Harking Back: British decision to kill off the language of the people

Once Punjab was captured completely by the East India Company forces on March 29, 1849, thanks mainly to betrayals by the Sikh Khalsa Army generals, the entire sub-continent became EIC territory. Punjab was destined for a change beyond anyone’s imagination.

It was planned to make Punjab a ‘model’ State. Though the military victory was well-publicised, the social change was kept a secret. If anything it remained, and still is, a secret of sorts. This piece is based on EIC archives that are available all over England, especially in the London Museum Archives as also in Cambridge libraries. Sadly, the Punjab Archives in Lahore’s Secretariat have a similar amount of documents, yet because of the mental change instilled in the Punjab bureaucrats, they remain hidden.

The first decision made was that the ruling class would be purely British white EIC employees, while a new ‘stratum’ below would be created and they would be strictly, initially, non-Punjabis. So in what was a deliberate strategy all clerks, teachers, pleaders (as lawyers were called) and doctors would be Bengalis.

There was a reason for this strategy, for a hundred years hence Bengal was conquered, and there they had an array of bureaucrats local to the company. Within the first seven years, 2,891 Bengali speaking persons moved to the Punjab bureaucracy. This number grew to 4,852 by the year 1921. Imagine that all these bureaucrats had moved with their large families and children, and in the process created English-medium schools run by Bengali teachers.

The preference of the British rulers was that if these Bengalis converted to Christianity, they would get priority in jobs and salaries. It was through the educational sector that this new class of people above the local population of Punjabis, that they emerged. Here we see, as the archive documents tell us, that a critical decision was made that the medium of education would be English, with Urdu and Hindi being secondary languages. The Punjabi language was to be strictly avoided.

It was a view held by almost all EIC British bureaucrats. In a way this is the view that still prevails in a diluted form. Let me put forward two English bureaucrats with opposing views, whose views are documented. Firstly was Dr G.W. Leitner, the famed Orientalist and founder of Government College, Lahore, and the Oriental College, Lahore, who wished that Punjabi be the medium of instruction. He was threatened with deportation.

One dialogue stands out: “My research shows that in Lahore the Punjabis are more literate than us. We should leave them alone.”

But Lord Napier of Magdala, who was present when the Sikhs surrendered after the Second Anglo-Sikh War, strictly presented the opinion: “The Punjabis are a proud fighting race. They have surrendered because of reasons we all know, but personally they will never surrender. Crush their language and force English on them.” It seems Napier’s suggestion was followed, and in a way is still followed by our Punjab bureaucracy as they see their own language as a threat to “the unity of the country.” Imagine.

In 1861 a Bengali Brahmin named Kali Charan Chatterji came to Punjab after converting to Christianity. He was made headmaster of the Jullander Mission School, moving on to Lahore where he set up a number of English-medium schools. He moved on to become a mathematics teacher in the Government College, Lahore, and then became a director of the Forman Christian College, Lahore.

The Bengali Christians moved up the ladder through the educational sector and then so as to appear sort-of secular they set up the Lahore Bhahmo Samaj in 1863. Thus a caste-based allegedly Christian organisation came about which effectively sidelined Sikhs and Muslims, both were seen as threats to British rule. In 1872 they set up Lahore’s first printing press using English and Urdu only.

Then came a well-known person named Lala Lajpat Rai. Within the Samaj they started off a movement for the use of Hindi and the Devanagari script. This was the beginning of the Urdu-Hindi controversy. In a way this also much later fuelled the Partition movement. Here the need to promote Punjabi faced yet another blockade.

The Sikhs wanted the Gurmukhi script in Punjabi for their separate schools, while the Muslims preferred the Shahmukhi script. So here were four language scripts in competition with one another, they being English, Devanagari, Shahmukhi and Gurumukhi. The complex language controversy had taken off, and the British encouraged it, but crushed Punjabi.

Within the bureaucracy we see the emergence of the Urdu-Hindi speaking English-medium people who had to show their loyalty to their new masters. Once they proved themselves they started moving towards Punjab. These new bureaucrats could relate more easily to the Punjabi population than the Bengalis.

But once Punjab, especially Lahore and Multan, had their own cadre of Punjabi English-medium persons, they were encouraged to join the bureaucracy. This was more encouraged by Punjabis, especially the Sikhs, serving in the armed forces. So the balance started shifting, but on the strict condition that Punjabi was not to be used in schools and in offices.

Come 1947 and we see each religious group classified with its own version of their beliefs. But Punjabi was strictly avoided. In a way the manner in which the British viewed the medium of instruction prevails still. In the English-medium schools of Lahore if a student speaks in Punjabi he or she is condemned for belonging to the ‘servant’ class. The Brahmo Samaj lives within our English-speaking elite, of this there can be no denial.

But then with the rise of communal politics in both Pakistan and India, the rise of the priestly classes is very visible. The priestly class have become rich based on ‘donations’ and corruption is no longer condemned. Their entry in politics is for all to see. Punjab that the East India Company wanted to make a ‘model’ State is today headed towards poverty.

The strategy of the East India Company to kill off the very minds of the people lay in killing off their mother tongue. If our ‘scholars’ somehow manage to go through the archives of the company, of even those held in secret in the Punjab Archives, it will be clear that scholars like Dr Leitner were ignored, while those of Lord Napier were followed. In a way local scholarship is still looked down upon.

In a country that spends barely one per cent of its national income on education, what else could be expected? The solution lies in promoting provincial mother tongues as the medium of instruction, with Urdu and English both being also taught. Plus the educational budget should be increased tenfold. If there is any other route, one would like to learn of it.