Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

Arts & Culture Culture, Arts, Literature & Linguistics
141

Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

That's the biggest challenge facing Punjabi language in Pakistan and this has been a problem long before independence. Punjabi is not going to die bcoz there are not enough people speaking it, its the tenth most widely spoken language but its problem is lack of new literature. Punjabis have not been trained to do any literary work in Punjabi, urdu comes as more natural way of writing literature to them.

142

Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

r u sindhi? though u sound mutter :D aka urdu speaking.

there was a time in my life when my sindhi was better than punjabi...it was mainly cuz of my sindhi friends.

143

Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

Yes my mother tongue is Sindhi, but I can understand Punjabi, Hindko and Saraiki too due to interaction with friends speaking these languages. I tried to put my hands on Pashto, but thats too difficult.

BTW, whats the connection between mutter and Urdu?

144

Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

I don't think it's a good practice to call names.

145

Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

It sounds so crazy that Punjabi as a language is dying anywhere. Punjabis always seem so proud of their language and culture here, and for a non-Punjabi, it's cool to be able to speak in Punjabi. And one of the first things that struck me when I moved to Delhi was how every road sign, official boards etc are written in four languages; Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and English.

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Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

But thats not the case in Pakistani Punjab. Though railway stations in Sindh have boards in English, Urdu and Sindhi

147

Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

HI PUNJABI Still has more speakers than hindustani minority language (urdu)

TERRI MAAN BOLI Ay BIBBA !KAKKHAAN WANG NA ROLE PUNJABI
PERH PAUNJABI LIKH PUJABI GaIRRATMANDA BOle PUNJABI

Punjabi is 10th, Urdu 21st, Pashto 31st, Sindhi 46th, Saraiki 60th, Balochi 99th Largest Language of World.

The following tables from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia list the 100 largest languages in the world by native speakers.

1 Mandarin 935 Million 14.1% China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Part of Chinese

2 Spanish 387 Million 5.85% Hispanic America, Spain, United States, Equatorial Guinea

3 English 365 Million 5.52% Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Falkland Islands

4 Hindi 295 Million 4.46% India Includes approx. 100 million speakers of other Hindi languages.

5 Arabic 280 Million 4.23% Northern Africa, Middle East

6 Portuguese 204 Million 3.08% Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macao, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe

7 Bengali 202 Million 3.05% Bangladesh, West Bengal (India), Tripura (India)

8 Russian 160 Million 2.42% Russia, former Republics of the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Israel

9 Japanese 127 Million 1.92% Japan

10 Punjabi 95.5 Million 1.44% Punjab region (Pakistan, India)

11 German 92.1 Million 1.39% Austria, Belgium (Eupen-Malmedy) Germany, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, South Tirol (in Italy)

12 Javanese 82.4 Million 1.25% Java (Indonesia)

13 Wu 79.5 Million 1.2% Shanghai (China)Part of Chinese

14 Indonesian/Malay 76.9 Million 1.16%Indonesia, Malaysia

15 Telugu 75.9 Million 1.15% Andhra Pradesh (India)

16 Vietnamese 75.6 Million 1.14% Vietnam

17 Korean 75.5 Million 1.14% North Korea, South Korea

18 French 73.8 Million 1.12% Belgium (Wallonia, Brussels), Canada (particularly Quebec, New Brunswick and Eastern parts of Ontario), France, Switzerland

19 Marathi 72.9 Million 1.1% Maharashtra (India)

20 Tamil 70.0 Million 1.06% Sri Lanka,Singapore, Tamil Nadu (India), Malaysia, Mauritius

21 Urdu 65.6 Million 0.99% Pakistan, India

22 Turkish 62.6 Million 0.95% Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria

23 Italian 59.4 Million 0.9% Italy, Switzerland, San Marino

24 Cantonese 59.2 Million 0.89% Hong Kong and Guangdong Part of Chinese

25 Thai 56.2 Million 0.85% Thailand

26 Gujarati 48.9 Million 0.74% Gujarat (India)

27 Jin 47.6 Million 0.72% Central China Part of Chinese

28 Min Nan 46.9 Million 0.71% Southeastern China Part of Chinese

29 Persian 45.3 Million 0.68% Iran, Afghanistan, Tadzhikistan

30 Polish 40.2 Million 0.61% Poland

31 Pashto 38.6 Million 0.58% Afghanistan, Pakistan

32 Kannada 38.1 Million 0.58% Karnataka (India)

33 Xiang 38.1 Million 0.58% Hunan (China)

34 Malayalam 37.7 Million 0.57% Kerala (India)

35 Sundanese 37.5 Million 0.57% Java (Indonesia)

36 Hausa 34.5 Million 0.52% Nigeria

37 Oriya 33.4 Million 0.5% Orissa (India)

38 Burmese 33.2 Million 0.5% Burma

39 Hakka 30.6 Million 0.46% Southern China Part of Chinese

40 Ukrainian 30.4 Million 0.46% Ukraine

41 Bhojpuri 28.7 Million 0.43% Bihar (India) Part of Bihari. This is only a fraction of the speakers; the others are counted under 'Hindi' above.

42 Tagalog 27.5 Million 0.42% Manila and Northern Philippines

43 Yoruba 27.5 Million 0.42% Nigeria, Benin and Togo

44 Maithili 26.8 Million 0.41% Bihar (India) Part of Bihari. This is only a fraction of the speakers; the others are counted under 'Hindi' above.

45 Uzbek 25.6 Million 0.39% Uzbekistan

46 Sindhi 25.5 Million 0.39% Sindh (Pakistan and neighboring areas in India)

47 Amharic 24.8 Million 0.37% Ethiopia

48 Fula 24.5 Million 0.37% West and Central Africa, from Senegal to Sudan

49 Romanian 24.5 Million 0.37% Romania, Moldova

50 Oromo 24.1 Million 0.36% Ethiopia and Kenya

51 Igbo 24.0 Million 0.36% Nigeria

52 Azerbaijani 22.7 Million 0.34%Azerbaijan and Northern Iran

53 Awadhi 22.0 Million 0.33% Uttar Pradesh (India) Part of Hindi. This is only a fraction of the speakers; the others are counted under 'Hindi' above.

54 Gan Chinese 21.8 Million 0.33% Jiangxi in China Part of Chinese

55 Cebuano 21.1 Million 0.32% Central and Southern Philippines

56 Dutch 20.9 Million 0.32% Belgium (Flanders, Brussels), Netherlands and Suriname

57 Kurdish 20.6 Million 0.31% “Kurdistan”, northern Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria

58 Serbo-Croatian 18.8 Million 0.28%Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro

59 Malagasy 18.4 Million 0.28% Madagascar

60 Saraiki 17.2 Million 0.26% Sindh (Pakistan)

61 Nepali 16.8 Million 0.25% Nepal and neighbouring areas

62 Sinhalese 16.5 Million 0.25% Sri Lanka

63 Chittagonian 15.9 Million 0.24%Chittagong in Bangladesh

64 Zhuang 15.9 Million 0.24% Guangxi (Southern China)

65 Khmer 15.8 Million 0.24% Cambodia

66 Turkmen 15.8 Million 0.24% Turkmenistan

67 Assamese 15.4 Million 0.23% Assam (India)

68 Madurese 15.0 Million 0.23% Madura, and Java (Indonesia)

69 Somali 14.7 Million 0.22% Somalia

70 Marwari 14.1 Million 0.21% Rajastan (India and Pakistan).This is only a fraction of the speakers; the others are counted under 'Hindi' above.

71 Magahi 13.9 Million 0.21% Bihar (India) Part of Bihari

72 Haryanvi 13.8 Million 0.21% Haryana (India)Part of Hindi

73 Hungarian 12.7 Million 0.19% Hungary and areas in neighbouring countries

74 Chhattisgarhi 12.3 Million 0.19%Chhattisgarh (India) Part of Hindi. This is only a fraction of the speakers; the others are counted under 'Hindi' above.

75 Greek 11.9 Million 0.18% Greece, Cyprus

76 Chewa 11.5 Million 0.17% Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe

77 Deccan 11.4 Million 0.17% Deccan (India) Part of Urdu

78 Akan 11.0 Million 0.17% Ghana, Ivory Coast

79 Kazakh 11.0 Million 0.17% Kazakhstan

80 Min Bei 10.9 Million 0.16% Fujian (China) Part of Chinese

81 Sylheti 10.7 Million 0.16% Northern Bangladesh and neighbouring parts of India

82 Zulu 10.4 Million 0.16% South Africa

83 Czech 10.0 Million 0.15% Czech Republic

84 Kinyarwanda 9.8 Million 0.15% Rwanda Part of Rwanda-Rundi

85 Dhundhari 9.6 Million 0.15% Rajastan (India)

86 Haitian Creole 9.6 Million 0.15% Haiti

87 Min Dong 9.5 Million 0.14% Fujian (China) Part of Chinese

88 Ilokano 9.1 Million 0.14% Northern Luzon in the Philippines

89 Quechua 8.9 Million 0.13% Peru and Bolivia. A language family, not a language

90 Kirundi 8.8 Million 0.13% Burundi and Uganda. Part of Rwanda-Rundi

91 Swedish 8.7 Million 0.13% Sweden and Finland

92 Hmong 8.4 Million 0.13% Laos and neighbouring areas. A language family, not a language

93 Shona 8.3 Million 0.13% Zimbabwe

94 Uyghur 8.2 Million 0.12% Xinjiang (Western China)

95 Hiligaynon 8.2 Million 0.12% Western Visayas in the Philippines

96 Mossi 7.6 Million 0.11% Burkina Faso

97 Xhosa 7.6 Million 0.11% South Africa

98 Belarusian 7.6 Million 0.11% Belarus

99 Balochi 7.6 Million 0.11% Balochistan (province in Pakistan and Iran)

100 Konkani 7.4 Million 0.11% Goa (State in India)

148

Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

PuNJABI is a victim of De-Punjabization policies ...first by the British ....and then via the Hindu/urdu controversy ...trapped in a constructed national narrative when Punjabi ... does not gets space it needs post 51 .

...it was after 1849 ...the fall of Ranjeet Singh that British deliberately introduced URDU ...as a language of Employment in Punjab...or in the words of Dilhouse ... tried to TAME the Wild Punjabi via ...modern education . ...the resulting product ..... Allama Iqbal .... a PUNJABI...who wrote practically nothing worth mentioning in his own mother tongue , it is also interesting to note ... British conquered Sindh in 1939 around 10 years earlier ...yet retained Sindhi in Sindh for the offcial work...

..people say ... punabi does not have a script ...!! ..well this is actually BS ... what do you think ... Poros used to speak or write ....!!
""People of the Punjab were not mute when the world-known ancient Indian Valley Civilization flourished in the north-west parts of the country. The Punjabis used to speak their own language which is older even than the Dravidian's"
.... proably Kharsohti script was used then ..... as ... the PILLARS of Bhudha ....so spread all over North West PAKISTAN ... including Punjab have it on them ....then there was Pali ...

Sanskrit's grammer was compiled by Panini ...in these very lands of Punjab.

...but the most every lasting influence is that of Persian ... especially after the Muslim invaders entered these lands....and made Persian the official language of the court ... also ...the muslim Sufi's in an attempt to keep a muslim identity ....probably resulted in the division of Punjabi script into Shah mukhi ...and Gurmukhi ......Shahmukhi ...being prefered by the muslims Sufis .....incidentally its Shahmukhi ...which was the prototype for Urdu script ....as developed and promoted via the Fort William College Calcutta , when it embarked on the translation of Persian work into URDU ...

the De-punjabization phase later continued ... post 47 ...especially after 51 ...when all the indigenous languages were declared non-islamic by no less then a person of the calibre of Baba-e-Urdu ... especially as a reaction to Bengalis resistance and effort to save Bengali post 47 .
Punjabis already mellowed down by
1) the muslims sufis
2) by the British deliberate de-punjabization policies
3) TNT ...found themselves in a position ....where muslims Punjabis abandoned their language in favor of a MUSLIM URDU ...or Islamic URDU language ...especially post 51 .

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Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

Detailed and informative post :k:

One thing, how we can say that Punjabi was disowned by Muslim Sufis, when we see sufis like Waris Shah, Bulleh Shah, Madhoo Laal Hussain, Sultan Bahoo, all doing poetry in Punjabi?

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Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

Urdu Zindabad! Btw, how is Punjabi dying with Punjabi channels and popular Punjabi singers in Pakistan?

151

Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

channels don't guarantee a languages survival in absolute terms.

A language's survival is dependent on how much literature it produces. While Indian Punjab is publishing hundreds of Punjabi books a year, the situation in Pakistan is alarming. In urban Punjab (Pakistan) people avoid to speak Punjabi due to fear that they may be termed as paindoo. Many people don't speak Punjabi with their children.

PS: Urdu Zindabad, and every Pakistani language Zindabad.

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Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

Judging by literature, isn't Urdu sort of dying as well? Khaana peena ho jai phir kitaab bhee chap jaye gee. :)

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Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

yes Urdu is at stake also, as literature and new writers are not produced for almost two decades. We still refer to works of writers who were popular in 80s and 90s. The language (Urdu) spoken on media is aadha teetar aadha bater (every sentence containing English).

but being academic language, the deterioration process is slow and there is hope for its revival.

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Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

…no they did not disowned Punjabi … only they insisted on using PERSIAN Script …ie ShahMukhi for it…

…by the way …just for record… Sikh’s holy book …Garanth Pak …has a lot of content from Muslim Sufis in it … ..infact… Sikhs Gurus and Muslim Sufis always had coordial relations …for example Mian Mir …laid the foundation of Golden temple …and Guru Nanak’s friendship with Data sahib is also a known Fact…

…it were the outsiders…the mughal /pathan invaders which committed too many attrocities on Sikhs … for decades …and as a reaction …Sikhs formed Misals… Armed groups ] to counter it , and after the weakening of Mughals …these Sikh Misals …some of them renegade took all over Punjab…each having its own area under control … Lahore was under the Bhangi Misal Sardars…, they mistreated all especially Muslims…and it was then , people of Lahore , including some prominent muslims wrote letters to Ranjeet Singh to save them and he obliged.
..and after he consolidated his kingdom … he retained Persian as the official language , he himself was secular and never interfered in the religion of any one…Education which mostly was secular and modern during his ERA had such a boast …that Leiter in his own report conceeded that the education system in PUNJAB is of the highest calibre and literacy rate at places is as high as 80% , and it included women education as well … !! ..this was confirmed by other as well…for example …
Read THE BEAUTIFUL TREE. Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century by. Dharampal. }

, i… and it were not only Sikhs…that resisted the Invaders… Read about Dulla Bhatti …another true son of Punjab’s soil …he too is honored as a Punjabi legend who resisted the Invaders…

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Re: Why Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools?

..and about Punjabi literature .... Heer Waris Shah , is still the most Read ... Punjabi literature .... it was so ...even before partition .... you will still find .... many publishers publishing its various version and all selling pretty good....
...