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Stepping over language barriers |
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Written by Parbina Rashid, Tribune News Service
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Friday, 06 July 2007 |
 S. P. Gupta has dedicated his life towards bridging the gap between Hindi and Punjabi
His frail hands can barely hold onto the volumes he has authored over the years. But that does not stop him from picking up the pen once again. Seventy-nine-year and many awards old, Satyapal Gupta, surprises you by telling that he is busy compiling the letters he received from famous personalities into a book form.
“During my career as a writer and joint director of the Public Relations Department, Punjab, I was in touch with famous personalities like Dr Vishwa Nath Tiwari, Hazari Parsad Dwivedi, Dr S. Radhakrishnana and likes. I have a record of letters that I received from them, now I am editing those and want to present them in a book,” says Gupta.
Son of a well-known Urdu poet and freedom fighter, Roshan Lal Patialvi, Gupta always wanted to act as a bridge between Hindi and Punjabi. And, the opportunity presented itself when he stumbled upon a Gurmukhi manuscript in 1950, while working as a research assistant for the Department of Languages in Patiala. “My colleagues brought the manuscript to me as they were confused about its language. The script was Gurmukhi and the language was Braj. Perhaps that’s what confused all of them,” he recalls.
That was just the beginning. He got hooked on to do research on the subject and found about 500 manuscripts, which were all about Hindi literature but written in Gurmukhi. He penned many books on his findings, the first being Punjab Ka Hindi Sahitya, which was published in 1959. Among others are Gurmukhi Lipin Mein Hindi Sahitya, Hamare Rashtrapati and Hamare Pradhanmantri.
Gupta was conferred an honourary degree of Sahitya Mahopadhyaya by the All-India Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayag for his contribution to Hindi literature. His name also features in Hindi literature’s ‘Who’s Who’ list by Guru Nanak Dev University last year.
But, honours come secondary in his mission to put Punjab on the national map of literature. “Punjab has contributed a lot towards Hindi, and its high time people know about the treasure trove in Gurmukhi script that lies buried in the archives and religious places. I want the young generation to take up the task of preserving and translating them into Devnagri lipi so that others too get benefited from them,” he says. This is the only wish of a man remained faithful to his calling throughout his life!
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