t is a matter of concern for all conscientious Punjabis that their language is declining fast in the Punjab. This phenomenon of language loss or language shift has multiple dynamics because the acquisition or loss of a language is intimately connected with cultural symbolism, heritage, art and craft as well as the ethos of a space to which that language is associated. Hence, the loss of language is actually the loss of culture and civilisation and the worldview associated with it.

It is settled now that children should have the opportunity to learn in their mother tongue, particularly during the first five years. This not only facilitates a child’s learning process but also enhances the capacity to acquire other languages later in life.

It is ironic that the Punjab is experiencing a rapid language loss and shift.

Persian was the official language in the Punjab during Ranjit Singh’s rule. However, Punjabi, in addition to being learnt as the mother tongue in society, was taught at the school. The practice continued till the annexation of the Punjab by the British in 1849.

A Punjabi qaida was taught at schools, maktabs, madrassahs and pathshalas for learning alphabets and basic vocabulary. Ranjit Singh ordered that every woman being married learn the qaida so that the next generation of Punjabis was literate. A similar Punjabi qaida called pakki roti was developed to impart basic Islamic religious education.

After the British annexation, a Punjab Board of Administration was formed. It consisted of Henry Lawrence, John Lawrence and Charles Mansel. Henry Lawrence, chairman of the board, had already served as a resident at the Lahore court and was aware of the potential of the Punjabi language to emerge as a symbol of resistance and dissent. He also understood that the Punjab was a highly militarised region during the Sikh rule. A policy was therefore devised to suppress both the Punjabi language and the arms.

Hungarian orientalist Dr GW Leitner (the first principal of Government College, Lahore, as well as the first registrar of Punjab University) wrote in his famous report titled History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab since Annexation that “in Lahore, Punjabis are more literate than us. We should leave them alone.” Leitner wished that Punjabi should be the medium of instruction in the Punjab.

It was Charles Napier, a British military officer and founder of the Lahore Cantonment, who commented that “The Punjab has been occupied, but not conquered. Punjabis and their language have yet to be conquered.” The administration was ordered throughout the Punjab to confiscate arms (sword/ gun) and the Punjabi qaida. The compensation for depositors of these articles was very interesting. Anyone submitting a sword/ gun was compensated with two annas; anyone depositing a qaida was rewarded with six annas. A poster still stands in the Lahore Museum saying “Two annas for a sword and six annas for a Punjabi Qaida.”

It is settled now that children should have the opportunity to learn in their mother tongue, particularly during the first five years of age. This not only facilitates a child’s learning process but also enhances the capacity to acquire other languages later in life.

It is important to note is that the British government did not patronise certain languages. These were: a) languages associated with a religion such as Sanskrit and Arabic; b) languages that had been associated with power. The Punjabi language was considered privileged due to its intimate connection with Sikhism because the basic religious text of the Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib, is in the Punjabi language. Being the language of the rulers of the recent past, Punjabi was particularly despised by the British administration in the Punjab.

Ian Talbot and Tahir Kamran argue in Lahore in the Time of the Raj that “the thriving Urdu culture was encouraged by the Board of Administration’s decision in 1854 to make Urdu the official vernacular language in the Punjab for administrative purposes” and “Urdu was thus privileged over Punjabi and served as a direct replacement for Persian which had been officially used in the Mughal and Sikh eras.”

As a result of this privileging of Urdu at the cost of Punjabi, Lahore emerged as the leading centre of print culture. Hundreds of Urdu newspapers were published here whereas only two notable Punjabi newspapers were Punjabee (1852) and Khalsa Akhbar (1891). Mohammad Waseem notes in Political Conflict in Pakistan (2023) that “as the language of Muslim nationalism in British India in the 20th Century, Urdu later served as a grand symbol of Indo-Muslim civilisation, second only to Islam in political importance.”

After the partition of India, many factors kept Punjabis at bay in the context of literary, artistic, scholarly, everyday use and pedagogical engagement with their mother language. The tagging of Punjabi with Sikhs in the aftermath of partition atrocities played a significant role in the estrangement of some Punjabis from the Punjabi language. The soft boundary between Urdu and Punjabi, due to overlapping vocabulary, contributed to the blurring of Punjabi identity with reference to their language. The public sphere forums could not play effective role and there emerged only few organisations such as Dulla Bhatti Academy, Punjabi Majlis and Khaddar Posh Trust to strive to give Punjabi its rightful place.

The Mohajir-Punjabi state ethos built around Islam and Urdu pushed the Punjabi language to the margins. Punjabis increasingly became linguistic agnostics in their own land.

The establishment views linguistic identities as centrifugal tendencies. The ironic situation with regard to Punjabi reached its climax when a leading private sector school in Sahiwal displayed a notification in October 2016 stating “Foul language is not allowed within or outside the school premises, in the morning, during school hours and after home time. Foul language includes taunts, abuse, Punjabi and hate speech.” This shabbily worded notification depicts the general attitude towards the Punjabi language in Pakistani Punjab.

Thes writing is based on my talk at the Second International Sindhi Language Conference (May 4-5, 2024) held at Karachi Arts Council

The writer heads the History Department at University of Sargodha. He has worked as a research fellow at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He can be reached at abrar.zahoor@hotmail.com His X handle: @AbrarZahoor1