	New content
Indian Journal of Gender Studies

Restricted access

Other

First published June 2003

A 19th-century Woman Poet of Punjab: Peero

Gurpreet BalView all authors and affiliations

Volume 10, Issue 2

https://doi.org/10.1177/097152150301000201

Abstract
References

Get access

Abstract

This article explores society, religion and identity in the poetry of a 19th-century woman poet of Punjab. Widely regarded as the first woman poet of Punjab, Peero wrote her autobiography in verse. In the process, she transcended the individual limits set by her condition and moved to a general exposition of the position of women in Punjabi society. Subsequently, she built a critique of the exploitative nature of the society: her critique was to focus on three major religions, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism, as all of them made claims and counter-claims of equality in their discourses.

Get full access to this article

View all access and purchase options for this article.

Get Access

1. The Sikh reform movements—Nirankari, Namdhari and Singh Sabha—under— lined the importance of women's participation in their programmes. The Namdhari Guru Baba Ram Singh extended to them ritual equality, that is, he treated women as equals at the time of baptism, and favoured widow remar riage and condemned the evils of female infanticide and child marriage. Niran karis advocated remarriage of widows and preached that women should not be treated as unclean at the time of childbirth. The Singh Sabha tried to tackle the problem of women through the spread of education among girls and women. The Ahmediya movement, a Muslim protest movement which arose out of the desire to check the alleged decadence in Islam, favoured women's education.

2. One of the interesting examples of cultural practices cutting across religious boundaries was the vartan bhanji system. See Eglar (1960).

3. The practice of female infanticide among the Bedis was actuated by pride as they were rich and affluent, while among the Rajputs it arose out of poverty and pride. The birth of a girl child was very much lamented by the parents mainly on account of the suffering caused to girls by prevailing practices such as sati, child marriage and purdah, etc. Bride givers were permanently inferior in status to bride takers.

4. This practice prevailed particularly amongst the Jat Sikhs by which a brother of the deceased could marry the widow through the ceremony of 'covering the head of the widow'. The custom grew out of economic necessity and the tendency to exclude women from inheriting property.

5. Canal colonies were constructed by the British after the annexation of Punjab in 1849. The British undertook a massive work of the construction of irrigation canals in western Punjab from the rivers Ravi and Chenab. As a result, new cities like Lyllpur and Montgomery, and a large number of villages were established. Jat peasants particularly from eastern Punjab were given lands that were virtually forest lands. All this area was known as canal colonies.

6. M. Mujib (1967) explains that there are two types of Indian Muslims. The first kind migrated to India from other countries and the rest were of Indian origin. The latter were converted to Islam after they denounced Hinduism. Through conversion they experienced economic mobility. Most of them were artisans and untouchables. There was no interdining between Hindus and Muslims, and Hindus used to call Muslims 'Shudras'.

Regarding Peero's caste background, there is a view among some scholars that she was a Dalit because she uses the term 'Shudra' frequently. In kafis 9 to 13 there is repeated use of this term when referring to herself. For instance she writes, 'Hum to shuder vesava buh tis te darr hai' (Being a Shudra prostitute I am afraid of You). Similarly, in kafis 11 and 13 she says, 'Rakho saran asaran ko hau shuder nari/Jat ajat na dekhia tum kubja tarri' (Please keep me—a Shudra woman—under Your protection. Do not consider my caste, but bless me) and 'Peero pia araj kar haau shuder nari pichale aei radh ke tum laj hamari' (Peero, a Shudra woman, requests her Beloved that now You are my honour as I have already left the world behind).

The term Shudra implies those who work with their hands-including the artisan castes. It is quite clear that with the exception of Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, the rest were either Shudras or Dalits. But it is doubtful that she was a Dalit. It is hardly plausible that a woman from a Dalit family could have had the exposure that Peero had or her education. Most probably she belonged to a middle caste.

7. Chathianwala, the place where Peero spent the last 10 years of her life in the dera of Sant Gulab Das, is now a border village in Pakistan. Earlier it was a Jat Sikh-dominated village, but after Partition many Muslims who migrated from India settled there. It is learnt that until 1947 a big annual fair used to be held there during the Holi festival. Singers and dancers from far-off places would join together and celebrate the occasion for a couple of days.

8. Around the year 300 B.C. Epicurus (341-270) founded a school of philosophy in Athens based on the pleasure ethics of Aristippus. He emphasised that the pleasurable results of an action must always be weighed against its possible side effects. Pleasure does not necessarily mean only sensual pleasure, but includes values such as friendship and appreciation of art. The enjoyment of life, Epicurus emphasised, required the ideals of self-control, temperance and serenity.

9. Amongst them were Bhai Ditt Singh, Bhai Jawahar Singh, Bhai Mayya Singh and Kishan Singh Aaraf, who became famous in literary, educational social reform and political circles. Giani Ditt Singh, a scholar, poet and journalist along with Bhai Mayya Singh, and Bhai Jawahar Singh were leading figures in the Singh Sabha movement. Mayya Singh was entrusted with the project of preparing a comprehensive Punjabi-English dictionary and in 1895 the Punjabi Dictionary was published. After the death of Giani Ditt Singh, Bhai Mayya Singh became the editor of the Khalsa Akhbar. Bhai Jawahar Singh and Kishan Singh Aaraf became well-known writers and poets in the Punjabi language. Besides his rich contribution to Punjabi language, literature and education, Bhai Jawahar Singh remained a member of various educational and social reform committees (Singh 1996).

10. For recent edited editions of these epics, see Ashok (1969); Ghuman (1992); Sahota (1997); Singh and Ahuja (1972); and Singh and Singh (1987).

11. The term 'kafi' means a sufi poem sung in praise of God. Peero's kafis are in ballad form. During Peero's lifetime the Persian script was in use, though the language was Punjabi. She was probably taught the Persian script by the maulvi responsible for her elementary education, but Peero used the Gur mukhi script for her writing. It might be that Peero followed the Gulabdasias who were engaged in promoting and spreading the use of Gurmukhi, which she might have learnt in the dera.

12. Confined to the four walls of the house, women in well-to-do families who wrote or enjoyed poetry shared their interest with family members and close friends of their own sex. Later, in the early 20th century, close male relatives like brothers and cousins were also admitted to and participated in such gatherings.

13. Peero and Gulab Das tried to write together, but failed. Only one collection of kafis, Seharfi Sanjhi, exists that the two of them wrote together. It is believed that there was a wide difference in their perspectives.

14. Amrita Pritam (2000) has also written about her in a piece entitled 'Gulab Das Da Takkia Te Peero Bandi' based on Shaharyar's play Peero Preman in Nagmani.

15. It is generally argued that there is equality among the sexes in the practices of the Sikh religion. It seems that tradition had been contrary to this under standing if we accept that Peero is making a commentary on contemporary conditions. Then it becomes clear that it is only during the Namdhari move ment that women were baptised in a considerable number (see Jolly 1988; Jakobsh 2000; Oberoi 1994).

References

Ashok, Shamsher Singh (ed.). 1969. Heerwaris. Patiala: Language Department .

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References

Also from Sage