The document discusses the history of the Punjabi language during British rule in Punjab from 1849-1947. It describes how Urdu was introduced as the official language by the British, even though many people did not speak it at the time. Punjabi was used informally but not in domains of power. Over time, Urdu prospered as a literary language in Punjab partly at the expense of Punjabi. The legacy of the British favoring Urdu over Punjabi continues in modern-day Pakistan.
The document discusses the history of the Punjabi language during British rule in Punjab from 1849-1947. It describes how Urdu was introduced as the official language by the British, even though many people did not speak it at the time. Punjabi was used informally but not in domains of power. Over time, Urdu prospered as a literary language in Punjab partly at the expense of Punjabi. The legacy of the British favoring Urdu over Punjabi continues in modern-day Pakistan.
The document discusses the history of the Punjabi language during British rule in Punjab from 1849-1947. It describes how Urdu was introduced as the official language by the British, even though many people did not speak it at the time. Punjabi was used informally but not in domains of power. Over time, Urdu prospered as a literary language in Punjab partly at the expense of Punjabi. The legacy of the British favoring Urdu over Punjabi continues in modern-day Pakistan.
Punjabi language, in spite of its very long history, has never been used in the domain of power. The languages of power were not peoples mother-tongues, being Sanskrit, Persian and English or Urdu. In this paper, the author sheds light on the introduction of Urdu by the British as the vernacular in the Punjab. Ironically not many people knew Urdu when it was proclaimed as a parlance for conducting administrative business. Soon afterwards Muslims of Punjab co-opted Urdu as their cultural insignia. Iqbal and later on Zafar Ali Khan, Akhtar Sheerani and after the partition in 1947, Faiz, Noon Meim Rashid, Majeed Amjed and Munir Niazi composed their poetry mostly in Urdu. Hence Urdu prospered as a literary expression somewhat at the expense of Punjabi. Besides Urdu became the language of the media in the Punjab. In the whole process Punjabi was flung to the margins. It has, however, been used in some domains of power in the Indian state of Punjab. The legacy of the British is obsequiously being followed in Pakistan. ________________________________________________________________
Punjabi - the sum total of all its mutually intelligible varieties - is an ancient language. It might have been spoken in the 11th century when Sad Salman (d.1121) wrote one of his collections of verse (divan) in Hindi. However, since that divan is lost, no credible claim can be made as to its language. 1 It is known, however, that Amir Khusro (d. 1325) wrote a war ballad (var) in Punjabi. This was a description of the battle between Ghias Uddin Tughlaq (1324-1320) and Khusro Khan, a usurper of the throne. According to the historian Sajan Rai:
Amir Khusro ba Zuban-e-Punjabi ba ibarat-e-marghub muqaddama jang Ghazi ul Mulk Tughlaq Shah o Nasir Uddin Khusro Khan gufta ke aan ra ba Zuban-e-Hind var guvaend. 2
Amir Khusro in the language of the Punjab wrote an introduction of the battle between Tughlaq [1324-1320] and Khusro which in the language of India is called a var.
In the 14th century, too, we find other evidence of this language being used in ordinary conversation by people. For instance, Shah Burhanuddin Gharib (d. 1337) called upon Bibi Ayesha, probably a daughter of Sheikh Farid (1173- 1265), in Deccan. He happened to have smiled at his hosts daughter whereupon she scolded him as follows.
Ae Burhanuddin! Sadi dheeh ku keeh hansda hai (O Burhanuddin! Why are you laughing at our daughter?) 3
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Despite this antiquity, it was never used in the domains of power - government, administration, education, judiciary etc - except orally and informally. The languages of power were not the peoples mother tongues whether Sanskrit, Persian and English, along with Urdu, in that order. It is only after the partition that Punjabi is used in some domains of power in the Indian state of the Punjab at some level. In the Pakistani Punjab, however, it is still not used in any of the domains of power. This paper examines the development of Punjabi during the British rule over Punjab (1849-1947). Its focus is on the Muslims of the Punjab but passing references to other religious communities, Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs, are also made.
The Linguistic Situation after the British Conquest
Persian was the court language of Maharaja Ranjit Singh though Punjabi was used informally and, of course, as a liturgical language by the Sikhs. It was, however, taught to children. When the British arrived schools in Punjab could be divided, following Leitner, into maktabs, madrassas, patshalas, Gurmukhi and Mahajani schools. The maktab was a Persian school while the madrassa was Arabic one. The patshalas were Sanskrit schools while the Gurmukhi schools taught Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script. In the Mahajani schools the Landi or Sarifi script was taught to commercial people. 4
The Sikhs considered it a religious duty to learn Gurmukhi, enough to be able to read the Sikh Holy scripture. Those following an advanced course studied, among other things, Gurmukhi grammar and prosody (Ibid, 32). The child began his studies at the age of six. He, or she, then proceeded to learn the Gurmukhi alphabet of which Guru Angad himself wrote a primer. The primer, being written by such an eminent spiritual leader, was in itself religious. It was, however, the means to an even more religious end to enable the child to read the Adi Granth, the sacred book of the Sikhs. After this other works, such as the Nanuman Natak, a Punjabi adaptation of a Hindi drama, were taught. Other subjects, such as elementary medicine and rhetoric, were also taught in Gurmukhi to Sikh children. According to Leitner, there were many people who knew Gurmukhi when he was collecting information for his report (1880s). Urdu, however, had been brought in and was being established slowly by the government. 5
The British Introduction of Urdu in Punjab
Immediately after the annexation court circulars and notices were published in Punjabi. The missionaries, true to their conviction that the Bible should be available in the readers mother tongue, distributed bibles in Punjabi. 6
Moreover, the government realized that Punjabi could not be ignored since it was the language of 17,000,000 people. In a note about its importance for the functionaries of the state it was written:
29 Tariq Rahman: Punjabi during British Rule
Panjabi is of special importance as being the language of our Sikh soldiers. It is of the greatest importance that the officers in Sikh regiments should be able to converse freely in Panjabi. Too many of them employ Hindustani. There is a great deal of tea grown in the Northern Panjab. The Europeans employed there must be able to speak Panjabi. 7
However, the official vernacular which the British adopted in the Punjab was Urdu. Reasons for doing this have been given earlier. 8 Let me sum them up briefly, however, to put things in a historical perspective. The question of a language policy became evident, as the vernacular terms used by the officers in correspondence were often unintelligible to their superiors. 9 The Board proposed that Urdu should be used as the official language of Punjab, since it was already being used in Northern India where they were established. 10 The Deputy Commissioner of Dera Ghazi Khan said that whereas the Moonshees, Moolahs, and other educated persons write Persian, not a man out of his sudder establishment understands Oordoo. 11 The Assistant Commissioner of Muzaffargarh also argued that the native officers, both Sudder and Mofussil, composed chiefly of Mooltanee are unable to write Oordoo while with Persian they are familiar. 12 The Commissioner of Multan, therefore, recommended the use of Persian since in Mooltan none but the Hindoostanees who have lately been employed, are able to read the Oordoo without the greatest difficulty. 13 The Commissioner of Leiah Division did, however, recommend the use of Urdu to the Board of Administration, despite the problem of the clerical staff, in his letter of 0I August 1849:
Native Omla if they had a voice in the matter would give Persian the preference to Oordoo and it is known how unpopular among that class the order was which substituted the latter language for Persian in all the courts of our old Provinces. 14
In his opinion, the staff could learn Urdu in a few months. The Board, however, recommended the use of Persian for Leiah as well as Multan, Peshawar, and Hazara. For the divisions of Lahore and Jhelum, however, Urdu was recommended. 15
The question is why did the British not recognize Punjabi as the vernacular of the Punjab? Why did they choose Urdu instead? Punjabi activists, according to Mirza assert that this was done for political reasons or because of the influence of the lower staff who were mostly from northern India. 16 Documents of that period, mostly letters of British officers, do not however, corroborate these assertions. There were, of course, many Hindustanis in the amlah till 1857, at which time they were suspected of being sympathetic to the mutineers and were consequently dismissed. 17 In 1854 Sikhs were not recruited to the army for political reasons and there were not many Punjabis in the other services either. But whether these Hindustanis actually influenced policy decisions is yet to be
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proved and is highly unlikely. It is, however, likely that the British officers, like their clerks, also knew Urdu and as Leitner, Principal of Government College, Lahore, reports, 18 they found it more convenient to carry on administration with their existing skills. It is also possible that many among them shared the prejudices of Hindustanis. As Leitner, who was a supporter of Punjabi, wrote:
The fact is that the direction of the Education Department has long been in the hands of men, both European and Native, connected with Delhi. 19
But even if this is true, it only confirms that both Englishmen and Indians were prejudiced against the Punjabi language. Other letters further confirms this prejudice. Letter after letter reveals that most British officers assumed that Punjabi was a rural patois of which Urdu was the refined form. There is no indication that Punjabi, written in the Persian script by Muslims, was considered politically dangerous. The British officers were, however, against Gurmukhi because it was symbolic of the Sikh religious identity. In a letter of 16 June 1862, the Commissioner of Delhi wrote to the Punjab Government that, Any measure which would revive the Goormukhee which is the written Punjabee tongue, would be a political error. 20 As Sikh children learned Gurmukhi in school, 21 it might have been considered politically expedient not to support it officially. There were, to be sure, popular folk songs against Mughal rule, which may be called anti-colonial 22 but they were no longer a part of any active anti-British movement. Thus, there is neither any mention of this oral literature nor of any political apprehension from the Punjabi language or its literature, which was mostly mystical in the official records of that period.
Voices in Favour of Punjabi and Resistance to Them
By 1854, the whole province of the Punjab (which included the present NWFP) used Urdu in the lower levels of administration, judiciary, and education. This position was challenged first by the British and then later by the Hindus and Sikhs, while the Muslims continued to support Urdu. In a letter of 2 June 1862, Robert Cust, a British officer in the Punjab, advocated the use of Punjabi written in the Gurmukhi script, on the grounds that it was the vernacular language which the British should support in principle. This suggestion was repudiated by the other officers who felt that Punjabi was merely a dialect of Urdu. The Deputy Commissioner of Gujarat wrote to the Commissioner of Rawalpindi on 23 June 1862 that
Even a Punjabee villager will more readily understand simple Oordoo than indifferent Punjabee talked by us foreigners and by such of our Moonshees as may be Hindustanee. 23
31 Tariq Rahman: Punjabi during British Rule
The Deputy Commissioner of Jhang also wrote to the Commissioner of Multan that the introduction of Punjabi would be confronted with the difficulty that, the Hindustanee Amlah understand the language imperfectly while the Punjabis among them are well acquainted with it colloquially but do not know it as a written tongue. 24 However, it was not the convenience of the staff which finally made the British officers dismiss the suggestion of Mr. Cust. Their prejudiced views about Punjabi being an uncouth dialect, or patois as some of them called it, prevented them from taking the suggestion seriously. Meanwhile, a number of private bodies, such as the Singh Sabha, promoted the teaching of Punjabi but mainly among the Sikhs. The Singh Sabha also petitioned the Punjab University College to associate its members in a sub- committee to be set up for the teaching of Punjabi and that the entrance examinations (an examination necessary for entering the university) should be in Punjabi as it was in Urdu and Hindi. 25
During the ongoing Urdu-Hindi controversy, the position of Urdu was challenged yet again. This time the challenger was not a Hindu or a Sikh but a British officer, J. Wilson, who was the Deputy Commissioner of Shahpur. He wrote a note in 1894 arguing that Punjabi was the vernacular of the people of Punjab, so that one dialect of it should be standardized and used as the medium of instruction in primary schooling in the Punjab. He also argued that the Roman character, being a character developed by speakers of Aryan languages is more suitable for Punjabi than the Arabic character, which is of Semitic origin (Wilson 1894). He did concede, however, that Gurmukhi or Nagari is even more suitable for writing Punjabi than Roman but, since it would never be adopted by the Mussalman portion of the population, the only practicable alternative was that of using Roman. Wilsons proposals were condemned even more relentlessly than those of Cust. Most of his colleagues were still of the view that Punjabi was a dialect or patois, despite Leitners details about Punjabi literature and the indigenous tradition of education in the province (1882). Indeed, some Englishmen even felt that Punjabi should be allowed to become extinct, Judge A. W. Stogdon, the Divisional Judge of Jullundur, wrote in his letter of 3 August 1895 that:
As for the encouragement of Punjabi. I am of the opinion that it is an uncouth dialect not fit to be a permanent language, and the sooner it is driven out by Urdu the better. 26
Others felt that the cost of such a change would be exorbitant 27 or that such a change would be a backward or a reactionary step. 28 Still others pointed out that the political repercussions of such a change, in the context of the Urdu-Hindi controversy, could be alarming. The Commissioner of Rawalpindi wrote in his letter of 27 May 1895 to the Junior Secretary to the Financial Commissioner, Punjab, that the proposed change of script was especially problematic. In his words:
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Under the change [Roman] the Mullah might lose scholars and bigots might raise an agitation that Government was causing the Arabic (Persian) character to be disused in favour of English in order to help Christian Missionaries by discouraging the teaching of the Koran. 29
Other officers expressed the same opinion in different words. 30 The proposals were, of course, dropped.
The Emergence of Language-based Identities
During this period both Muslims and Hindus developed consciousness about their identity. Religion, language, script, vocabulary and literary tradition were all seen as belonging to one or the other identity. Especially relevant for our purposes is the way Hindi and Hindu identity converged in a process very competently described by Christopher King (1994). Simultaneously, Urdu too became a part, and symbol, of the Indian Muslim identity. Thus the Punjabi Muslims began to identify with Urdu rather than Punjabi during the Hindi-Urdu controversy which began in the 1860s and went on in one way or the other till the partition of India in 1947. 31
By the 1880s, as we have seen, the Urdu-Hindi controversy had started agitating the minds of the Hindus and Muslims of the Punjab. Thus, when the Hunter Commission was formed to recommend educational changes in India, the question of the medium of instruction at the lower level had to be settled. The Sri Guru Singh Sabha (Sikh National Association) of Lahore petitioned Sir Charles Aitchison, the Governor of the Punjab, on 28 April 1882 to make Punjabi, in the Gurmukhi script, the medium of instruction at least for their community. The Governor, however, replied that such a step would harm the Sikhs. He said:
To exclude the children of the Sikhs from instruction in Urdu would be to place them under very serious disadvantages. Without a knowledge of Urdu it would be impossible to advance beyond the most elementary education, and to continue their studies in the middle and high schools. They would be shut out from access to an excellent, large, and daily increasing literature, and they would be placed at a great disadvantage with their countrymen in the business of life. 32
The Governors point, that Punjabi would have a ghettoizing effect on its speakers, was valid on the assumption that positions of power and prestige would not be made available in that language. The Sikhs submitted memorials to the Commission in favour of Punjabi, while the Hindus submitted petitions in favour of Hindi. 33 The Muslims, as individuals and in organizations, opposed Hindi and favoured Urdu. 34
33 Tariq Rahman: Punjabi during British Rule
During the Urdu-Hindi controversy, Urdu had become a symbol of Muslim identity while Hindi was the symbol of Hindu identity. Under these circumstances it was not surprising that Muslims chose to ignore their mother tongue(s). This attitude persisted till the creation of Pakistan and one finds many instances of Punjabi Muslims complaining in all forums, including in the legislative assembly that adequate arrangements did not exist for the teaching of Urdu to their children. 35 The main positions were clearly delineated along communal lines: Urdu for the Muslims; Hindi for the Hindus; and Punjabi for the Sikhs. Thus, when the British did allow the Local Bodies to establish Gurmukhi classes in the late 1890s, most of the students were Sikhs. 36 Yet, in fact, Punjabi was not popular even among the Sikhs, because it was not a bread- winning language. 37
By the late nineteenth century, when the Urdu-Hindi controversy was going on in the rest of India, the Punjab witnessed a special form of it: the question of who owns Punjabi. Initially it began as the demand for teaching Punjabi. This was conceded and Punjabi became one of the options for school examinations. Sikh children could also study Gurmukhi if they wanted, but employment was only available in Urdu in the lower and English in the higher domains of power. The report of 1901 tells us that Gurmukhi is taught in the Oriental College. 38
However, because a major motivation for all formal education, including the learning of languages, was employment by the state, Gurmukhi classes did not become popular. 39
Those who desired to give Punjabi a more pronounced role in the education of Punjabis suggested changes. J.C. Goldsby, the Officiating Director of Public Instruction of the Punjab, wrote to the senior Secretary to the Financial Commissioner in this context as follows:
It is a question between Punjabi and Urdu, and if the question is decided by the districts or divisions, there is no doubt that Urdu will invariably be chosen because of its practical utility. But Punjabi has a strong claim to be the language of the home in most cases; and more might perhaps be done to encourage the use of it, or at any rate to remove the impression that it is being purposely neglected. 40
However, the report on education of 1907-8 does say that Hindu and Sikh girls were learning Gurmukhi in greater proportion than boys while Muslims, both girls and boys did not learn it. 41 The report of 1910-11 remarks that the demand for Gurmukhi has increased even among the boys mostly in Lyallpur. 42 Such yearly fluctuations, however, did not change the general pattern which the report of 1916 sums up as follows:
Urdu continues to be in favour as the school vernacular for boys. Gurmukhi or Punjabi schools for boys and girls numbered 446 with 20,347 scholars, but three-quarters of the latter were girls. 43
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Since the Urdu-Hindi controversy was part of Hindu-Muslim antagonism, any attempt at supporting the cause of Punjabi was interpreted by the Muslims as an attack upon them. Thus, when Dr P. C. Chatterjee, a Bengali Hindu educationalist proposed in his convocation address at the Punjab University in 1908 that Punjabi should replace Urdu, the Muslims opposed him vehemently. On 29 December 1908 a meeting was held in Amritsar to condemn Chatterjees proposals. Sir Muhammad Shafi, a prominent Muslim leader from the Punjab, condemned Chatterjees views and called him an enemy of the Muslims. It was especially pointed out that Chattrjee was a Bengali and not a Punjabi and thus, it was reasoned, his real interest lay not in promoting Punjabi but in opposing Urdu, which was now symbolic of Muslim identity and separatism. 44 Such reasoning was based on the leading role of the Bengali Hindus in supporting Hindi against Urdu throughout the Urdu-Hindi controversy. Thus, the support of Punjabi by a Bengali Hindu was perceived as an expression of his anti-Muslim bias. The Muslim League condemned the demand for Punjabi in its December 1910 session. But such was the feeling against Hindus and Sikhs, with whom Punjabi was identified, that the Punjabi Muslims were not provoked.
Punjabi Movement Before Partition
As has already been mentioned, by and large it was only the Sikhs who promoted Punjabi language and literature and since the British started to recruit the Sikhs in the army after 1857. They unwittingly helped to shape an identity that was already recognisable to other peoples of Northern India. Thus, soon after the Hunter Commission, Punjabi was no longer officially discouraged. Even during 1877-78 Punjabi, in the Gurmukhi character had been introduced in the Oriental colleges 45 and by 1906-7 inspecting officers were instructed to encourage the use of Punjabi colloquially in all Lower Primary classes. 46
However, the number of Gurmukhi schools rose slowly. 47 Under the Muslim- dominated provincial governments, the Sikhs complained that Punjabi Muslim ministers discouraged their children from studying Punjabi. 48 Thus, while there were 1,245 Urdu medium primary schools in the major cities of Punjab in 1940, there were only 13 such Punjabi medium schools. 49 In the same year, 13,342 students offered Urdu, 626 Hindi, and 96 Punjabi as their first vernacular in the Matriculation and Vernacular examination. 50 Urdu was also most in demand for making adult literacy programmes, as 255,000 primers were printed in Urdu whereas the number printed for both Punjabi and Hindi was only 35.000. 51 One reason for the lack of interest in Punjabi, even amongst the Sikhs, was its ghettoizing effect. Ordinary Sikhs did not want to sacrifice social mobility to a linguistic symbol. However, identity-conscious Sikhs did promote Punjabi as we have subsequently seen. The first daily newspaper in Punjabi was published by the Singh Sabha of Lahore. 52 The Sikhs also published a number of papers in the Gurmukhi script among which the Khalsa Samachar and Panj Darya are well known. 53 While the majority of educated Punjabi-speakers, both Hindus and Muslims, promoted
35 Tariq Rahman: Punjabi during British Rule
Hindi and Urdu, among the Hindu organizations, the Sat Sabha, founded in 1866 and modelled after the Brahmo Samaj by its founder, Lala Behari Lal, also used Punjabi for its work. Some Muslims also tried to promote Punjabi, though they were not part of mainstream Muslim political culture. The first Punjabi newspaper in the Persian script was called Amrat Patreeka and was published in Jhelum in 1896 54 by a Hindu called Bhola Nath. The first publication with which many Muslims were associated, and which was edited by a person who later became one of the leaders of the Punjabi movement in Pakistan, was Punjabi Darbar. This was published from Lyallpur by Joshua Fazal Din, a Punjabi Christian. 55 A Punjabi Society was established at Government College, Lahore in 1926. This Society staged many plays in Punjabi and promoted the language in other ways. 56 Another private literary organization, the Doaba Kavi Sabha, was organized by Umar Din Ulfat Varsi in 1931 at Jullundur. 57 In general, however, educated Muslims associated themselves with Urdu rather than Punjabi. But this, as we have noted before, was because of political expediency. The Muslim intelligentsia had formed a pressure group against Hindus and Sikhs, and Urdu was part of this Muslim identity. Meanwhile, the common people of the Punjab, less conscious of the exigencies of modernity, continued to enjoy oral Punjabi literature. The mosque schools taught moral stories in Punjabi and Punjabi stories were sold in the bazaars. Although the Muslims in general showed little enthusiasm for owning Punjabi, some of their representatives did not oppose it either. Indeed, Nawab Abdul Majid Khan and Fakir Sayad Kamar ud Din, both members of the senate of the Punjab University College, submitted memorandums recommending that the vernacular languages, including Punjabi, should not be excluded from the examination list nor should they be completely neglected. 58
Punjabi Muslims spoke Punjabi at home and in informal domains - among friends, in the bazaar etc - but they wrote in Urdu (or English) and they used Urdu for political speech-making, in serious discussions and in other formal domains. Mohammad Iqbal, the national poet of Pakistan, is said to have spoken the Sialkoti variety of Punjabi but he wrote only in Urdu, Persian and English all his life. In the only interview he gave in Punjabi in December 1930 to the editor of the Punjabi magazine Sarang, Iqbal made it clear that he did not write in Punjabi because his intellectual training had not opened up that option for him. He did, however, enjoy the language and appreciated the mystic content of its best poetic literature. Ordinary Punjabis too enjoyed listening to Punjabi jokes, songs and poetry. That is why poets like Imam Din and Ustad Daman were so immensely popular. According to Som Anand, an inhabitant of old Lahore, Daman is still a household name for all those who lived in the crowded mohallas and frequented the Punjabi mushairas. He held audiences spellbound and was often in trouble for making fun of the authorities. Daman was anti- establishment, irreverent and humorous. These, and the fact that he used words which had an immediate appeal being those of the mother tongue, make him such a success with Punjabi audiences. 59 But pleasure was one thing and politics
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another. The Urdu-Punjabi controversy was an extension of the Urdu-Hindi controversy. The political need of the time, as perceived by Muslim leaders in the heat of the Pakistan movement, was to insist on a common Muslim identity and of this identity Urdu had become a part in the Punjab. Moreover, having studied Urdu at school, the Punjabi intellectuals had complete command over its written form and literary tradition. Like Iqbal, all the great intellectuals of the Punjab - Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Saadat Hasan Manto - wrote in Urdu. Urdu was also the language of journalism - the Paisa Akhbar, the Zamindar of the irrepressible Zafar Ali Khan and the Nawa-i-Waqt of Hameed Nizami being household names - which, like literature, were concentrated in Lahore. Indeed, Zafar Ali Khan modernised the Urdu language and became immensely popular as did Chiragh Hasan Hasrat whose witty columns were enjoyed by all those who read Urdu. Urdu was not only the adopted language of the intelligentsia of the Punjab. It was the symbol of their Muslim identity. That is why they opposed those who advocated the teaching of Punjabi.
Conclusion
The British period created modern identities in the Punjab. These were embedded in both language and religion. While the three major religious communities, the Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus, spoke Punjabi as a mother tongue, they invested emotionally and intellectually in linguistic symbols congruent with their religious identities. The Sikhs owned Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script, the Hindus Hindi in the Devanagari script and the Muslims Urdu in the Perso-Arabic script. Both the language and the script were part of the newly constructed identities which were guarded zealously in formal domains but merged with each other in informal ones when everyone could relax informally in Punjabi. But this relaxation was connected too closely with home, more specifically the village, in the Punjabi consciousness. Thus, Punjabi was also the class marker between the newly emerging, urban middle class and the rural feudal gentry and ordinary villagers. While all these urban Punjabis learned English as the marker of education, urban sophistication and wealth, the Hindus and the Muslims further distanced themselves from the lower classes, and even the rural landed gentry, by also learning Hindi and Urdu. Indeed, till the Partition urban Hindus also learned Urdu and even Persian. The relationship of Punjabis with their mother tongue still remains complex with the Pakistani Muslim Punjabis looking down towards it with affectionate contempt but still responding to its songs, jokes and obscene and intimate phrases with both warmth and hilarity. These attitudes were fashioned in the British period which remains crucial for our understanding of Punjabi in contemporary Pakistani Punjab.
37 Tariq Rahman: Punjabi during British Rule
Notes
1 Sunil Sharma, Persian Poetry at the Indian Frontier: Masud Sad Salman of Lahore (New Delhi, 2000), pp.162-163. 2 Sujan Rai, Khulasat ul Tawarikh[Persian], quoted in Jamil Jalibi, Tarikh-i- Adab-Urdu vol-1(Lahore:Majlis-Taraqi-Adab,1987), p.235. 3 Jamil Jalibi, p.152. 4 G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab since Annexation and in 1882 (1882, reprint Republican Books, 1991), p.10. 5 ibid, pp. 35-7. 6 Attar Singh, A Memorandum Punjabi, in Leitner, History of Indigenous Education, pp. 478-79. 7 Committee on Oriental Studies in London. Appendix XIII, part xx 1909, p.116. 8 Tariq Rehman, Language and Politics in Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 192-4. 9 Letter of the Secretary, Board of Administration to Commissioners under the Board, I April 1849 in Nazir Ahmed Chaudhry, Development of Urdu as an official Language in the Punjab, 1848-1974 (Lahore: Government of the Punjab, 1977), p. I. 10 ibid, p.3. 11 Letter to the Commissioner of Leiah, 24 July 1849 in ibid, p.17. 12 Letter to Commissioner of Leiah, of 25 July 1849 in ibid, p.17. 13 Letter to Secretary of the Board of Administration, Lahore, 27 July 1949 in ibid. p. 19. 14 ibid, p.21. 15 Orders are in the form of a letter in ibid, pp. 26-27. 16 Shafqat Tanvir Mirza, Pakistan wich Man Boli Laher [Punjabi: The mother tongue movement in Pakistan] Interview by Maqsood Saqib, Maan Boli (January), 83-96. 17 General Report on the Administration of the Punjab for the year 1853, London, p.100. 18 ibid, p. 47. 19 Nazir Ahmed Chaudhry, Development of Urdu, pp. 52, 55, I81, 183, 191, 208, 218 (and also see Leitner 1882: ii and 29). 20 ibid, p. 67. 21 Leitner, pp. 33-7. 22 Ahmed Saleem, Jadeed Punjabi Adab: Ek Savalia Nishan? (Karachi: Riktab, 1986), pp.16-23. 23 Chaudhry, Development of Urdu, p. 52. 24 ibid, p. 58. 25 Singh Sabha, translation of an Address presented to the Punjab University College Senate by the Singh Sabha Association in proceedings of the senate of the Punjab University College, in Home Department Proceedings, April 1881. NDC, ACC No.799.
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26 Chaudhry, Development of Urdu, p.208. 27 ibid, p.187. 28 ibid, pp.181, 183, 191, 218. 29 ibid, p. 240. 30 ibid, pp. 268, 277, 317. 31 Paul Brass, Language, Religion and Politics in North India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), Rahman, Language and Politics in Pakistan, pp. 59-78. 32 Report of the Punjab Provincial Committee with evidence taken before the Committee and Memorials addressed to the Education Commission (Calcutta, Superintendent of Government Printing, 1884), pp.106-7. 33 Ibid, pp. 457-602. 34 Memorial of the Anjuman-i-Islamiaya, ibid, p.147. 35 Punjab Legislative Debates, 5 & 22 March 1931, p. 426. 36 Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies 1896-97 (Lahore: Civil & Military Gazette Press), p. 45. 37 ibid 1899-1900, p. 42. 38 ibid 1901, p.16. 39 ibid 1906, p.15. 40 Letter from J.C. Goldsby, officiating Director of Public Instruction to the Senior Secretary to the Financial Commissioner, Punjab, Simla, 14 October 1908.No.7285. Acc No.1688, NDC. 41 Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies, 1908 (Lahore, Civil & Military Gazette Press), p. 22. 42 Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies, 1911, p. 5. 43 Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies 1916, p.16 44 Syed M.Barelvi, Suba-e-Punjab aur Urdu, Urdu Nama, February, 24-7, 1988. 45 Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies1879 (Lahore: Civil & Military Gazette Press), p. 29. 46 Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies 1907(Lahore, Civil & Military Gazette Press), p. 24. 47 Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies 1911, p.5. 48 See Sardar Lal Singhs Statement in Legislative Assembly Debates - Punjab, 6 March 1942, p. 407. 49 Ibid, 1942, p. 354. 50 Ibid. 51 Ibid, 4 December 1941, pp. 69-70. 52 Abdussalam Khurshid, Punjabi Sahafat: Farsi Lippi witch [Punjabi: Punjabi journalism in the Persian script] in Iqbal Qaisar, Jamil Ahmed Pal& Jamok Ahmed, (eds.), Aalmi Punjabi Conference (Lahore: Classic, 1988), p. 381. 53 Iqbal Qaisar, Ratan Hoyan Vadian (Lahore: Ravail Publications, 1992), pp. 18-19. 54 Abdussalam Khurshid, Punjabi Sahafat, Punjabi Lippi witch, in Qaisar & Pal, (eds.) Aalmi Punjabi Conference 1986 (Lahore: Classic, 1988), pp. 381-85.
39 Tariq Rahman: Punjabi during British Rule
55 ibid. 56 A Hameed, Punjabi Government College witch [Punjabi: Punjabi in the Government College], in Naseer Malik, (ed.), Ravi Diyan Challan: Government College de Likhari 1914-1964 [Punjabi: The waves of Ravi: the writers of Government College]. (Lahore: Government College, 1964). 57 Faqir Mohammad Faqir, Punjabi Conference, Lahore, 3 May 1956, p. 3. 58 Draft of a Memorandum submitted by the Native Members of the Executive Committee to Senate, on the subject of the report of the Government Examination Committee, in Proceedings of the Home Department, December 1879. ACC No. 799, NDC. 59 Som Anand, Lahore: Portrait of a Lost City (Lahore: Vanguard Books (Pvt) Ltd, 1998), pp. 173-7.