This research analyses the insinuation of local Punjabi idiom in Taufiq Rafat’s poetry. By using the technique of narrative Rafat depicts different rituals, ceremonials and traditions like bride hunting, circumcision, marriage, dowry, kite flying, and celebration of indigenous season. This study explore the locus of local culture of Pakistan and argues that Rafat employs indigenous spaces in his work to maintain a distinctive idiom which is culturally specified. Till the partition of the subcontinent many Indian writers were writing poetry in English. Though the major concern of their discourse was their society, they were following the British stylistically. After the partition of subcontinent, writers’ focus was changed. The notion of writing back to the empire became the focal point of their writing. Rafat added to this tradition by representing his own indigenous culture and by depicting several rituals, norms and traditions of his society to prove the existence of a Punjabi flavor. Edward Said says “For in the decades-long struggle to achieve decolonization and independence from European control, literature has played a crucial role in reestablishment of a national cultural heritage, in the reinstatement of native idioms, in the reimagining and refiguring of local histories, geographies, communities” (Said 1). By applying Said’s notion of re-establishment of native idioms this paper argues that Rafat celebrates the indigenous traditions and fiestas of Pakistan which are used as a motif to recover the cultural selfhood in the postcolonial paradigm.

*    Lecturer, University of Management and Technology

** Chairperson Department of English Language and Literature, University of the Punjab

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