Punjab and Colonialism: Revisit Language Narrative First
British colonial masters left our lands in 1947, partly due to consistent struggle by various groups and individuals and partly due to shifting of world powers (14 August 1941 Atlantic Charter) but due to various colonial narratives the heat of colonialism still pinching us since 77 years. It is hard to deconstruct impact of colonialism with Oxford knowledge and English language. Without knowing the strengths and weaknesses of Pre-British Punjab & its surroundings it is hard to understand the lands itself. The knowledge about past is in oral knowledge traditions (mostly in Punjabi) and you may also check it in various classical languages like Palli, Sanskrit, Turkish, Persian and Arabic. The other important point is to deconstruct colonial language narrative that divided our languages, scripts and dialects on the basis of religion (Hindi for Hindus, Urdu for Muslims and Punjabi for Sikhs only). As we witnessed a massive transition from Oral to written during colonial times so it pluted, deleted many things. Even we cannot find many books in original form such as Indica and History of Hind and Sind" popularly known as (Chach Nama) many waorks of Punjabi Jogi/Sufi poets are largely missing etc. On top of it Dictionaries of various indigenous languages were written during colonial times and it still carry many weaknesses and biases. If we failed to fix these issues in last 77 years in South Asia, we cannot blame others only. Punjabi written in Gurmukhi during last 77 years is a fine example. The Punjabi written in Gurmukhi after 1947, is totally changed by Hindi cum Sanskrit interventions and that is why two young Punjabis cannot communicate with each other today. In a way, it is continuation of anti people colonial language policy.
Here is audio, video recordings of a session in a Punjabi Conference held at Lhore from 18 to 20 November 2024. In video you can watch few clips and in audio you can listen the complete discussion of the session Punjab and Colonialism
Lhore Darbar was the last independent Kingdom conquered by the colonial masters at 29th March 1849 and after it colonial masters took various steps to control the region. Using knowledge for colonial and post colonial control was the biggest project and in below you can yourself check it.
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