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Mischief Makers Encourage Pakistani-Canadians To Lie and Deny
Their Mother Tongue, Punjabi,
In The 2016 Census

TAHIR GORA

 

 

 





EDITOR:   Pakistani Canadians are being asked to shoot themselves in their collective foot, exactly as India’s Punjabi Hindus did in the 1960s and the decades that followed.

There is a lesson to be learnt in how the Punjabi Hindus, through their mass self-fraud, became cultural orphans, relegating themselves as a faceless glob in a sea of an uncivilized mass, adrift without their roots in their mother-tongue, culture and heritage.






Some Toronto-based Ethnic Urdu newspapers and some Pakistani-Canadian community leaders on social media are urging Punjabi Pakistani-Canadians particularly to not mention Punjabi as their mother tongue in Census Canada 2016.

Another example of such an opinion is on Facebook, where a Pakistani Canadian wrote, "I request all Pakistani and Indian Muslims (no matter what regional language they do speak) should write Urdu as their mother tongue so that government can count total number of Pakistani and Indian Muslims living in Canada. I further urge Pakistani Christians to write their language too as Urdu in order to show solidarity with other Pakistanis."

On the same page, a commentator responded to the above posting, "The idea of a census to gather facts. Encouraging people to write something that is not true defeats the purpose of the census. If your mother tongue is not Urdu then please do not write Urdu. To do so is not helpful."

Another very active Pakistani Canadian wrote on Facebook, "Please put your language as Urdu, Other words like ‘Punjabi‘ are very much deceiving for you, It benefit others but not you."

One can clearly find bigotry, betrayal and false facts imposition in above statements.

On the other hand, Canada's statistics website suggests the following punishment and offences on reporting wrongly, "for every refusal or neglect, or false answer or deception, guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both"

Apart from this legal debate, let's analyze the insecurities of Pakistani-Canadians in terms of not recognizing Punjabi as the mother tongue of Punjabi Pakistani Canadians: First, they don't want to count themselves with other Punjabi-speaking Canadians: Sikh-Canadians and Punjabi Hindus. Secondly, they declare Urdu as their Muslim language.

Both assumptions are based on false historic facts.

Urdu was and is one of the prominent languages of India. Urdu is neither a major language of Pakistani Muslims nor Indian Muslims. Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi and Malayalam are major languages of the subcontinent’s Muslims. Urdu was imported to the newly born country Pakistan through Urdu speaking migrated Muslims of UP and Delhi states of India mainly.

Otherwise, Bengali, Punjabi, Sindhi and Pashtu were major languages of 1947's Pakistan.

The state of Pakistan soon declared Urdu as state (national) language due to Urdu-speaking elite bureaucracy.

But Bengali majority Muslims refused to accept Urdu as their national language, which eventually led to the breakdown of Pakistan in 1971 and the creation of Bangla Desh.

However, the elites of Punjabis, the second largest Pakistani community, neglected their heritage and imposed Urdu on themselves to take charge of vested interests in the name of Pakistani patriotism.

Unfortunately, this Urdu-Punjabi Muslim complex resulted in the killing of Bengali students in Dhaka who were asking recognition of their mother tongue in a rally in Dhaka on February 21, 1952. United Nations has now declared that day as International Mother Tongue Day.

As in 21st century, all civilized nations have understood the respect of Mother Tongues but some Pakistani-Canadian groups in Canada are urging Pakistanis to lie about their true mother-tongue and heritage in the Canada Census 2016.

Absolutely, it's a shame.

Why are they so insecure?

They argue that by writing Punjabis as their mother tongue, Pakistani Canadians would lose their real count. That's not the fact.

In Canada Census 2016, there is a question 16 in Step E: "Where was this person born?" Answering "Pakistan" would be sufficient enough to determine correct numbers of Canadians of Pakistani origin. So there is no need to lie about Mother Language and falsely change it from Punjabi to Urdu.

So Pakistani Canadians can certainly avoid identity crises paranoia and the false ‘one-nation’ obsession in the 2016 Census.

We Canadians, Pakistanis, Sikhs, Indians and the rest on this planet make our nationhood by carrying so many identities and languages simultaneously.


[Courtesy: The Huffington Post. Edited for sikhchic.com]
May 17, 2018
 

Conversation about this article

1: AD Singh (India), May 17, 2016, 12:40 PM.

With Hindus and Muslims having abandoned Punjabi, Sikhs have become its custodians by default ... and passion and commitment. And that's great.

2: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), May 18, 2016, 5:47 AM.

I remember once listening to Bhai Sahib Jodh Singh ji when he mentioned that while Hindu Punjabis were vociferously claiming that Hindi, not Punjabi, was their mother-tongue, they were delivering their speeches in chaste Punjabi, being unable to speak in Hindi!

3: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), May 18, 2016, 4:51 PM.

It is pretty clear that these statements are being made from a place of inferiority. Canada has a big Pakistani population but you never hear anything worthwhile about them. Canada also has a large Sikh population and all you hear about is our strong political culture, charity (the response to Fort McMurray is the current issue where Sikhs are hogging the limelight) and our economic power. It's this same sense of inferiority that causes the Pakistani community to hatefully target the Sikh community in the UK. The Pakistani population will continue to grow in Canada and so will many of the incredibly negative and inhumane aspects of the way they behave in western countries. We should be grateful that the early severing of their connection to the term "Punjabi" will prevent the same problem of the term "Asian" when the media in the UK is reporting the horrible actions of their community.

4: Jasvir Kaur (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), May 18, 2016, 10:40 PM.

I agree with Sunny ji. Moving forward, it’s important to say this, that the bulk of the help and donations came from the Sikh community vis-a-vis Fort McMurray. It differentiates us from others who like to ride on our shoulders but not beside us.

5: AD Singh (India), May 19, 2016, 3:08 AM.

To put it very simply, there is now a general impression that Punjabi is a Sikh language, just as Urdu is considered a Muslim language and Hindi is linked to Hindus. By declaring Urdu as their mother-tongue, the Pakistanis do not want to get clubbed with the Sikhs and through the lie, are seeking a distinct ethno-religious identity.

6: Raj (Canada), May 21, 2016, 9:27 PM.

Muslims of Pakistani Punjab should listen to poet Afzal Saher to see how their history books have lied to them. It's on YouTube in poetry, as well as an interview with Tapir Hora.

7: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), May 23, 2016, 6:50 PM.

Raj ji (#6): Thanks for the revisit and reminding Afzal. The site is: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1eyd3w_afzal-saahir-poetry-partition-1947-by-umar-islam_people - I will now 'save' it once again.

8: Raj (Canada), May 24, 2016, 7:11 PM.

Thanks, S. Sangat Singh ji. I have seen it in reality, in the eyes of so many people who were thrown out of their homes and lives. It just brings tears to one's eyes. How many young people would have time to understand the reality of Partition? I mean on both sides of the new border. Sad!

9: R Singh  (Surrey, British Columbia, Canada), May 25, 2016, 6:11 PM.

Well said, Sunny ji. It is only a matter of time before Canada starts to have the problems that England has with Pakistani behaviour.

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Their Mother Tongue, Punjabi,
In The 2016 Census"









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