03/02/2024
M. Mubasir Khan Akhrota
Evolution is the essence of continuity in the world. Everything we see now has come across a lot of evolutionary changes to attain its final form.This holds true for languages as well.Languages play a very important role in the growth and expansion of societies. As without their proper understanding,we cannot communicate.But in recent times, linguistic division has proven to be lethal for societal integration.This happens when the speakers of a language become overly obsessed and sensitive with respect to their language. It has become a case with Punjabi.It is a well established and long standing thinking in some people that Punjabi is a parent language out of which many minor languages have sprung out.For instance, it is believed that Saraiki , which has now officially been recognized as a distinct language by United Nations , is infact a dialect of Punjabi. Nonetheless, this is the conception of those who call themselves as Punjabis , not of others who think of themselves as speakers of a language distinct and different from Punjabi. While there are different languages in the world and accepting and respecting them comes under basic human decency. But one must question wherever one thinks something is inappropriate.So keeping this in view , one may ask and personally ,I want to ask,is Punjabi really a language or is it the name of a geographical region and those living in the region has started calling themselves as Punjabis? To answer this, we will have to dive back in history. If we look back in the past, we see that water resources have been the most important factor in the rise of civilizations. People used to make settlements wherever water was readily available. It was because of two factors. First, in ancient times, the major occupation was agriculture and farming for which the availability of water was a prerequisite. Secondly,water was necessary for life and there were no other ways then to have access to it or channel it except from the primary sources.So the ancient civilizations started near rivers.It can be seen in the rise of Egyptian Civilization near River the Nile , Chinese civilization near the Yellow River and Mesopotamian civilization near River the Euphrates and the Tigris.Now ,the people settling in those civilizations were not of same linguistic group. Their coming and living together was not because of same language, it was for the sake of survival and search for better life. Hence, we can’t say that Mesopotamian was the language of those living in Mesopotamia or Egyptian was the language of those living in Egyptian Civilization. In the same manner, it was the case with the rise of modern societies. The people started settling near the rivers. In today’s Punjab region in Pakistan,the major rivers were Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, and Jhelum. When Persian invaded the region in 10th century CE, due to five rivers they started using the term Panj_Ab for it. The word has its origin in Persian. In Persian, Panj means five and ab mean water. As there were five major rivers ,so they called it Panjab. However, those settling across the region were not necessarily from same origin . They were people from various ethnicities and diverse origins and they were not the Punjabis because ,quite frankly,Punjabi simply didn’t exist at all. It was a geographical term used for a region having five rivers.There was no connection of populace or the language of the populace living in the region with the name being given to it . If the nomination of a region follows the already existing majority populace of a specific language then it makes sense. But there is no point in saying that just because a region has certain name, the people living in it will have the same language. Like, Punjab is a region which expands well beyond the border. There are people from various language groups and ethnicities living in it. There are Saraikis, Sindhis,Hindus, Balochis and Pushtoons as well. Claiming that Punjab is the region where Punjabis live is overly stupied. One can’t force others to adopt the same language nor can overlook the existence of other language groups.There exist various language groups in Punjab which need to be respected and given due regard but Punjabis have sworn to think of Punjab as their father’s land. This can be seen in the way they behave towards the movements that call for independent status such as Saraikistan. Saraiki is a language having a history that dates back to almost 4500 years in the Indus civilization. The number of speaker of this language is about 40 millions in South Punjab. This linguistic group has been calling for a separate province in the South Punjab since decades but the demands have not been met yet so far. Even more, the Punjabis, who are simply not a language group but an amalgamation of people from various origins, do not think of saraiki as a language. With a friendly advice to them for finding a name for the language they speak, because what they call Punjabi is a region not a language. I,on the behalf of 40 million saraikis ,call for equal rights and a separate province (Saraikistan) for saraikis in the South Punjabi. It is the high time the rational minds and authorities should realize that what they have been suppressing is a right of a group of above 40 million people who are constitutionally entitled to express their demands.It is only through the acknowledgement of the existence of diversity in terms of languages, cultures experiences that a democracy can thrive in a state as diverse as PakistanLet’s hope that orthodox thinking will someday give way to inclusive approach to bring the marginalized communities in mainstream.
