Chandigarh: “Punjabi writings and current literature is like left-over of English and Hindi writings. Unless Punjabi writers bring originality to their work, Punjabi language and literature cannot progress”, said Dr Pritam Singh, renowned academician, who was conferred with honouris causa degree in D.litt by vice-president of India, Dr Hamid Ansari. Talking to the The Tribune, 90 year-old, Dr Pritam Singh, who is the third one to receive the degree after Bhai Veer Singh and Prof Sahib Singh, said, “I am thankful to those who thought my writings were worth the appreciation and conferred upon the degree”.
No resting on his laurels, Dr Pritma, who had more than 50 publications to his credit, including ‘Dr Mohan Singh Dewana’, ‘Sikh Dharam Te Siast’, ‘ Punjab, Punjabi, Punjabiat’, besides others was working on a ten volume ‘ Sikhan Da Chota Mail’ in collaboration with Dr Joginder Singh Ahluwalia based in USA. “We are editing the thousand paged Granth by Bhai Darbari Singh, who was based in Ferozepur,” he said.
Talking about Punjabi language and its growth, he admitted that till the time we did not make colloquial use of the language it couldn’t progress on its own. Lashing out on the governments, he said it was high time for the government to realise its duty of bringing people closer to their roots in Punjab. He added that when Prof Ishwar Judge Ahluwalia ended her speech today with a Punjabi couplet, it drew tremendous response from the crowd by a way of thunderous round of applause.
Source: TNS