Renowned Pak cartoonist Anwar Ali’s book released

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 22

In a bid to make the Punjabi literature written in Shahmukhi script in Pakistan’s Punjab available to a wide spectrum of readers, a transliteration of ‘Gwachian Gallan’, an autobiographical account of events preceding the 1947 Partition in Ludhiana by Pakistan’s renowned cartoonist Anwar Ali was released here today.

The book in the Shahmukhi script has been transliterated in Gurmukhi script by Paramjit Singh Misha. Ali was born in Ludhiana in 1922 and stayed there till 1947. The famous cartoonist’s earlier two story books were also transliterated in Gurmukhi script.

In the present book, Ali narrates an account when the inmates of a shelter for leprosy patients waited for days for their Muslim brethren to take them to Pakistan. However, due to the social stigma associated with leprosy patients, nobody came to take them to their new found home. They start fearing that a group of Hindus and Sikhs would soon come to slaughter them. But this too did not happen as leprosy patients were taboo for them too.

Finally, after a long and traumatized wait, the leader of the leprosy patients walks them into a Hindu hamlet while shouting slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”.

Ali, whose cartoons appeared in the Pakistan Times on a daily basis was known for exposing the hypocrisy of the high-class society. In his cartoons, he had spared no one from this hypocrisy-minded lot. The high- headed bureaucrats, feudal lords, stuck in the old mentality and self-obsessed politicians, were frequently his target.

Misha associated with the present venture said, “Anwar Ali represents the composite culture of the two Punjabs. In this autobiographical account, he has revealed how the seeds of the differences were sown.”

Sandeep Singh of Sachal Publication which has published the book said, “The aim of our publication is to make literature written in Shahmukhi to Gurmukhi readers and vice-versa.”