Punjabis are fighting Punjabis for Punjabi in Punjab. Officials of Punjab government and private educational institutions are giving Punjabi a step-motherly treatment in schools and colleges. The citizenry is under the deluge of Bollywood. Activists of the Punjabi Bhasha Pasaar Bhaichara fight this cultural onslaught by starting a movement for renaissance of Punjabi.

On 1 November, a very tiny section of the population of Punjab celebrated Punjab Day or more appropriately Punjabi Suba Day. This language-based state came into existence on 1 November 1966. It is disturbing and ironical that the state of Punjab which came into existence after a long struggle and many sacrifices is still struggling to save the language which was the basis of its formation.

This is how Punjabis are belittling their mother tongue:  

1. All proceedings in the Punjab Assembly are conducted in English.
2. Bills, documents, resolutions or reports tabled in the legislature are not translated into Punjabi.
3. The request for copies of documentation in Punjabi has fallen on deaf ears.
4. Proceedings in all courts should be in the Punjabi language, but is never done.
5. Litigants from rural areas are at sea in the court not able to comprehend what is going on.
6. Private schools, especially Christian convent schools penalise students who speak their mother-tongue Punjabi and discourage students from speaking the same through a regimen of fines and punishments.
7. DAV schools continue their decades-old hatred of Punjabi and push students to adopt Hindi.
8. There is no mandatory training of non-Punjabi speaking officers of high cadre in police and administration to learn reading, writing and speaking Punjabi.
9. Punjab government and related websites do not offer any material in Punjabi.
10. Authentic translation services in Punjabi are minimal at district headquarters.
11. “Modern” parents prefer speaking in Hindi and English with their offsprings.

Having been pushed to the wall, on the occasion of Punjabi Suba Day, activists of a new body the Punjabi Bhasha Pasaar Bhaichara fanned out all over the Punjab and submitted memoranda to Sub-divisional magistrates and deputy commissioners in many districts of Punjab, urging them to follow the provisions of the Punjab Raj Bhasa Act 1967, with amendment upto 2008.

The memoranda submitted at district headquarters stated “that in pursuance of the Punjab Raj Bhasha Act, 1967, amended in 2008, all the work in the state offices has to be conducted in Punjabi.”

“All schools of Punjab, irrespective of the board they belonged to are to provide for the education of Punjabi as a compulsory subject from the 1st to the 10th standard, with passing in this subject as mandatory for obtaining the Matriculation Certificate ”

Punjab Learning of Punjabi and other Languages Act, 2008

However, an indifferent bureaucracy over the last decades has been never serious about implementing the provisions of the Act. Punjabi language activists owing allegiance to Guru Gobind Singh Study circle and stalwarts like Kuldeep Singh, Kirpal Singh Garcha, Mota Singh Jheeta, Satnam Singh Johal and Davinder Singh Ghataura, all of Canadian Sikh Studies, Advocate H. C. Arora, Mr. Mitter Sain Meet, Mahinder Singh Sekhon, ably assisted by Sukhdev Singh Laaj, Davinder Singh Sekha, Sukhjinder Pal Singh Sidhu, Jaspal Kaur, Amar Gholia, Gyan Singh, Harbaksh Singh Grewal and many others have pioneered a movement of renaissance of Punjabi.

They were instrumental in convincing the present government of Punjab to issue a fresh directive dated 5 September 2018 to all administrative heads that would ensure strict compliance of all provisions of the Act in letter and spirit. The directive also orders that official websites be made in Punjabi as well.

As many CBSE, ICSE and Cambridge English medium schools are treating Punjabi as an alien language or an optional subject and not mandatory, activists of the Punjabi Bhasha Pasaar Bhaichara have sent letters to chairpersons of boards and schools clearly telling them that as per the Punjab Learning of Punjabi and other Languages Act, 2008, “all schools of Punjab, irrespective of the board they belonged to are to provide for the education of Punjabi as a compulsory subject from the 1st to the 10th standard, with passing in this subject as mandatory for obtaining the Matriculation Certificate.”

Suppressing Punjabi in Punjab at the bureaucratic level or the educational level is violation of our fundamental rights and we are determined to fight this tooth and nail.

“Suppressing Punjabi in Punjab at the bureaucratic level or the educational level is violation of our fundamental rights and we are determined to fight this tooth and nail. ”

Mahinder Singh Sekhon, Punjabi language activist

Leading activist Mitter Sain Meet has apprised that 12 branches of the organisation have been formed all over Punjab. “We are determined to take Punjabi back to the homes of Punjabis. We want to create love and respect for Punjabi through the forum of the Punjabi Bhasha Pasar Bhaichara,” he said. “We will use advocacy methodology to bring about this change in Punjab.

Reacting to the fears of parents worried about the future of their children if asked to learn Punjabi, Mitter Sain Meet said, “We are definitely not against English or any other language but due status of Punjabi must be given. How can anyone ignore one’s mother tongue? All fears of parents are unfounded.”

Speaking to WSN, Mahinder Singh Sekhon said, “Suppressing Punjabi in Punjab at the bureaucratic level or the educational level is violation of our fundamental rights and we are determined to fight this tooth and nail.”

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“We will not rest till Punjabi becomes the language of Punjab in its truest sense.”