In the name of Punjabiyyat
Every year’s Mother Language Day reminds us of the linguistic brutality and suppression of the state against Punjabi
The feminine metaphor
Recounting the women poets of the undivided Punjab, a poetic history that lies buried under male monopoly
WW1: Not their War (Part 2)
As WW1 centenary commemorations end, here’s the second and last part about the unique insight this war provided into colonial duplicity and local suffering, and the Punjabi folk lore it generated
WW1: From the War Front (Part1)
An account of the Punjabi soldiers who became the cannon fodder of the colonising power in World War I, and the mournful songs and literature this episode in history generated in its wake
Scripted wall of Punjabi
The language of Baba Farid, Guru Nanak and Damodar Dãs has something special about it. In the darkest of times and against all odds, it has had the resilience to survive
Kitab Trinjan-That one-room shop
The story began in Mian Chambers, 3 – Temple Road, Lahore in February 1998, when I was searching for books by Najm Hosain Syed.
Sajjan for everyone
It seems unreal — a legend, a folklore or storyline of a cliff-hanger — that a Lucknow-born, Urdu speaking renaissance man leads a group of passionate volunteers to launch their first ever mother language Punjabi newspaper in the Farsi script. It was the...
Punjabi Language in exile
A language can survive in exile. But what about a language that has been exiled by its own people and by its own state?
Stories that never end
Zubair Ahmad is a poet, essayist, critic and short story writer. He is one of the most credible names of contemporary Punjabi fiction on both sides of the border