The Problem of Punjab's Language and Script
Date: February 28, 1933
Transcripxion/Source: www.shahidbhagatsingh.org
HTML Markup: Mike B. for MIA, 2006
Proofread: Hasan for MIA, 2006
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"An acquaintance of the literature of
a society or a country is of prime importance for the understanding of that
society or country, because the consciousness of the soul of a society or
country, because the consciousness of the soul of a society gets reflected in its
literature also." History is witness to the authenticity of the above
statement. Countries have followed the direction determined by the flow of
their literature. Every nation needs literature of high quality for its own
uplift. As literature of a country attains new heights, the country also
develops. Patriots — be they merely social reformers or political leaders — pay
highest attention to the literature of their country. If they do not create new
literature to meet the requirements of the contemporary issues and situations,
all of their efforts will fail and their work will prove unstable.
Perhaps Garibaldi could not have succeeded
in mobilising the army with such ease if Mazzini had not invested his thirty
years in his mission of cultural and literary renaissance. The revival of Irish
language was attempxed with the same enthusiasm along with the renaissance in
Ireland. The rulers so much wanted to suppress their language for the ultimate
suppression of the Irish people that even kids were punished for the crime of
keeping a few verses in Gaelic. The French revolution would have been
impossible without the literature of Rousseau and Voltaire. Had Tolstoy, Karl
Marx and Maxim Gorky not invested years of their lives in the creation of a new
literature, the Russian Revolution would not have taken place, leave alone the
propagation and practice of communism.
The same applies to the social and
religious reformers. Kabir's ideas have a stable impact because of his
literature. Till date, the sweetness and sensitivity of his poems prove
capxivating to the people.
Exactly the same can be said about Guru
Nanak Devji, When the Sikh Gurus started establishing their new order along
with the preaching of their beliefs, they felt the need of a new literature and
this inspired Guru Angad Devji to evolve the Gurumukhi scripx. Centuries of
continuous warfare and Muslim invasions had dried up the literature of Punjab.
The Hindi language was at the verge of extinction. He adopxed the Kashmiri
scripx in his search for an Indian language. Later the Adi Granth was compiled
by Guru Arjun Devji and Bhai Gurudasji. They took a far-reaching and useful
step in this act of creating their own scripx and literature to perpetuate
their beliefs.
Afterwards, as situations changed, the flow
of literature also changed. The ceaseless sacrifices and sufferings of the
Gurus changed the situation. Whereas we find devotion and self-oblivion in the
preaching of the first Guru, and experience a sense of self-effacement in the
following couplet:
Nanak nanhe ho rahe, jaisi nanhi doob.
Aur ghas jari jaat hai, doob khoob ki khoob
(Nanak asks all to be as humble and
insignificant as the doob grass. While all other grasses are burnt down, doob
continues to flourish.)
We find a sense of fellow-feeling and
helpfulness for the oppressed in the preaching of Guru Shri Teg Bahadurji:
Baanhi jinhan di pakadiye, sir dijiye
baanhi na chhodye,
Guru Teg Bahadur bolya, dharati pai dharam na chodye.
(Whomsoever you provide protection, you
should be prepared to sacrifice yourself but not that protection. Guru Teg
Bahadur asks you not to forsake your religion on this earth.)
After his sacrifice, suddenly, we sense a
warrior spirit in the preaching of Guru Gobind Singhji. When he realised that a
mere spiritual devotion could not do anything, he started Chandi worship and
turned Sikh community into a community of worshippers and warriors by
synthesising spiritualism and fighting. We find in his poems (literature) a new
spirit. He writes:
Je tohi prem khelan da chav, sir dhar tali
gali mori aav,
Je it maarag pair dharijai, sir dijai kaan no dijai.
(If you are interested in playing the game
of love, put your head on your palm and then only enter my lane. In case you
put your feet on this path don't fall back, even if you have to loose your
life.) And then:
Soora so pahchaniye, je lade deen ke het,
Purja-purja kat mare, kabhu na chhade khet.
(Only he is brave who fights for the cause
of the poor. He may be cut into pieces and may be killed, but he should not
leave the field.)
And then suddenly, the sword-worship
starts.
Carrying the same spirit Baba Banda and
others fought Muslim ruler ceaselessly. We find later that when Sikhs are
reduced to mere groups of anarchists, declared outlaws, and were continuously
compelled to be confined to the forests, no new literature could be created.
They had a warrior spirit, a sense of courage and sacrifice and a spirit to
continue their war against Muslim rulers, but they could not chalk out their
future beyond this . This explains why these warrior groups fought among
themselves. It is here that their lack of contemporary spirit worries us. If a
warrior and shrewd ruler like Ranjit Singh had not emerged afterwards, Sikhs
would have gone down bereft of any high ideal or spirit to have mobilised them.
Along with all this, one more point
deserves attention. All the Sanskrit literature, put together, failed to revive
the Hindu society; new literature had to be written in a contemporary modern
language. Till date, we feel only the effect which was created by that
literature of contemporary spirit. Even for a person of proper education and
comprehension, the hymns of unintelligible Sanskrit and ayat (verses) of
classical Arabic cannot be as enthusing as is possible by the simple statements
in a simple language.
A short history of Punjabi language and
literature is sketched out above. Now we turn to our times. Swami Vivekananda
in Bengal and Swami Ramtirtha in Punjab were born approximately at the same
time. Both were 'great' in the same sense. Both got fame for establishing
Indian metaphysics abroad. Swami Vivekanand's mission became a permanent
institution in Bengal while Punjab misses a memorial to Swami Ramtirtha. In
spite of having significant differences in their thinking, we find strong
similarities at the roots. Whereas Swami Vivekananda was preaching Karma Yoga,
Swami Ramtirtha was singing in blissfulness:
Ham rukhe tukade khayenge,
Bharat par ware jayenge,
Hum sukhe chane chabayenge,
Bharat ki baat banyenge,
Ham nange umar bitayenge,
Bharat par jaan mitayenge.
(We shall subsist on crumbs but sacrifice
ourselves for Bharat. We shall eat the most ordinary food, but work for our
country. We shall go naked the whole life, but offer our lives for Bharat.)
Several times, he wepx while seeing the
setting sun in America, and said:" Now you are rising in my beloved
country. Drop my tears like dew-drops over beautiful water-fed fields of
India." Such a great devotee of the country and God was born in our
province and , if we do not have even a single memorial to him, what else could
explain that, excepx our literary backwardness?)
This we feel at every step. Many great men
born in Punjab, who are comparable to Shri Devendra Thakur and Keshav Chandra
Sen of Bengal, but we did not respect them and easily forgot them after their
deaths—for example, guru Gyan Singhji, etc. We find only one reason on bottom,
and that is the total lack of literacy interest and awakening, The truth is
that no country or community can progress without its literature. But language
is the primary need of literature and this is absent in Punjab. In spite of
releasing this handicap for long, the question of language has still remained
unresolved. The main reason behind this is the unfortunate communalisation of
language in our province, in other provinces, we find that Muslims have fully
adopxed their provincial languages. In the literary world of Bengal. Poet
Nazrul-Islam is a shining star. Latif Hussain 'Natwar' is prominent among the
Hindi poets. The same is true of Gujrat also. But Punjab is unfortunate. Here,
even Hindus and Sikhs are not united, leave the Muslims alone.
Punjab should have been the language of
Punjab, like other provinces, but since this has not happened, as this question
is a spontaneous question, Muslims have adopxed Urdu. Muslims totally lack
Indianness, therefore they want to propagate Arabic scripx and Persian
language. While failing to understand the importance of Indianness in the whole
of India, they fail to understand the importance of one language, which could
only be Hindi. That is why they keep repeating the demand for Urdu like a
parrot and take an isolated position.
Then comes the turn of the Sikhs. Their whole
literature is in the Gurumukhi scripx. Hindi is very much there as a component,
but Punjabi constitutes the main component. Therefore, the Sikhs adopxed
Punjabi written in Gurmukhi as their language. They could not leave that at any
cost. They embraced that by making it a communal language.
The Arya Samaj emerged on the other side.
Swami Dayanand propagated the feeling for the spread of Hindi throughout
Bharatvarsha. Hindi became a religious component of the Arya Samaj movement.
These religious attachments benefited the language in one way. That is , while
Sikh staunchness secured Punjabi, the insistence of Arya Samajists helped Hindi
secure a place of its own.
In the early days of Arya Samaj movement,
the Sikhs and Arya Samajists used to have religious gathering at the same
place. At that time they had no feelings of being different, but afterwards, a
few sentences of Satyartha Prakash caused malice and mutual hatred. The Sikhs,
swepx in the same stream, started hating even Hindi as well. Other did not take
even notice of it.
Afterwards, it is said, a Samaji leader,
Mahatma Hansraj Ji held consultations with many leaders and proposed that if
they accepx the Hindi scripx, he would get the Punjabi language in Hindi
scripx, and he would get the Punjabi language in Hindi scripx recognised in the
University. But they could not understand the importance of this proposal
because of their narrow-mindedness and absence of literary awareness. At this
moment, three views prevail in Punjab. Firstly, there is strong attachment for
urdu among the Muslims; secondly, for Hindi among Arya Samajis and certain
other Hindus; and thirdly, for Punjabi.
It will not be important here to deal with
all the languages one by one. First of all, we shall consider the Muslims view.
They are staunch supporters of Urdu. At the present time, this language is
dominant in Punjab. This is also the language of the court. Then some Muslims
say that Urdu scripxs saves space. This may be quite right, but the most
important question before us at this juncture is to make India a unified
nation, but this cannot be done all at once. For this we have to move step by
step. If we cannot adopx one language for the whole of India at the moment, we
should at least adopx one scripx. The urdu scripx cannot be called a perfect
one and the most important point is that it is based on the Persian language.
The flights of imagination of urdu poets—even if they are Hindi (Indian)—reach
the saaqis (bar-maids) of Persia and date palms of the Arbs countries. Kazi Nazrul-Islam's
poems refer to Dhurjate, Vishwamitra and Durvasa quite frequently, but our
Punjabi Hindi-Urdu poets could not even think of them. Is it not a matter which
makes one sad? Their ignorance of Indianness and Indian literature is the main
reason of this. When they cannot imbibe Indianness, how can their literature
make us Indian? Students confined to the study of urdu cannot attain the
knowledge of the classical literature of India. It is not that these texts
cannot be translated into a literary language like urdu, but it will be useful
only to a Persian in his pursuit concerning Indian literature.
It will Suffice to say in support of the
above statement that when simple words like Arya and Swarajya are written as
'Ariya' and 'Swarajia', what will happen to the deep metaphysical topics? Only
a few days back, a government translator, using the urdu scripx, mistook sage
Nachiketa as 'Neechi Kutia' which can be translated as a 'bitch of low origin',
while translating an Urdu book Qaumen kis Tarah Zinda Rah Sakti Hain (How
nationalities can survive) by Lala Hardayalji, M.A. It was neither Lalaji's
fault nor the translator. It was only a shortcoming of the Urdu scripx and the
dissimilarity between Urdu and Hindi languages and literature.
Indian languages and scripx prevail in the
rest of India. In such a situation, should we get absolutely isolated from
India point is that, among Muslim writers, the staunch supporters of Urdu write
highly Persianised Urdu. The Muslim newspapers like Zamindar and Siyasat have
strong Arabic influence which is quite incomprehensible to common people. How
can this be propagated in such a situation? We wish our Muslim brothers, while
sticking to their religion, think of Indianising themselves like Kamal the
Turk. India's salvation is possible only that way. Instead of making language a
communal question, we should adopx a wide perspective.
We will now return to the problem of Hindi
and Punjabi. Many idealists entertain a vision of the world turned into one
single nation, one global nation. This ideal is beautiful and one should keep
it before oneself. But this cannot be achieved today; all of our steps, all of
our efforts should be directed towards enhancement of happiness by uniting all
nationalities, countries and nations into one strong bond. Before that, we have
to realise that ideal in our own country. We have to adopx one language, one
scripx, one literature, one ideal and one nation, but the adopxion of a single
language precedes all the other unities, so they we can communicate with and
comprehend each other. A Punjabi and a Madrasi must not sit together mute at a
gathering, but try to communicate their ideas and emotions, and this should be
done in our own language, Hindi, rather than in an alien language like English.
Even this ideal will take years to be realised. First of all, we should create
literary awareness in this endeavor, not among a few but in the masses. The
people's own language is essential for creating literary awareness among the
people. On the basis of this logic, we say that you can succeed in Punjab only
in Punjabi language.
Till now, Punjabi has not been able to
become a literary language of the central Punjab. It is written in the Gurmukhi
scripx and is now Known as Punjabi. It is neither widely prevalent nor has any
literature or scientific significance. It was left unattended earlier, but even
now the deficiency of its scripx disturbs those who are now attending to it.
All the words, cannot end without the sound 'a' and its inability to write
compound letter; even the word 'Poorna' (complete) cannot be written. This
scripx is thus even more incomplete than Urdu, but when we already have a
scientific and perfect Hindi scripx, what is there to feel hesitant about
adopxing it? The Gurmukhi scripx is only distorted form of the Hindi scripx.
Right from the start all the rules are same, then, how much will we be
benefited by our immediate switch over to this. The Punjabi language will start
developing immediately by adopxing this perfect scripx. And there is no problem
in the propagation of it. Hindu women of Punjab already know this scripx. The
DAV school and Sanatan Dharma schools teach only in Hindi, what could be the
problem in such a situation? We shall plead with the supporters of Hindi that,
ultimately and certainly, only Hindi will be the language of the whole Bharat,
but it will be more convenient to propagate it from now on. Punjabi will become
like Hindi by adopxing the scripx and then all the differences will disappear;
and it is desirable, too that common people could be educated which is possible
only through our own language in our own scripx. See this Punjabi poem:
O rahiya rahe jandya, sun ja gall meri
Sir to pag tere balait di, ihnun fuk muatara la.
(O passer by, listen to me. Burn that
foreign turban which thou art wearing on thy head, And take to 'Muatara'.)
Even beautiful Hindi poems cannot cast an
impression comparable to this, as they have not yet made a place right in the
hearts of the people. They still seem somewhat alien. It is so because Hindi is
based on Sanskrit. And the Punjab has gone farther away from that. Persian has
maintained its dominance in Punjab to a large extent. For example, a collection
of things become 'cheezan' here instead of 'cheezain'. This principle prevails
throughout. What is being emphasised here is that Hindi is still far from
Punjabi heart in spite of being close to Punjabi; of course, Punjabi will come
closer to Hindi when it will adopx the Hindi scripx attempx creating its
literature.
By now almost every major issue has been
discussed here. Only one thing now remains to be said. Many people argue that
the Punjabi language lacks sweetness, beauty and emotions. This is absolutely
baseless. Only recently the sweetness, beauty and emotions. This is absolutely
baseless. Only recently the sweetness, beauty and emotions of this song
hypnotised Kavindra Ravindra:
Lachhiye, jitthe tu pani doliya,
Utthe ug paye sandal de boote.
(O Lachhi, where you split water at that
place sandlewood trees have sprouted.)
Many more examples could be cited. Is the
following couplet even the least inferior to the poems of any other language?
Pipal de pattya ve kehi khadkhad layee ae,
Patte jhade purane hun rut navayan di aayee ae.
(Pipal leaves, why are you making noise?
The old leaves have fallen and the season for new leaves has come.)
And when Punjab is sitting alone or in the
group, will any other language move them to the extent these lines of Gauhar
can:
Lam lakkhan to karoran de shah vekhe
Na musafiran koi udhar dende,
Dine raatin de kuch dere,
Na unhan gulan di vasana te
Bhauren bahande gulan di vasana te
Na sappan de muhan te koi pyar denda,
Gauhar same salook han jyuadya de
Moyan giyan un tar koi visar denda.
(I have seen armies of lakhs of
millionaires. No one gives loan to the passers-by who never stay, never reside
at one place. No one trusts them. Black beetles sit on flowers because of their
smell. No one gives love at the hoods of the snakes. O Gauhar, good behavior
and welcome is for those who are alive, but everyone says good-bye at the time
of death.)
Jeev jyudiyan nu kyon marna ae
Jekar nahintu moyan nn jiaun joga,
Ghar aaye sawali nu kyon ghurna ae
Jekar nahin tu hatthin khair joga;
Mile dilan naun kayaker todna ae
Mile dilan tu bichhadyan nu milaun joga,
Gauhar barhiya rakh band khaane
Jekar nahin tu nekiyan kumaun joga.
(Why kill living beings when you are not
able to bring the dead back to life? Why do you stare at the beggar who has
come to your door when you are not able to give him something? Why break the
union of hearts if you are not able to reunite hearts that are separated? O
Gauhar, if you cannot do go to others, then keep your good food and room
closed.)
And nowadays brilliant poets like Dard,
Mastana, Dewana are enriching the Punjabi's poetry.
It is a pity that such a sweet, such a
capxivating language has not been adopxed even by the Punjabis themselves. They
still refuse; and this is the crux of the problem. Everyone backs his arguments
on the basis of religious convictions. The only problem concerning the language
and scripx of Punjab is to remove this obstruction, but the hope lies in the
increasing literary awareness among the sikhs. Hindu also have it. Why not at
all well-meaning people decide by mutual deliberations? This is the only way to
arrive at a solution. The question can be attended to by renouncing religious
considerations. It should be attempxed accordingly and the recognition of
Punjabi language of a journal like Prem of Amritsar. This way the problem is
resolved. After the elimination of this irritant, Punjab will have such
beautiful and 'quality' literature that it will also be counted among the good
language of India.
1. The Punjab Hindi
Sahitya Sammelan had organised an essay competition on the above subject in
1923. It was for that competition that Bhagat Singh wrote this article. The
General Secretary of Sahitya Sammelan, Shri Bhim Sen Vidyalankar (now expired)
liked the article much and preserved it. Bhagat Singh got a prize of Rs. 50 for
this article. Subsequently, it was published in Hindi Sandesh on
February 28, 1933.
Source: http://www.marxists.org/archive/bhagat-singh/1923/x01/x01.htm
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