KISHAN SINGH
Warns Shah Punjabi Poet of Love and Liberation
IN this short paper it is not possible to deal with Warris Shah comprehensively; therefore no attempt is being made here in that direction. We only intend to draw the readers5 attention to the few points that are invariably lost sight of by most critics.
Warris Shah reflects the Sikh revolution of his times. It is not possible to understand him, unless we understand the class nature of the guerrilla warfare which the peasant-plebeians of the Punjab were waging against the established order.
The roots of this revolutionary armed struggle lie far back in the crises that overtook the Brahmanical Hindu society in the early Middle Ages. This is borne out by the fact that the founders of the Sikh movement themselves hark back to the much earlier period. Sufi Farid and Bhakta Kabir and other Hindu bhaktas of the earlier times form an integral part of the Holy Granth. This means that the Gurus held these people to be expounding the same truth as they themselves were doing. Warris Shah himself is very conscious of his ideological and spiritual lineage. Before he starts the narration of the love story, he makes a reverential reference to God, the Prophet and the Four Friends, and then comes