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| A rare sight: A shop displays sign board in Punjabi "Billay di Hatti" [Shop of Billa] in Raja Bazaar, Rawalpindi. |
Over the last few weeks, I have been meeting children from
different parts of Punjab. They were between 3 to 5 years of age, and included
the children of my friends and extended family. I was pleasantly shocked to
hear these kids speakin Punjabi. “Kithay
chalay o”, “aa ki aey”, “ki karde paye o” are some of the Punjabi phrases I
recall having heard.
Punjabi is the most widely spoken language across Pakistan.
However, most of the people in Punjab, especially in urban centers, do not
encourage their children to speak their mother tongue, Punjabi.
But “kids will be kids” and they will always find ways to
learn new things. So, through methods best known to children, they quickly pick
up the language, continuously learning (mimicking to be more precise) from various
people around them and their parents, as the adults speak in Punjabi among
themselves regularly. The end result is that the children learn Punjabi quite effortlessly;
such is the beauty of mother tongue.
Incidentally, in your average Pakistani school, a child goes
through the experience of learning two new languages, English and Urdu. As
reading Quran and prayers are also considered as mandatory teachings in the
Pakistani society, he / she learns Arabic as well. So, a 3-5 year old child in
Punjab starts to learn almost four languages at this stage. Other than this,
the teaching of all other subjects is also via the medium of Urdu or English.
However, as far as the effectiveness of learning is
concerned, it is in the best interest of any child that primary education be
imparted in mother tongue. Children learn more efficiently and quickly if he /
she start learning various subjects in his / her mother tongue instead of learning
a completely new language first. This is the reason when a 3 year old enrolls
in a nursery class he / she naturally reads “Meem Kukri” instead of “Meem Murghi”
(which is enforced on him / her) because he / she already knows and relates to
the picture of a hen as a “Kukri”.
However, in Pakistan, it is a popular practice to label a
child as an “illiterate” and “uncivilized” if he / she speaks in Punjabi. This
is why parents try their best to refrain from speaking in Punjabi with their
kids. Somehow, one cannot blame the parents as the harsh reality is when a 3 or
4 year old kid enrolls in school and begins to speak in Punjabi with the other
children or teachers, he / she is promptly tagged as “illiterate”. Needless to
say, it’s quite depressing for young minds. Naturally, the parents want to
prevent this from happening. Hence, the mother tongue is sacrificed.
In addition to this, there are strong arguments that
“talking about ‘people not encouraging their children to speak Punjabi or their
mother tongue is like dishonoring their mother’ is just a hollow slogan”. This
line of argument strongly believes that it is common knowledge that in real
life knowing Punjabi is not of any use and learning Urdu and English are more
important for education and a career. When I look at the current scenario, I
realize that for all practical purposes this line of thinking is not entirely
wrong. One has to get a job after all! Again, Punjabi is forced out.
Frankly speaking, discrimination against the Punjabi
language is nothing new in our society. It started during the British period
with the end of Sikh rule in Punjab. Later, it was somewhat obtusely assumed
that Urdu is the language of Muslims, Hindi,of Hindus and Punjabi, of Sikhs. By
this oversimplified formula not only our land divided on the basis of religion
but languages were also divided on the same basis. Today, in Indian Punjab one observes
the regular usage of Punjabi everywhere – signage on the highways, in schools,
colleges, universities and in public offices. This is exactly why Mian Shehbaz
Sharif, the Chief Minister of Pakistani Punjab, while visiting the Indian counterpart
delivered a speech in Punjabi to win their hearts!
But I am afraid I have rarely heard the Chief Minister of Punjab
or any other leaders delivering a speech in Punjabi in Gujranwala, Faisalabad
or any other city of the Pakistani Punjab. This is what I call the inferiority
complex of us Punjabis in Pakistan.
It is obvious that Punjabis are living in some kind of confusion.
It is a bitter truth that Punjabis have gradually destroyed their own language, as
we never confidently owned it. Inspite of being the largest spoken language in
Pakistan it is not taught in any schools! You wouldn’t find any sign boards in
Punjabi anywhere in Punjab (except “Billay di Hatti” shops in various
cities). As I see it, the future of
Punjabi in Pakistan is not bright.
Strangely, quite contradictory to this phenomenon of our
self-denial, there is this interesting practice of Punjabi being popularized all across,
without Punjabis even wanting it to! And the reason behind this is the
televised musical program, Coke Studio – Pakistan.
I am sure, you would have heard on countless episodes of Coke
Studio, numerous Kalams of Baba Bulleh
Shah or Sultan Bahoo being performed by the participants. Be it Bulleh Shah or
any other Sufi poet of Punjab, it is becoming quite a fashion to be associated
with their music as an enthusiast. Don’t we simply love to listen to them and
share Punjabi music by whatever means available to us and feel good that they project
the secular and moderate culture of Punjab? Many people were introduced to Baba
Bulleh Shah or Punjabi Sufis after the launch of Coke Studio. I feel, it is
quite ironic that today we actually rely on a corporate giant and thankful to
them for introducing Punjabi to the world because at the same time, we hate
this language too!
However, I see rays of hope, coming from completely
unexpected quarters though. Recently, a friend who shifted from Karachi to
Lahore, complained “why the hell everyone speaks Punjabi here? I spoke to
Rickshaw drivers, shopkeepers and a few other people and everyone replied to me
in Punjabi!” It was a welcome realization that Punjabis have not completely
given up on their mother tongue, at least not yet. It was a relief that at
least a visitor to Punjab has realized that Punjabi is the language of Punjab. Deep
inside, that made me immensely happy.
