SAHIWAL: Punjabi language is not the popular medium of communication but it has a vast repository of memories of the people who lived on this land for centuries. It has its own communication tools, sensibility, wisdom and consciousness that ran through the ages and it is still going strong among those who speak it.

This was stated by Maqsood Saqib, editor of Punjabi monthly, Pancham, while delivering a lecture “Punjabi Language and Identity” at Zila Council Hall.

Saqib said the question of Punjabi was not the question of its revival or language loss but it was linked with its implementation by state as medium of instruction in education, judiciary and the media and it’s past rebellious sensitivity.

“During Baba Farid’s times, the state’s lingua franca was Persian and Arabic and Baba Farid knew both the state languages but he choose to write poetry in the language of the masses who were also the owners of the language.”

He said the Punjabi language, since its origin, was the language of those who were not close to established power structure but of those who were involved in production and were called the downtrodden.

“The preservation of Punjabi language is not the question of human or constitutional rights only, it is matter of that pride and honour which our classical poets have put on our shoulder,” he said.

Maqsood Saqib stressed that all classical poets from Baba Farid to Khwaja Ghulam Farid talked about the people and used their language for poetical expression. It was applied to language question today because if one wanted to talk about literature and language of the people one needed to declass oneself on a linguistic basis as well, he said and added that the Punjabi language question without its class context and “collectivity” was meaningless.

Sahiwal Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Amir Sadiq, Khalid Masood and Talia Butt also spoke.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2017