Opinion | Review of Women’s Literature in Gojri Literature (PART-1)

Before going ahead, it is mandatory to know the meaning of literature.

Literature is an Arabic language’s word, and has multiple meanings. Before the arrival of Islam it was used to describe hospitality and enthusiasm, and later another meaning of this word was added which we collectively can call politeness.

For Arabic people hospitality was considered as necessarily nobility, that’s why manners, politeness and hospitality is considered as literature’s meaning.

Whose will be polite in hospitality, will be polite in common life and that brings politeness in literature.And it includes eloquence as well. Before the evolution of islam eloquence was considered the peak of literature. Politeness, softness and eloquence became a part of literature. In the era of Banu Amya literature got a lot of promotion in Basra and Kufa. In this period only the books on grammar were written so that way of speaking remains conserved. The meaning of literature in the modern era is made particular, it is very important for literature that thoughts and emotions remain together otherwise every type of writing would be considered as literature.

Mathew Arnold states; “That knowledge which reaches us in book form, is literature.”

According to Kard Daniel Newman; expression of human ideas and views through tongue can be called literature.

Norman Jodak says; Literature means that everything we receive through script and which arranged is such a way that the reader gets happiness from it.

As far as Gojri literature is concerned there’s no exaggeration to say that Gojri language is mostly spoken in India. And it is one of the classical languages of India, this language and literature came a long way. And in this period Gujjars and Gojri language went through lots of ups and downs.

History tells us that from 6th century to 3th century, Gujjars ruled in India and Gojri was a widely spoken language at that time. The decline of gujjars rulers began in the 15th century and that directly affected the Gojri language and Persian took over it.

The decline of gujjars rulers forced gujjar people to migrate towards hills of jammu and Kashmir through Punjab.

From the 17th century to 20th century, Gojri language was deprived of writing and propagation. The 20th century made the Regular start of gojri language which resulted into a great asset of culture and tradition of gujjar people.

Actually the rise and fall of gojri language is directly connected with the rise and fall of gujjars kings. After the battle between Abraham Lodhi and Babar the gojri language’s declined began.And then in Mughal Empire this language leaves the

The palaces in divided into mountain and deserts, means the speakers of this language migrates from Delhi, Rajasthan,Gujarat Kathair,Gujjrawalla ,Gujar khan ,Gujjar Desh and start living in Mountains , they didn’t survive against time and sacrifice their language on ruling nation and other languages.

The literature of this language was also buried under tough circumstances, and it was not so easy to recollect it, no attention was given from 1947 to 1965 towards it. But during the war of 1965 the Gujjars people repeated their bravery once again. For this immeasurable contribution, people like Mali BiBi, Bargader Khuda Baksh and Mohammad Din receive Padma Shri Veer Chakra.

Because my essay is about the contribution of women in gojri literature, I will discuss more about it.

As I mentioned earlier, from the 17th to 20th century, gojri literature was deprived of writing and propagation. But it was rich during the 13th and 15th century.It is said that Mughal emperor Akbar used to listen to the bhajan of renowned sufi poet Mera Bahi from Tan San. Mera Bahi used to live in Sindh, her mother tongue was Gojri , She was righteous of Lord Krishna, she has written poetries in the love of Lord krishna. It can be experienced from his poetry that women had a great impact on gojri language and literature.

In the 20th century, when the collective awareness began in gujjar people, till that time gujjars were lacking in the education sector. Approximately half a century before, some sensitive people started organization after getting tired from the violence and crew of local and british Kings. Which further developed a long way, magazines, booklets and journals start giving space to gojri language. Women couldn’t contribute in that particular work, the reason behind was they were not educated enough to do so, and the tradition of giving education to women came very late in gujjar’s society, because of that women came very late in every aspect of life. The Illiteracy is always a barrier in the way of women. The contributions of women in gojri literature seems negligible as compared to the literature of other languages.

In 90th century only a few woman came towards literature which includes Zareena Nagmi Gorsi , Akhtar Un Nissa and Nighat Chowdhary from india, and from Pakistan Safoora Zahid, Shah Bano Zafar are the only two names, one more woman name Aabida Allam Abbi get into literature’s field and did some research work and later was died in 2018.

The development of a language and literature commonly have three type sources;

1) Governmental Institutions for development of language.

2) Media

3) Non- governmental movement and organizations.

This is another topic that these institutions have given to gojri language and literature, but what status they have given to women in gojri literature and what women did, is the topic to elaborate and this is the need of the time. (To be continued)

– The writer is Editor Gojri Magazine Rudaati Qoom, Educationist and columnist from Rajouri Jammu and Kashmir. She can be reached at shaziachoudhary799@gmail.com