Daily Times

In this concluding article, I will sum up my standpoint on how the cultivation of Punjabi, in spoken and written form, can be a spurt to regional and global trade. Let me underscore that, for me, the definition of a Punjabi is anyone who says he is a Punjabi. It is not necessary that such a person should speak Punjabi, though that is the core basis for such a classification. As I have said in an earlier article, foreign tribes and groups that, from time immemorial, started entering the Indian subcontinent through the northwest mountain passes arrived in what we call Punjab if they kept going east. Many settled there while others moved on even further east. So, ethnically speaking, Punjabis are a mixture of many different groups, but they all learned the language we recognise as Punjabi. For various historical reasons, Punjabi was never the language of the state or of the Mughal or Afghan province. Even the Sikh state, founded by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the only ruler one can call a son of the soil, employed Persian as the state language.

If we just look at the population of Punjabis currently, they are one of the biggest South Asian groups. The total strength of the Punjabi people is roughly 140 million. Roughly 97 million are Pakistanis, most of whom live in Pakistani Punjab but they are settled in large numbers in Sindh and the port city of Karachi as well. Some 32 million live in India, mainly in Indian Punjab but with a strong presence in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the greater Delhi region. In New Delhi especially, but also Calcutta and Mumbai, Indian Punjabis are a noticeable group. Some 10 million Punjabis are dispersed outside the Indian subcontinent, with a strong presence in the UK, North America, Southeast Asia (nearly 130,000 Sikhs in Malaysia alone) and the Middle East. In terms of religious affiliation, some 54 percent are Muslims, 29 percent Hindus and 14 percent Sikhs. A three percent minority is Christian.

Punjabi poets, fiction writers, journalists, filmmakers, songwriters and music directors form a prominent part of the cultural scene in both India and Pakistan. The truth is that the biggest film industry in the world, Bollywood, makes great use of Punjabi themes, folk songs and Punjabi verses or phrases in film songs. This makes sense because such inclusions are commercially viable. Additionally, in Indian Punjab, Punjabi written in the Gurmukhi script is the official language. In Pakistani Punjab literacy in Punjabi is limited, but since the same script is used for writing it as for the official state language of Pakistan, Urdu, it should not at all be difficult to quickly acquire reading and writing proficiency in Punjabi. All we need is the Pakistan state, in particular the government of Pakistani Punjab, permitting Punjabi to be taught in schools.

For the pro-Punjabi movement in Pakistan it is important to declare that we have nothing against Urdu remaining the official state language; we only want our tongue to be given its due recognition as an essential part of the Punjabi identity. The problem is of course that Indian and Pakistani Punjabis currently can never communicate readily in written form because of two different scripts being used. I think a great leap forward can be made: Latin, or rather Roman script can be adopted to break the silence that the two scripts constitute.

I am told that the Roman script exists already to be used in printing and it can prove to be a very useful tool to learn to communicate instantly on the internet. Already, many of use do use it on Facebook. Such a script can facilitate movement of goods and people, and make possible a documentation of economic transactions and other forms of interactions that people on all levels can easily understand. Since trade is now globalised and Punjabis are one of the most globalised people, Punjabi in spoken and Roman script can establish trade and friendship networks. For sound trade relations, trust and confidence in one another is important and Punjabi can help generate such cultural capital.

There is nothing that suggests that the speakers of the same langauge must be organised into one national state. We have Arabic-speaking people in the Middle East and Spanish-speaking people in Latin America divided into several states but that has not meant that their cultural identities based on a shared language do not exist as a shared cultural tie.

Two things are important with regards to language. The more languages one knows the more doors are opened. Second, all scientific studies show that children learn faster and better if they are able to read and write in their mother tongue. I am in favour of Urdu retaining its unique position as the national language of Pakistan and English being taught to help us keep abreast with the latest developments in science and literature. Introducing Punjabi in schools as a complusory subject in lower school will only produce better students. Research in Sweden shows that children can easily learn several languages in school and we plead for Punjabi only at the lower level.

As noted already, language is part of the material basis of society as well as the repository of shared culture, values and norms. The Indian and Pakistani Punjabs are located on the same route as they were in historical and pre-historical times. For, during the last 2,000 years or so, people entered the subcontinent from the northwest mountain passes and then came to Punjab or went eastwards. This time round the same route is again important. Economic and industrial develpment in Asia have taken a westerly direction, originating in Japan in the 1960s, into Southeast Asia, after which China and India jumped onto that bandwagon and now that trend is parked on the Attari-Wagah border. This time the movement can go in the opposite direction. Goods and services from the subcontinent can move towards Afghanistan and into Central Asia and beyond. The region and people who would benefit most would be Punjabis. The Punjabi langauge, spoken and written, can be a great help at this stage of history.

(Concluded)

The writer is a visiting professor, LUMS, Pakistan, professor emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University, and honorary senior fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications: Winner of the Best Non-Fiction Book award at the Karachi Literature Festival: The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed, Oxford, 2012; and Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Oxford, 2013. He can be reached at: billumian@gmail.com