L I T E R A T U R E

Quick-fix Solutions
Yet Another World Punjabi Conference
Dr. Jaspal Singh

Since the early eighties of the last century, a series of World Punjabi Conferences have been held in various countries of the world. There are many groups of Punjabis who claim to represent the global Punjabi community with a right to convene a World Punjabi Conference whenever and wherever they so desire. Quite a few of these Conferences proved to be disasters and a source of huge embarrassment to the organisers. Nevertheless, some of the promoters of such gatherings remain undeterred by momentary failures and after a few years gap they again take up the gauntlet.

So again there is a World Punjabi Conference with a motley crowd of intellectuals deliberating the global issues pertaining to the international Punjabi community. More often than not such congregations of  scholars grope in the dark for a few days, retiring each evening for wining and dining in the cosy saloons of their hotels where the ‘real’ symposium on the destiny of Punjabis begins and ends with a ‘grand success’.

On 15th of February 07, a World Punjabi Conference begins at Jalandhar in Punjab. On fifth February that is ten days before this event, a press conference is hurriedly called at Chandigarh Press Club to announce the grand show. The promoters inform that they have already organised two impressive World Punjabi Conferences in Prince George, Canada in August 2000 and June 2003 and in continuation of their “ground-breaking intellectual work to strengthen the Punjabi nation (sic) at the present time”, they have to study and understand Punjabi philosophy (Darshan). They further inform that “this great treasury of human thought developed at both the vernacular (sic) and philosophical levels has never been the subject of institutional study in colonial and post-colonial Punjab in either India or Pakistan. Again the questions beg to be asked: what is Darshan and why is it not taught to the nation?” In order to answer these paramount questions, the promoters are organising this Third Conference, which “will feature prominent intellectuals, cultural professionals, writers, artists and other public personalities presenting papers on aspects of the Punjabi nation (sic), its philosophy (Darshan), language and culture.”

The central theme of the Third World Punjabi Conference is “Nation building in the 21st Century: the Punjabi Nation and Punjabi Philosophy (Darshan).” The keynote lecture is being delivered by a well-known retired professor of Punjabi. Now this particular theme is a highly conceptualised issue pertaining to political theory. The organisers should have roped in somebody who has been working in the field of “Political Theory”, doing and guiding research at the post-doctoral level. At the same time, the scholar delivering the main lecture should have been the one who has original research work on the conceptual aspects of ‘nation’, ‘nationality’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘regional, cultural, lingual and religious identities’. Obviously a professor of Punjabi cannot do justice to this theme howsoever profound in his own field he may be. Most of the other invitees or participants in the conference have nothing much to do with such concepts or with philosophy in general and Punjabi philosophy (if any) in particular. Of course, there can be seminars on Sufism, Sikh philosophy or Indian philosophy which are often held in the universities of Punjab and by the Departments of Philosophy in various other universities and Institutes. It seems that the promoters of this Conference are not aware of any such debates.

Most of the paper readers are amateurs and not professionals in the field. Hence their presentations cannot go beyond amateurish level dotted with naïve formulations and at places with wonky ‘theories’ about the concepts of ‘nation’ ‘nationality’ and ‘ethnicity’ as they are operative in the 21st century. The entire enterprise has something simplistic about it. A global seminar or conference on any issue or theme is usually announced three months in advance. The scholars are requested to write papers in about four weeks. Then the abstracts of the papers are published by the organisers at least two weeks before the conference. During the three months constant correspondence with the participants goes on. In the present case the participants receive the invitation letters before one week of the commencement of the conference. They are asked to write papers on such a profound theme. Many of the participants have never thought about these ideas nor ever written about them. What kind of contribution they can make to the deliberations is not difficult to understand. A quick-fix world conference on important global issues can only be a product of a Punjabi mind. Well, it is just like home-brewed booze. One shot is enough to go overboard. Maybe another World Punjabi Conference is in the offing.

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With Compliments from


Gogi Sidhu
President

Satish K. Jain
Executive Vice President

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