Undoubtedly, it is our Sindhi, Pushto, Seraiki, Punjabi and Balochi poetry that vigorously and gallantly challenged and even rejected the system of internal colonialism in Pakistan. This aspect of our poetry, however, has rarely been explored in our literary discussions which have been mostly overshadowed by the mainstream literature.

Pakistan’s postcolonial history is in fact the history of internal colonialism where a new kind of operational mechanism was introduced maintaining the same colonial structure to rule the periphery with a heavy control of the center. An unholy alliance between the feudal, army and bureaucracy emerged to colonize the weaker provinces, their economies, cultures and languages as a result of this arrangement. This system of internal colonialism also continued the legacy of the old civil bureaucracy of the British Raj devised to rule the Indian subcontinent of the pre-partition era. The feudal aristocracy and army changed their seats as rulers alternatively in this arrangement and the bureaucratic establishment provided the legal, and administrative structure supporting the alliance as needed.

How the Pakistani literature, mainstream and peripheral both, views internal colonialism is an interesting topic to be explored. The mainstream Urdu poetic discourse offers a mosaic of romantic, modernist, and to a lesser extent, postmodernist streams. Excluding the stalwarts like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Habib Jalib and Ahmed Faraz, however, it is not the mainstream Urdu verse but the poetic discourse in peripheral languages of Pakistan that is not only modern and fresh in structure and content, it also exposes cruelties of internal colonialism in the postcolonial period. Undoubtedly, it is our Sindhi, Pushto, Seraiki, Punjabi and Balochi poetry that vigorously and boldly challenged and even rejected the system of internal colonialism in Pakistan. This aspect of our poetry, however, has rarely been explored in our literary discussions, which have been mostly overshadowed by the mainstream literature.

The poetic discourse in Pakistan’s provincial languages sometimes even surpasses the Urdu poetic verse when it comes to dealing with postmodernist trends, societal agitation, miseries of the poor, insensitivities of the ruling elite and gender issues, both in its manifestation and structure. These trends can easily be seen in Sindhi, Pushto, Balochi, Seraiki and Punjabi poetry. These streams widely exist in the poetry of Sheikh Ayaz, Janbaz Jatoi, Tanveer Abbasi, Sehar Imdad and Pushpa Vallabh (Sindhi); Hasina Gul, Ghani Khan, Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari and Samandar Khan Samandar (Pushto); Ata Shad and Gul Khan Nasir (Balochi); and Ustad Daman, Sharif Kunjahi, and Ahmed Rahi (Punjabi).

In the generation of those writers who participated in the freedom movement against the British imperialism and then saw the independence, Gul Khan Nasir from Balochistan, Sheikh Ayaz from Sindh, Ustad Daman from Punjab and Ghani Khan from Khyber Pakhtoonkhwah were the four daring souls who persistently challenged tyrannies of internal colonialism and its ruling alliance after independence. Unsatisfied with the system, their poetic expression became a loud agitation against the ruling junta of their time.

With the hierarchical mechanism placing the army at the top, the landed elite in the middle and the bureaucracy at the bottom, the infamous trio designed this hegemonic system after independence to keep its power and control over the peripheral cultures. Gul Khan Nasir (1914-1983), a firebrand Balochi nationalist, a political leader and an activist was also a revolutionary poet who challenged this political setup from the beginning. His long-fought political struggle against the ruling alliance and his daring poetic posture still remains a signpost of his literary discourse. His fiery poetic style and his criticism targeted at the state apparatus often sent him to jail. One of his poems Towering Fortifications beautifully reflects his political struggle within the same backdrop:

Impossible to confine thoughts
within towering walls of stones and bricks
unimaginable to lockup ideals behind sturdy doors
and unthinkable to put chains of steel around high morals.

These towering ramparts
will crumble one day in the fury and fervor of masses
like the jungle fire that sweeps the wood
like the ocean that melts the rock
like the monsoon waters that flounce the land away
it will burn prisons and forts
the affluent and their palaces
to create a new world.

Charagh Din, known by his pen name Ustad Daman (1911-1984) was another gallant critic of the military dictators and the ruling apparatus of his time through his courageous Punjabi verse. A common man himself, he participated in the freedom movement against the British imperialism working as a tailor and remained a staunch supporter of equality and justice in the postcolonial era. He opposed corruption and exploitation of the poor throughout his life. His poem Two Allahs, a highly satirical piece, is also a valiant representation of his vigorous opposition to the military dictator General Zia:

Two Gods my nation has
La Ilah and Martial Law!
One lives above the skies
And the other lives here

The one we call Allah
The other General Zia
Three cheers! General Zia!
Who would dare to say, leave us! Zia

While the center dominated economic and cultural spheres of the peripheries, or provinces in this case, a kind of pseudo-democracy was used to justify and legitimize the rule of the center. Using a controlled democracy as a tool, elected governments were conveniently utilized whenever needed and dissolved when not needed replacing them with military dictatorships. In the fine tradition of the great Pushto Poet Warrior, Khushal Khan Khattack, Ghani Khan (1914-1993), who was considered as one of the leading Pushto poets of the 20^th century, challenged this system through his poetic discourse. The artistic son of the Red Shirt leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Ghani was jailed for 6 years in 1948, just one year after the independence for his political activities and poetry. He wrote two collections of his Pushto poetry, the first in 1956 and the second in 1978. Also a painter and sculptor, he was well educated abroad. His poem, Leader, represents his dislike toward political leaders:

Take a cow’s beak
A snake’s tongue,
A chicken’s brain,
A dog’s throat,
That barks well,
A mule’s stubbornness,
And deck its pride,
Mud from the village,
And the city’s dunghill;

An then approach
A blind potter,
Who will prepare,
A new leader for you!

The poem exposes the intellectual level of politicians, probably, the reason why he became a-political in the later part of his life.

While democratic norms were deteriorating, the military power was growing at a very fast pace and the institution was in the process of transforming itself into the most organized political party and the most powerful industrial giant. Sheikh Ayaz (1923-1998), a leading Sindhi writer of the twentieth century always challenged this hegemony and he was frequently arrested by all military dictators for his unforgiveable “crimes.” Not only a short story writer; he was also a prolific Sindhi and Urdu poet. To his credit he wrote more than 70 volumes of poetry, short stories, memoirs and essays. Coming from Sindh where vaderas have strong grip on the agrarian social order, his Sindhi poetry condemns class differences between the rich landlord and the poor tenant. His satirical poem Knock masterfully captures the imagery of how he was detained by the soldiers in uniform:

Winter has brought hardships
the boots with uniform, heavy steps
that can be heard from a distance.

At my door is a persistent,
knock, knock, knock, knock!

This incredible generation of heroic poets, who fearlessly lodged their protest against the forces of internal colonialism in the twentieth century and always paid a huge price for it, is no more with us but their legacy remains. Their uncompromising posture against the system still inspires young intellectuals of the twenty first century. In the words of Sheikh Ayaz:

You are trying to make sense of my poetry
listen
in history’s museum
things speak!

(P.S. The author is thankful to his friends Aziz Narejo for providing the Sindhi poetry of Sheikh Ayaz and Agha Zulfiqar for selecting Ustad Daman’s Punjabi poetry for this article).