Heer Waris Shah

Friday, 24 October, 2025 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM | A-11 Auditorium, Academic Block, LUMS

The Gurmani Centre for Languages and Literature organized a session titled “A Session on Heer Waris Shah”, featuring the launch of the English translation of Heer Waris Shah by acclaimed poet and writer Sarwat Mohiuddin. This publication marks the sixth volume in the Literary Heritage Series for Young Readers, an initiative dedicated to making foundational literary texts accessible to those unfamiliar with Punjabi while foregrounding Punjabi’s intellectual and aesthetic centrality in the region’s cultural history.

The session opened with Dr. Ali Raza introducing the Lutfullah Archive as the premier repository of Pakistan’s literary and aural heritage — an unparalleled audio collection preserving rare cultural memory across generations. This was followed by a rare archival rendition of Heer on sarangi by Ustad Nathoo Khan, immediately immersing the audience into the emotional and sonic universe from which Waris Shah’s poetry emerges.

The conversation was moderated by Zahid Hassan, who engaged Sarwat Mohiuddin in a layered discussion on the literary, historical, and political dimensions of Heer. They noted that the tale of Heer Ranjha has been retold across centuries and languages, including Ahmad Yar Khan’s Farsi rendition, and that Mohiuddin’s translation draws from the authoritative Sharif Sabir manuscript. A crucial part of the discussion examined how Punjabi was systematically suppressed under British colonial rule, including how Punjabi qaidas (primers) were deliberately burnt and destroyed — an act of epistemic violence that severed the language from its pedagogical roots and intellectual legitimacy.

Mohiuddin reflected on how Waris Shah reimagines Heer not simply as a romance but as a deeply metaphysical and socio-political narrative, shaped by the anxieties of 18th-century Punjab — a Punjab negotiating love, power, land, and cosmic justice. She discussed how Waris Shah subtly critiques clerical power and mullah-cracy, and how Heer’s character emerges as rebellious, dignified, and intellectually alive. She appears as a metaphor for resistance against both patriarchy and religious authoritarianism.

The event concluded with a live performance of Heer Khwānī by Taimoor Afghani, accompanied on flute by Aijaz Khan. The recitation carried the room into a state of collective trance — a powerful reminder that Heer is not simply a literary text, but a living, breathing cultural memory, one that continues to shape linguistic identity, emotional imagination, and the politics of belonging in Punjab.