International Mother Language Day or what is termed as ‘Maan Boli Dehaar’ in Punjabi language is celebrated every year on February 21 since the year 2000. The main purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the awareness of language and cultural diversity all across the world. It was first announced by UNESCO on November 17, 1999. It has been observed that due to globalization process, some languages are gradually disappearing and so are disappearing the rich cultural diversity associated with it. According to United Nations, nearly 43% of the world’s languages are gradually going into oblivion. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world. Every two weeks a language disappears taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage of its area.
Punjabi which is the mother tongue of Punjab is getting step motherly treatment not only by Urdu lovers but also by Punjabis. We have been made to believe that speaking in Punjabi would somehow make us inferior and by speaking in Urdu and English, superior. Pakistan is a federation of four provinces in which four major languages are spoken with Urdu as our national language. In Sindh, Baluchistan and KP Provinces their mother tongues are a part of syllabus in schools right from primary levels. In Punjab, that is not so. We speak with our children in Urdu and are bewildered when we find out that they find it difficult to converse with masses in their mother tongue. We term them as burger kids or Mummy-Daddy kids despite that it is not their fault. My engineer and doctor sons learnt Punjabi when they had to deal with their patients and co-workers at their respective sites. Even the Punjabi Adabi Board gets a meagre grant from its provincial government in which it cannot run its office expenses, what to speak of promoting the language and literature!
The situation seems graver when we notice that in the Punjab Assembly, all the proceedings and speeches are in either Urdu or English languages. Two recent incidences are a wake-up call for our provincial rulers when somebody put a notice on its notice board private school, Beacon House that Punjabi was an abusive language. Also a lady is seen quarrelling with a motorway police warden when she was spoken to in Punjabi language. It was the plan of our colonial rulers since 1849 when they invaded Punjab to discourage Punjabi language and its rich cultural heritage one and half centuries ago. They put a ban on this language to be spoken or taught in schools, colleges, mosques and Mandirs. Colonial Masters wanted to take away the pride of Punjabis and its heroes. Punjab’s national pride in its heroes was changed. Even after 170 years, our bureaucrats/decision makers are following this line, everything is being turned into Urdu/English. Today eighteen crore people speak Punjabi language but in Pakistan we feel pride in keeping Punjabi at Masters Level and not at primary level. It is like nurturing a tree that is upside down. Airtime at state sponsored television is minimal. The announcements in Rails/airplanes/airports ignore Punjabi. Many other instances can be quoted. Such discriminations made to 67% population of Pakistan have to stop.
The situation seems graver when we notice that in the Punjab Assembly, all the proceedings and speeches are in either Urdu or English. Two recent incidences are a wake-up call for our provincial rulers when somebody sent out a notice in a private school that Punjabi was an abusive language
Parveen Malik of Punjabi Adabi Board is of the view that the organizers of the rally through a resolution demand every year that the Supreme Court directed Punjab Government to make Punjabi compulsory from class-I in all government and private schools. Teachers should be hired in primary and high schools to teach Punjabi. In every college there should at least be one seat of a professor to teach Punjabi. Law should be passed that in Punjab Assembly, Punjabi should be spoken. For job in culture department Masters in Punjabi should be made compulsory.
Realization of this loss came to a group of activists who gather every February 21 to protest as to why the provincial government has not paid any heed to this sensitive issue that concerns our identity. This year many youngsters have seemed to join hands with their seniors for this cause. The more the delay in the implementation of Supreme Court’s decision for Punjab Government to include Punjabi language right from the Primary Level to graduate level, the more the fear that this eleventh highest spoken language of the world shall die its own death and the colonial agenda shall be complete.
The writer is the recipient of the prestigious Pride of Performance award. He can be reached at [email protected]