Desi Writing Blog
Vernacular Voices:
British South Asian Writing in Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati and Bengali
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These blog posts are short pieces on aspects of the British Asian vernacular literary world. Writings in South Asian languages by authors who settled in the UK from the 1950s come in the form of poetry, short stories and occasionally novels. These authors are rarely known outside of the language communities and thus these posts give an insight into them and their writings as well as a general idea of publishing and publications in the literary formation.
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Gurdial Singh Rai: Unsung Hero
A towering figure in the vernacular literary world, Gurdial Singh Rai was born in Assam, outside of Punjab and so his schooling was in Assamese. In his typically self-deprecating style he refers to his, short-story published wife, Surjit Kalpana, as the actual true Punjabi writer in the household. This humble manner belies the huge contribution as a writer and literary activist that he has made to the British Punjabi writing scene. As with many of his generation, he learnt Punjabi by doing the Gyani examination, which was introduced after the Gurdwara Reform movement of the 1920s to give education in the basics of Sikhism and Gurmukhi. Punjabi was not taught in state schools until after 1967, thus households and semi-private Sikh institutions, such as the Sikh National School, which Gurdial Singh attended, were the only source of language propagation.
The Stranger's Door
Baba Farid, Punjabi Poetry and the Diasporic Condition
Punjabi print culture in the UK
Punjabi Print Culture