RATIONALE FOR THE SARAIKI PROVINCE.

This is a Pakpotpourri Exclusive

By:Naveed Tajammal

Should or should not, Seraiki province be created? This subject is a hot potato these days with people opposing and supporting the idea. This article is an attempt to address the issue.

In any historical perspective,heritage,culture,ethnic & linguistic background must be ascertained through the lay of the land,the people and the language  spoken.Dialects do undergo slight changes with passage of time,with the  imposition of alien languages.However the shell,the basic grammar and the element of our mother Lhandha, a term awarded to our Sindhi by the linguists,has remained the same,as is evident,and will be explained subsequently.

We, the old residents of IVC {Indus Valley Civilization} have been in fold of Islam,if seen,as in whole,since about 800 years or so.Like the pride of a race leads to the invention of a royal progeny,similarly the pride of present Muslim tribe in IVC though much older then Islam,and its inception has the perpetual inducement to escape from the admission of an idolatrous ancestry.The major reason why most claim an Arab ancestry.

The conversion to islam resulted in a disavowing and erasing of the descent from a pagan past,and thus we lost our script,as well the glory.As these records tied the old tribes to the now idolatrous religion,hence they adopted the perso-arabic script,and the tilt to Arab ancestry.The language of men of letters was firstly Arabic,later came the Persian.All old records perished in the change.

Before entering the Islamic fold we had been equally staunch Buddhist.But  by then Buddhism was in its dying throes,and had lost its force as the way of life. It had even by then absorbed the serpent worship,which existed till late in our northern areas,and now claimed the Buddha as a God !

Whereas, Buddha himself never claimed Divinity himself,nor did the subsequent patriarchs ,who lasted for the next 1000 years or so.

In the post Islamic period the new indifferent muslim population,recently converted,and alien Arab rulers,as well the zealous new Iranian converts who spearheaded the Arab record making,keeping our past enimity alive,with them bundled Buddhism,Jainism and the new faith of Brahmanism,in one scope or head of idolatrous religion,and so never took interest in our past records,or studied our script.This lapse permitted the ever vigilant Brahman,to claim our past as his,so started the,new record making of the history in reverse,which continues,and stories of Vedic scriptures etc.

Language lives on,,it remains a living and growing form,as long as children learn it from their mothers it lasts,thus survive the old languages,and await their revival,at one time or the other as one sees.Hence the old term”Mah-Dar-e-Zaban” mother is the door to the tongue.Political or social reasons may establish a particular form of speech in a dominant position,as we see in the case of recent influx of Urdu & English. Introduced in our courts between 1850-54 by the British,superseding the Persian & Arabic.The oblique objective was to break the old indigenous,educational system, Maktab,Madressah,Ausaf & the Dar ul Al’lum.

With reference to our old Lhandha script in which Saraiki too was written, as were other languages by the non-muslims,who hated the perso-arabic script,Guru Nanak,the Prophet of Sikhs,never wrote himself,his disciples preserved,his quotes and sayings,orally but,Bhai Bala,communicated the same to his second Guru. Angat,who wrote the punjabi in our Lhandha script,because as yet,”Gurmukhi'{which means,mouth of the Guru} ,was in its development stages.Third and the fourth too used our Lhandha script,All these books and records as such existed till late 19th century and were inspected by Dr.Lietner himself at Goindwal, near Amritsar.[page-iii/iv,The History of Indigenous Education in Punjab till1882, by Dr.G.W.Lietner.1882}.

The fact remains our script now only exists in the Archives/record rooms.However the language spoken by tens of million, still survives,Therefore it must be given a chance for resurgence at all costs to thus bloom once again.

It was only in the post period after the annexation of The Sikh state,that the Punjab geographic term was imposed on us,by the new alien lot;the British.

As per the record of the Punjab Administration Report for 1854/55,para.188,the total population of the new entity till then was,12,717,821,it had 26,216 villages,2124 small towns,with population between 1000-5000; 76 towns,with-5000-10,000,31-cities,with 10,000-50,000;and Only four 1st class cities,namely;Peshawar-53,294,Multan-55,999,Lahore-94,153 & Amritsar-122,184.

Later by 1881census, the population with immigrations from other areas arose to 15,631,386 and as well the villages to 26,848.

Thus we find thanks to the Sikh rule and repeated past invasions from west and other epidemics like influenza and cholera,beside the bubonic plagues and famines,the region was totally depopulated.Hence the new canal colonies and the movement of pnjabi speakers in our regions,from our East.Rendering our local people as vagabond tribes and criminal tribes too,reduced our numbers.

Even today with the massive multi-ethnic mix,that we have,we find the footprints,of Saraiki spread all along western and Eastern tracts of the Sindh river.From Mianwali down to Ghotki and kashmore and further west till Jacobabad, and from Rahimyar Khan along Sutlej to its the upper reaches of Pak-pattan,as well along the Chenab,till the regions west of Jauharabad,the lands of Thal,crossing the Indus and till eastern Bannu,and lower till Tank,and Barkhan.

A large chunk by any standards.The very apex centre of our state.

Reverting back to the Saraiki,one of the present principle dialects of our mother language Lhandha,It no doubt has been corrupted by the vicissitudes of the time but should one study it closely we find it has with stood the onslaughts very bravely,and retained her honour well.

On the dialect of Saraiki or the old Jatki/Multani, a dictionary was published byA.Jukes in 1900,and the author states on pages-iii-iv of the book commenting on the difference between Punjabi and our ‘Jatki’ and quotes,that,Dr.H.Martin,the man who had earlier proofread the Punjabi Dictionary of ”Bhai Maya Singh’ before its publication in 1895 was also asked to proofread the Jatki Dictionary of Jukes,and had found only two words common !

All Lhandha dialects remain mutually intelligible,hence cannot be under any yardstick be termed as separate languages.

Even with a passage of time and over 110 years gone by i.e after Jukes Dictionary,and a massive infusion of loan words,we still see,that our Saraiki  retains its character.Two main official dictionaries of the Saraiki exist,the first published by ”Bahauddin Zakaria University Multan in 2007,authored by Sardar Sa’ad d’Ullah Khan Khetran, the other by Shaukat Mughal,published by Saraiki Adabi Board,in 2010:The Shaukat tu Lughat’. I have studied both, separating each loan word of the Foreign languages,which were found to be Arabic,Farsi,Hindi-Urdu,Punjabi,Turki,Balluchi,Pushto,sansktric,English etc.

Briefly stating,the dictionary of Sardar Sad’ullah as a case study we find that,it has in total 38,979 words,in which the loan words of above quoted alien languages are Arabi-2948,Farsi-1353,Turki-09,Balluchi-60,English-585,Urdu-267,and leaving aside other,of Punjabi,just 36 words.

The point to remember is expunging all these loan words and subsituting them from our own current different dialects of Lhandha,is a easy Job !

The major reason why all of our Lhandha dialects are mutually intelligible, is because,of the geographic boundaries of our old suba of Multan,even within the last 1000 years as stated by Syed Ali Hajwari in his book,”Kashaf al Mahjoob’ that when he came to Lahore it was a Qasba of the Multan Suba,the Old Lahore was never a city on the trade routes, both major passed,one above her and the other below,via Multan,and through the Sanghar Pass,in the Roh-e- Sulaman Range,from its eastern most range,it crossed Bar-khan,Chacha,Choti-ala,Duki,Harnai,and from Pisheen,it went towards,Zabul or later Ghuzz’nih,or Beyond further north,and one went towards Herat,or lower towards Zahdain and further beyond.

The fact remains,till the transportation from kachchi plains of the Saraiki speakers by Naseer l,the Barrohi Khan of Kalat and also from the Duki and to its east,as these tribes had been loyal to the Kalhora’s, the Wardens of the Central western Marches,and refused passage to Nadir Shah,in early 1739 AD. Thus the axe fell on them and they were pushed towards the Trans-Cis Indus regions suplemented by the Balluchi and the ruling Barrohi clans.

Should we study the last Administrative Boundaries of Multan,which had Saraiki,as the language spoken,and Persian being that of writings,as per the custom in vogue,in all Muslim empires then.Using the same Perso-Arabic Script,The North Eastern part of Multan Suba was a peaked intrusion in Lahore Suba{ West of  Tihara,Southof Kasur,West of Bhatindha,and Bhatnair},and touching on the lower side Dehli Suba,below which,came Ajmer Suba,to south of the Multan Suba was,’Thatta Sarkar’ administrated from Multan.

To west,due to chaotic conditions in Persia, around 1700 AD,the Barrohi,who were the Forward Wardens of the Mughal Empire had lately been attacking Qandhar Fort,and had extended the Mughal boundaries of Suba Mutlan much further into the old Qandhar Suba.

The stress being that SARAIKI was the main dialect spoken ! It would be out of scope here to go in details of the dialects spoken in the Thatta Sarkar. The Punjabi geographic entity was thrust on us after 1849,that being the extension of the old headquarters of the British when they moved in here !

Later came in bulk the Punjabi speakers,in the Nine Canal Colonies,though the original Sikh and Hindu left after 1947.However the refuges from the British East Punjab were allotted lands in the same colonies.

It has taken years,from the,Imposition of 1871 ACT,that our original” Bar”people,named as”Jangali’,residents, now emerge from the Stigma of being till 1947,in the Classification, of Criminal tribes and the Vagabond lot !

Now a very brief glance at the term Punjab.At or about the Arab invasion and later the Hakra was the main river of this region,the feeders being the other 4  i,e Sutlej,Chitang,Sarsuwati and the Ghagghar.It is these 5  rivers which are the ‘Punj’ and Ab’ in  Farsi,means the rivers.And the language thus is Punjabi. However now a look,as to how it came in being,These five rivers area had been from remote times the meeting ground of two very different and distinct languages,The Western ”Lhandha’,and the Eastern,of the Ganga-Jumna Do-aba,the old Midland,the parent of western Hindi,as the new terms go,defined by the linguist of the 19th century.Which gave birth to Punjabi.

Lastly it is this term Punjabi,which is becoming the cause of much rift within our STATE.

And hence,this short paper explaining who the actual Punjabi is !

It should be kept in mind that we the old tribes have always given refuge to those who came in our fold,from West,South West,East or South East.But, it is time the immigrants allow us to retain our rights as well. And revive our past !

This I feel is not asking for much?

Naveed Tajammal is a Investigative Historian with over 28 years of experience.