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Amarjit Chandan

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Amarjit Chandan
Chandan in 2011
Chandan in 2011
Native name
ਅਮਰਜੀਤ ਚੰਦਨ
Born1946 (age 77–78)
LanguagePunjabi
Alma materPanjab University, Chandigarh
GenrePoetry, essays
Website
amarjitchandan.tripod.com/index.html

Amarjit Chandan (born 1946) is a Punjabi writer, editor, translator and activist. He has written eight collections of poetry and five collections of essays in Punjabi. He has been called "the global face of modern Punjabi poetry".[1][2]

He has published over 25 books of poetry and essays. He has edited over 15 books of poetry and essays. His work has been translated into many languages including Arabic, Brazilian-Portuguese, Greek, Italian, Slovene and Turkish.

Biography

Initial years in Kenya

He was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1946 where his father Gopal Singh Chandan, worked in the railways and later on took up photography as full-time profession.[3] He was also a leader of the clandestine Kenyan Ghadar Party, he worked as the general secretary of the Labour Trade Union of East Africa from 1940 to 1947 and the local Sikh community. He facilitated the travel of quite a few Ghadris through Kenya en route Moscow.

Move to (East) Punjab, India

In 1957 they moved to their ancestral town Nakodar in Punjab, India at the age of eight. He pursued higher studies at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Before Chandan joined the Maoist-Naxalite movement in East Punjab in 1971, he worked as a sub-editor in Nawan Zamana daily newspaper published by the Punjabi communist party and later under Baba Gurmukh Singh of Lalton in Desh Bhagat Yadgar Jalandhar editing Yadgar's journal Desh Bhagat Yadan. He also edited a special issue of Bharat Sewak on Indian national freedom fighters and actively assisted with the publications of Yuvak Kender.

He joined the Maoist movement in Punjab in 1969 and started Dastavez (the Document), the first ever revolutionary underground literary magazine in Punjabi. It proved to be the trend setter of militant or Jujhar phase in the history of Punjabi literature. It introduced Lal Singh Dil, Pash, Sant Ram Udasi, Darshan Khatkar, Harbhajan Halvarvi and others. Because of Dastavez, he was proclaimed an offender during the Naxalite movement and a cash reward was carried on his head.[4][5] Later on he edited 'Lokyudh' and 'Baghawat' political and literary magazines published by the CPI(ML) Punjab.

In August 1971, he was arrested in Amritsar and was tried on false charges of carrying bombs and bank robbery. He was given three years sentence and he underwent solitary confinement in Jalandhar and Amritsar jails.[6]

After his release in August 1973 the first task he did was to collect letters of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his comrades from National Archives New Delhi and publish them in Punjabi under the title Chithian: Shaheed Bhagat Singh te Sathi (Letters of Shahid Bhagat Singh &Comrades). He found and translated Bhagat Singh's famous article Why I am an Atheist. Since then it has been reprinted many times. He founded the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Research Committee. Its other members were Professors Bipan Chander, Bhagwan Josh, Harish Puri and Jagmohan Singh, Bhagat Singh's nephew. During 1977-1979 he researched under Bipan Chander, the historian, on the Pepsu Muzara Lehar (Land tenants’ militant movement of the Pepsu) fought under the leadership of Lal Communist Party led by Teja Singh Sutantar. He edited Hem Jyoti when it was relaunched in 1974 under the Punjabi Sahit Sabhyachar Manch. Harbhajan Halvarvi and Pash were also on the editorial team. During 1977-80 he was also a correspondent from East Punjab for Economic & Political Weekly published in Bombay.

Chandan worked as an editor of Preet Lari during 1976-1977 and before that as the founding editor of short-lived literary magazine Disha (The Direction) published in Chandigarh.

A list of more than 100 naxalites killed in fake police encounters in East Punjab was published under his name in 1977. He was one of the founders of Jamhuri Adhikar Sabha Punjab (Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights, Punjab). In 1977 he was on the national Fact-FindingTeam in Andhra Pradesh to investigate the murders of naxalites in police custody.

Migration to UK

Amarjit Chandan and John Berger in 2016

In 1980, he moved to UK [1] where has been living ever since.[2] He completed post-graduate Diploma in Translation with distinction from the Institute of Linguists in 1991. He was language consultant to the National Community Folklore Centre based at Middlesex Polytechnic. He worked as a part-time Lecturer in Punjabi at School of Languages, Polytechnic of Central London, 1983–1984. He worked for Translation & Interpreting Services, London Borough of Haringey from 1986 to 2003. He also translated for several publishing concerns, including the Indian Council of Historical Research, National Book Trust India, books of history, economics, fiction, non-fiction, children's literature, drama and poetry. He has translated works of Bertolt Brecht, Pablo Neruda, Yiannis Ritsos, Nazim Hikmet, John Berger and others into Punjabi.[3]

Chandan formed a long-term association with John Berger. On Berger's 90th birthday in 2016, he co-edited A Jar of Wild Flowers: Essays in Celebration of John Berger[3] and The Long White Thread of Words.[7]

Association with (West) Punjab, Pakistan

He is known as the bridge between East and West Punjabi literature and co-edits with Zubair Ahmad an annual magazine in Punjabi Baramah (lit. ‘Twelve Months’ – a poetic genre) published in the Farsi script in Lahore.

Works

Works in Gurmukhi Punjabi

Poetry

  • Kaun Nahin Chahega (1975)
  • Kavitavan (1984)
  • Jarhan (1995)[3]
  • Beejak (1996)
  • Chhanna (1998)
  • Gurhti (2000)[8]
  • Paintee (2009)
  • Prem Kavitavan (2012)
  • Pardesi Dhola (2013)
  • Lammi Lammi Nadi Vahe (2014)
  • Sachi Taksaal (2016)
  • Sandook (2017)
  • Eh kāgad nahin hai: Ghadar virasat diān likhtān (2020)

Essays

  • Failsufian (1990)
  • Nishani (1997)
  • Hun Khin: Conversations with Sohan Qadri (2001)
  • Annjall (2006)
  • Potli (2009)
  • Likhat Parhat(2013, Reprint 2014)

Translated and edited works

  • Mera Nam Tera Nam Vietnam, anthology of Vietnamese poetry, (1968)
  • Mitti da Rung (1971)
  • Do Kināré (1982)
  • Apneaap ton dur (1984)
  • Vilaytiye (1986)
  • Meri Aap-Beeti, Autobiography of Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna. (2014)
  • Unni sau churasi: Harbhajan Singh's Poems and Essays on 1984 (2017)
  • San Santali: Punjab de Ujarhey di shayri (2017)
  • 20veen sadee de nibandh (20th Century Punjabi Essays), National Book Trust India (2020)
  • Kanchan Kaya: Ajoki Punjabi Prem Kavita (Modern Punjabi Love Poetry) , National Book Trust India (2020)

Works in Farsi Punjabi

Poetry

  • Guthli (1999)
  • AnaraN vala Vehrha (2001)
  • Nuqta (2007)

Essays

  • Likhtam Parhtam (2009)

Works in English

  • The Parrot, the Horse and the Man (2017)[9]
  • Sonata For Four Hands (2010)[10]
  • Indians in Britain (1986)[11]

Edited works

  • A Jar of Wild Flowers: Essays in Celebration of John Berger (2016), co-edited with Yasmin Gunaratnam, London: Zed Books[12]
  • The Long White Thread of Words: Poems for John Berger (2016), co-edited with Gareth Evans and Yasmin Gunaratnam. Ripon: Smokestack Books

Works translated in other languages

  • ΦΟΡΕΣΕΜΕ (2015) - translation in Greek by Christina Linardaki & Andreas Pitsillides

Awards

  • Lifetime Achievement Award - Languages Department, Punjab, India[1]
  • Anād Kāv Sanmān in 2009[13]
  • Lifetime Achievement Award from the Punjabis in Britain, All-Party Parliamentary Group, London in 2006[2]

In film & TV

References

  1. ^ a b c Singh, Paramjeet (7 April 2018). Legacies of the Homeland: 100 Must Read Books by Punjabi Authors. Notion Press. ISBN 9781642494242.
  2. ^ a b c Editor, T. N. S. (21 September 2014). "Chandan's world". TNS - The News on Sunday. Retrieved 5 November 2019. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ a b c d ""Writing poetry is a mystical experience" | Encore | thenews.com.pk". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  4. ^ "sikhchic.com | Article Detail". sikhchic.com. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  5. ^ Bharti, Vishav (9 September 2018). "She wrote their destiny". The Tribune. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  6. ^ Scott, Interview by Caroline (17 April 2005). "Amarjit Chandan". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  7. ^ Books, Smokestack. "The Long White Thread of Words". smokestack-books.co.uk. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  8. ^ Sachdeva, Vivek; Pradhan, Queeny; Venugopalan, Anu (9 April 2019). Identities in South Asia: Conflicts and Assertions. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780429627798.
  9. ^ Chandan, Amarjit (30 June 2017). The Parrot, the Horse and the Man. Arc Publications. ISBN 9781910345252.
  10. ^ Poets, Academy of American. "About Amarjit Chandan | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  11. ^ Candana, Amarajīta (1986). Indians in Britain. Sterling Publishers. ISBN 9788120706309.
  12. ^ Gunaratnam, Yasmin (5 November 2016). A Jar of Wild Flowers: Essays in Celebration of John Berger. Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 9781783608829.
  13. ^ "Kāv Sanmān". The Anād Foundation. 15 January 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  14. ^ Sharma, Sarika (4 January 2019). "On wings of poetry rests John Berger's link to Punjab". The Tribune. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
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