Role Of Punjabi Speakers

Punjabis make up more than 40% of the population of Pakistan. The Punjabis found in Pakistan belong to groups known as biradaris, who descend from a common male ancestor. In addition, most Punjabis are zamindars who are traditionally associated with farming and land ownership. Punjabi is the mother tongue of over 120 million people. Yet there seems to be a decline role of those who speak Punjabi and those who are Punjabi.

Unfortunately Punjabis might be one of the only linguistic groups in the world who have a dismissive attitude towards their own language. They are willingly dumping their own mother tongue in favor of Urdu. The most aggressive anti-Punjabi-ists come from the educated and semi-educated classes. As soon as they acquire the most minimal academic advancement, the first thing they do is abandon their mother tongue. In these modern times we no longer come across educated or semi-educated parents who are willing to communicate with their children in their mother tongue. This aspect is undoubtedly important as a child only begins to grasp the language from the environment he or she is brought up in. Rather, parents now days strongly discourage their children to speak in Punjabi as it is considered a mark of crudeness and bad manners. This negative attitude of Pakistani Punjabis can be further demonstrated by the fact that there is not a single newspaper or magazine published in Punjabi. The ones that did exist died soon after their launch because nobody would buy or encourage readers.

The only places in Pakistan where Punjabi is confined to are the so-called backward rural areas, villages or city slums. These misfortunate people look up to the prosperous educated Punjabis, the industrialists, aristocrats and the bourgeoisie as their role models. As they become educated they discard their mother tongue along with their manners. Hence its can be said that the more educated Punjabis get in other languages the more anti-Punjabi they become.

Ironically, the illiterate Punjabis are the most genuine of the lot. Their culture and morals remain pure unlike the Punjabis belonging to the upper and upper middle classes who seem to have lost their identities with the loss of their mother tongue. More preference has been given to other languages such as English and Urdu in terms of education as well as, as a language spoken at home because of which most Pakistanis are left confused about their identity.

Language is considered as the very spirit of the people and with the loss of Punjabi we will lose our heritage. Punjabi speakers to this day are famous for their strong and effective culture. They respect their tradition and live according to their societal norms. Regardless of what the upper and upper-middle classes have to say these people are of good and harmless in nature. When greeting each other a man is still referred to as Baiji or Bhai Sahib and a woman as Bhainji. Also the family is considered to be the basic and strongest unit of the Punjabi society. The joint family system being the most common; sons and their wives and children live in the household of their parents. The men oversee the agricultural or business activities of the family while women run the household and raise the children. Amongst the peasant farmers, both men and women do the agricultural work.

Punjabi speakers now face a lot of discrimination. The extremist views of the Pakistanis have lead to lack of opportunities for the Punjabi speakers as they are considered to be illiterate because of which there is a high rate of unemployment. This is mainly because Punjabi has no importance in the academic curriculums of Pakistan. Hence the role of the speakers of Punjabi is now insignificant as it is restricted to only the lower class of Pakistan who are mainly the uneducated or the unemployed.

We handed out questionnaires to people to see what they thought was the role of Punjabi as a language in Pakistan. These questionnaires were handed over to sixty people and when asked if they speak Punjabi regularly only twenty-one said “yes”. The remaining thirty-nine said they don’t. Also when asked whether Punjabi is the language of the illiterate forty-seven people claimed “yes”. Our research supports the claim that Punjabi is a dying language as when asked in our questionnaire twenty-four said “yes”, eight said “no” and the rest refused to comment. We interviewed Mr Salman Bhatti (director, Mphil Urdu from government college) and asked him, which language came first?”, he replied saying, “research shows that Punjabi is the mother tongue of Urdu”. Yet the language has been given no importance. In our questionnaire when asked if Punjabi is a subject in your school only twenty-one replied saying yes. In our interview we asked Mr Salman Bhatti whether the use of Punjabi in modern times is different from how it was used in the past. He replied saying that it is now used as a form of humor and the major reason people have become so distant is because stage actors who use it inappropriately have promoted it. In an interview with Master Mohammad Amin when asked, what is the status of Punjabi Speakers in Pakistan? He said, “ the people who have a hold on Punjabi still get the respect they deserve and the people who have mixed their languages have not been successful as they have no identity”.  He further quoted that you may be a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. When asked whether Punjabi has been confined to the rural class only he replied saying yes it has to an extent but was hopeful that this would change. We asked Master Mohammad for his views related to the use of Punjabi and whether it depicts the identity of the Punjab. In his response he stated that Punjab has a rich culture and without Punjabi it’ll remain incomplete. He said that in order for Pakistan to have a prosperous future it is important to focus on our own norms and traditions. After interviewing Master Mohammad we went on to interview Sikandar a student who like most of the people in Pakistan too is quite bitter towards Punjabi. When asked, “have you ever been looked down upon when speaking in Punjabi?” he replied, “ yes I have, it gives an image of me being illiterate”. We concluded our interview with Sikandar by asking if he thought he’d be able to find a job with Punjabi in his resume and he replied saying, “no” as Punjabi has no status in careers.

In conclusion it could be said that Punjabi might be confined to just the so-called backward rural areas, villages or city slums. But Punjabi as a culture is very strong and will not die so easily. No matter how educated the people get in other languages they still follow some of the traditions of their fore fathers.

Noor Usman