"Urdu is Punjab's mother tongue"

Long before the creation of Pakistan, Urdu had been chosen as the national language of this nation yet to be born. And indeed, in the years that followed the creation of Pakistan, the central government undertook a number of initiatives to make it the national language of the country and its sole official language in place of English. But these initiatives encountered resistance in some provinces. An Urdu/Bengali controversy erupted in East Bengal, and an Urdu/Sindhi controversy erupted in Sindh. An Urdu/Punjabi controversy also erupted in Pakistani Punjab, the main subject of this article.

Soon after independence, the authorities of the province of Punjab followed the policy of the central government and took steps towards implementation of Urdu as an official language. This was undoubtedly due to the long history that links Punjab to Urdu, the language chosen in 1853 by the British authorities to be the language of instruction and of administration in the province. Alongside the efforts of the provincial government to implement Urdu, a local movement for Urdu emerged in Lahore in 1948 (during an Urdu conference), which initially received the blessings of activist and educationalist Maulvi Abdul Haq and was led by Maulana Salahuddin Ahmad. Maulana Salahuddin Ahmad advocated the replacement of Punjabi, the majority language of the population of the province, by Urdu. This language ideology was immediately challenged by some Marxist intellectuals linked to the All Pakistan Progressive Writers Association (APPWA) such as Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Sharif Kunjahi, and Zaheer Babar. Later on, in 1950, a group of Pakistani nationalists led by Abdul Majeed Salik and Faqir Muhammad Faqir also started challenging this ideology. Both groups produced their own alternative language ideologies, opposing Urdu's hegemony and advocating the development of Punjabi.

This paper examines the initial stage (1947–1953) of the Urdu/Punjabi controversy in Pakistani Punjab and the concomitant production of distinct language ideologies by different groups. In order to trace the history of this controversy, I have relied mainly on articles and essays that appeared in magazines and newspapers published during the discussed period, such as Adabī dunyā, Saverā, Daily Imroz, Chaṭṭān and Panjābī; on speeches delivered at the provincial assembly during the 1948 Urdu conference and during the 1949 APPWA conference; and on interviews of witnesses such as Abdul Rauf Malik and Abid Minto.

I. The Urdu Movement in Punjab

The 1948 Conference and the Birth of the Urdu Movement

The authorities of Pakistani Punjab took their first step towards making Urdu the official language of the province in place of English on January 5, 1948. On that day the regional legislative assembly of the province decided to use Urdu as the language of debates instead of English. Minister of Education Sheikh Karamat Ali declared during the same session: "The medium of instruction in all public educational establishments and colleges will be Urdu. And the government will even try to make Urdu the language of our administrations."

In order to take adequate steps ensuring the switch from English to Urdu, the Punjab government organized between 26 and 28 March 1948 the first Urdu conference ever held in Pakistan. The venue of this conference was Punjab University in Lahore, and political personalities such as Abdul Rabb Nishtar and Zafar Ali Khan, education experts such as M.D. Taseer and Urdu activists such as Sir Abdul Qadir, Maulvi Abdul Haq, and Maulana Salahuddin Ahmad participated in it.

Maulvi Abdul Haq decided to start his speech with a statement in favor of Urdu and explained why 'Provincial and local' languages (including Bengali) should be sacrificed in favor of it. The ideology he formulated in his speech looked upon all vernacular languages of Pakistan as underdeveloped when compared to Urdu:

Provincial and local languages have neither the popularity nor the breadth of a language like Urdu, and if we had to favor provincial and local languages to the detriment of Urdu, people would be deprived of the sophistication, open-mindedness, and national conscience which are the prerogatives of Urdu speakers. (Daily Imroz March 28, 1948)

He then added: "Nowadays to support Urdu is to support the Nation, the progress of Urdu is the progress of the Nation, and the existence of Urdu is the existence of the Nation." Urdu was placed at the center of a language ideology that merged language and nation. Challenging the higher place of Urdu would thus be considered an attack on the nation.

It was during this conference that a specific aspect of the language ideology of the supporters of Urdu in Punjab emerged: Pakistani Punjab was designated as a shelter for Urdu, a language threatened in India after the mass migration of Muslims and the adoption of Hindi. Maulvi Abdul Haq requested hospitality for Urdu in Pakistan, a language he compared to a refugee expelled from his country:

Gentlemen! Hundreds of thousands of refugees have come to your country. Another refugee, very honorable and respectable has joined these unfortunate ones, it is our National Language. It is as miserable as these refugees; it was exiled from its country… Respect and appreciate it! It will do many things for you; it will destroy Sectarianism, Regionalism, and jealousy, it will extinguish the fire of discord, bring hearts together and make the People of Pakistan one entity, with one heart and one body. (Daily Imroz March 28, 1948)

Maulana Salahuddin Ahmad and His Manifesto (1948)

It was mainly Maulana Salahuddin Ahmad, an intellectual from Lahore, who led the Urdu movement in Punjab. In 1946 Maulana Salahuddin Ahmad had launched Urdu bolo teḥrīk ('Speak Urdu!' Movement) through his journal Adabī dunyā. He would in his Adabī dunyā editorials address readers directly and urge them to use Urdu in conversations (instead of their vernacular) to make the language more prominent. He also insisted that parents should speak Urdu to their children, as it would facilitate their acquisition of education in government schools.

Maulana Salahuddin Ahmad summarized the language ideology of the new Urdu movement in an essay entitled Taqsīm-e mulk kā aṡar urdu zubān aur adab par (The impact of partition on the Urdu language and literature), published in December 1948 in his journal Adabī dunyā. This essay soon became a kind of manifesto for the supporters of Urdu in Punjab. He states the reason why Punjab constitutes the best sanctuary for Urdu: the Sikhs and the English government had hitherto prevented it from prospering because of the place they gave to Punjabi in the education system. Their departure has cleared the way for Urdu:

The future of Urdu in Western Punjab is not so bad. Punjabi ceased to be taught after the departure of Sikhs (…) The previous regime considered the diploma of Gyānī of Punjabi equivalent to the diploma of Fāẓil of Urdu, and Punjabi, this language of which all the literature would only fill a cupboard, competed with Urdu and was quite successful. (Ahmad, Maulana Salahuddin, 1949: 90)

II. The Language Ideology of the Marxists and the Beginning of the Urdu/Punjabi Controversy (1947–1951)

The First Progressive Writers Conference (1947)

Before the Urdu movement officially began, some Marxist intellectuals already sensed what the dominant language ideology of the province would be. They questioned the role of Urdu and stressed the need to use Punjabi as a medium of instruction during the first Progressive Writers Conference, which was organized by APPWA and held in the hall of the YMCA of Lahore on December 5th–6th, 1947. This conference was chaired by Abdul Majeed Salik, and all writers present in Lahore were invited, whatever their political leaning. Among the participants one could find alongside Marxists like Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Zahir Kashmiri, and Sahir Ludhianvi Pakistani — nationalists like Hafiz Jalandhari, M.D. Taseer, and Shorish Kashmiri.

A controversy started when the Progressive organizers of the conference proposed a resolution regarding the use of regional languages as mediums of instruction all over the country. This proposal infuriated M.D. Taseer, who insisted that Urdu and not Punjabi should be made a medium of instruction in Punjab. He maintained that Urdu was not an alien language but a vernacular language of Punjab: "Punjabi is a dialect of Urdu… After the creation of Pakistan, the importance of Urdu has increased."

The Second Progressive Writers Conference (1949)

Undaunted by the bitter debate that had taken place during their first conference, the members of APPWA continued to question the role of Urdu and stressed the need to accommodate Punjabi during their second conference, organized in Lahore on November 11th–13th, 1949. The most significant event was the reading of an essay in Punjabi by Sharif Kunjahi, entitled Ūnṭ te baddū (The camel and the Bedouin), which is probably the first manifesto in favor of Punjabi that was made public after the creation of Pakistan. It begins with a parable:

Once upon a time there was a Bedouin and his camel on a cold winter night. The Bedouin was sleeping in his tent, and when the night was well advanced, the camel put his head in the tent and said: 'It is cold, can I put my head in your tent?'… Finally the camel slept inside the tent, and the Bedouin outside. The same story is being repeated now in Punjab: soon, the camel will be found inside the tent, and the Bedouin will be compelled to sleep outside.

The APPWA's language ideology was further formulated by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, newly appointed secretary of APPWA, published in Saverā:

The Progressive Writers Association does not consider the government of Pakistan a benefactor of Urdu, but considers that this government is fighting against Urdu, and wants to make it a tool of exploitation… It wants to destroy the regional languages of the people of Pakistan, because these are the languages through which the people can best understand their current situation, and they can, by educating themselves in these languages, get rid of their ignorance. Their literature, songs, aspirations, desires, joys and sorrows are preserved in these languages. (Saverā.7–8, 1950: 262)

The Punjabi Column of the Daily Imroz (1951)

In line with their ideology, the Marxists of Lahore used all their available resources to promote Punjabi. Mian Iftikharuddin, the owner of the Daily Imroz, decided to launch in August 1951 a weekly Punjabi column, Gall bāt (Conversation). The appearance of a column in Punjabi in a newspaper as popular and prestigious as the Daily Imroz provoked controversy.

Zaheer Babar responded to protests by arguing that a nation cannot progress until it develops its local languages alongside its National language: "Twenty million Punjabis use this language in every place, whether at home or at the market, on their farms, or at the mosque, with their friends or with their enemies. A Punjabi will converse with another Punjabi only in Punjabi. We can therefore conclude that to express personal feelings one always prefers one's mother tongue." (Daily Imroz, September 29, 1951)

III. The Language Ideology of Faqir Muhammad Faqir and Abdul Majeed Salik's Group and the Second Phase of the Urdu/Punjabi Controversy (1950–1953)

The Urdu/Punjabi controversy entered a second phase in July 1950 with a meeting organized by the Punjabi poet Faqir Muhammad Faqir in Dyal Singh College, Lahore. Abdul Majeed Salik chaired the meeting, and participants mostly belonged to the circle of Pakistani nationalists. The aim of this meeting was to discuss the future of Punjabi in the context of an Urdu movement threatening to wipe it out.

This meeting led to the creation of a monthly Punjabi journal called Panjābī, edited by Abdul Majeed Salik. The essays published in the first issues of Panjābī contested the language ideology of the Urdu movement. Abdul Majeed Salik wrote:

The language of our province, our mother tongue that we speak night and day in our homes and with our friends, is Punjabi. And it will remain Punjabi until the end of the world. Urdu cannot replace it. To try to replace people's mother tongue is to go against nature. (Panjābī, October 1951: 10)

A new language ideology was finally clearly formulated in 1953 by Dr. Aziz ul Hassan Abbasi, which opposes Urdu in the name of a Punjabi people (Qaum), resisting colonization by an Urdu-speaking invader: "A People which has abandoned its language and started speaking another language is doomed in the short term." (Panjābī, November–December 1953: 50)

Conclusion

The 1947–1953 Urdu/Punjabi controversy on which this paper has focused was followed by a long series of Urdu/Punjabi controversies, the most recent of which occurred in 2004. It is remarkable to see that the question of instruction in the mother tongue in Punjab remains as controversial as it was between 1947 and 1953, and that during this 2004 Urdu/Punjabi controversy, the three language ideologies analyzed in this paper re-emerged. The followers of these ideologies exchanged arguments echoing those exchanged between 1947 and 1953. While Fateh Mohammad Malik and Mushir Anwar follow clearly the ideology of the Urdu movement, Safir Rammah and Maqsood Saqib follow the Marxist ideology, and Akhilesh's identification of Urdu with a hegemonic community of Urdu-speaking settlers echoes the ideology of Dr. Aziz-ul Hassan Abbasi. Indeed, the controversy continues, with no end in sight.