he two-day 10th Lyallpur Punjabi Literary Festival, held on February 16 and 17, marked a significant milestone in the journey that began in 2016 to promote Punjabi language and literature. This year’s festival was dedicated to celebrating 120 years of Lyallpur, recognising the city’s pivotal role in nurturing Punjabi language, literature and cultural heritage.

Historically, Lyallpur has been at the heart of Punjabi literary evolution. It was home to the first Punjabi literary magazine, Punjabi Darbar, launched by Joshua Fazal Din. The city also gave the literary world the iconic fiction writer, poet and translator Afzal Ahsan Randhawa, whose works are central to modern Punjabi literature.

Faisalabad has produced several celebrated Punjabi poets, including NazKhialvi, Bari Nizami, Abeer Abu Zariand AnjumSaleemi. The city’s contribution is not limited to literature. Faisalabad is also the birthplace of qawwali maestro NusratFateh Ali Khan, who elevated Punjabi music to global acclaim.

Before independence, Lyallpur Cotton Mills used to hostAll-India mushairas.

According to DrTohid AhmadChattha, the festival’s organiser, the Lyallpur Punjabi Literary Festival was conceived to revive this rich literary tradition and to challenge the stereotype of Faisalabad as a mereindustrial city.

“In 2016, the trend of hosting festivals instead of conventional literary conferences was gaining momentum. We felt the need to connect the youth with their mother tongue.That is how the Punjabi Literary Festival was born,” says DrChattha.

The initiative was not without its challenges. Convincing people of the festival’s importance and engaging the youth took time.

“Reaching out to Punjabi writers, persuading them to participate and managing financial resources were some of the challenges we faced. For the first few years, a few of us friends would save money throughout the year to fund the festival,” he says.

One of the group’s major achievements has been uniting various Punjabi literary groups under the festival’s banner, fostering collaboration rather than competition.

Looking ahead, DrChattha plans to publish minutes of selected sessions from the past ten festivals in Punjabi, Urdu and English. He also envisions greater engagement with students by organising heritage workshops during future festivals and incorporating the event into university calendars to ensure that young minds have access to alternative literature. He wants rare books showcased during the festival.

One of the future goals is to include children’s Punjabi literature in the festival.

Over the past decade, the Lyallpur Punjabi Literary Festival has gained national recognition. It is now among the largest regional language literary festivals in South Asia.

DrChattha, who once faced significant financial difficulties, now enjoys strong institutional support from the Lyallpur Literary Council. His hand has been strengthened by the administrative support his wife, DrKhola Cheema, has provided.

The 10th Lyallpur Punjabi Literary Festival was a vibrant testament to the success of a decade-long journey in promoting Punjabi language and literature. Faisalabad Arts Council was beautifully illuminated with decorative lights and adorned with banners featuring images of esteemed guests, creating a festive and welcoming atmosphere.

Several publishers of Punjabi books had set up stalls, showcasing a wide array of literature. The Art Gallery hosted two exhibitions: visual artist WaqasManzoor displayed his work on Punjab’s traditional toys and photographer Razzaq Vance presented a stunning collection capturing the essence of Punjab’s cultural heritage.

Though the festival began later than scheduled on the first day, that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd. By the time the event commenced, NusratFateh Ali Khan Auditorium was full of eager visitors. Most of them were young people.

As per tradition, the festival opened with a soulful rendition of HeerWaris Shah by WajahatWarisi. Following this, DrPervaiz Vandal delivered the keynote address, shedding light on the decline of Punjabi language and literature. He attributed much of the cultural erosion to the colonial legacy left by the British rule.

“Every colonial power undermines local cultures, claiming to ‘civilise’ the people it subjugates,” Dr Vandal remarked. He highlighted how, following the 1857 rebellion, the British systematically destroyed local intellectual heritage by burning books and cultural artifacts.

“Every colonial power undermines local cultures, claiming to ‘civilise’ the people it subjugates,” Dr Vandal remarked. He highlighted how, following the 1857 rebellion, the British systematically destroyed local intellectual heritage by burning books and cultural artifacts.

Dr Vandal emphasised the need to reclaim Punjab’s cultural and historical identity to overcome the inferiority complex surrounding Punjabi language and traditions. He described the Harappancivilization as the foundational culture of the Punjab, noting its peaceful nature.

“There are no grand monuments, royal palaces or temples for priests in Harappa. Instead, the people focused on social welfare, which kept the region free from wars for thousands of years,” he explained. Harappa, he noted, was a hub of trade, connected with regions as far as Mesopotamia, with the rivers of the Punjab serving as the most efficient and cost-effective trade routes of that era.

In his presidential address, MusadaqZulqarnain, a prominent industrialist and president of the Lyallpur Literary Council, reflected on the neglect of the Punjabi language, saying, “We ourselves are responsible for belittling our mother tongue.”

He compared the situation in Pakistani Punjab with Indian Punjab, where Punjabi is proudly spoken, even in Bollywood films.

Zulqarnain discussed the historical shift towards Urdu in Pakistani Punjab, attributing it to religious dynamics. He said, as the Guru GranthSahib the holy book of Sikhism, was in Punjabi many Muslims had turned to Urdu instead.

He stressed the importance of introducing Punjabi as the medium of instruction at the primary schools in the Punjab, arguing that children learn best in their mother tongue. “If we want to strengthen the intellectual foundation of future generations, we must ensure that Punjabi is taught in schools,” he said.

The 10th Lyallpur Punjabi Literary Festival not only celebrated the rich literary and cultural history of the Punjab but also sparked critical conversations on reclaiming linguistic identity, decolonising education and preserving cultural heritage for future generations.

On the second day of the festival, writer Nain Sukh delved into the historical roots of Lyallpurduring a session titled The Literary History of Lyallpur. He said that like Harappa, no research had been done on Sandal Bar’s history.

“Despite the fact that the region witnessed several waves of settlement from AlauddinKhilji’s time to Emperor Akbar’s and there was large-scale colonisation during British rule, Sandal Bar’s history remains largely unexplored,” he said.

Nain Sukhsaid that, even before British colonisation, the region had a network of seasonal canals. However, the British engineered a shift by constructing irrigation canals directly from rivers. This disrupted the age-old river-based trade routes.

Highlighting Faisalabad’s rich cultural legacy, he praised the contributions of local literary and musical legends, such as poets NandLalNoorpuri and Bari Nizami; the iconic voices of Noor Jehan and NusratFateh Ali Khan; and the influential fiction of Afzal Ahsan Randhawa, whoplayed pivotal roles in promoting Punjabi language and culture.

He also said Faisalabad had evolved into a diverse and multicultural hub. Its history of migration and settlement had significantly contributed to the city’s social and economic development.

In another thought-provoking session titled The Urgent Need for Punjabi Dictionaries, linguist DrAsimMehmood highlighted the critical need for digitalising the Punjabi language to ensure its survival in the modern era.

“Despite having over 90 million native speakers, as per the 2017 census, the total number of published Punjabi dictionaries in Pakistan barely exceeds 3,000. Fewer than 10,000 students are currently enrolled in Punjabi departments across universities nationwide,” he said.

DrMehmoodemphasised the importance of developing a comprehensive digital Punjabi dictionary to bridge this gap and ensure that the language thrives in the digital age.

He pointed out significant challenges, including the absence of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for Punjabi, especially in the Shahmukhi script, which renders most PDF books unusable in the digital world.

“Since 2017, we’ve been working on digitalising Punjabi.We have compiled a digital corpus of 15 million wordsreally? Please verify that is freely accessible online,” he said.

Highlighting the linguistic richness of Punjabi, he said, “There are around 700 core verbs in Punjabi, each with 80 or more forms?, giving the language a lexicon of over 56,000 words. In comparison, English has about 6,000 verbs with only six forms each, totaling around 36,000 words.”

Over the past ten years, the Lyallpur Punjabi Literary Festival has become a cornerstone for cultural and intellectual dialogue, hosting sessions on a wide range of topics, including history, folklore, literature, poetry, education, the freedom movement, social media, Punjabi cinema, Punjabi Journalism, Punjabi music and political movements in colonial Punjab. The festival has welcomed many esteemed scholars and literary figures from Pakistan and abroad.

Among thenotable participants this year was DrIshtiaq Ahmed, professor emeritus of political science at Stockholm University, who fondly recalled his experience at the festival.

In one of his reflective essays, Dr Ahmed wrote, “Modern-day Lyallpur reminded me of the Lahore 45-50 years ago where writers and poets were easily accessible and people were polite and gracious. The Punjabi spirit is felt strongly in Lyallpur. If I had the choice to settle in Pakistan, I would choose Lyallpur over Lahore.”

The Lyallpur Punjabi Literary Festival continues to be a vital space for fostering dialogue, celebrating the Punjab’s rich cultural history, and advocating for the preservation and growth of the Punjabi language in the face of modern challenges.

The writer has been associated with journalism for the past decade. He tweets @naeemahmad876