THE STATUS OF PUNJABI IN WEST PUNJAB

A Historic Perspective

By: Dr. Manzur Ejaz

The situation of Punjabi remained quite oblique during the British era. Punjab University only offered Punjabi Fazal which was understood to be a subject of via Bathanda: A short cut to get a college degree because after having passed Punjabi Fazal one has to take examination in English only. A few writers, like Amreta Pretam. Mohan Singh, Benarsi das Jain and some other non Muslim kept the movement of Punjabi alive. However, after the partition, the situation of Punjabi became very murky.

After the partition of Punjab, Punjabi Hindus aligned themselves with the Hindi speaking UP and divided Punjab on religious lines: Haryana and Hamachal Pardesh for Hindi oriented Hindus and Punjab for Sikh majority. Punjabi was declared as the state language of Punjab and one can see a mamoth growth of language in that province. Several daily newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals are published in Punjabi. Furthermore, Punjabi is the medium of education at all levels. This shows that the opponents of Punjabi are wrong in saying that this language is a mere dialect and does not have the potential of becoming a full grown language. Implementation of Punjabi in the East Punjab, proves that ultimately, the languages are standardized when they are accepted on state level.

Situation of Punjabi was very precarious in Pakistani Punjab in the early periods. All the known writers of Punjabi had left for India and the state of Pakistan was intent to impose Urdu on every province. Two developed languages, Bengali and Sindi resisted this irrational decision of the state. First riots broke out in Dacca when Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared that Urdu will be the national language in all the provinces. Two students died in these linguistic riots and Shaheed Chowk of Dacca was named in honor of these students. Jinnah had to take his decision back in case of East Bengal, but the coercion of Sindhi and other languages continued.

In addition to religion, imposition of Urdu and suppression of other languages became the corner stone of Pakistan ideology popular among Punjabi ruling classes and Urdu speaking immigrants. Suppression of Sindhi was more visible because it was the medium of education and the language of the state in 1947. Daily newspaper and other types of magazine and journals were very common in Sindhi at that time. Punjabi was in its infancy, however, the ruling elite was so paranoid by every language that smelled non Urdu, that a small Punjabi literary society in Lahore was declared a political party and was banned by Ayub Khan.

Despite the state suppression and the attacks of the Urdu crusaders of all sizes and shapes, Punjabi started attracting a small segment of urban intelligentsia. Dr. Faqir Mohammasd Faqir, Sharif Kunjahi were probably the early prose writers, however, several enlightened progressive intellectuals started writing in late fifties and early sixties. Mohammad Anwar (creator of cartoon Nanna in Pakistan Times) published a beautiful book of short stories and Najam Hussain Syed, besides writing poetry, introduced literary criticism in Punjabi during this period. Latter he wrote some short and long plays. Well known Urdu poets like Munir Niazi, Zafar Iqbal and many others started writing in Punjabi also. A basic infrastructure of Punjabi had come into being that could inspire the coming generations. However, the major qualitative change occurred after the Anti Ayub upsurge of late sixties. Several progressive activists were attracted towards Punjabi as a result of this mass politicizing. The largest progressive party in Punjab, Mazdoor Kissan Party, adopted Punjabi as its party language. Furthermore, its president, Maj. Mohammad Ishaque wrote two plays that were staged. The litrary atmosphere changed in such a way even star poets like Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi were felt an obligation to write in Punjabi. Bhutto government was quite receptive towards the right of national languages and it introduced Punjabi at M.A level in Punjab University. Latter Punjabi was introduced as an optional subject in several colleges in Punjab. It was offered as a subject for the competition examination through which the civil servants are recruited. However, Punjabi was not introduced at the elementary level which was more crucial. Central government also created Punjabi Adabi Board that has published several hundred books which were out of print for decades and some of them for centuries. Zia ul Haq's government did not role back these programs started by the earlier government, although it created an environment that was not conducive for the development of Punjabi.