Editorial: Auspicious beginning for the prosperity of Punjabi
Punjabi is the tenth most spoken language in the world
Editorial: Auspicious beginning for the prosperity of Punjabi: Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Thursday took oath as a minister of Delhi in Punjabi, enhancing the glory of his mother tongue. His critics may call it hypocrisy or grandstanding, but the Punjabi language desperately needs such grandstanding both inside and outside Punjab. Punjabi is the tenth most spoken language in the world.
The number of speakers of it is around 15 crores and the number of those who understand it is even more. Despite this, in our country it is considered only the language of the Sikh community and its glorious history and heritage are not wholeheartedly recognized. The reality is that among the Punjabi speakers worldwide, the number of Sikhs is not more than three crores, while the number of Muslim community is estimated to be 8.6 crores and that of Hindu community is estimated to be around four crores.
It is also a regrettable aspect that most members of the Hindu community who call themselves Punjabi, write their mother tongue as Hindi and not Punjabi during the census. On the other hand, despite the imposition of Urdu by governments since 1948 under the concept of ‘One Nation, One Language’, a large part of the population of West Punjab has been registering their mother tongue, Punjabi.
Punjabi has the status of an official language in Delhi. This status is a result of the long struggle of the Punjabi community there. Before the above status was granted, communal sentiment against Punjabi was also prevalent in the National Capital Region till the 1980s. After the official status was granted, Punjabi and Urdu were also used on government boards in Delhi along with English and Hindi. Although Delhi is a mix of people from different states in terms of population, its temperament and manners are still Punjabi. Noted film actor Gajraj Rao had recently said in a radio interview that his origin is Rajasthani, but he has also worked in Punjabi theatre.
His statement was, “Born in Rajasthan, but brought up in Delhi. Punjabi is the only language from there, so I have come to read and speak Punjabi.” Despite such sentiments expressed by non-Punjabis, it is truly a regrettable trend for a large section of the Punjabi community to look down on their language or consider it backward. What is even more sad is that Punjabi was directly ignored during Arvind Kejriwal’s tenure as the Chief Minister. Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena also took notice of this and ordered an inquiry into this neglect on 4 December 2024. He also sought a report on the huge shortage of Punjabi teachers in government schools and also objected to the drought of funds for the Punjabi Academy.
Despite such steps, a lot remains to be done for the development of Punjabi within and outside Punjab. Instead of relying solely on the governments, the Punjabi community itself can also contribute significantly to this work. The first step can be done to correct the spelling errors in Punjabi words on government signboards. For example, out of the four signboards on Humayun Road in central Delhi, only one has the spelling of Humayun correctly. The Punjabi root has been uprooted from the other three.
This is just one example. Dozens of such examples can be easily given. Punjab and Haryana are also suffering from the same problem as Delhi, even those who express hatred towards Punjabi have failed to pay attention to the treatment of this problem. The auspicious beginning that Mr. Sirsa has made by taking oath in Punjabi will take the right direction when the mistakes that seem to be an insult to Punjabi are also removed and steps are also taken seriously for the study of Punjabi. We are sure that as a minister, it will not be difficult for him to get this work done.