Exiled in its own land: Diasporification of Punjabi in Punjab

Abstract

Diasporic studies are about groups of people living as exiles, self-exiles, migrants and immigrants. Suppression of diasporic communities in various forms in their former (but original) homeland and/or adopted homeland has been the major concern of diasporic studies. Issues such as language, culture, identity and religion form core areas of these studies. Recently, the peripheral existence of various minorities within a country/society has led to diasporic studies in which no transborder situation is involved, which shows that the scope of diaspora as a discipline or research field has widened a great deal. However, there is one aspect of diasporic studies which has remained almost unexplored on its own. This is what can be termed as non-people issues facing diasporic fates of their own. Language, culture and religion can be such issues. This paper takes up the status of the Punjabi language in the state of Punjab in Pakistan. It claims that Punjabi language is being exiled from various domains of society by no other agent or institution but the Punjabis themselves. In other words, the Punjabi language is facing ‘dispersion’ at the hands of its own (native) speakers. Adapting a well-known sociolinguistic model called the Ethnolinguistic Vitality Model, the paper seeks to document the diasporic status of Punjabi language in Punjab. The findings of this paper belie the generally made claim that the power of a language is related to the power of its speakers. Despite being the language of the overwhelming majority group of Punjab and Pakistan, Punjabi is alien in its own homeland.

Keywords:

• diaspora
• diasporification
• ethnolinguistic vitality
• human rights
• language attitudes
• minority/majority language
• Punjab
• Punjabi language

Notes on contributor

Abbas Zaidi is the author of Two and a Half Words and Other Stories (Savvy Press, New York), and Language Shift: Sociolinguistic Lives of Two Punjabi Generations in Brunei Darussalam (Classic Books, Lahore).

Notes

1. Some of the examples are Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.

2. As reported in The New Zealand Herald, in August 2012, a New Zealand court conferred a legal entity on the Whanganui River. A spokesman for the Minister of Treaty Negotiations announced, ‘The Whanganui River will be recognized as a person when it comes to the law in the same way a company is, which will give it rights and interests'. The agreement was signed on behalf of Whanganui Iwi by Brendan Puketapu of the Whanganui River Maori Trust, which represents a group of Iwi along the river, and the Crown in Parliament. For details, see Shuttleworth (2012).

3. The equivalent term for ‘province’ in India or the United States is ‘state’.

4. The province is referred to as ‘Punjab’ or ‘the Punjab’. In this paper, the definite article is dropped.

5. The census of Pakistan which was supposed to be held in 1991 was actually held in 1998. After that, the latest census was supposed to be held in 2008, but given the country's volatile situation, it has not been held so far. For details, see Zaidi (2010).

6. Interestingly, some scholars may claim that the percentage of the speakers of Punjabi is not as low as 44.15 as shown on the table but 54.68%: Seraiki is a dialect of Punjabi, but it has been separated from Punjabi on the political basis. Rahman (1996 and 2002) has pointed out that Seraiki as a separate language was the result of the movement in the 1960s which sought to redress economic deprivations suffered by the people of South Punjab, the so-called Seraiki belt. Some scholars of Seraiki contend that Seraiki and Punjabi are not different languages but two varieties (Nadiem 2005; Shackle 2007). This is, however, a controversial issue and involves political economic and emotional issues. This also involves sociolinguistic issues like what constitutes a language/dialect and who decides what a language/dialect is and what basis. This is why, I have avoided this matter because it cannot be mentioned in passing.

7. Language vitality is an area within LMLS. Maintenance or shift of a language depends on its vitality.

8. I have had years of experience as a journalist in Pakistan.

9. This aspect needs to be explored in greater details.