 |
|
|
|
World Punjabi Congress Punjabi is spoken by millions of people in Pakistan, India, Canada, USA, UK, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand etc and has been reckoned as the 10th language of the world. World Punjabi Congress was established in Lahore in 1984 by Punjabi writers, intellectuals, scholars with the undersigned as its first chairman. The objectives of this, promotion of Punjabi language, literature, culture and the removal of cobwebs and distortions in the history of the Punjab. It aimed at the renaissance of Punjab thus leading to the resolution of crises of identity with which Punjabis had been suffering for a very long period. First International Punjabi Conference under the aegis of WPC was held in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1986 followed by another World Punjabi Conference in 1992. Both of the conferences were attended by hundreds of delegates from across the world. Declaration of the 12th World Punjabi Conference Lahore April 16-19-2005 We, the Punjabi poets, writers and intellectuals, ratify the decisions and declarations of the previous 12 International. Punjabi Conferences, and pronounce our allegiance with they rights of the Punjabi language, with peace, with independence and with the message of love for all. More than 300 of us, from Pakistan, India and the rest of the world, gathered in Lahore from July 22 to 24 for the Waris Shah International Conference. Despite continuous demands of the workers of the Punjabi movement and the government's assurances, no formal announcement has been made to make Punjabi language the medium of education up to primary level. The delay is testing the limits of our patience. We demand that the Punjabi language, which is symbol of knowledge and civilization, which is the language of great poets, particularly Waris Shah, should be declared the medium of education, so that the children of Punjab should also get education in their mother tongue, which is their basic right like the children of the rest of the world. We also demand that the 10 thousand unemployed masters in Punjabi should be given jobs in those education institutions where there are no teachers for the Punjabi language. We demand that on the lines of Patiala Punjabi University, a public university should be set up in Lahore.
We
also vow to enhance our efforts to set up a private Punjabi
university, and: to lay its foundation by March 28 – 30, 2006 at
Shah Hussain Conference we will make every effort to pool the
required resources. We, the representatives of Punjabi language, literature and culture, adore the beauty of land behind words, a breathing body, and a life on the move. We experience the lively fragrance of the land and the humanity in Heer Waris Shah, which permeates our past and present. We want the modern. Punjabi literature to thrive in the fragrance of Waris Shah. Waris Shah and the classical poets of Punjabi knew that the deep wounds of dispossession of knowledge come from poverty and political shortsightedness. They knew that literary creation is not effortless, as the society suffers from exigencies and deprivations. But the people like Waris are not born among. those who are fed up with words. Today we have to bring the Punjabi literature out of the wasteland of word weariness. We understand that all the poets, including Waris Shah, did not opt for isolation, and they never conceived humanity apart from the. life. They never treaded the path of egocentric isolation' and wealth. Waris Shah's work is .full of life.. He has. command over describing the play and laughter with children, the fullest pain of wounds, the breathing of the beloved, and giving the pain of humans the gift of words. We know ,that if Heer was the name of Jhang Sials' daughter, she was also embodiment of love and freedom. The verses of Waris Shah took Heer from beloved to a monument of love. We declare that the poetry of Waris Shah and other classical Punjabi poets was an expression of commitment and resistance. Once the poet is through the ordeals' of inhibition and suppression, he cannot accept the fact that the life of a dispossessed farmer, which the rulers term as reasonable, should remain as it is. From the perspective of Heer Waris Shah; we understand that the crowd of vagabond urchins on roads would follow writers and poets; the urchins who have been deprived of their childhood and who, without honour and freedom, hate the Heer-Ranjha legend, and burn the society in the fire of violence and terrorism. We, the writers and the intellectuals, feel that the crowd of urchins, through silence and suppression, appeals to the writer and poet of his times not to make it happy but to listen to the urchins. If the poet and writer would not listen to the voices of anger, who would? The writer and the poet would have to give words to the anger, even if the crowd, which is screaming to be heard, does not read them. We think that Waris Shah was not only the poet of resistance; he was also in the forefront in the struggle for peace and freedom. The wounds of Ahmed Shah Abdali's attacks on Punjab in the 18th century were fresh when Waris Shah was born. The destruction of brought by the Abdali's army was still in the air when Waris Shah started writing. Therefore, his verses present the devastation scene. The killings in Punjab were gruesome. It was difficult to pass through many towns as corpses littered streets. We know that in the immortal tale of love, Waris Shah's picture of demolitiod in Punjab and his cry for peace is still our call for peace. His portrayal of social ruin, political unrest and economic devastation should be part off the modem Punjabi literature. The values of love, freedom, justice, equality, and tolerance should b n integral part of our literature. We think that all the poets, including Waris Shah, were bound by allegiance to the people. They openly declared partiality and commitment towards the .people. They were away from the palaces and nearer to the people. Such commitment should convey the outcome of our literature. We conclude that that Waris Shah and other poets communicated with the people in the Punjabi language. But today the language is deprived of its rights. Through this conference, we again demand that the Punjabi language should be the medium of education, and it should be adopted in a phased manner, at provincial level, as the language of commerce, administration and ultimately the official language. |
|
|
