The East India Company after the occupation of Punjab in the mid-19th century imposed on the Punjabis two foreign languages; English -for the upper crust- and Urdu- for the lower orders.

It’s understandable that English being the language of the colonialists had to be imposed as a symbol of their power. But why was Urdu, an unfamiliar language from UP [United Provinces now called Uttar Pradesh], brought in, has not been fully debated and analysed. Three following reasons are generally enumerated by scholars for the forcible introduction of Urdu: 1, political fear of Punjabi identity, 2, Hindustani prejudice, 3, administrative ease.

In the language debate after the annexation, a number of colonial officers were of the view that if Punjabi was introduced in the new education system, it would always subliminally remind the people of their suppressed Punjabi identity. The Commissioner of Delhi wrote to the Punjab government in 1862; “Any measure which would revive Goormukhee, which is the written Panjabi tongue, would be a political error”. ‘Error’ stemmed from the fear of evocation of Punjabi cultural identity.

Great linguist and scholar Dr. W.G. Leitner, the first Principal of Government College Lahore, said in his famous report on education that Hindustani prejudice played a role in the rejection of Punjabi and imposition of Urdu as majority of ‘Munshi class [clerical staff]’ were Urdu speaking from UP, India. Most of the officers who came to Punjab had years of service in UP and adjacent regions, and thus were familiar with Urdu /Hindi. Administrative convenience prompted them to opt for Urdu which they and their clerical staff were comfortable with. Punjabis being subjugated recently had to be sternly ruled, not appeased.

Loss of linguistic and cultural identity makes it easier for the occupying force to have its way with the vanquished. “They [officials of colonial administration] shared prejudice of Hindustanis’, wrote Dr. Leitner. In response to Robert Cust’s advocacy of use of Punjabi the director of public instruction, Punjab, wrote to the secretary of the government of Punjab in 1862: “I have no advantage of knowing the grounds, on which Mr. Cust bases his advocacy of Punjabee as the Court Vernacular in this Province - There can be no advantage in the substitution of Punjabee for Urdoo —Punjabi is merely a dialect of Urdoo and varies considerably in different parts of the Province—It has no literature of its own…”. Well. It wasn’t just a case of prejudice. It was egregious example of prejudice coupled with abysmal ignorance. This director of public instruction was absolutely clueless about the history of Punjabi language and its literature. Both Punjabi language and its literature are much older than Urdoo. How an older language, Punjabi in this case, could be a dialect of newly emerging language, Urdoo, spoke of director’s ‘logical mind’ and his knowledge of Punjabi literature produced since 12th century only revealed how ‘knowledgeable’ he was. He was in fact a toxic mix of prejudice and arrogance which played havoc with Punjab’s academic and literary life.

About the administrative convenience, Dr. Leitner says: “They [British colonialists] found it more convenient to carry on official business in English and Urdu with their existing skills”. We must remember that it was the convenience of the occupation force that mattered, not that of the people, of colonialists, not of the colonised.

The colonial education policy which burdened people and the students with two alien languages impoverished one of the most literate region - according to researches done by scholars commissioned by the colonial administration - intellectually and academically. The worst excess was that it snatched from the people their fundamental human right, the right to own and use one’s natural language.

Depriving people of their language is worst kind of intellectual violence as it not only pushes their worldview - encapsulated by language - into oblivion but also takes away from them their basic tool of thinking. Ludwig Wittgenstein brilliantly summarised the human mind’s fundamental relationship with language in his aphorism: “The limits of my language are the limits of my world”.

Imposition of an alien language wasn’t something new for the region because it had seen in its long history dominant groups and classes using their elitist or unfamiliar languages for their cultural and intellectual hegemony. But this time there was a qualitative difference; advent of colonialism introduced a machine-based new capitalist mode of production with all-pervasive and far-reaching consequences that fundamentally transformed society. A huge network of railways, telegraph, asphalt roads and canals tremendously boosted material production. Along with such a development juridical, legal and other socio-political institutions were set up. The whole edifice eventually rested on educational and vocational institutions which supplied workforce needed for its efficient running and maintenance. Education became job-oriented and the medium of instruction was either English or Urdu depending on the class of students. In simple words, you needed education from the institutions established by colonial administration for new jobs and education was imparted at the cost of your mother language. Incentive of job and threat of being deprived worked to the absolute disadvantage of Punjabi language making it little relevant to one’s economic and social well-being. Learning and developing a language can be difficult if it proves to be an impediment in the way of one’s material enrichment and social uplift.

Another historical factor in the last decades of colonial era that relegated Punjabi language to the back of Punjabi Muslims’ collective mind was the notion of Urdu as a language of Muslims. This notion was upheld by the exponents of Muslim separatism and the Pakistan Movement. It was obviously a flawed notion. Language is linked with region, not faith, history tells us.

Ever since the emergence of Pakistan as a state, another ill-conceived slogan of ‘one nation one language’ has militated against the rich linguistic diversity of country’s different regions with long cultural past. It’s not one language but rather the recognition of historical right of diverse languages to exist and flourish that can ensure national integration and socio-cultural cohesion. We can rectify the wrongs committed by us if we understand our reasons for committing them. In case we persist with our follies, history will surely undo them but at a price. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2019