109-510: Master Tara Singh ( AD ) Fateh Singh ( AD ) Darshan Singh Pheruman Jawaharlal Nehru Pratap Singh Kairon Indira Gandhi Ashwini Kumar Lala Jagat Narain The Punjabi Suba movement was a long-drawn political agitation, launched by Punjabi speaking people (mostly Sikhs ) demanding the creation of autonomous Punjabi Suba , or Punjabi -speaking state, in the post-independence Indian state of East Punjab . The movement
218-629: A hunger strike in 1961 at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, promising to continue it to his death unless the then Prime Minister of India , Jawaharlal Nehru agreed to his demand for such a state. Nehru argued that India was a secular country and the creation of a state based on religious distinction was inappropriate. Nonetheless, Nehru did promise to consider the issue. Singh abandoned his fast after 48 days. Singh's fellow Sikhs turned against him, believing that he had capitulated, and they put him on trial in
327-682: A "national insult" by some Hindus, this would impact the composition of the SRC; while Punjabi statehood was the most controversial issue, no Sikhs were appointed for it. The commission began its work in February 1954, and the Akali Dal submitted an 18-page memorandum on 14 May 1954, proposing the Punjabi Suba to include all of Punjab, PEPSU, and the Punjabi-speaking northern parts of Rajasthan , and to exclude
436-454: A Malhotra Khatri family. Later he became a high school teacher upon his graduation from Lyallpur Khalsa College, Lyallpur , in 1907. Singh's career in education was within the Sikh school system and the use of "Master" as a prefix to his name reflects this period. Singh was ardent in his desire to promote and protect the cause of Sikhism. This often put him at odds with civil authorities and he
545-617: A Punjabi speaking province as a autonomous unit of India." The Congress in Punjab, on the other hand, proposed the state integration of East Punjab, PEPSU, and Himachal Pradesh, which was similar to the submitted memoranda of the Arya Samaj and the Jan Sangh , which had proposed the amalgamation of not only these territories but even Delhi as well, and had both insisted paradoxically that citizens of India could "choose" their mother-tongue. This prompted
654-458: A Punjabi state would have been granted like other linguistic states had been. To him, its refusal was tantamount to religious discrimination. Resolving to start a passive resistance movement, he took the opportunity to exhibit Sikh unity and resolution on this point, summoning a representative convention of Sikhs of all parties and organizations at Amritsar on 16 October 1955; nearly 1,300 invitees attended. The Amritsar convention strongly rejected
763-626: A Punjabi-speaking region had already been demarcated for the purposes of the Sachar Formula itself. The Akali Dal would hold its first major protest demonstration in August 1950. In response to the Hindi opposition, the Akali Dal mobilized the Sikhs of the region. This competition led to several clashes in Punjab, and heated electoral campaigns by the Akali Dal and Congress through to 1952; Congress would go on to win
872-400: A Punjabi-speaking state or Punjabi Suba (Punjabi Province) as a Sikh state, since the central government had declared a commitment to a linguistic basis for the reorganization of the states. The Sikh population, after the partition of Punjab, had become a majority population in a contiguous, strategic land area for the first time in its history, with a new socio-political position, This enabled
981-579: A consolidated political unit, which could only be effective with its own territorial unit. Regarding Sikh political participation as an integral to Sikh theology itself, as the Khalsa had been established in 1699 to organize religious Sikhs into a political community, one of Guru Gobind Singh 's signature contributions to Sikhism , the party received strong support from its base by offering this political organization rooted in religious tradition. The Cabinet Mission Plan had recognized Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs as
1090-724: A court adjudged by pijaras. Singh pleaded guilty to the charges laid against him and found his reputation in tatters. The community felt he had abandoned his ideals and replaced him in the SAD. The linguistic division of the Indian state of Punjab eventually took place in 1966, with the Hindi -speaking areas redesignated as a part of the state of Haryana . Singh himself died in Chandigarh on 22 November 1967. Punjabi language Europe North America Oceania Punjabi , sometimes spelled Panjabi ,
1199-472: A distinct language, and that the movement lacked enough support amongst the Hindus of the proposed Punjabi-speaking state setting aside the criterion of language in favor of religious sentiments. For many, the former was a larger setback. Hukum Singh wrote, "while others got States for their languages, we lost even our language," seeing it as "another deadlier blow to the Sikhs." Giani Kartar Singh remarked that out of
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#17328378543841308-458: A homeland within the Indian Union. Though it was commonly recognized at the time of Independence that the Indian states were created not on a rational basis, but were the result of the exigencies of the progressive British conquest of the subcontinent, and Congress had been advocating the reorganization of provinces for over a quarter century prior, a commission that had been set up in 1948 by
1417-572: A liberal approach. Through Persian, Punjabi also absorbed many Arabic-derived words like dukān , ġazal and more, as well as Turkic words like qēncī , sōġāt , etc. After the fall of the Sikh empire , Urdu was made the official language of Punjab under the British (in Pakistani Punjab , it is still the primary official language) and influenced the language as well. In the second millennium , Punjabi
1526-507: A majority in the remaining six districts, including the southeastern districts between PEPSU and Delhi (Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak, and Gurgaon), and the eastern Kangra and Shimla divisions. In addition, while the Sikhs made up 35% of the province's population, the demographic pattern of urban and rural settlement was such that the Hindu population, whose majority status was new, was largely clustered in urban areas. The seven Sikh-majority districts would be
1635-556: A ministry under Rarewala with 4 Sikh ministers and 3 Hindu ministers, sworn in on the 20th. However, it would be dissolved on 18 November that year when the Central Government took over administration, a move that was condemned by an Akali resolution on 28 November. The new platform of the Akali Dal mobilized strong support among Sikhs, and the Akali Dal passed a resolution in October 1948 in favor of continuing distinct representation of
1744-550: A state which would be Sikh-majority. To undercut the linguistic basis of the demand, the Arya Samaj embarked on a newspaper propaganda campaign to encourage the Hindus of even the Punjabi-speaking area to disown Punjabi entirely and select Hindi in censuses beginning in early 1951. Falsifications by census officials also led to clashes at several locations, prompting the Prime Minister to place a moratorium on linguistic data collection. This repudiation of Punjabi would be repeated in
1853-588: A strong Sikh majority, as a "homeland of the Sikhs". The interim government would be led by the Maharaja of Patiala, Yadvinder Singh , as rajpramukh , or appointed governor, and the Maharaja of Kapurthala Jagatjit Singh as deputy rajpramukh . A later 3-person caretaker government was formed with Gian Singh Rarewala as Premier, and Hindu ministers as Adviser (Sir Jai Lal) and Chief Secretary (B.R. Patel); this would be reworked following Akali protests for proportional administrative representation on 13 January 1949 with
1962-706: A word will be pronounced, and vice versa. Tone is often reduced or rarely deleted when words are said with emphasis or on their own as a form of more exact identification. Sequences with the consonant h have some additional gimmicks: The consonant h on its own is now silent or very weakly pronounced except word-initially. However, certain dialects which exert stronger tone, particularly more northern Punjabi varieties and Dogri , pronounce h as very faint (thus tonal) in all cases. E.g. hatth > àtth . The Jhangvi and Shahpuri dialects of Punjabi (as they transition into Saraiki ) show comparatively less realisation of tone than other Punjabi varieties, and do not induce
2071-482: Is a tendency with speakers to insert /ɪ̯/ between adjacent "a"-vowels as a separator. This usually changes to /ʊ̯/ if either vowel is nasalised. Note: for the tonal stops, refer to the next section about Tone. The three retroflex consonants /ɳ, ɽ, ɭ/ do not occur initially, and the nasals [ŋ, ɲ] most commonly occur as allophones of /n/ in clusters with velars and palatals (there are few exceptions). The well-established phoneme /ʃ/ may be realised allophonically as
2180-436: Is always written as نگ . Like Hindustani , the diphthongs /əɪ/ and /əʊ/ have mostly disappeared, but are still retained in some dialects. Phonotactically , long vowels /aː, iː, uː/ are treated as doubles of their short vowel counterparts /ə, ɪ, ʊ/ rather than separate phonemes. Hence, diphthongs like ai and au get monophthongised into /eː/ and /oː/, and āi and āu into /ɛː/ and /ɔː/ respectively. The phoneme /j/
2289-577: Is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Punjab region of Pakistan and India . It is one of the most widely spoken native languages in the world with approximately 150 million native speakers. Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 88.9 million native speakers according to the 2023 Pakistani census , and the 11th most widely-spoken in India, with 31.1 million native speakers, according to
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#17328378543842398-508: Is defined as the forerunner of Khalistan movement . Borrowing from the pre-independence demands for a Sikh country, this movement demanded a fundamental constitutional autonomous state within India. Led by the Akali Dal , it resulted in the formation of the state of Punjab . The state of Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh were also created and some Pahari -majority parts of
2507-561: Is identical to the Urdu alphabet , however various attempts have been made to create certain, distinct characters from a modification of the Persian Nastaʿlīq characters to represent Punjabi phonology , not already found in the Urdu alphabet . In Pakistan, Punjabi loans technical words from Persian and Arabic , just like Urdu does. Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan ,
2616-402: Is termed 'Old Punjabi', whilst the stage between the 16th and 19th centuries is termed as 'Medieval Punjabi'. The Arabic and Modern Persian influence in the historical Punjab region began with the late first millennium Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent . Since then, many Persian words have been incorporated into Punjabi (such as zamīn , śahir etc.) and are used with
2725-502: Is very fluid in Punjabi. /j/ is only truly pronounced word-initially (even then it often becomes /d͡ʒ/), where it is otherwise /ɪ/ or /i/. Unusually for an Indo-Aryan language, Punjabi distinguishes lexical tones . Three tones are distinguished in Punjabi (some sources have described these as tone contours, given in parentheses): low (high-falling), high (low-rising), and level (neutral or middle). The transcriptions and tone annotations in
2834-400: Is vital that there should be a Punjabi speaking language and culture. This will not only be in fulfilment of the pre-partition Congress program and pledges, but also in entire conformity with the universally recognized principles governing formation of provinces…. The Shiromani Akali Dal has reason to believe that a Punjabi-speaking province may give the Sikhs the needful security. It believes in
2943-618: Is widely used in the TV and entertainment industry of Pakistan, which is mainly produced in Lahore . The Standard Punjabi used in India and Pakistan have slight differences. In India, it discludes many of the dialect-specific features of Majhi. In Pakistan, the standard is closer to the Majhi spoken in the urban parts of Lahore. "Eastern Punjabi" refers to the varieties of Punjabi spoken in Pakistani Punjab (specifically Northern Punjabi), most of Indian Punjab ,
3052-878: The 2011 census . It is spoken among a significant overseas diaspora , particularly in Canada , the United Kingdom , the United States , Australia , and the Gulf states . In Pakistan, Punjabi is written using the Shahmukhi alphabet , based on the Perso-Arabic script ; in India, it is written using the Gurmukhi alphabet , based on the Indic scripts . Punjabi is unusual among the Indo-Aryan languages and
3161-461: The Hazara region , most of Azad Kashmir and small parts of Indian Punjab such as Fazilka . These include groups of dialects like Saraiki , Pahari-Pothwari , Hindko and the extinct Inku ; common dialects like Jhangvi , Shahpuri , Dhanni and Thali which are usually grouped under the term Jatki Punjabi; and the mixed variety of Punjabi and Sindhi called Khetrani . Depending on context,
3270-508: The Lahore Resolution and the movement to create Pakistan, viewing it as welcoming possible persecution; he thus strongly opposed the partition of India , saying that he and his party would fight "tooth and nail" against the concept of a Pakistan. Singh's most significant cause was the creation of a distinct Punjabi-speaking state. He believed that this would best protect the integrity of Sikh religious and political traditions. He began
3379-683: The Majha region of the Punjab. In India , Punjabi is written in the Gurmukhī script in offices, schools, and media. Gurmukhi is the official standard script for Punjabi, though it is often unofficially written in the Latin scripts due to influence from English , one of India's two primary official languages at the Union -level. In Pakistan, Punjabi is generally written using the Shahmukhī script, which in literary standards,
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3488-457: The Nath Yogi -era from 9th to 14th century. The language of these compositions is morphologically closer to Shauraseni Apbhramsa , though vocabulary and rhythm is surcharged with extreme colloquialism and folklore. Writing in 1317–1318, Amir Khusrau referred to the language spoken by locals around the area of Lahore as Lahauri . The precursor stage of Punjabi between the 10th and 16th centuries
3597-413: The h consonant itself and any voiced consonants appended with [h] (Gurmukhi: ੍ਹ "perī̃ hāhā" , Shahmukhi: ھ "dō-caśmī hē" ); usually ṛh , mh , nh , rh and lh . The five tonal plosives also become voiceless word-initially. E.g. ghar > kàr "house", ḍhōl > ṭṑl "drum" etc. Tonogenesis in Punjabi forfeits the sound of [h] for tone. Thus, the more [h] is realised, the less "tonal"
3706-498: The voiceless retroflex fricative [ʂ] in learned clusters with retroflexes. Due to its foreign origin, it is often also realised as [s] , in e.g. shalwār /salᵊ.ʋaːɾᵊ/ . The phonemic status of the consonants /f, z, x, ɣ, q/ varies with familiarity with Hindustani norms, more so with the Gurmukhi script, with the pairs /f, pʰ/ , /z, d͡ʒ/ , /x, kʰ/ , /ɣ, g/ , and /q, k/ systematically distinguished in educated speech, /q/ being
3815-511: The 14 national languages of the Constitution, only Punjabi was left without a state. With the language being distinct in grammar and lexicon, the Akali Dal regarded this reasoning as a pretext that amounted to religious discrimination, and that the demand would have been accepted without hesitation if the Sikhs were not set to be the majority. The commission also recommended the integration of Sikh-majority PEPSU, as well as Himachal Pradesh , with
3924-407: The 1920s. The SGPC , which provided logistical and organizational support for Sikh politics, significantly bolstered the party's effectiveness. The Congress government did not lift the slogan ban, and the agitation began as promised on 10 May, with Tara Singh and ten companions being arrested for shouting Punjabi Suba slogans, as were successive groups of Akalis as they embarked from the temple doing
4033-472: The 1961 census ten years later, and half of the demographic would continue to select Hindi even after the movement in the 1971 census. While many Akalis leaders were initially receptive to the formula, and Tara Singh was released at its introduction in the hopes that the formula would be accepted by the party, Tara Singh turned it down, reminding the Congress of its commitment to forming linguistic states, and that
4142-714: The 1981 and 2017 censuses respectively, speakers of the Western Punjabi 's Saraiki and Hindko varieties were no longer included in the total numbers for Punjabi, which explains the apparent decrease. Pothwari speakers however are included in the total numbers for Punjabi. Punjabi is the official language of the Indian state of Punjab , and has the status of an additional official language in Haryana and Delhi. Some of its major urban centres in northern India are Amritsar , Ludhiana , Chandigarh , Jalandhar , Ambala , Patiala , Bathinda , Hoshiarpur , Firozpur and Delhi . In
4251-467: The 19th century from the Medieval Punjabi stage. Modern Punjabi has two main varieties, Western Punjabi and Eastern Punjabi , which have many dialects and forms, altogether spoken by over 150 million people. The Majhi dialect , which is transitional between the two main varieties, has been adopted as standard Punjabi in India and Pakistan for education and mass media. The Majhi dialect originated in
4360-666: The 2011 census of India, 31.14 million reported their language as Punjabi. The census publications group this with speakers of related "mother tongues" like Bagri and Bhateali to arrive at the figure of 33.12 million. Punjabi is also spoken as a minority language in several other countries where Punjabi people have emigrated in large numbers, such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada. There were 670,000 native Punjabi speakers in Canada in 2021, 300,000 in
4469-747: The Akali Dal issued an ultimatum to rescind the ban by 10 May or face an agitation. Following the slogan ban imposed by the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, the Akalis commenced the Punjabi Suba Slogan Agitation of 1955. Large numbers of summoned volunteers congregated at the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar from demonstrations all over the province, thus reviving the protest methods of the Akali movement of
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4578-411: The Akali Dal to focus on expressing unencumbered Sikh political needs, free from the politics of the former Muslim majority that had needed to be accommodated on its political platform prior to it, and provided the opportunity for Sikhs themselves to express a degree of autonomy from the sway of the Congress party and the central government, through the Akali Dal . The Sikhs now constituted a majority in
4687-643: The Akali delegation maintained that the measure of provincial autonomy afforded in the document did not match prior assurances, and the demarcation of provinces in the North was specifically delayed to deprive Sikhs of a political foothold in their own homeland of Punjab. On these grounds, the two Akali delegates in the Constitutional Assembly, Hukam Singh and Bhupinder Singh Mann, did not sign the constitution in 1950, stating that "the Sikhs do not accept this constitution;
4796-452: The Akalis to organize a forceful agitation in response. According to Tara Singh, the script, language, culture, religion, and existence of the Sikhs were under zealous attack by Arya Samaji fanatical elements in order to wipe out their identity and thereby subsume them, and that the only safeguard against this was a state in which Sikhs held effective political power. Earlier Sikh movements had achieved, in large part, significant demarcation from
4905-562: The Akalis would vote for partition on 23 June 1947, confident that aspirations would be satisfied through "the goodwill of the Congress and the majority community," relinquishing their bargaining power to join the Indian Union in doing so. A July 1947 resolution for Partition that had been passed by Sikh and Hindu members of the Punjab Legislative Assembly stated that in the Indian portion of Punjab, "special constitutional measures are imperative to meet just aspirations and rights of
5014-527: The Assembly three weeks after the Akali resolution's passing. The Assembly was against even proportional reservation as potentially yielding to the Sikhs more than their supposed fair share, even denying Sikh representatives of scheduled castes concessions given to Hindu scheduled castes, which would be rescinded upon converting out. In his autobiography, Tara Singh would write that when meeting with Nehru for equal concessions to scheduled castes, Nehru admitted that he
5123-536: The British government in which it asserted that Pakistan should not be conceded to the Muslims without at the same time conceding a sovereign Sikh nation as well, a sentiment echoed until independence by Akali leaders, who adopted a resolution in favour of one in March 1946, variously referred to as Sikhistan or Khalistan. When Sikh statehood was rejected by the commission, sections of the Sikh community instead began to advocate for
5232-611: The Commission admitted that the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state was analogous to the demand for other linguistic states, but rejected the demand even on its intrinsic merit. The Commission tried to turn down the demand for Punjab state being advanced based on the argument that the formation of linguistic-based provinces would spur other demands for the separation of other linguistic groups elsewhere; such claims had already been advanced by Sikhs , Jats , and other groups. The reasons cited in its report were that it did not recognize Punjabi as
5341-578: The Congress Resolution of 1929 and promised on 5 April 1946: "Sikhistan issue will be considered in the Constituent Assembly after the transfer of power in the hands of the Indians." The Sikh leadership had opposed partition, but would opt for India based on the promises made by Hindu leaders like Nehru, Gandhi, and Patel in 1929, 1946 and 1947. In 1946, the Akali Dal had submitted a memorandum to
5450-582: The East Punjab were also merged with Himachal Pradesh following the movement. The result of the movement failed to satisfy its leaders. Calls for the Punjabi Suba had been heard as far back as February 1947, and the demand for a Punjabi Suba as a policy position was first presented in April 1948 by Master Tara Singh of the Shiromani Akali Dal, a Sikh political party active mainly in Punjab. The movement
5559-554: The Five Rivers'. Panj is cognate with Sanskrit pañca ( पञ्च ), Greek pénte ( πέντε ), and Lithuanian Penki , all of which meaning 'five'; āb is cognate with Sanskrit áp ( अप् ) and with the Av- of Avon . The historical Punjab region , now divided between India and Pakistan, is defined physiographically by the Indus River and these five tributaries . One of
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#17328378543845668-489: The Government of India, tasked with drawing up clean-cut states corresponding to demographic and linguistic boundaries, was not effective in the northern part of the country, as it reconsidered its position on the north. While states across the country were extensively redrawn on linguistic lines at the behest of linguistic groups, the only languages not considered for statehood were Punjabi , Sindhi and Urdu . Its jurisdiction
5777-423: The Hindus, preserving themselves as a distinct religious and political entity. The Punjabi Suba was also seen as a means to prevent Sikh religious apathy, and resultant backsliding into Hinduism, on the basis of shared religious postulates and cultural kinship, after considerable repudiation of traditional beliefs during the 19th century formation of Hindu identity by reformist neo-Hindus like the Arya Samaj, including
5886-507: The PEPSU elections in January 1954. Though the calls for a Punjabi Suba were initially disregarded by the central government, the problem did not subside, and another States Reorganization Commission was set up in 1953. Stemming from new nationwide momentum for linguistic states, it was charged with "'investigat[ing] the conditions of the problem, the historical background, the existing situations and
5995-503: The Punjab Congress, which had contested under the banner of the "Khalsa Dal," which had only won 3 out of 132 contested seats. The results proved a strong morale booster for the party, which had demonstrated strong Sikh support for its platform, and felt encouraged to start a movement for the Punjabi Suba. The opportunity presented itself when on 6 April 1955 the Punjab Congress banned the shouting of Punjabi Suba slogans; twenty days later
6104-513: The Punjab, which was rejected by the Akali Dal a day after the report's release; a Commission member reportedly remarked that if the Hindi-speaking areas were removed from Punjab, it would yield a Sikh-majority area, prompting accusations of discrimination from the Akalis, who saw the verdict as another majoritarian maneuver to contain the Sikhs. Tara Singh regarded the verdict as a "decree of Sikh annihilation," believing that if there were no Sikhs,
6213-466: The Punjabi-speaking region was also advocated in December by Tara Singh to further ensure Sikh territorial unity within the proposed Suba. The Akali Dal criticized Congress in its handling of PEPSU in relation to the designated Punjabi-speaking area, though the Congress announcement on 27 December 1953 of another States Reorganization Commission undercut accusations of division, and Congress retained control in
6322-457: The Senate of Panjab University , then Punjab's only university, passed a resolution on 9 June refusing to use Punjabi in any script as a medium of instruction; both were strongholds of the Arya Samaj, which, supported by its Jan Sangh and Hindu Mahasabha allies, would never accept the formula or implement it in its schools. Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel, writing to Nehru on 17 July 1949, bolstered
6431-543: The Sikh Chief Secretary and the two Sikh Deputy Commissioners, to avert any efforts toward a Punjabi state, opposed by Nehru In August 1952, the Akali Dal would position itself as the premier representative for Sikh rights, broadcasting its victory in the subsequent annual elections and dislodging of the pro-Congress president of the Dal as a referendum for support for the Punjabi Suba among the Sikhs. The merging of PEPSU into
6540-429: The Sikh community has agreed to this constitution. I wish to record an emphatic protest here. My community cannot subscribe its assent to this historic document." The Sachar Formula was introduced on 2 October 1949 under the government of Bhim Sen Sachar to forestall the growing agitation. Drafted by two Hindu members and two Sikh members of the Congress party, it proposed making Punjabi as the medium of instruction up to
6649-409: The Sikh masses and in the army, that on 12 July, the government under Sachar used the pretext of a "triumphal return from peace mission abroad" to lift the ban on Punjabi Suba slogans, appealing for peace. Sachar himself personal apologized at the Akal Takht . It also announced the release of Akali prisoners in installments, which proved slow to be implemented; Tara Singh was released on 8 September, and
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#17328378543846758-425: The Sikh minority through a Punjabi Suba, to protect against the aggressive communal mentality displayed by some in the majority if weightage or reservation for Sikhs in the Constituent Assembly was not possible, though a decision adopted by the Congress in its annual session held in December 1948 read, "We are clearly of the opinion that no question of rectification of the boundaries in Northern India should be raised at
6867-432: The Sikh places of worship known as gurdwaras . He was instrumental in getting the Sikh State resolution passed by Akali Dal under his leadership in 1946, which declared Punjab as the natural homeland of the Sikhs. He also advocated for a "Azad Punjab" (Free Punjab) before demanding the independent nation of "Sikhistan" at the time. He later led their demand for a Sikh-majority state in East Punjab . A devout worker for
6976-400: The Sikhs after the British left that the "circumstances had now changed." He had also strongly rejected the formation of Punjabi-speaking areas into a separate state when Lord Mountbatten had forwarded the suggestion from Baldev Singh and Giani Kartar Singh to him just prior to the Partition and population transfer. The Minority Committee formed by the Punjab Chief Minister made the case to
7085-413: The Sikhs reject this constitutional Act." Hukam Singh would state to the Assembly on 21 November 1949: "...Their demands were very simple. They wanted a Punjabi speaking province. That has been denied. It was not a communal demand, but a territorial one. But the majority community in the province went so far as to disown their mother tongue. That language is in danger on account of aggressive communalism of
7194-411: The Sikhs." Nehru had been quoted in the 9 January 1930 edition of the Lahore Bulletin during the freedom struggle, and as late as July 1946 at the All India Congress Committee in Calcutta, that "the brave Sikhs of Punjab are entitled to special considerations. I see nothing wrong in an area set up in the North of India wherein the Sikhs can also experience the glow of freedom," though afterwards telling
7303-412: The United Kingdom in 2011, 280,000 in the United States and smaller numbers in other countries. Standard Punjabi (sometimes referred to as Majhi) is the standard form of Punjabi used commonly in education and news broadcasting , and is based on the Majhi dialect . Such as the variety used on Google Translate , Standard Punjabi is also often used in official online services that employ Punjabi. It
7412-514: The United States found no evidence of a separate falling tone following a medial consonant. It is considered that these tones arose when voiced aspirated consonants ( gh, jh, ḍh, dh, bh ) lost their aspiration. In Punjabi, tone is induced by the loss of [h] in tonal consonants. Tonal consonants are any voiced aspirates /ʱ/ and the voiced glottal fricative /ɦ/ . These include the five voiced aspirated plosives bh , dh , ḍh , jh and gh (which are represented by their own letters in Gurmukhi),
7521-419: The agitation was continued under the leadership of Sardar Hukam Singh , who in early 1950 described the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state as both secular and democratic. The Working Committee of the Akali Dal passed a resolution in May supporting a state based on Punjabi language and culture. Sikh members of the Assembly would refuse to sign the draft constitution to be enacted on 26 January 1950. In addition,
7630-442: The ban on the slogan "Punjabi Suba Zindabad" ("long live Punjabi State"). Attempted negotiations with Congress led the agitation to be adjourned twice, though Jawaharlal Nehru continued to reject the demand. A flashpoint during the agitation occurred on 4 July 1955, when a group led by Fateh Singh , who had joined the movement, had arrived from Ganganagar a few days prior to take part in the protest movement. The police cordoned off
7739-449: The bazaars and streets surrounding the site in a show of strength, though this would backfire as tension in the city increased, driving more volunteers to manage to reach the complex to keep the agitation going. Thousands were arrested and injured. According to former Akal Takht jathedar Lakhbir Singh Rode , "fire was opened at Akal Takht and Golden Temple, and many Sikhs were killed". The Tribune newspaper would comment, "What overshadows
7848-470: The bearing of all relevant important factors thereon." Five days before the announcement, in the wake of President's Rule, during the mid-term polls of 1953, Nehru had come to campaign to a Sikh congregation at Fatehgarh Sahib on the occasion of Saka Sirhind ; due to his firm opposition to the Punjabi Suba, he was prevented from using the observance to electioneer, with a group lead by former MLA Atma Singh going on stage to prevent him from speaking. Considered
7957-544: The broader Indo-European language family in its usage of lexical tone . The word Punjabi (sometimes spelled Panjabi ) has been derived from the word Panj-āb , Persian for 'Five Waters', referring to the five major eastern tributaries of the Indus River . The name of the region was introduced by the Turko-Persian conquerors of South Asia and was a translation of the Sanskrit name, Panchanada , which means 'Land of
8066-587: The cause of Sikh religious and political integrity, Tara Singh often found himself in opposition to Indian Government. He was jailed for civil disobedience 14 times between 1930 and 1966. In the 2020 biography of former Punjab CM Partap Singh Kairon, it has been documented that Tara Singh revived his demand for a separate nation for Sikhs after Independence. In 2018, his granddaughter in law mentioned that Master Tara Singh’s “dream of an autonomous Sikh state in India remains unfulfilled. ” As with other Sikh organisations, Singh and his Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) condemned
8175-546: The commission's proposal, castigating it for bias against Sikh claims, as the commission's recommendation was fully in accord with the most extreme elements opposing the Punjabi Suba, and even the Sachar Resolution, acknowledged as never even having been adhered to by those elements, was eroded. The resolution of the Amritsar Convention stated in part, "this convention of the Sikhs view with alarm and great resentment
8284-490: The complete and callous resolution of the States Reorganisation Commission of the just and reasonable demand for a Punjabi-speaking state." The resolution called on the government to create the Punjabi Suba not only in the interest of the Sikhs but in the interest of the Hindi-speaking peoples of East Punjab; Tara Singh received authorization from the Amritsar Convention "to take suitable steps to for conveying
8393-562: The complex, with the entry of people into the complex and Amritsar was stopped. At night, government police forces, led by DIG Ashwini Kumar, forced their entry into the temple premises and heavyhandedly took the entire group into custody, along with the head granthis of the Akal Takht and Golden Temple , volunteer protestors, and even cooks of the temple's langar . The Guru Ram Das Serai and Shiromani Akali Dal offices were also raided, and batons used and tear gas and shells fired to disperse
8502-537: The creation of a Punjabi-speaking state. On 25 August, he announced that the goals of the movement would also include Sikh recruitment to the Indian Army, safeguarding Sikh rights and interests in PEPSU, Punjabi as the language of institutions and the medium of education, and the allotment of land and property to Partition refugees equivalent to what they possessed before. PEPSU was formally inaugurated on 15 July 1948 by Sardar Patel, who in his address described PEPSU, with
8611-517: The districts of Gurgaon and Rohtak, Panipat Tehsil in Karnal, and a few tehsils of Hisar district, which were to merge with Hindi-speaking regions. The Akalis drafted their case with care, strictly on the basis of language and using pre-1947 census figures, to present the proposed Punjabi-speaking state of an area over 35,000 square miles; they were supported in their effort by parties advocating rural interests, and complemented other linguistic state demands in
8720-512: The effect of sharpening the divide between the majority Sikh north and majority Hindu south. The Arya Samaj led the forces of Hindu communalism against the Akali Dal. While earlier in June 1948, both Punjabi and Hindi were both made official media of educational instruction, the Municipal Committee of Jalandhar in February 1949 resolved to make Devanagari Hindi the sole media in its schools, and
8829-466: The election, but by forming and leading a coalition called the United Front with other opposition parties, the Akali Dal would go on to form the first non-Congress government of India in PEPSU in April 1952. Before the United Front could elect a new leader after Gian Singh Rarewala, Congress would dissolve the Assembly under President's Rule , implementing changes in administration including the removal of
8938-462: The eleventh-most widely spoken in India , and also present in the Punjabi diaspora in various countries. Approximate distribution of native Punjabi speakers (inc. Lahndic dialects ) (assuming a rounded total of 157 million) worldwide. Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan , being the native language of 88.9 million people, or approximately 37% of the country's population. Beginning with
9047-420: The entire situation is that every weapon in the armoury of the Government has been brought into play. A great tragedy is being enacted in the Punjab.... The Punjab is facing the greatest crisis in its history." The reaction from this event gave further momentum to the movement, opposite to the intention of the government, and proved to be so potentially destabilizing to the government, provoking disaffection among
9156-480: The examples below are based on those provided in Punjabi University, Patiala 's Punjabi-English Dictionary . Level tone is found in about 75% of words and is described by some as absence of tone. There are also some words which are said to have rising tone in the first syllable and falling in the second. (Some writers describe this as a fourth tone.) However, a recent acoustic study of six Punjabi speakers in
9265-418: The far-north of Rajasthan and on the northwestern border of Haryana . It includes the dialects of Majhi , Malwai , Doabi , Puadhi and the extinct Lubanki . Sometimes, Dogri and Kangri are grouped into this category. "Western Punjabi" or "Lahnda" ( لہندا , lit. ' western ' ) is the name given to the diverse group of Punjabi varieties spoken in the majority of Pakistani Punjab ,
9374-680: The first half of the 20th century. He was instrumental in organising the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee and guiding the Sikhs during the partition of India , which he strongly opposed . He later led their demand for a Sikh-majority state in East Punjab . His daughter was the Indian journalist and politician Rajinder Kaur . Singh was born on 24 June 1885 in Rawalpindi , Punjab Province in British India into
9483-606: The five, the Beas River , is a tributary of another, the Sutlej . Punjabi developed from Prakrit languages and later Apabhraṃśa ( Sanskrit : अपभ्रंश , 'deviated' or 'non-grammatical speech') From 600 BC, Sanskrit developed as the standard literary and administrative language and Prakrit languages evolved into many regional languages in different parts of India. All these languages are called Prakrit languages (Sanskrit: प्राकृत , prākṛta ) collectively. Paishachi Prakrit
9592-427: The last Akalis were not released until 18 October. Sachar received heavy criticism from fellow Congress members for the apology and for not "taming" the Akalis; he would subsequently resign, succeeded by Pratap Singh Kairon in January 1956. The States Reorganization Committee submitted its report to the Government of India on 10 September 1955 where it was considered and published on 10 October. In its 1955 report,
9701-569: The latter three arise natively. Later, the letters ਜ਼ / ز , ਸ਼ / ش and ਫ਼ / ف began being used in English borrowings, with ਸ਼ / ش also used in Sanskrit borrowings . Punjabi has also had minor influence from and on neighbouring languages such as Sindhi , Haryanvi , Pashto and Hindustani . Note: In more formal contexts, hypercorrect Sanskritized versions of these words (ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ pradhān for ਪਰਧਾਨ pardhān and ਪਰਿਵਾਰ parivār for ਪਰਵਾਰ parvār ) may be used. Modern Punjabi emerged in
9810-406: The majority. Andhra Province is a settled fact; other cases are to be looked into; but North India cannot even be considered for it, The next was this consideration for services, that has also been denied.... "Naturally, under these circumstances, as I have stated, the Sikhs feel utterly disappointed and frustrated. They feel that they have been discriminated against. Let it not be misunderstood that
9919-596: The matriculation stage in the "Punjabi zone" area, with Hindi taught as a compulsory subject from the end of the primary level onward, and vice-versa for "Hindi zone" areas. The "Punjabi zone" consisted of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ferozpur, and Ludhiana districts, along with Hisar district north of the Ghaggar river, and the Ropar and Kharar tehsils of Ambala district. Its goal had been mutual bilingualism, but as it divided East Punjab into Punjabi and Hindi zones, it had
10028-597: The most rarely pronounced. The retroflex lateral is most commonly analysed as an approximant as opposed to a flap . Some speakers soften the voiceless aspirates /t͡ʃʰ, pʰ, kʰ/ into fricatives /ɕ, f, x/ respectively. In rare cases, the /ɲ/ and /ŋ/ phonemes in Shahmukhi may be represented with letters from Sindhi . The /ɲ/ phoneme, which is more common than /ŋ/, is written as نی or نج depending on its phonetic preservation, e.g. نیاݨا /ɲaːɳaː/ (preserved ñ ) as opposed to کنج /kiɲd͡ʒ/ (assimilated into nj ). /ŋ/
10137-415: The northwestern seven districts of the thirteen districts of East Punjab state at the time: Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Firozpur, Ludhiana, and Ambala, along with Patiala and East Punjab States Union , or PEPSU, which had been formed as an administrative unit on 5 May 1948 including the six Sikh princely states , and with sizable populations in surrounding districts. Meanwhile, Hindus formed
10246-400: The opposition by stating that Punjabi was not a language but a dialect, with no willingness on the part of the people to adopt it. After failed efforts to absorb the Sikhs, and with the slogan of "Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan," Hindu organizations opted to spurn the language so that the Sikhs would be considered a linguistic minority as well as a religious minority, and thus prevent the formation of
10355-413: The present moment whatever the merits of such a proposal." The Congress leadership, including Nehru and Gandhi, had passed a resolution in its December 1929 annual Lahore session, stating that no national constitution framed after the transfer of power would be passed unless acceptable to the Sikhs, and Congress leader had reiterated their promise to provide maximal provincial autonomy in the new country as
10464-460: The protestors gathered on the periphery of the temple, damaging the periphery and sarovar, or pool, of the temple. Supplies to the complex were cut off, all pilgrims staying at its rest houses were arrested, and Manji Sahib , where volunteers were sent daily to court arrest, was occupied. The government stopped volunteers on the way to the Golden Temple, and troops were ordered to flag-march through
10573-411: The region. In a manifesto, the Akali Dal proposed that the establishment of a Punjabi state would enable education, administration, and cultural preservation in the language: "The true test of democracy, in the opinion of the Shiromani Akali Dal, is that the minorities should feel that they are really free and equal partners in the destiny of their country…to bring home a sense of freedom to the Sikhs, it
10682-483: The rejection of polytheism, idol and avatar worship, temple offerings, pilgrimages, the widow remarriage prohibition, child marriage, sati , and Brahmin priestcraft. Such repudiations had often converged with the earlier ones of Sikhism, though instead leading to competition between the two factions in Punjab and consequently North India. The Akali Dal entered the 1955 Punjab SGPC elections on this platform and won resoundingly, winning all 110 seats it contested against
10791-545: The same. In the next five days more than 1,000 prominent Akali leaders were arrested; in nearly two months, 12,000 Sikhs had been arrested for the Slogan Agitation, and by the end of July as many as 21,000 Akalis were jailed in Congress efforts to quash the growing movement, which nevertheless continued steadily. In several towns there were instances of Hindu communal organizations throwing stones and brickbats at Sikh processions. Thousands of volunteers were arrested for defying
10900-438: The suggested basis of the Punjabi Suba, for which Tara Singh campaigned vigorously between late 1948 and early 1949. On 30 May 1948, a delegate session of the Akali Dal meeting at Amritsar had passed a resolution rejecting the party's merger into the Congress, electing Tara Singh as president of the revived party. On 2 August 1948, at a press conference at Delhi, Tara Singh demanded the linguistic reorganisation of East Punjab, for
11009-539: The terms Eastern and Western Punjabi can simply refer to all the Punjabi varieties spoken in India and Pakistan respectively, whether or not they are linguistically Eastern/Western. While a vowel length distinction between short and long vowels exists, reflected in modern Gurmukhi orthographical conventions, it is secondary to the vowel quality contrast between centralised vowels /ɪ ə ʊ/ and peripheral vowels /iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː/ in terms of phonetic significance. The peripheral vowels have nasal analogues . There
11118-500: The three main communities. Both Congress and the Muslim League had offered allurements to woo the Sikhs to their respective nations. On 5 August 1944, Muhammad Ali Jinnah , in an attempt to retain all of Punjab, had assured the Sikhs of full rights and addressal of claims; he and Liaqat Ali Khan had offered a Sikh state within Pakistan with its own military establishment. Countering this, Sardar Patel had reaffirmed on 24 August 1945,
11227-414: The views and sentiments of the Sikh community to Government of India and urging them to do their duty to the Sikhs;" his first action was to arrange a conciliatory meeting with the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru , who had previously been a strong advocate of linguistic states. Master Tara Singh Tara Singh (24 June 1885 – 22 November 1967) was a Sikh political and religious figure in India in
11336-514: Was lexically influenced by Portuguese (words like almārī ), Greek (words like dām ), Japanese (words like rikśā ), Chinese (words like cāh , līcī , lukāṭh ) and English (words like jajj , apīl , māsṭar ), though these influences have been minor in comparison to Persian and Arabic. In fact, the sounds / z / (ਜ਼ / ز ژ ذ ض ظ ), / ɣ / (ਗ਼ / غ ), / q / (ਕ਼ / ق ), / ʃ / (ਸ਼ / ش ), / x / (ਖ਼ / خ ) and / f / (ਫ਼ / ف ) are all borrowed from Persian, but in some instances
11445-515: Was "helpless" before the communalism displayed by Parliament members. Tara Singh would also ascribe this to the domination of anti-Sikh communalists, particularly the Arya Samaj , in the "Punjab Congress, the Punjab press, the Punjab Legislative Assembly and all other spheres of political power," considering them to be "dup[ing]" Hindus outside Punjab. Tara Singh himself was arrested on 20 February 1949 and imprisoned for several months, during which time
11554-614: Was jailed on 14 occasions for civil disobedience between 1930 and 1966. Early examples of his support for civil disobedience came through his close involvement with the movement led by Mahatma Gandhi . He became a leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) political party, which was the major force in Sikh politics, and he was similarly involved with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (Supreme Committee of Gurdwara Management), an apex body that dealt with
11663-475: Was limited to the southern states, with northern India kept out of its purview, specifically to avoid problems like those of Punjab, in particular issues raised by the Sikhs. In January 1948, Akali Dal's three-member delegation of leaders, Harcharan Singh Bajwa, Bhupinder Singh Mann , and Giani Kartar Singh, met the Minister of Law and Justice Dr. B. R. Ambedkar . Ambedkar suggested that the Akali delegation demand
11772-402: Was one of these Prakrit languages, which was spoken in north and north-western India and Punjabi developed from this Prakrit. Later in northern India Paishachi Prakrit gave rise to Paishachi Apabhraṃśa , a descendant of Prakrit. Punjabi emerged as an Apabhramsha, a degenerated form of Prakrit, in the 7th century AD and became stable by the 10th century. The earliest writings in Punjabi belong to
11881-407: Was primarily conceived to secure a distinct Sikh political status as a safeguard for what was to be a small minority after independence; as Tara Singh wrote in 1945, "there is not the least doubt that the Sikh religion will live only as long as the Sikh panth exists as an organized entity." The Akali Dal considered the continued existence of the Sikh religion as predicated on the community acting as
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