Amritsar: Lying deep in the fertile plains between Amritsar and Lahore, a once-thriving utopian colony that stood as a testament to communal harmony before the bloodletting of Partition in 1947 is being rediscovered by a new generation of Punjabi litterateurs.Recently, the Punjab language department marked the birth anniversary of Gurbakhsh Singh Preetlari, the visionary civil engineer turned litterateur who founded Preet Nagar. Once the intellectual heartbeat of an undivided Punjab, the settlement — often called the “Town of Love” — stays a poignant symbol of the region’s shared cultural heritage despite decades of geopolitical strife.A Visionary’s ReturnBorn on April 26, 1895, in Sialkot, Gurbakhsh Singh earned a civil engineering degree from Michigan State University. Eschewing a lucrative career in the US, he returned to India to establish a sanctuary where creativity and human connection could flourish without religious or social barriers.In its “golden age”, Preet Nagar was a magnet for the subcontinent’s most brilliant minds. Legends such as poets Amrita Pritam and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, novelist Nanak Singh, and actor Balraj Sahni were frequent residents or visitors. The town functioned as a “Santiniketan of Punjab”, hosting theatre at Preet Bhavan and literary gatherings that drew intellectuals from Lahore to Delhi.Scars of HistoryPartition fractured the dream of Preet Nagar and placed the settlement on the immediate periphery of a new, hostile international border. Subsequent wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971, followed by the dark decade of terrorism in Punjab, further isolated the colony.Language department director Jaswant Singh Zafar said: “Due to narrow political and communal thinking, this place ended up on the periphery.” He claims that Gurbakhsh Singh’s writings emphasised a civility and aesthetic wisdom that the violence of the 20th century attempted to erase.Preserving the DreamSince Gurbakhsh Singh’s death in 1977, his son Hirdyapal Singh and the descendants of Nanak Singh have maintained the legacy through a dedicated museum and the annual Preet Nagar Mela.The recent anniversary featured a “Preet Yatra”, bringing writers and enthusiasts from across the state to the historic site. The event included the screening of Sapnian Di Dharti (Land of Dreams), a documentary by Kewal Dhaliwal that chronicles the colony’s rise, its struggle during the Partition, and its enduring relevance as a beacon of Punjabi unity. MSID:: 130554775 413 |
