was your share.[Translation by Suman Kashyap].
[6]
The Years of Aimless Wanderings
Shiv’s family settled down in Batala in Darussalam
muhalla (section of a city), now re-named as Prem Nagar.
[7]Shiv attended the Salvation Army High School and passed his matriculation examination in first division in 1953. That is about how far he would go as far as formal education was concerned. To the utter disappointment of his father who wanted him to get a good education and start a successful career, he spent the next few years getting in and out of three colleges without getting a degree. He spent two years in the Baring Union Christian College, Batala, in the F.Sc. program but dropped out without sitting in the Board examination. He next joined R. D. College, Nabha, but left it after a few months. He then got admission in S.N. College, Qadian, a small town near Batala, in arts subjects but dropped out again after a couple of years. [Pal 1998]
[8]. Finally, his father forced him to join the Revenue Department as a patwari.
[9] After joining the service, Shiv took little interest in the work and for a while made an arrangement with a retired patwari to take care of his official responsibilities in exchange of one-third of his pay. Even that didn’t last for long and Shiv resigned from his job in 1961. [Kahlon. Int. 2002].
It was during the final year of his unsuccessful college career at Qadian in 1957 that Shiv started writing poetry in Punjabi
[10]. Among his student friends in the colleges he had attended, he was already very popular as a talented singer and he had developed a large following of fans. [Pal 1998]. Now, instead of singing folk and film songs, he started singing his own poems. He soon got introduced in the literary circles of Batala. Some senior writers of Batala, including Jaswant Singh Rahi, Kartar Singh Balgan and Barkat Ram Yumman, as the saying goes, took him under their wings. Among them, Barkat Ram Yumman played an important role in introducing him to the kavi darbars (poetry recital functions, also called
mushairas) outside Batala. [Sharma 1979].
The Decade of Shiv’s Poetic Miracle
The next decade, after Shiv left S.N College, was the most prolific period of his poetry writing. It was during this time that he composed most of his masterpiece poetry that he was destined to write during his brief lifetime. Once he discovered his poetic genius, the writing of poetry became his primary passion and overshadowed all other considerations. He practically dedicated his life to writing poetry as the only objective of his life. He extensively studied Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and English literature.
[11] Shiv also developed friendships with a large number of well-known Punjabi writers and started moving in their circle. Between 1960 and 1965, he published his first five collections of poetry. One of the only two other collections that he published later contained poems that were mostly written during this period. He was awarded the coveted Sahitya Academy Award for his verse-drama,
Loonan, published in 1965, becoming its youngest ever recipient.
By the end of this period, Shiv had become a living legend and most sought after Punjabi poet. The organizers of
kavi darbars all over the Punjab had found out that inviting Shiv would guarantee a large audience and success of their functions. They also began to break the longstanding tradition of seniority by inviting Shiv to recite his poetry after some well-established and senior poets knowing well that the audience will not stay around to listen to other poets after him. [Singh 1994]. He was the star attraction of kavi darbars and was famous for his unique and passionate style of singing of his poetry that could spellbind his audience into pin-drop silence. Many who had listened to Shiv’s recitations of his poetry found it as one of the most memorable experiences of their lives.
[12][Duggal & Sekhon 1992].
Shiv’s extraordinary hold on his audience has been noted by all of his biographers. A typical example is Balwant Gargi’s description of a kavi darbar that he attended with Shiv:
‘This mushaira was organized by Principal O. P. Sharma on a very large scale on the occasion of Guru Nanak’s 500
th birthday … As soon as we appeared on the stage, a wave of excitement ran through the audience on seeing Shiv. They welcomed him with a loud round of applause …When he stood up to recite his poetry, a trance-like silence dominated the hall. He read his poem,
Safar (a travel) … The vibrations of his enchanting and soft tunes touched the hearts of everyone present. Suddenly he raised the pitch of his voice. He was challenging Nanak. A poet was addressing another poet. He was saying to Guru Nanak: “See how far your nation has travelled after you. Today they have travelled from your name to the sword” … Shiv’s voice was resonating in the hall. He was standing tall and there was a prophet-like grandeur in his voice … when the poem ended … the girls started shouting for him to sing “
Kee puchdey o haal faqeeran da (What is the point of asking us faqirs how are we doing?) … Shiv smiled and switching his mood he then sang the poem that he had sung hundreds of time and each time it had won the hearts of his audience … When Shiv left the microphone after reading three poems, no other poet could get the attention of the audience. The spell had broken and people had lost their interest in the
kavi darbar.’
[13] [Gargi 2000 ‘
Haseen Chehre’].
Those were also tough times for Shiv. He didn’t like working as a patwari. After resigning from this job, he remained unemployed until 1966. Without much financial support from his father, he had to rely on the occasional fees he received for reading his poems in
kavi darbars, and later the meagre royalty he received for his books.
[14] His bohemian lifestyle was a constant cause of rift between him and his father. He would stay away from home for long periods of time spending the nights at the homes of his friends. Finally, in 1966 he made an effort to start living a normal life and took a clerical job at the State Bank’s branch in Batala. He married in 1967. His wife, Aruna, was a Brahmin from district Gurdaspur. He had two children, Meharbaan (b. 1968) and Puja (b. 1969). In 1968 he moved to Chandigarh where he continued his employment at the State Bank of India.
The Years of Bitterness and Disappointment
Shiv had come to Chandigarh with many hopes but after four years when he left this city he was bitter and disappointed. Although his stay in Chandigarh initially brought him more fame, his growing popularity had already given rise to many detracting voices in Punjabi literary circles that became more loud and stronger during his time in Chandigarh. This eventually became quite distressing for him. So much so that he retaliated against the criticism of his poetry in an article published as the preface of Dardmandan Deean Aheen, a selection of his poetry, under the heading ‘Mere Nindak’ (My Critics).
Shiv hardly did any work at the State Bank in Chandigarh where he was employed. For a while, he was given the charge of some books lying around in the bank. Shiv simply kept a register on his table and let everyone know that whoever needed a book could make entry in the register and take the book. Similarly, he was also assigned other light duties on different desks, including of public relations. He would go to the bank only once or twice a week. [Bhandari. Int. 2002]. Shiv lived in a house in Sector 21. His favourite place in Chandigarh was the watch shop of Preetam Kanwal Singh, close to a liquor shop in Sector 22. It was a small booth type shop. Shiv would arrive there early in the day and would hold court until evening. He would sometimes lie down behind the counter to get some rest in the afternoon. In the evenings, he could be found at the ‘Writers-Corner’ in the square of Sector 22. [Manhas. Int. 2002]. On the same day that Shiv shifted to Chandigarh, he met some fellow poets, Mohan Bhandari, Bhagwant Singh, Bhushan Dhyanpuri and some others, standing by the railing on the side of the road at 22 Sector. They immediately decided to name this corner ‘Writers Corner’ to celebrate the occasion. A young boy was sent to get a small board painted with the inscription ‘Writers Corner’. They hanged the board there and got it inaugurated by Shiv. It is also called Battian Wala Chowk (the square with traffic lights) of Sector 22-23, since it is just in the first corner of Sector 22 from the main road and Sector 23 begins across the road. This Sector was the main centre of literary activities in Chandigarh. About 25-30 writers were living around in that area and other close by Sectors. Sector 22 was their main meeting place in the evening. [Bhandari. Int. 2002].
During the last couple of years of Shiv’s stay in Chandigarh, his health had started declining. He had a few attacks of epilepsy. [Batalvi. Int. 2002]. The harsh criticism of his poetry from some quarters had started taking its toll on his mental and physical health. Until then, Shiv’s social persona had never exhibited some of the deep sorrow reflected in his poetry. He was known as the delight of social gatherings of his friends and admirers where he was always a witty, sharp-minded and very intelligent conversationalist. From serious discussions about literature or recitation of his sad or serious poetry, he would effortlessly turn to telling jokes or other light and entertaining topics. [Kahlon. Int. 2002]. Now, a growing bitterness was often noticed in his demeanour. He started talking more openly about his impeding death. He also started drinking on a regular bases.
[15]The Trip to England
In May of 1972, Shiv visited England on the invitation of Dr. Gupal Puri and Mrs. Kailash Puri He had been looking forward to his first trip abroad as a welcome relief from the drudgery of his life in Chandigarh. When he arrived in England, his popularity and fame had already reached a high point among the Punjabi community. His arrival was announced in the local Indian papers with headlines and pictures. [Takhar. Int. 2002]. He spent a busy time in England. A number of public functions and private parties were arranged in his honour where he recited his poetry. Dr. Gupal Puri arranged the first large function in Coventry, near London, to welcome Shiv. A large number of his fans and Punjabi poets, including Santokh Singh Santokh, Kuldip Takhar and Tarsem Purewal and many others attended this function. Another large gathering was organized at Rochester (Kent) in his honour. The famous artist S. Sobha Singh was also present who had travelled on his own expense to see Shiv. His engagements in England were regularly reported in the local Indian media and the BBC Television once interviewed him. While Punjabi community got their opportunity to listen to Shiv on various occasions, his stay in London proved to be the last straw for his failing health. He would stay late and continue to drink until 2:00 or 2:30 in the morning at parties or at home engaged in discussions with his hosts and other people who would come to visit him. He would wake up after a short sleep around 4:00 A.M. and begin his day by again taking a couple of sips of Scotch.
[16] [Kaur 1998].
The Final Days
When Shiv returned from England in September 1972, his health had declined visibly. He was now bitterly complaining about the undue criticism of his poetry by the progressive and leftist writers. He openly started talking about his disappointment at the unjustified condemnation of his poetry.
[17] [Gargi 2000 ‘
Surme Walee Akhah’ ]. Within a couple of months after his return from England, his health started sinking, never to recover again. He was in a dire financial predicament during those days and felt that most of his friends had deserted him in his time of need. His wife, Aruna, somehow managed to get him admitted in a hospital in Section 16 of Chandigarh where he received treatment for a few days. A couple of months later, he was admitted in a hospital in Amritsar, but left it on his own against the advice of his doctors. He didn’t want to die in a hospital and simply walked out of the hospital and went to his family home in Batala. He was later shifted to the village of his in-laws, Kiri Mangial, a small village near the border with Pakistan. Shiv Kumar Batalvi died in Kiri Mangial during the early morning hours of May 6, 1973.
[18] [Kahlon. Int. 2002].
Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s Poetry
Punjabi Poetry Scene Before Shiv
Poetry has been a part of Punjab’s culture as an important feature of Punjabis’ living experience since at least, and probably long before, the time of the first major Punjabi poet, Baba Farid (1173-1265). During the following centuries, it took many different and distinct forms and besides producing a long line of distinguished poets in the Sufi and Qissa (epic love story) tradition, its oral tradition encompasses a wide variety of popular poetry in its folk songs and verse-dramas on the themes of religious mythology. The classical period of Sufi and Qissa Punjabi poetry came to an end at the turn of the 20th century with Maulvi Ghulam Rasul (1849-1892), Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1841-1901) and Mian Muhamamd Baksh (1830-1904). By then, Punjabi poets had already started adopting modern verse forms. Bhai Vir Singh (1872-1952) was the first Punjabi poet who introduced free verse in Punjabi poetry. During the first half of 20th century, Punjabi poetry went through the process of a complete transformation from traditional to modern with the political, economical and cultural changes that were taking place in India and the rest of the world. The world wars on international front, Marxist/Leninist revolution in Russia and India’s own independence struggle on the national level brought about several changes in the life and outlook of people that were also reflected in Punjabi literature. By the time Shiv Kumar Batalvi started writing poetry in late 50’s, the classical Punjabi poetry period was already long over and post-partition poetry was represented by many emerging progressive and modern trends, dominated by Prof. Mohan Singh (1905-1978), Amrita Pritam (b. 1919) and other stalwarts of modern Punjabi poetry. [Singh 1994].
A Brief Survey of Shiv’s Poetry
Shiv was not just a poet of a few dozen popular poems nor was his poetry limited to a couple of topics. He was a very versatile poet of many different styles and a wide range of subjects. Throughout his brief poetic career, his poetry shows a continuous progression from the early pangs of
birha (separation from a loves ones) to increasingly complex emotions and different reactions to his inner sufferings and towards society at large. His sense of his own identity also went through many changes. He travelled a great distance from his first collection of poems
Peeran Da Paraga (A Handful of Pains), published in 1960, to his last major work
Mein Te Mein (Me and Myself) published in 1970.
[19] Following is a brief survey of his published poetry:
1. Peeran Da Paraga (A Handful of Pains) (1960): It is Shiv’s first published collection of poetry consisting of 25 poems. It includes poems that he had written between 1957 and 1960 expressing pain and sorrow of separation and his desire for death. It includes some of his early popular poems.
2. Lajwanti (The Shy Maid) (1961): Within a single year after the publication of his first collection of poetry, Shiv appeared to have arrived at a level of maturity that was not as prominent in his earlier poetry. This collection has some remarkable poems on many different subjects. In all of his poetry, there are certain subjects that he has touched upon once, writing a memorable poem on it, and then never coming back to the same subject. In this collection, Sheesho, an exceptionally beautiful and comparatively long poem, falls in that category. Shiv’s description of the exploitation of a poor village girl by the rich landowner is remarkable both for its poetic qualities and for Shiv’s heart wrenching pity and compassion about the poor girl’s plight. A long poem, Geet (A song -Uchcian paharan diya ohle ohle soorja – O Sun, hiding behind the high peaks of mountains) is an example of Shiv’s mastery of describing natural scenery:
The sun peeks out
From behind the high mountains,
Planting little seedling of light.
It crushes the yellow sunshine
Into small pieces,
To make anklets for the mountaintops!
Ankle deep in the wind
Flow fragrances,
The birds fall asleep.
Through a clump of green trees
A water channel flows
Piping a melody!
Seeing the blue lotus
In the mirror like water
The drooping leaves weep.
The wind has tied
Tiny anklets around its feet,
And stamps her heels as she walks!
………….
[Translation: Suman Kashyap]
A totally different mood from the sadness of some of his other poems, dominates another poem by the tile of Geet(A Song):
Where rivulets of perfume flow,
There my beloved lives.
Where passing breezes halt,
There my beloved lives.
Where dawn arrives on little bare toes,
Where night throws henna-beams on feet.
Where fragrance bathes in moonlight,
There my beloved lives.
…………
[Translation: Suman Kashyap].
A number of Shiv’s memorable and popular poems are part of this collection.
3. Atte Deean Chirian (The Sparrows of Kneaded Flour) (1962): This collection is quite different from the previous two collections, both in matter as well as in its various themes. Shiv experimented with different themes under a dominant mood of sensuous feelings. He also returned back to the topic of birha in Shikra (A Falcon) and couple of other poems. Once again, there are poems in this collection that display his wide versatility of subjects, including various themes that are limited to single poems, i.e., Hijra (Eunuch) and Zakham (A Wound). Shiv also further experimented in some poems by writing them in the prevalent style of expressing post-modern consciousness. Shiv was awarded the first prize from the Language Department of Punjab for this collection.
4. Mainu Vida Karo (Bid Me farewell) (1963): This is another collection of songs full of symbols of death and pain of separation that he expressed in different forms, including the bemoaning of a love-torn girl addressed to her father in Dharmee Babula. Once again demonstrating his exceptional talent of interweaving Punjab’s culture in this poems:
When the cotton flower blooms,
O noble father.
Bring that season back for me,
O noble father.
It was in that season that I lost my song.
Separation choked its throat,
Sorrow ravaged its face,
Like water in ruined wells were its eyes.
It was a song that brought to lips,
The scent of musk.
O noble father.
Bring back that song for me.
O noble father.
One day my song and I,
In that enchanted season,
Ploughed the earth of my heart,
Sowed it with seeds of undefiled dreams.
No matter how many tears I poured on it,
No flower bloomed.
O noble father.
Bring back one flower for me,
O noble father.
What use your fertile lands
If daughters wilt?
What use your lakes
If the swans are parched?
What use your ample wealth
Your granary of pearls,
O noble father,
If you cannot bring back the season,
When the cotton flower blooms.
O noble father.
[Translation: Suman Kashyap]
5. Loonan (1965): It is an epic-like verse play and is considered by many of Shiv’s critics as his masterpiece and most significant literary achievement. Shiv reworked the theme of Puran Bhagat, a mythical folklore of Punjab about the implications of marrying a young girl with an old man. In the traditional story the young wife is depicted as an evil villain in her relationship with the grown-up son of her husband from his first marriage. Shiv wrote his poem from the perspective of injustice to the young wife. He altogether changed the traditional character of Loonan that is portrayed in the legend as a wicked, lustful and cruel women . He made Loonan a sympathetic character and challenged the male dominated society to reconsider their norms and moral values. Shiv was awarded Sahitiya Academy award for this book in 1967.
Loonan stands out among Shiv’s poetic works for a number of reasons. It not only adds a new dimension to the versatility of Shiv’s poetry, it also recasts, to some degree, Shiv’s entire poetry in a new light. In particular, the profound and perceptive empathy of women’s emotions and feelings as victims of social inequity and injustice that Shiv portrayed in Loonan, allows deeper understanding of Shiv’s concept of love and gender-relations in his poetry than the stereotype of women as poet’s self-centred object of desire. Similarly, the masterful use of imagery that sets the tone and atmosphere of each of the eight acts of the verse play, helps to highlight Shiv’s superb poetic techniques of equally expert use of imagery in his other poems.
In Loonan, Shiv presents a remarkably incisive and insightful appreciation of women’s sufferings in a patriarchy and exposes its moral values as the tools that force women to sacrifice their individuality to fit in various roles assigned to them. Reading the deliberate politics of the monarchical discourse in the legend, Shiv presents it from women’s point of view. More importantly, Shiv rejects the glorification of patriarchal assignment of women’s role and instead forcefully brings out the individuality of Loonan. ‘Shiv Kumar … views her sexual subjugation and deprivation as a basic injustice to her and cause of her suffering. He vindicates the veracity of her Being by asserting her right to choose and by condemning her deprivation in marriage - through her own voice. In Luna body is not merely a site of sexual desire but her humanity asserted through valuing and articulating the needs of her body and condemning their deprivation in marriage. The play is a strong assertion of woman’s sexuality which has been ignored, abused, repressed or mythologized (as passive) in patriarchy.’ [Singh 2000, 133-134].
Shiv used strong sensual imagery to highlight Loonan’s individual feelings. She repeatedly refers herself as “fire,” “fire maiden” or “women-fire”:
Why should not fire speaks out friends?
… … … …
I wish every hearth’s fire to leap
And break all bounds
With its scorching and burning
Tear up the pages of oppression
Why should anybody weigh our fire’s warmth
Against a handful of rice?
… … … …
One day this fire
Shall speak out
Its eyes shall deliver
Instead of a tear
Blood of fi[e]ry rebellion
Which shall burn down the pride
Of the fire-eating salamadar, man
[Translation: Sekhon 1985]
It is also worth noting that, ‘… the play published in 1965 in fact predates the second wave of feminism in its assertion of woman’s being in her choice, sexuality and self respect, in protesting against woman’s abuse and in interrogating patriarchy.’ [Singh 2000, 143].
6. Mein Te Mein (Me and Myself) (1970): It is a long narrative poem that is written in a very different style and on themes that Shiv had not fully explored before. With this book, Shiv reached the height of his poetic evolution and practically the end of his poetic career. It is in the form of a monologue in search of his identity and inner self that is being torn apart by the demons of past and emotional responses to different events in his tortured life. The poem depicts the tragedy of modern man’s life in many different settings. There appear many autobiographical elements in this poem and it can be considered as an investigation by the poet of the complexities of his own life.
7. Artee (Invocation) (1971): Although published in 1971, this book contains poems that were written between 1963 and 1965. These are on variety of themes that are covered in his previous collections.
8. Birha Tu Sultaan (O’ Separation, You are Supreme) (1975): This book was published posthumously and contains poems that were not included in his previous books, and were either unpublished or were published in different newspapers and magazines. Some of the poems in this collection were originally written by Shiv to earn a few Rupees from All India Radio Jalandhar as part of official propaganda on some social issues and are not among his representative poetry. This collection includes the earliest folk songs written by Shiv (Ek Meri Akh Kashni and Lachi Kuri Wahdiyan Kare), as well as, some remarkable poems that he has written in free verse form. His poem, Rukh (The Tree) is one such example:
Some trees look like sons to me.
Some like mothers.
Some are daughters, brides,
A few like brothers.
Some are like my grandfather,
Sparsely leafed.
Some like my grandmother
Who used to throw choori to the crows.
Some trees are like the friends
I used to kiss and embrace.
One is my beloved
Sweet. Painful.
There are trees I would like
To throw on my shoulder playfully,
There are trees I would like
To kiss and then die.
The trees sway together
When strong winds blow.
I wish I could render
Their verdant, leafy language.
I wish that I could
Return as a tree.
And if you wanted to listen to my song
I would sing it in the trees.
These trees are like my mother,
May their shade stay intact.
[Translation by Suman Kashyap].
His Critics
Shiv’s critics have generally given a few stereotyped labels to Shiv’s poetry, i.e., poet of Birha and a reincarnation of Keats, ignoring the versatility of his poetry. [Singh 1983]. His poetry has also been severely criticized, even condemned, for its alleged excessive romanticism and lack of social consciousness, particularly in the context of Marx/Lenin/Mao social analysis:
‘The pain expressed by his poetry is confused and non-scientific. It is simply his painful emotional reaction based on his unempirical view of the social and material relations in the society.’ [Pash 1993].
Amarjit Chandan, expressed similar thoughts in a recent interview:
‘There is neither any scientific social understanding nor any spirituality in Shiv’s poetry. He represents adolescence emotions. Very few people have bothered to read all of his poetry. He has become famous on the basis of just a few of his poems. He has copied the lyricism and diction of Harbhajan Singh. [Chandan. Int. 2002].[20]
Similar harsh criticism was also levied against his poetry, during and after his lifetime, by many other Punjabi writers who either belonged to the Nexalite and other leftist movements or experimentalism and social realism schools of thoughts in Punjabi poetry. Some of the criticism was perhaps a reaction to the extraordinary phenomena, never witnessed in Punjab during modern times, of Shiv’s unparalleled popularity as a poet that outshined most of his contemporaries
Shiv’s Popularity
One of the most prominent aspects of Shiv’s poetry is its ever-increasing popularity that has continued to grow since his death and has surpassed all other Modern Punjabi poets. Six years after Shiv’s death, O.P. Sharma noted the phenomenon of Shiv’s growing popularity as:
‘We are in the midst of a Shiv wave which is projecting him in proper focus as a man and a poet. We are reviving, reliving and rediscovering him … Shiv Batalvi’s “nites” (sic), operas, symposia and stage performances in India and abroad, organized by enthusiastic admirers of the poet, are the emotional and effervescent expressions of our tribute to this lyrical genius … we are experiencing a vital process of gestation and reincarnation of the poet through publications, radio, television, recorded discs and cellulides.’ [Sharma 1979, iii – iv].
Since then, a number of indicators point to the fact that his poetry has immensely grown in popularity among all segments of Punjabis. Besides more than 20 books and numerous articles that have so far been published on his life and poetry, his poetry has also been the research topic of many doctoral theses at various Indian universities. Perhaps the most important market-based indicator of the popularity of Shiv’s poetry is the large number of recordings of his poems made for commercial audio albums by Indian and Pakistani Punjabi singers, including: Surrinder Kaur, Jagjit Zirvi, Pushpa Hans, Assa Singh Mastana, Mohinder Kapoor, Jagjeet Singh, Chitra Singh, Kuldip Deepak, Jagmohan Kaur, K. Deep, Dolly Guleria, Bhupinder Singh, Mitali Singh, Kavita Karishnamurthi, Deedar Pardesi, Jasbir Jassi, Neelam Sahani, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Shazia Manzoor, Ghulam Ali, Tufail Niazi, Shaukat Ali and others. The latest album of Hans Raj Hans, released in October 2002, is solely based on Shiv’s poems.
[21]Other than Punjabi Sufi and Qissa poets of classical period, no Punjabi poet except Shiv Kumar Batalvi has ever gained mass popularity on such a large scale. Shiv’s popularity has now reached a point where ignoring it as a yardstick to measure the significance of his poetry will amount to a contempt of the collective mind of Punjabis.
Shiv and Punjabi Poetry Tradition
Shiv Kumar Batalvi has hit a chord with the psyche of Punjabis of all backgrounds. A closer look at his poetry reveals that the success and popularity of Shiv’s poetry, to a large extent, has its genesis in following the centuries old traditions of classical Punjabi poetry. Not in its purpose, content or message, specially of Sufi and religious poetry, but in skilfully adopting the diction, vocabulary, symbolism and many of its other important aspects. By imbibing the essential elements of classical Punjabi poetry, Shiv articulated an acute historical sense and combined it in the most aesthetically pleasing way in his otherwise contemporary poetry. He appeared to have intuitively followed the prescription of T.S. Eliot who had recognized the importance of proper reflection of historical sense in modern poetry in the following words:
‘Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, "tradition" should positively be discouraged. We have seen many such simple currents soon lost in the sand; and novelty is better than repetition. Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour. It involves, in the first place, the historical sense, which we may call nearly indispensable … the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of … his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his contemporaneity.’ [Eliot 1997].
At a time when many of his contemporaries were looking towards the western and, in particular, the progressive literature from around the world to learn new techniques of writing poetry, Shiv Kumar Batalvi took his inspirations from the classical literature of his own land. He adopted many of its techniques to express the crisis of disintegration of human soul as he saw it in his own life and time. The most important characteristics of classical Punjabi poetry tradition, that are shared by the whole spectrum of creative expressions in Punjabi from the devotional musings of Punjab’s saints to village folk singers, and are relevant to understanding the historical sense displayed by Shiv’s poetry, are worth noting here.
(a) First and foremost, even the most serious and philosophical Punjabi poetry was written for common folks. The intellectuals, philosophers and religious scholars, who chose to write in Punjabi, never formed an elite class. Their primary motive of communicating in Punjabi was to reach the common people. They had deliberately discarded the privileges that were available to them in the languages of power, primarily Sanskrit and Persian. Although most of the leading Sufi and Qissa poets of Punjabi were very well versed in the literature of major Eastern languages, i.e., Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, they did not follow the intricate and complex structure of their poetry. Instead, while expressing their thoughts in Punjabi, they used the simple language and idiom of village folks.
(b) In both the Sufi and Qissa poetry, utmost sacrifices and willing acceptance of death, as the pinnacle of one’s struggle for an ultimate goal, are celebrated.
(c) Most of the classical Punjabi poetry was written in a lyrical form with the intention of singing. Many of the classical Punjabi poets expressly set their lyrics in well-known ragas of Indian music
(d) Classical Punjabi poets extensively, and in the case of many important poets exclusively, used the imagery, metaphors and symbols that were taken from everyday life and scenery of rural Punjab.
(e) The classical Punjabi poetry is a panorama of the whole vista of common and popular culture of Punjab.
These characteristics are prominent in all of Shiv’s popular poems. One of his early poems Bhatti Waliye may serve as a good example:
I will pay you with my tears,
Roast my store of sorrows in your pan,
O tender of the fire.
Tender of the fire, you are a branch of frangipani,
Roast my store of sorrows
I am late already,
The shadows are fading.
The cattle have returned
From the forest.
The birds have raised their clamour,
O roast my store of sorrows in your pan.
Tender of the fire.
Hurry, hurry
I have far to go,
To the place where
All my friends have gone.
I hear the road to that town is difficult
O roast my store of sorrows in your pan.
Tender of the fire.
Why, when it is my turn,
Is your bale of kindling damp?
Why has your earthen wok
Turned flaccid?
What has gone wrong with your fire?
O roast my store of sorrows in your pan.
Tender of the fire.
Just a handful is my measure
Let me go on my way,
Don’t leave them raw
Roast them a little more.
I beg you, bring an end to this trouble,
O roast my store of sorrows in your pan.
Tender of the fire.
The wind has dropped
Wept its mournful cry.
The stars are emitting
A sweet heat.
O roast my store of sorrows in your pan.
Tender of the fire.
[Translation by Suman Kashyap].
This poem can be understood at different levels. It was written during a time when Shiv was suffering from the loss of his first love. It can be taken as poet’s wish to speed up the process of dying in the agony of his broken heart. He wishes that if he could get some help in raising the level of his pain to a maximum point, he may get freedom from the unbearable agony of his life. The dominant mood of the poem is very similar to the spiritual journey of a Sufi travelled in stages where each stage of spiritual purification demands new sacrifices. It is the setting of the poem in a Punjab village and the use of imagery from a typical village scene, i.e., symbols of day’s ending through the images of cattle coming back from their grazing grounds and birds making their noisy clamour of early evening gatherings on the trees, that kindles memories of familiar scenes in the readers’ mind and adds to the overall charm and haunting quality of the poem. Shiv’s descriptions of the village scenes are authentic in all of their details. It was a common practice in the villages to accept payment for services in kind (bhara), which the poet offers in the form of his tears. With the nightfall, a complete silence falls on Punjab’s villages and in the still air, a cloud of smoke engulfs them. Shiv has used this image to develop the symbol of winds that have gone to sleep as if tired of the daylong wailings and the illusion of the warmth of a light fever emitting from the stars. The death is not presented as something to be afraid of, but rather a welcome and necessary next stage of poet’s journey through his sufferings. The pain, the agony and the hurry to reach the next stage, death, none of them are depicted as the usual and mindless grief of a broken heart. They are described as part of a deliberate and determined process, the purpose of which is fully understood, accepted and desired by the poet.
Those are some of the qualities of Shiv’s popular poems. In most of his poems, the listener and reader encounter the same familiar characteristics of Punjabi classical poetry: simple language and idiom of village folks; celebration of death; lyricism; images and metaphors of rural Punjab and skilful depictions of Punjabi culture.
Shiv stands out among all Punjabi poets in his unique representation of various colours and shades of Punjabi culture.
‘Out of the lush green fecundity of the soil of Punjab, resonant as it always is with nature’s music and colours, and even out of its arid and bleak landscape, Shiv carved out immortal motifs, images, symbols, legends and myths, which only a few rare Punjabi poets have ever explored before him with such consummate power. As a poet with a profound folk consciousness he captured the fantasy and the mystery of the Punjabi countryside and its people. He invoked their rituals, totems and taboos, folk traditions, folksy memories, racial consciousness, curses and wails, death charades, earthen lamps on the graves and shrines, the wooden parrots on the biers, broken dolls’ heads, the cursed womb, the fatal she-snake and the choked blind well. In his unified sensibility he integrated his inner ferment in terms of modern dilemma, deeply embedded and rooted in the locale and the habitat, fauna and flora of the earth that he loved and lived on. Shiv Batalvi fertilized the psyche of the Punjabi language and enriched its poetic tradition as its supremely gifted, solitary and passionate singer.’ [Sharma 1979, 5]
Conclusion
Shiv was a very versatile and supremely gifted poet. His poetry includes poems written on many different subjects and a variety of styles. He could write traditional Punjabi folks songs, as well as, poems in post-modern diction and in many other verse forms. The only labels that may properly apply to Shiv’s poetry are human-ism and Punjabi-ism. The deep pain and sorrow of some of his poetry can best be understood in the larger context of a Punjabi’s reaction to the crisis of human identity in modern times. He articulated the tragedy of breakdown of Punjab’s traditional society under the onslaught of modernization. He had lived his childhood in a traditional village social set up that offered the poise, equilibrium, stability, tranquillity and self-assurance of Punjabi culture. Early in his adolescence, he experienced the sudden death of this centuries old way of living. For a large part of his versatile poetry, Shiv embraced the identity of a Punjabi folk storyteller and viewed the massive disruptions around him from the historical perspective of someone deeply immersed in Punjabi folklore. He became the passionate voice of millions of others who were, and still are, going through the same crisis. His poetry became a vast treasure of the fond memories of sights, sounds and symbols of the way of living and the scenery of rural Punjab, never so beautifully recorded in such breathtaking details except by the Great Master of Punjabi poetry, Waris Shah. Ultimately, his permanent place among great Punjabi poets is affirmed by his ever-growing popularity. He seems to have passed the test for determining the status of faqirs, equally applicable to poets, laid down by Sultan Bahu as:
Naam faqir tinhan da Bahu, qabar jinhan dee jeevay hoo.
(Bahu, only they deserve to be called faqirs, whose graves live forever after their death).
