In a bold and ur­gent ap­peal to the Jammu and Kash­mir ad­min­is­tra­tion, the Dis­trict Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee (DGPC) Jammu has de­manded the re­in­state­ment of Pun­jabi as an of­fi­cial lan­guage of the Union Ter­ri­tory and called for a sig­nif­i­cant ex­pan­sion in Pun­jabi lan­guage ed­u­ca­tion across schools.-WSN Re­ports.

As soon as the Union gov­ern­ment de­clared Jammu and Kash­mir as Union Ter­ri­tory, the of­fi­cial sta­tus of Pun­jabi lan­guage was can­celled. Since then Sikhs across Jammu and Kash­mir are ag­i­tat­ing for restora­tion of the of­fi­cial sta­tus of Pun­jabi as well as other de­mands re­lat­ing to Pun­jabi lan­guage.

“The ex­clu­sion has been per­ceived as un­just by many, par­tic­u­larly within the Sikh com­mu­nity,” wrote S. Ran­jeet Singh Tohra, Pres­i­dent of DGPC Jammu. He em­pha­sized that the omis­sion dis­re­gards the his­tor­i­cal recog­ni­tion of Pun­jabi in the re­gion’s con­sti­tu­tion and un­der­mines the iden­tity of thou­sands of Pun­jabi-speak­ing res­i­dents.

Cit­ing se­ri­ous ed­u­ca­tional con­se­quences, the DGPC noted that Pun­jabi is cur­rently of­fered in only 29 out of 729 higher sec­ondary schools in Jammu and Kash­mir. This lim­ited ac­cess, they ar­gue, ham­pers stu­dents’ abil­ity to learn their mother tongue and en­gage mean­ing­fully with their her­itage — es­pe­cially since the Guru Granth Sahib, the cen­tral re­li­gious scrip­ture of the Sikhs, is writ­ten in Pun­jabi.

The mem­o­ran­dum also high­lights the lack of progress de­spite ear­lier as­sur­ances from the Chief Min­is­ter of Jammu and Kash­mir re­gard­ing av­enues to strengthen Pun­jabi ed­u­ca­tion. “Tan­gi­ble progress on this front re­mains lim­ited,” the let­ter states.

“This is not just a lan­guage is­sue. It’s about cul­tural preser­va­tion, re­li­gious con­ti­nu­ity, and con­sti­tu­tional fair­ness. Re­in­stat­ing Pun­jabi and ex­pand­ing its pres­ence in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem will up­hold lin­guis­tic di­ver­sity and en­rich Jammu and Kash­mir’s plu­ral­is­tic iden­tity.” 

Ran­jeet Singh Tohra Pres­i­dent, DGPC Jammu

Among the key rec­om­men­da­tions put forth are:

• In­tro­duc­tion of Pun­jabi as an op­tional sub­ject from Class 1 to Class 12 in all schools.
• Re­cruit­ment of qual­i­fied Pun­jabi lan­guage fac­ulty through col­lab­o­ra­tion with elected Sikh rep­re­sen­ta­tives.
• Ex­pan­sion of schools of­fer­ing Pun­jabi from the cur­rent 29 to at least 100.
• Mo­bi­liza­tion of DG­PCs across Jammu and Kash­mir to pro­vide trained ed­u­ca­tors to sup­port this ini­tia­tive.

“This is not just a lan­guage is­sue,” said S. Ran­jeet Singh Tohra. “It’s about cul­tural preser­va­tion, re­li­gious con­ti­nu­ity, and con­sti­tu­tional fair­ness. Re­in­stat­ing Pun­jabi and ex­pand­ing its pres­ence in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem will up­hold lin­guis­tic di­ver­sity and en­rich the Union Ter­ri­to­ry’s plu­ral­is­tic iden­tity.”

The DGPC has called on the ad­min­is­tra­tion to take im­me­di­ate ac­tion, re­it­er­at­ing the com­mu­ni­ty’s readi­ness to as­sist in fac­ulty pro­vi­sion and ed­u­ca­tional out­reach.

World Sikh News will con­tinue to mon­i­tor de­vel­op­ments on this crit­i­cal is­sue af­fect­ing the cul­tural and lin­guis­tic rights of the Sikh com­mu­nity in Jammu and Kash­mir.