Ignorance is a bliss. An oft quoted reminder to either sponsor negligence or to prescribe reluctant attitude  to the world around. Whatever the intended objective may be, in a society as ours, the dictum needs to be reexamined with regard to female consciousness. A casual dismissal of an important membership does not appropriate a responsible social commitment. She ought to be vigilantly cognizant of what she is capable of before being hash tagged a process or by product. How history documents her female consciousness and what role does language play in promoting or demoting the caliber remains the main argument. Feminist approaches have critically navigated the literary cannons and socio political movements in world languages, and the western understanding of it. This part of the world however still needs to re-tap its own regional contents, thematically and stylistically. For that matter the Punjabi and Urdu literature can offer insights into a viable eco understanding of woman as an agent  of change. 

Some of the words that were randomly sifted to determine the feminist side to Punjabi and Urdu grammar  revealed interesting facets to nature and female: Hikmat, Izaat, Rehmat, Baseerat, Neiki, Zahanat, Maurafat, Barkat, Khushi, Murawat, and Shafqat to list a few. The purpose is not to categorize women into the pre- and post - lapsarian, rather to explore the plausible dimensions to her female consciousness within an indigenous cultural matrix as gender socially regulated, aesthetically deified, politically engineered, and religiously queried. Subsequently, at times center staged, at others pushed to the periphery. Considered sacrificial, laid back, or ruthlessly ambitious she still manages to exist as entity, an emblem, metaphor for nature itself. 

From Mother Teresa to Florence Nightingale, Tereshkova to Curie; from Princess Zubaida to Zubaida Sirang; from Fatima Jinnah to Nigar Johar; from Helen keller to Muniba Mazari; from Balqees Edhi  to Ayesha Malik; from Malala to the unassuming Pakistani women out on fields , padding rice , sieving corn and baking  bricks feminism can be reinterpreted against the Urdu Punjabi linguistics. Her performativity can be seen as experiential consequence which is sheer neiki, selfless and inclusive. Her contribution doesn’t go by algorithm of division and subtraction. Her pragmatic maturity benefits society in terms of resilience and enlightened discernment, which is hikmat. An alert vigilance that questions and seeks to answer justly and sagaciously would fall into the bracket of zahanat.The capacity to sustain one’s strature as an individual who can also strengthen the collective signposts a consciousness equals to  maurafat.  

Linguistic feminism reimburses an endurance, a relentless determination that deflects defeat, doesn’t ferment in a perpetual whirlpool of negativity of mono-toned curated narratives of self – blame or more sinned against than sinning   syndrome. Within our South Asian context a positive feminism is not reductionist rather transformative and expansive. Punjabi Urdu grammar at least indicate a growth mind set which is relatable and approachable within the parameter of gender decency.  Why leave behind a carbon foot print when we are capable of unlocking the quantum code. Thus the right to self-actualization as an earned.   

Happy Women’s Day!

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