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Punjabi spreads beyond physical boundaries TEJWANT SINGH Mother Tongue. There are few instances in the history of the world where two groups of people have a same mother tongue yet their mothers live in different countries. Punjabi is one of them. Most of the countries have their geographical boundaries established based on the languages spoken by the people. But Punjab's present geography took its birth from the religion not the language. Muslim majority part being in Pakistan and the other in India owing to its Sikh and Hindu majority. How this division would have effected the Mother Tongue, Punjabi? Things would have gone in either of the two different directions. Fortunate or the Unfortunate one. Considering the fortunate one, Punjabi would have been one of the leading languages in both the nations rather than any single nation. Punjabi literature would have developed in leaps and bounds if people in both the Punjabs would have been able to read and understand each other's literature. But alas, things went in the unfortunate direction. Punjabi literature in east Punjab is written in Gurmukhi script and the one in west Punjab is written in Shahmukhi. We did nothing less than dividing the audience in two halves. It looks as if Punjab is not only divided demographically but socially, culturally, and historically also. Geographical division of motherland is far less tragic when compared to the division of its culture, literature and history. Who is the culprit? We, the punjabis. We, the punjabis are doing historical blunder by putting roadblocks to the growth of our mother tongue. Let us learn from history of the world, that only the languages having great literatures were able to become great languages. European languages are the front runners in this aspect.Literary works form the backbone of any language. Outcomes of the unfortunate way which we the Punjabis chose:
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1.Eatern Punjab's punjabi literary works are inaccessible to West Punjab and vice versa because there is no urdu education in the Indian punjab and no gurmukhi education in western punjab. 2.Contamination of Punjabi in Indian Punjab is due to the compulsory education of Hindi language in all the schools. It is tough to understand that if Punjab was divided on the linguistic basis then it should have changed some ground realities related to language. But, after division of Punjab, punjabi was nowhere in haryana and himachal pradesh as they were hindi speaking states. On the contrary, Hindi continued to be taught in Punjab even after linguistic division. It looks like as if linguistic division aimed at diminishing Punjabi's role from haryana and Himachal but continuing Hindi's impact in Punjab. Has linguistic division done any good to Punjabi. No. It has done good to Hindi only. Hindi became the only language of two new states but Punjabi could not become the only language of punjabi speaking state. Few years back, the state of Haryana preferred Tamil to be its second language instead of Punjabi. Ethnically, there would not be even a dozen Tamil speaking people in Haryana and Punjabi speaking people's number grows to some considerable lacks. Is there any better example of step motherly treatment meted to Punjabi in Haryana and Himachal? Can we ask one question to ourselves- How the state and stature of punjabi has improved in last 40 odd ears since the creation of 'Punjabi suba' ? 3.Preference of a large percentage of people in Indian Punjab's cities to speak Hindi with their children. It seems to be a trend in the Punjab cities borrowed from media, TV channels, bollywood movies to name a few. And more alarmingly, it is increasing day by day. Where are we heading for? Punjab cities with majority of Hindi speaking people! What sort of linguistic state of Punjab it would be! What should be done to improve the stature of our mother tongue! Even though a lot of damage has already been done then also a number of potential remedial measures can be taken up and a lot of ideas can be actionised. But to start with following few steps will do. 1. Hindi should no longer be a compulsory language in Punjab. World history tells us that only those languages are encouraged in any land which are crucial for the future of its children and those languages which do not contaminate its mother tongue but enhance its values and keeps its people attached to their roots. Doing nothing different, we also should do the same. English satisfies the condition because it is necessary for the better future of our children. And moreover it can not contaminate our mother tongue - Punjabi.Hindi, on the other hand, is changing the very spirit of our own mother tongue. Moreover, it is not mandatory element for the better futures of our children. Best examples are the south indian states. Hindi is not a compulsory language in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. And these states have produced globally competitive engineers,doctors and scientists. Software engineers, doctors, civil servants need not be good in Hindi to be successful in their respective careers. Languages are taught for two purposes. First being enabling conversation and the second being literary one. Neither of the two reasons fits for punjabi people in case of Hindi language. How? Enabling conversation - It aims at enabling the people of one demographic region or society to interact with the people of the other one. But Punjabis (even the uneducated) have never felt any sort of inadequacy in understanding Hindi. Conversing and listening to Hindi even without the formal education of Hindi is not tough for Punjabis, this may be due to the similarity of Punjabi and Hindi. If southern states, where people find it difficult to even understand Hindi without formal teaching, have renounced Hindi teaching then why not Punjab should do the same ? Second purpose is literary one. It aims at enabling the people of a region or society to learn a language ( either being a foreign or local) which is necessary for their development in the globalised world, for their internationalization, for utilizing the lucrative opportunities at national and international levels and for enabling them to compete with others for different careers. English, not Hindi, fits best for this second purpose. One can compete any exam in India and abroad without the very knowledge of Hindi. As Hindi fails both the purposes, it need not be an elementary part of our education in Punjab. Hindi can be an optional subject for the interested ones and then at the same time, we would come to know that how many are really interested in this subject!! Surely, there would be some people and organizations in Punjab who would oppose this. They would be the same people who falsely claimed Hindi as their speaking language during the division of Punjab on linguistic basis. They are against the propagation and development of punjabi and consider Hindi as their mother tongue even when they are living in Punjab since generations. They are the traitors who don't give due respect to their motherland and mother tongue. Such traitors should not be given any importance. They deserve only deaf ears. 2.Urdu teaching should be initiated.Urdu would not change the essence of punjabi but on the contrary, will bring more values to Punjabi language. It will move us closer to our roots. Original punjabi (spoken before partition) is not that far from Urdu vocabulary. And the biggest achievement will be the access which we indian punjabis will get to the west punjab's rich punjabi literature which is written in Shahmukhi, the same script used for Urdu. 3.Future may bring better news.If we would have done this on our parts, may be that future holds something good for Punjabi. We can pressurize and convince western punjab to allow the optional education of Gurmukhi script in due course of time. Pakistani punjabis would also be able to read and understand the punjabi literature written in Indian Punjab. Would this not bring the people of both the nations closer, would they not require some Indian punjabi teachers to teach them Gurmukhi script, would it not follow the common Punjabi literature events, would it not be a confidence building measure between the two nations. It would be even better than the common Punjabi sports events or common Bhangra nights. May be it looks like a talk on cloud nine but this is how the dreams are seen and fulfilled. Punjabnewsline: Saturday, 15 March 2008 |