Leading Punjabi intellectual and writer Dr Manzur Ejaz passed away at his home in Virginia on 3/30/25. Dr Ejaz was born in a village (chak 60/5-L Burjwala, Sahiwal) in central Punjab shortly after the creation of Pakistan. He contracted polio as a child and was partially paraplegic as a result, but he never let this hold him back. Familiar with traditional rural punjabi culture from his very traditional home, he became a left wing activist in college and remained active in Left wing politics all his life.
He did his masters in philosophy from Punjab University in 1970 and joined the same as a lecturer in philosophy. He remained a committed Marxist and also developed the idea that oppression took many forms and one of its forms was the denial of the language of the common people in favor of imperial languages that were used to impose a new imperial reality on the people. He always insisted that the cause of Punjabi language must be a central concern for any Punjabi Leftist and there could be no working class politics that did not include the defense and promotion of the only language in which that class was able to fully express themselves. It was at this point that Dr Manzur Ejaz and other Punjabi activists led by Najm Hussain Syed (the most famous Punjabi critic and writer of our age) started a weekly meeting (the “sangat”) to promote the modern study of classical Punjabi literature. They tried to hold their meetings in the university but this was the era in which the jamiat (student wing of the Jamat e Islami) was taking over Punjab university and they created hurdles such that the meeting was moved to Najm Sahib’s house and met there regularly until the Covid era, when it was converted to a virtual meeting. Around that time Dr Ejaz also met his future wife (he said the first time was at a bus stop) and Attiya Kokab and Dr Manzur got married in the late seventies and remained together ever since.
When Zia declared martial law and Punjab university became ever more hostile to left wing politics, Dr Ejaz moved to the United States, where he did his PhD in Economics from Howard University. He then worked for the city of Washington DC as a health economist till his retirement in 2012. All this time, he continued to study the language and culture of Punjab and made heroic efforts to protect and preserve a classical oeuvre that was in danger of dying due to official neglect and hostility in the new state of Pakistan. Dr Manzur Ejaz recognized the potential of the internet very early and started a website (Wichaar) that pioneered the digital preservation of Punjabi literature and criticism (now moved mostly to folkpunjab.org). He maintained an active correspondence with Punjabi activists all over the world and was one of the most important nodes in the worldwide network of Punjabi scholars and activists.
When Youtube came on the scene, he recorded multiple series of videos on various aspect of Punjabi culture and history. In addition to the important work of preserving and developing the language and its literature, he was very conscious of the fact that the preservation of literary Punjabi would be pointless if all other conversations happen in Urdu or English. So he made determined efforts to produce content about science, practical subjects, philosophy etc in Punjabi. He wrote a “people’s history of Punjab” and multiple other books and articles. Near the end of his life he was very interested in the deep history of the language and figured out for himself that there seems to be a deep connection between Punjabi and some austro-asiatic languages and a simple description of Punjabi as an indo-aryan language misses this deeper substrate. As with most of the subcontinent, these issues are overlaid with so much political baggage that “objective” academic study can be difficult and much may need to be reframed, even if some insights don’t hold up forever.
Dr Manzur Ejaz was not just a famous intellectual, he was also a close friend of the family. The couple stayed at our house after they got married and my wife and I stayed with them when we visited Washington after our wedding. The last time I spoke to him was a few months ago and he had learned I was not identifying as much of a Leftist any more. He told me that whatever I sincerely looked for and found was good with him, but I should note one thing: no matter what the framework or theory we use, we cannot deny that in human societies, some people who become powerful, treat others who are weaker than them very unjustly. This injustice must be resisted. By whatever means necessary. We agreed on that.
Dr Manzur Ejaz is survived by his wife and two children.
