No art can possibly exist in isolation. It is the culmination of myriad interrelated experiences of dance, music, theatre and, of course, art. The strength and depth of the regional roots from which emanate hues of the here and now might be indicative of the total process, but never the entire picture. If success is a measure of the robustness of an artist’s explorative journey, then the ability to rise above the regional to the global is perhaps the next part of the artistic voyage.
Interestingly enough, there is the typical east and west divide in the contemporary Indian art scenario — with the Bengal school on the one side and Baroda on the other end of the spectrum, with artists from the southern states coming a close third and the central state of Madhya Pradesh coming a distant fourth in terms of sheer numbers who are part of these geographical indicators. In this frenetic activity to “preserve and support” regional rootedness, contemporary artists from the Punjab region or of Punjabi origin have emerged maybe not as a body that wants to emphasise its regional identity in a self-conscious way, but as an important movement towards establishing and iterating their global identity.
The fact that even in popular perception, artists of Punjabi origin — geographical locations notwithstanding — are not viewed as part of a collective, is itself an indication of their global outreach. Yet, when viewed as a collective, artists of Punjabi origin are a vibrant and vivacious spirited set of people, epitomising the hallmark of the people, their lifestyle and their attitude, their ability to go on despite all odds. And discover the gloriously charming ways in which it percolates into their art and transforms it to make it special and stand out in a crowd to hold their own — with pride and deep conviction.
To recount what is almost a cliché, the geographical land mass of Punjab was once known as the land of the five rivers, cradle to one of the most ancient and culturally varied civilizations of the world — the Indus Valley, personified in the ruins of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. But few are perhaps aware that the land is also home to one of the four primary gharanas of Hindustani music — the Patiala gharana. From here emanate the largest number of Hindustani classical music compositions or bandishs. These compositions of the Punjab ang are the very core of Hindustani vocal music. The Punjab baaz or style of playing the tablas is an effervescent tradition. The large number of musical greats like Ustad Amir Khan Sahib, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali, Ustad Salamat Ali, Nazakat Ali and the Singh Bandhus — Surinder Singh and Tejpal Singh — have all been the repositories of this tradition and taken it forward.
Punjab has had a tradition of poetry since the 12th Century. The large number of poets, including those of the Bhakti tradition and Sufism, like Bulle Shah, Sheikh Farid, Waris Shah, Peelu who wrote Mirza Sahiba, Shah Husain, Ghulam Farid, right down to the last century with Shayir-e-mashrique, Mohamad Iqbal who wrote Sare Jahan Se Accha, Sahir Ludhyanvi, Amrita Pritam, Bhai Vir Singh, Haribhajan Singh, Surjeet Patar are among the ones one can think of right away. As for the literature scene, Sadat Hasan Manto, Rajinder Singh Bedi and Krishna Sobti are names that were legends in their lifetime, so well had they captured the spirit of Punjab in their writing. Journalists include Arun Shourie, Kuldip Nayyar, Uma Vasudev and Aruna Vasudev — the list is long.
At one time, the language most spoken in Bollywood was Punjabi. The reason is not far to seek: From Mohammad Rafi, K.L. Saihgal, Suriya, Noorjehan, Ghulam Haidar, Pandit Amarnath, to actors like the Prithviraj Kapoor family, Dev Anand, Pran, Rajinder Kumar, Jeetendra, Dilip Kumar, Anil Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra are all Punjabis!
And even fewer perceive that despite not having a tradition of folk painting — frequent invasions ensured that sustained nurturing of the arts was simply not possible — its artists have been front rankers in the contemporary art scenario, especially in the post-Partition era. They have not felt the need to “belong” to a particular style school like Bengal and Baroda, but stood tall as individuals and not members of a ghetto collective.
The extraordinary array of artists who are Punjabi include Sobha Singh, who made love legends Sheeri-Farhad immortal, Amrita Shergil — her paintings of village women are exceptional, Ram Kumar, Satish Gujral, Krishen Khanna, Siddarth, Serbjeet Singh, Paramjit Singh, Arpana Caur, Manjit Bawa, Anish Kapoor, Rajinder Dhawan, Kanchan Chander, Sujata Bajaj, Latika Katt, Gurcharan Singh, Seema Kohli, Anupam Sud, Naresh Kapuria and Hemi Bawa, among others. Their styles are all distinct and have made indelible marks on the art firmament of the last and this century.
Hearing my father and Surinder Singh of the Singh Bandhu fame, both die hard Lahoris culturally, speak on the subject is wonderfully uplifting, as they are a veritable goldmine of anecdotes and proverbs about the spirit and attitudes about the Punjabis. But when I persist as to why no distinct pattern or style emerged despite the large number of painters from the region, both of them felt that the despite Lahore’s status as the Paris of the East, the frequent attacks affected Punjab more than any other place and didn’t allow anything to grow over a period of time. It changed the people’s own attitude towards their own arts as these took a backseat. The front seat was constantly occupied by skirmishes and battles and war — a lifestyle and attitude encouraged to this day. When Lahore went to Pakistan, the cultural nucleus was shattered, along with blood chilling riots during the Partition.
I feel the intrinsic Punjabi nature to be able to blend and be secure about their identity has ensured that they stand as individuals and not blend in as a cooperative with regional roots, especially in contemporary art. The level of sophistication these artists have is way above any regional flavour. So, when the done-to-death joke comes up about Punjab being a land of agriculture rather than culture, one can’t help but bristle.
Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist