Amrita Pritam (August 31, 1919 — October 31, 2005) (, , , ) was an Indian writer and poet, considered the first prominent woman Punjabi poet, novelist, and essayist, and the leading 20th-century poet of the Punjabi language, who is equally loved on both the sides of the India-Pakistan border, with a career spanning over six decades, she produced over 100 books, of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were translated into several Indian and foreign languages.
She is most remembered for her poignant poem, Aj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu (Today I invoke Waris Shah - "Ode to Waris Shah", an elegy to the 18th-century Punjabi poet, an expression of her anguish over massacres during the partition of India. As a novelist her most noted work was Pinjar (The Skeleton) (1950), in which she created her memorable character, Puro, an epitome of violence against women, loss of humanity and ultimate surrender to existential fate; the novel was made into an award-winning film, Pinjar in 2003.
When the former British India was partitioned into the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947, she migrated from Lahore, to India, though she remained equally popular in Pakistan throughout her life, as compared to her contemporaries like Mohan Singh and Shiv Kumar Batalvi.
Known as the most important voice for the women in Punjabi literature, in 1956, she became the first woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award for her magnum opus, a long poem, Sunehe (Messages), later she received the Bhartiya Jnanpith, one of India's highest literary awards, in 1982 for Kagaz Te Canvas (The Paper and the Canvas). The Padma Shri came her way in 1969 and finally, Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, in 2004, and in the same year she was honoured with India's highest literary award, given by the Sahitya Akademi (India's Academy of Letters), the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship given to the "immortals of literature" for lifetime achievement.
Amrita Pritam was born in 1919 in Gujranwala, Punjab, now in Pakistan, the only child of a school teacher, a poet and a scholar of Braj Bhasha, Kartar Singh Hitkari, who also edited a literary journal. Besides this, he was a pracharak – a preacher of the Sikh faith. Amrita's mother died when she was eleven. Soon after, she and her father moved to Lahore, where she lived till her migration to India in 1947. Confronting adult responsibilities, and besieged by loneliness following her mother's death, she began to write at an early age. Her first anthology of poems, Amrit Lehran (Immortal Waves) was published in 1936, at age sixteen, the year she married Pritam Singh, an editor to whom she was engaged in early childhood, and changed her name to Amrita Pritam. Half a dozen collections of poems were to follow in as many years between 1936 and 1943. Though she began her journey as romantic poet, soon she shifted gears, and became part of the Progressive Writers' Movement and its effect was seen in her collection, Lok Peed (People's Anguish) (1944), which openly criticized the war-torn economy, after the Bengal famine of 1943. She also worked at Lahore Radio Station for while, before the partition of India
Partition
Some one million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs died from communal violence that followed the partition of India in 1947, and left Amrita Pritam a Punjabi refugee at age 28, when she left Lahore and moved to New Delhi. Subsequently in 1948, while she was pregnant with her son, and travelling from Dehradun to Delhi, she expressed anguish on a piece of paper as the poem, "Ajj akhaan Waris Shah nu" (I ask Waris Shah Today); this poem was to later immortalize her and become the most poignant reminder of the horrors of Partition. The poem addressed to the Sufi poet Waris Shah, author of the tragic saga of Heer and Ranjah and with whom she shares her birth place, the Punjabi national epic:
Aj aakhan Waris Shah nun, kiton kabraan vichchon bol, Te aj kitab-e-ishq daa koi agla varka pholIk roi si dhi Punjab di, tun likh likh maare vaen, Aj lakhaan dhian rondian, tainun Waris Shah nun kaehnUth dardmandaan dia dardia, uth takk apna PunjabAj bele lashaan bichhiaan te lahu di bhari Chenab
Today, I call Waris Shah, “Speak from your grave”And turn, today, the book of love’s next affectionate pageOnce, a daughter of Punjab cried and you wrote a wailing sagaToday, a million daughters, cry to you, Waris ShahRise! O’ narrator of the grieving; rise! look at your PunjabToday, fields are lined with corpses, and blood fills the Chenab
Amrita Pritam worked until 1961 in the Punjabi service of All India Radio, Delhi. After her divorce in 1960, her work became more clearly feminist. Many of her stories and poems drew on the unhappy experience of her marriage. A number of her works have been translated into English, French, Danish, Japanese and other languages from Punjabi and Urdu, including her autobiographical works Black Rose and Revenue Stamp (Raseedi Tikkat in Punjabi).
The first of Amrita Pritam's books to be filmed was Dharti Sagar te Sippiyan, as ‘Kadambar’ (1965), followed by ‘Unah Di Kahani’, as Daaku (Dacoit, 1976), directed by Basu Bhattacharya. Her novel Pinjar (The Skeleton, 1970) was made into an award winning Hindi movie by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, because of its humanism: "Amritaji has portrayed the suffering of people of both the countries." Pinjar was shot in a border region of Rajasthan and in Punjab.
She edited “Nagmani”, a monthly literary magazine in Punjabi for several years, which she ran together with Imroz, for 33 years; though after Partition she wrote prolifically in Hindi as well. Later in life, she turned to Osho and wrote introductions for several books of Osho, including Ek Omkar Satnam, and also started writing on spiritual themes and dreams, producing works like Kaal Chetna (Time Consciousness) and Agyat Ka Nimantran (Call of the Unknown). She had also published autobiographies, titled, Kala Gulab (Black Rose) (1968), Rasidi Ticket (The Revenue Stamp) (1976), and Aksharon kay Saayee (Shadows of Words).
Amrita is the first recipient of Punjab Rattan Award conffored upon her by Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh. She is first woman recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1956 for Sunehray (Messages) , Amrita Pritam received the Bhartiya Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award, in 1982 for Kagaj te Canvas (Paper and Canvas). She received the Padma Shri (1969) and Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, and Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, India's highest literary award, also in 2004. She received D.Litt. honorary degrees, from many universities including, Delhi University (1973), Jabalpur University (1973) and Vishwa Bharati (1987)
She also received International Vaptsarov Award from the Republic of Bulgaria (1979) and Degree of Officer dens, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Officier) by the French Government (1987). She was nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha 1986-92. Towards the end of her life, she was awarded by Pakistan's Punjabi Academy, to which she had remarked, Bade dino baad mere maike ko meri yaad aayi..; and also Punjabi poets of Pakistan, sent her a chaddar, from the tombs of Waris Shah, and fellow Sufi mystic poets Bulle Shah and Sultan Bahu.
In 1935, Amrita married Pritam Singh, son of a leading hosiery merchant of Lahore's Anarkali bazaar. In 1960, Amrita Pritam left her husband for poet Sahir Ludhianvi (Abdul Hayee). The story of this love is depicted in her autobiography, Rasidi Ticket. When another woman intruded into the love life of Sahir, Amrita found solace in the companionship of the renowned artist and writer Imroz. She spent the last forty years of her life with Imroz, who also designed most of her book covers. Their life together is also the subject of a book, Amrita Imroz: A Love Story.
She died in her sleep on 31 October 2005 at the age of 86 in New Delhi, after a long illness. She is survived by her partner Imroz, daughter Kandlla, son Navraj, daughter-in-law Alka, and her grandchildren, Taurus, Noor, Aman and Shilpi.
In her career spanning over six decades, she penned 28 novels, 18 anthologies of prose, five short stories and 16 miscellaneous prose volumes.
Doctor Dev
Kore Kagaz, Unchas Din
Sagar aur Seepian
Rang ka Patta
Dilli ki Galiyan
Terahwan Suraj
Yaatri
Jilavatan (1968)NAAGMANI
Autobiography
Rasidi Ticket (1976)
Shadows of Words (2004)
Short stories
Kahaniyan jo Kahaniyan Nahi
Kahaniyon ke Angan mein
Stench of Kerosene
Poetry anthologies
Amrit Lehran (Immortal Waves)(1936)
Jiunda Jiwan (The Exuberant Life) (1939)
Trel Dhote Phul (1942)
O Gitan Valia (1942)
Badlam De Laali (1943)
Sanjh de laali (1943)
Lok Peera (The People's Anguish) (1944)
Pathar Geetey (The Pebbles) (1946)
Punjabi Di Aawaaz (1952)
Sunehray (Messages) (1955) - Sahitya Akademi Award
Ashoka Cheti (1957)
Kasturi (1957)
Nagmani (1964)
Ik Si Anita (1964)
Chak Nambar Chatti (1964)
Uninja Din (49 Days) (1979)
Kagaz Te Kanvas (1981)- Bhartiya Jnanpith
Chuni Huyee Kavitayen
Literary Journal
Nagmani, poetry monthly.
Excerpts
Cigarette and Poetry
There was a painI inhaled itQuietlyLike a cigaretteLeft behind are a few songsI have flickered offLike ashesFrom the cigarette.
I will meet you yet again (Main Tenu Phir Milangi)
I will meet you yet againHow and whereI know notPerhaps I will become afigment of your imaginationand maybe spreading myselfin a mysterious lineon your canvasI will keep gazing at you.
In 2007, an audio album titled, 'Amrita recited by Gulzar' was released by noted lyricist Gulzar, with poems of Amrita Pritam recited by him, a film on her life is also on the anvil.
Uma Trilok, Amrita Imroz: A Love Story, Penguin India (2006) ISBN 0143100440
Indra Gupta, India’s 50 Most Illustrious Women ISBN 8188086193
Indian Fiction in English Translation - Chapt 4: Comments on Amrita Pritam's Magnum Opus: The Skeleton (Jagdev Singh), by Shubha Tiwari. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2005. ISBN 812690450X. Page 28-35
Studies in Punjabi Poetry. Chapt. 9- Amrita Pritam: The Poetry of Protest, by Darshan Singh Maini. Vikas Pub., 1979. ISBN 0706907094. Page 109.
1st chapter of Revenue Stamp by Amrita Pritam
"The Cellar" by Amrita Pritam
“Sahiban in Exile” by Amrita Pritam
"The Weed" by Amrita Pritam
"Wild Flower" by Amrita Pritam
Main Tenu Phir Milangi, (I will meet you yet again) Translation
