{"id":1758,"date":"2025-08-25T12:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T07:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barjastatv.com\/?p=1758"},"modified":"2025-08-25T12:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T07:49:12","slug":"iftikhar-shafis-hari-yu-piya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barjastatv.com\/?p=1758","title":{"rendered":"Iftikhar Shafi\u2019s “Hari Yu Piya”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iftikhar Shafi\u2019s Hari Yu Piya is an evocative ode to the Indus Valley civilization, particularly the urban grandeur, cultural richness, and aesthetic sophistication associated with Harappa. The repeated refrain, \u201cHari Yu Piya, Hari Yu Piya \/ A thousand shades are thine,\u201d situates the reader in a multiplicity of experiences and perceptions, suggesting both the visual and sensory diversity of the civilization.
\nThe poem\u2019s imagery\u2014\u201cpaths leading to thee,\u201d \u201cchirping of birds,\u201d \u201cseven-hued earth,\u201d and \u201cscent of blossoms\u201d\u2014constructs a sensorially rich landscape, inviting the reader to inhabit the historical space through the poet\u2019s imaginative lens. References to musicality (\u201clake of thy music\u201d), feminine adornments (\u201csurma and kajal\u201d), and the lexicon of classical Indian musical notes (Kharaj, Rishabh, Gandhar) anchor the poem in a lived aesthetic universe, conveying not only the physical but the cultural and ethical fabric of the civilization.
\nThe second stanza elaborates the social and civic dimensions of Harappa, portraying a city where \u201cmaidens in dance reside\u201d and \u201cvaliant youth stand with pride,\u201d while chariot riders wander freely at the city gates. These lines emphasize urban sophistication, social organization, and ritualized expressions of life. Agricultural abundance, the fragrance of wheat fields, and the celebration of knowledge, art, and festivals further reinforce a civilization that is civilizationally complex, holistic, and grounded in quotidian joys and ethical refinement. Shafee\u2019s literal imagery, therefore, situates the Indus Valley not merely as an archaeological abstraction but as a vibrant, multisensory human space.
\nDecolonial Standpoint
\nFrom a decolonial standpoint, the poem functions as a literary reclamation of Harappa, challenging the often Eurocentric historiography that frames the Indus Valley civilization through fragmented archaeological data or as a prelude to later \u201cgreat civilizations.\u201d In line with Linda Tuhiwai Smith\u2019s advocacy for decolonizing methodologies, Shafee\u2019s poetic act embodies an indigenous epistemology, narrating Harappa from within its historical-geographical locus rather than through imposed external frameworks.
\nSmith emphasizes that decolonial research must privilege the knowledge, practices, and lived experiences of the community itself. Analogously, Shafee\u2019s poems privilege the sensory, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions of the civilization that are rarely captured in conventional historical discourse. By invoking urban landscapes, music, festivals, and bodily practices, the poet foregrounds the civilizational subjectivity of Harappa, restoring agency to the people who inhabited it and challenging colonialized narratives that reduce the Indus Valley to artifacts and ruins.
\nBorder Gnoseology and Analectic Negation
\nWalter Mignolo\u2019s border gnoseology and concept of analectic negation provide a complementary lens: the poem operates at the border of historical knowledge, resisting dominant epistemic hierarchies while simultaneously dialoguing with global historiography.
\nShafee\u2019s positionality\u2014writing from the modern territory of Pakistan, the heartland of Harappa\u2014situates him as an indigenous interlocutor, capable of engaging the past in a conversation that is both local and globally legible. His depiction of \u201cresilient everyday life, aesthetic practices, and civic order\u201da
\nform of border epistemology, asserting knowledge from within the civilization\u2019s spatial and temporal locus, rather than accepting externally imposed interpretations.
\nIn this sense, Hari Yu Piya exemplifies analectic negation: it resists partial, colonially-inflected readings of Harappa while producing a counter-history embedded in sensory, ethical, and aesthetic experience.
\nDecolonial Aesthetics
\nBeyond historiographical reclamation, the poem exemplifies decolonial aesthetics, where literary form itself enacts epistemic agency. The intertwining of sound, color, bodily imagery, and ethical norms conveys a poetic epistemology: knowledge is inseparable from sensory, performative, and ethical experience.
\nThe repetitive refrain, rich imagery, and structural cadence evoke resilience through dialogue, suggesting that even as historical knowledge has been mediated or silenced, poetry can serve as an indigenous locus of enunciation, asserting ordinary yet profound epistemic subjectivity.
\nThe poet\u2019s use of life writing techniques\u2014drawing on diaries, letters, and memoirist sensibilities within a poetic form\u2014translates historical imagination into ethical and reflective praxis, demonstrating how everyday aesthetic experience functions as epistemic agency.
\nBy foregrounding the everyday, embodied, and dialogical life of Harappa, Shafee challenges both colonial and postcolonial epistemic dominance, showing that civilizational knowledge, aesthetic sophistication, and ethical practice existed independently of later frameworks imposed by outside observers.
\nThe poem\u2019s literary strategies\u2014polyphonic imagery, refrains, and multisensory narration\u2014reveal a thinking poetic subject capable of negotiating between archival history, oral tradition, and ethical imagination. This positions Hari Yu Piya as a decolonial intervention in both literary and historical knowledge, offering a model of how poetry can reclaim, animate, and ethically represent indigenous pasts.<\/p>\n

An Ode to the Indus Valley Civilization
\nHari Yu Piya
\n(A Song of the Indus Valley)
\nHari Yu Piya, Hari Yu Piya
\nA thousand shades are thine
\nOn the paths leading to thee, chirping of birds abound,
\nIn thy seven-hued earth, the scent of blossoms is found.
\nIn the lake of thy music, rise beautiful lotuses of grace,
\nIn the eyes of thy maidens, surma and kajal have their place.
\nIn every fibre of being, they dwell within,
\nKharaj, Rishabh, Gandhar,
\nHari Yu Piya, Hari Yu Piya
\nA thousand shades are thine
\nIn thy city of beauty, maidens in dance reside,
\nTusks’ bangles on their arms, the valiant youth stands with pride.
\nAt the gates of thy city, chariot riders wander free,
\nWith the fragrance of wheat, all the fields are filled with glee.
\nTo civilizations you bestowed, a grand heritage,
\nKnowledge, art, and festivel,
\nHari Yu Piya, Hari Yu Piya
\nA thousand shades are thine
\nPoetic Representation
\n\"\"Translated & Reviewed by Dr. Naghmana Siddique
\nAssistant Professor
\nDepartment of English
\nGovernment college for women Sahiwal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iftikhar Shafi\u2019s Hari Yu Piya is an evocative ode to the Indus Valley civilization, particularly the urban grandeur, cultural richness, and aesthetic sophistication associated with Harappa. The repeated refrain, \u201cHari Yu Piya, Hari Yu Piya \/ A thousand shades are thine,\u201d situates the reader in a multiplicity of experiences and perceptions, suggesting both the visual …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-6"],"yoast_head":"\nIftikhar Shafi\u2019s "Hari Yu Piya" - Monthly Barjasta Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/barjastatv.com\/?p=1758\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iftikhar Shafi\u2019s "Hari Yu Piya" - Monthly Barjasta Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Iftikhar Shafi\u2019s Hari Yu Piya is an evocative ode to the Indus Valley civilization, particularly the urban grandeur, cultural richness, and aesthetic sophistication associated with Harappa. 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