A Capital gain in last 100 yrs: Marx in Punjabi

Bhai Santokh Singh, a Ghadar activist and one of the founders of the communist movement in Punjab, was tried with 29 other Ghadarites in the Indo-German or San Francisco Hindu Conspiracy Case and sentenced to 21 months rigorous imprisonment. In the McNeil’s Island prison, he came in contact with other political inmates, many of them Russian communist
exiles, and began to read leftist books, including the three volumes of Capital. After his release, he travelled to the Soviet Union, where he enrolled in the KUTV – University of the Toilers of the East. After returning to Punjab, he started Kirti (The Worker) in 1926, a Punjabi
magazine.

In its first issue, dated February 1926, he published a short introductory article on Dialectical and Historical Materialism. The essay was also an important milestone in the development of Punjabi literary and political prose. Prior to this, historical and political texts – even the traditional medicine formulae – were written in poetry. Given the lack of an established Punjabi tradition of economic and philosophical discourse, Santokh Singh relied on Sanskrit for introducing new philosophical terms into Punjabi.

Bhagat Singh studied Marx

Dwarka Das Library, which shifted from Lahore to Delhi to Chandigarh after Partition, has in its collection the first English edition of Capital (1887). It is a fair conjecture that Bhagat Singh would have accessed it. In his memoir, Yash ki Dharohar (Heritage of Honour, 1988), Bhagwan Das Mahaur, an accomplice of Bhagat Singh, writes that he had read Capital on the suggestion of Bhagat Singh, but could not comprehend it. Bhagat Singh’s Jail Notebooks include quotes from the writings of Marx and Engels.

First Punjabi Translation

Makhan Singh (1913-1973) a whole-timer of the CPI during 1939-1947, spent his time in translating some parts of Marx’s Das Kapital into Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script. In 1942, Jagjit Singh Anand, an editor of Jang-e-Azadi, the CPI organ, received Makhan Singh’s Punjabi translation of ‘Dialectical Materialism’, a chapter in Das Kapital. In his memoir, Anand
recalled his deep impression of Makhan Singh’s nuanced grasp of Marxist theory as well as his mastery of the Punjabi language. The two men worked on the editorial board of Jang-e-Azadi until 1947, when Makhan Singh left Punjab for Kenya.

The editorial board of Jang-e-Azadi consisted of communist activists and pioneer Punjabi translators of Marxian literature, including Bhag Singh, a PhD in political science from Berkeley University, Teja Singh Sutantar, a legendary political leader and graduate of the University of the Toilers of the East Moscow, Sohan Singh Josh, Makhan Singh, Jagjit Singh Anand, and Randhir Singh.

In May 1937 a collection of articles on capitalism, imperialism and socialism published in Kirti was compiled by Harkishan Singh Surjeet. This 100-page book was titled ‘Purani te Navi Duniya’ (Old & the New World) by Sathi (Comrade) Karl Marx. It was the first Marxian text in Punjabi that was laden with the new terminology of economics and philosophy, not familiar to most Punjabi readers at the time. Most of the newly-coined terms stuck. But a hundred years later, there is still no consensus about certain words and concepts. For instance, the word ‘Capital’ can be translated both as ‘Poonji’(origin Sanskrit) and ‘Sarmaya’ (org. Persian).

The first authentic Punjabi translation of Capital was published in 1975 by Navyug publishers, Delhi. The three volumes were translated by a team of fulltime employees of the Soviet Embassy’s Information Department. No other book by Marx except The Poverty of Philosophy was translated into Punjabi.

The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels was first translated into Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script by Randhir Singh and published in Lahore in 1946. It took over 70 years for its Punjabi version to appear in the Farsi script in Lahore translated by Mushtaq Soofi (Sanjh publications, 2022). A booklet about contemporary Marxism, titled Nirvar (The Analysis) was
published by Rashid Uz Zaman in the Farsi script in Lahore in 1970. Unlike the East Punjabi translation, which largely relies on Sanskrit, Zaman’s translation borrows heavily from Arabic and Farsi. This duality of one language with two scripts and two dictions has been a serious bone of contention between academics, linguists and writers on both sides of the divided land of Punjab.

(Amarjit Chandan is a UK-based Punjabi writer, editor, translator and
activist)