The Reflection of Swat Crisis in Folk Poetry

Abstract

Swat crisis has deeply influenced and still continues to influence the daily lives of the people of Swat. The crisis has been interpreted by different people according to their understanding on the basis of academic training, political affiliation, religious orientation, social and economic background. Apart from academic and political activists there is a very sensitive class of poets who saw the crisis from their own perspective. These poets, despite their different social background, diverse religious and political orientation have one point in common: they feel the sufferings of the common people and express it in their poetry. The poetry of tribal people is more valuable as compared to the poetry of other areas. Here the poets express first hand information, they are not victims of media and propaganda. They observe their surroundings minutely with their unique style and sensitivity. Their poetry, during and after the crisis, is full of events faced by the people of Swat. They have composed poems regarding the miseries of the people, not only when they were compelled to vacate their homes, but also about institutions responsible for the crisis; they have criticized their leaders, the clergy and the state actors, and have presented the hardships of the people. They have also suggested solutions, emphasizing education, unity and discipline. The present paper is an attempt to bring into limelight some glimpses of the poetry of crisis. Mainly focusing on Swat, Buner and in rare cases outside the area, data for this paper was collected through field survey and private interviews with the poets of the area. An attempt has been made to focus on those poets who have not published their works due to different constraints, who belong to different social backgrounds and are mostly poor; few are illiterate and none of them is a university degree holder.