Attar Singh is a famous critic. He has so far published three collections of critical essays—Kavya Adhyayan (Study of Poetry), Drishtikon (Viewpoint), and Samadarshan (Perspectives). In his view, it is the first duty of progressive literature to fight against those tendencies that would tie literature to reaction. This can best be done, according to him, by enlightened progressive thinking, if it offers intellectual guidance to social forces and leads them to the ideal stage of social evolution, socialism. He admits that in literature, viewpoint and motive flowing from the uniqueness of the writer\'s experience must be artistically patterned.
CHIEF KHALSA DIWAN. Until the emergence of more radical platforms such as the Sikh League (1919), Shiromam Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (1920) and Shiromani Akali Dal (1920), the Chief Khalsa Diwan, established on 30 October 1902, was the main council of the Sikhs, controlling their religious and educational affairs and raising its voice in behalf of their political rights. It has proved to be a durable setup and it still retains its initiative in education, though its role in the other spheres has progressively shrunken over the years.
AULUKH, AJMER SINGH Aulukh, Ajmer Singh has published three collections of short plays. Arbad Narbad Dhundakar (Aeons and the Nebula, 1978) includes five such plays. The title is taken from a line of Guru Nanak in the Guru Grantha in which he has given cosmology on the lines of ancient Indian texts. The first, the title play, extends over two acts. Of its five characters, Ranjha and Mirza are heroes of love legends of medieval Punjab, Majnu of medieval Arabia and Farhad of medieval Iran.
