LAHORE: On a cold November morning, a group of people carrying placards gathered in front of the Press Club to register their protest. Many of them were shouting “Punjabi Bachao” — or save Punjabi language — even as the din of the passing traffic was drowning out their voices.
The protesters, including academics, writers, poets and civil society activists, were urging the Punjab government to preserve the province’s 2,500-year-old vernacular by making it a compulsory school subject.
It was not their first rally. Led by the Punjabi Parchaar and Punjab Adabi (literary) Board, the demonstrators had previously voiced their concerns through street protests, letter-writing campaigns, seminars and roundtable conferences with policymakers. After failing to make an impact, they had also filed two legal petitions in the Lahore High Court.
“The government refuses to take the issue seriously,” Parveen Malik, chairperson of the Punjabi Adabi Board, told Arab News. “Ever since the 18th amendment and the devolution of the educational policy to provinces, no effective research or study has been conducted as a forerunner to develop new curricula in Punjab. There was a series of consultative meetings arranged for this purpose in 2009. However, no impact on the teaching of Punjabi in schools ever came out of the exercise.”
The current census in Pakistan estimates the population of Punjab at about 110 million people. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, more than 75 percent of the province’s population speaks “Punjabi,” implying that this issue impacts almost 80 million people.
Rana Tariq, a representative of the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB), responded to Malik’s statement by admitting that the government was “using the research conducted on the federal level in 2006 to develop and publish textbooks.” However, he also added that the curriculum was “updated on a yearly basis to ensure continuing relevance and quality.”
At present, Punjabi language is taught at various education institutes as an optional subject. However, Article 251, Section 3, of the Constitution of Pakistan clearly states that provincial governments are required to guarantee the teaching, promotion and preservation of regional languages.
Dr. Farrukh Khan, professor of communications at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, believes many people have a condescending attitude toward the Punjabi language.
“Punjabi has always been seen as the language of have-nots,” he said. “This is such a shame. A society cannot hope to understand the origins of its own culture or its logical progression without knowing its own language.”
According to Malik, the treatment of the Punjabi language by the provincial authorities stands in stark contrast to other provinces, such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, which have made significant efforts to promote their regional languages.
The apathy toward Punjabi, she said, is a continuation of colonial policy: “It took the British over 90 years to conquer Punjab.”
“They knew that this would always be a problematic area to control. Therefore, they developed a policy to undermine the Punjabi identity in order to forestall any future rebellion.”
Malik said: “Propagating disdain for the Punjabi language was a measured strategy to achieve this end. And it is this trend that has continued to a point where, today, parents actively try to keep Punjabi a language foreign to their children.”
The Punjab Government, however, maintained that its failure to meet its constitutional demands stemmed not from a lack of will but from administrative delays.
“The provincial government does not have the required structures in place to enact a meaningful policy or create the kind of curriculum change required to introduce Punjabi as a compulsory subject,” a Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board official told Arab News.
Dr. Farrukh Khan, who is familiar with the organization’s inner workings, agrees. He believes that the bureaucratic nature of the state structure precludes a timely response to sensitive social issues. “But inaction will only lead society further toward the precipice,” he said.