Remembering Balraj Sahni

Balraj Sahni (1 May 1913 – 13 April 1973) was a noted Indian film and stage actor, who is best known for Dharti Ke Lal (1946), Do Bigha Zameen (1953), Kabuliwala (1961). Waqt (1965) and Garam Hawa (1973).

Balraj Sahni

Educated Background

Sahni went from his native Rawalpindi, Pakistan to study at Lahore University, Punjab, British India. He completed his master's degree in English Literature from Lahore and then went back to Rawalpindi and joined his family business. He also held a Bachelor's degree in Hindi, followed by a Masters in English from Punjab University. Soon after he married Damayanti Sahni.

Balrah Sahni with brother Bhishm Sahni

Shanti Niketan Days

In the late 1930s, Sahni and his wife left Rawalpindi to join Tagore's Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan in Bengal as an English and Hindi teacher. It is here that their son, Parikshit Sahni was born, when his wife Damayanti was doing her bachelor's degree. He also went to work with Mahatma Gandhi for a year in 1938. The next year, Sahni, with Gandhi's blessings, went to England to join the BBC-London's Hindi service as a radio announcer. He returned to India in 1943.

Damyanti and Balraj Sahni

How Tagore enlightened Balraj Sahni on his mother tongue?

Rabindranath Tagore with Sikhs in California

 Sahni was a gifted writer; his early writings were in English, though later in life under influence by Tagore, he switched to Punjabi, and became a writer of repute in Punjabi literature.

Excerpts from Balraj Sahni's own writings: 

Those days I was a teacher at Shanti Niketan. One day I went to invite Rabindranath
Tagore for the annual Hindi SammeIan, when he started a discussion with me During the course of our conversation he asked, "Besides teaching what else are you doing over here?"

"I write stories in Hindi which are published in the leading Hindi magazines. During my stay here, I have written a lot and also earned a good name for myself."

'But your mother tongue is not Hindi. You are a Punjabi. Why don't you write in the Punjabi language?"

I felt that Tagore was a narrow-minded, provincial man; at that time I did not realize that an artist must first be nationally known in the true sense of the word, before he is internationally acclaimed.

"But Hindi is the national language. It is the language of the entire nation. Why should I write in any provincial language, when I can write for the entire country?" I said.

"I write in Bengali, which is a provincial language; yet, not only the people of Hindustan but people all over the world read what I write."

"I am not a great writer like you, I am just an insignificant writer."

"It is not the question of greatness or smallness; a writer has a relationship with his own birthplace, his people and his language. It is only from them that he can receive the warmth and feeling of being one of them."

"Probably you do not have much knowledge about the conditions prevailing in my State. In Punjab, we either write in Hindi or in Urdu. No one writes in Punjabi. Punjabi is a very backward language. If you want an honest opinion, it cannot be called a language. It is a sub-language, a dialect of the Hindi language."

"I do not agree with you. The Punjabi literature or the Bengali literature is very old. Can you look down upon that language and call it outdated or backward, the language in which great poets like Guru Nanak have written?"

And then he recited a few lines of Guru Nanak's, which I now remember by heart. But at that time, I was absolutely unaware of them. Those lines were:

Gagan mein thaal Ravi Chand deepak bane
Tarka mandal Janka moti
Dhoop Malyachal pawan chanwar kare
Sagal banraya phulanto Jyoti

Literally translated the four lines mean:

Nature in its own way offers arti (prayers).
To God the creator of the Universe
The sky is the thali (tray)
The sun and the moon are the diyas (candles)
The stars are the pearls
The fragrance from the Malyachal Mountain is the incense
The breeze sways like the chawar (fan)
And the entire flora blossoms luminously.

When Hindustan was fighting for Independence, it required one national language. The Congress was making tremendous efforts to make it the national language and encourage its growth and popularity. I did not think it proper to argue but I had utmost respect for him to listen to his words of wisdom.

I got up to leave.I had barely reached the door, when Gurudev spoke words which troubled my heart for many years. But one day, suddenly, I realized that these words had much truth in them. He said: 

"A prostitute, even after amassing all the wealth, cannot command respect, Similarly, when you spend your entire life writing in an alien language, neither your own people will accept you as one of them, nor will the people in whose language you have been writing. Before trying to win over outsiders, you should first win over your own people."

Balraj Sahni in Punjabi

Balraj Sahni began writing in Punjabi and contributed to the Punjabi magazine Preetlari. In 1960, after a visit to Pakistan, he wrote Mera Pakistani Safar. His book Mera Rusi Safarnama, which he had written after a tour of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1969, earned him the 'Soviet Land Nehru Award'. He contributed many poems and short stories in magazines and also penned his autobiography, Meri Filmi Aatmakatha. Sahni was an extremely well-read and politically conscious person.

Balraj Sahni with son Prikshit Sahni

Balraj Sahni also also starred in the classic Punjabi film Nanak Dukhiya Sub Sansar (1970) as well as the critically acclaimed Satluj De Kande.

He later founded the 'Punjabi Kala Kender' in 1973 to revive Punjabi among the Punjabi actors who were abandoning their mother tongue for brighter prospects in Bollywood. The organization still gives away the annual 'Balraj Sahni Award' to Punjabis for their contribution to Bollywood.

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balraj_Sahni
2. http://www.thebhopalpost.com/index.php/2010/07/balraj-sahni-speaking-his-heart-out/
3. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110508/spectrum/main3.htm
4. http://www.sikh-heritage.co.uk/arts/Punjabi/PPPrinting.htm
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gagan_mein_thaal
6. http://www.sikh-heritage.co.uk/arts/Punjabi/PPPrinting.htm