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
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