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CANADA'S FEDERAL ELECTION AND THE PUNJABI LANGUAGE Sadhu
Binning Canada's
Federal election is in full swing and people from the Punjabi community
are fully immersed in it. In the greater Vancouver area, especially in
Surrey, numerous candidates of Punjabi heritage,
representing different political parties have entered the field.
The situation in Toronto and other large centres is the same. Wherever
Punjabis live in significant numbers, they are working to make some
Punjabi candidate or helping someone close to the community successful. Punjabis
are contributing enormous sums of money to political parties and
offering all kinds of resources and energy to elections. They are
raising funds, preparing voter lists, putting up signs, knocking on
doors or working the phones. In their homes or at workplaces, people are
arguing in favour of their political party's platform. Big
ads are appearing in Punjabi newspapers, radio and TV are devoting
countless hours to election talk. And in all of these activities, they
are using Punjabi language. In many places, like Surrey, where Punjabi
candidates are running for different parties, the use of Punjabi
language is dominant over English. While its exact use may vary in
different places, one thing is certain: Punjabi is being used
extensively in the current Canadian election campaign. However,
the reality is that Punjabi is still considered to be a foreign language
in Canada. The
respect given to different cultures in Canada is what makes this country
unique in the world. This is indeed a remarkable quality and we as
Canadians are justly proud of it. Canada's Multiculturalism is seen as a
model in the world. The reality, however, is that multiculturalism in
Canada has not advanced beyond a certain stage in the last thirty-four
years. It is a well known and accepted fact that no culture can survive
without its language. Language is the essential ingredient in the
survival of a culture. Yet Canada's multicultural structure is
steadfastly against recognizing any language as Canadian other than its
two official languages, English and French. Punjabi
is listed as the sixth most spoken language in Canada, and it could
easily move into fourth or fifth position if all Punjabis claimed it to
be their mother tongue. It has existed here for more than a century. It
is not only spoken in the homes but at thousands of workplaces across
the country. It has continuously contributed to the development of this
country, especially British Columbia. To deny Punjabi the recognition of
this contribution, and to say that it is not a Canadian language is a
form of discrimination known in social sciences as Lingucism. It is also
a fact, that Punjabi is not the only language discriminated against.
With the exception of the two official languages of Canada, all other
languages are considered foreign. Should this issue not be raised simply
because all languages are treated the same or discriminated against?
This is indeed a very complex matter and one that has everyone afraid to
talk about it, especially politicians. In
comparison to other languages, the situation of Punjabi is different and
consequently, has different needs. Being official languages in their
respective countries most other languages receive support to develop and
expand in Canada. The proud speakers of those languages themselves
contribute necessary resources for the development of their language in
Canada. Perhaps for them, comparatively, it is not essential that their
languages be recognized in Canada. They themselves give more recognition
and respect to their language and look after all its needs. The
situation of Punjabi is entirely different. Punjabi is the twelfth most
spoken language in the world with some 150 million speakers living in
125 countries around the globe. Yet there is no one single state that is
concerned about it. Its speakers consider it less important than
religion in conserving their culture. As a community, we continue to
suffer from the colonial hangover and consider Punjabi irrelevant in our
lives. Consequently, Punjabi needs help to survive and develop in
Diaspora. If it is officially recognized in Canada, we in PLEA (Punjabi
Language Education Association) believe, it will create more respect for
the language among its speakers and also the state, to some extent, will
become responsible for it. Punjabi was accepted as one of the six
languages to be taught as second language in BC schools in 1994. This
has opened many other doors for its development since. Elections
are good times to raise such issues. The question should be put to at
least the Punjabi candidates: What will they do to get Punjabi some
recognition at the national level in Canada? This language also belongs
to all of the candidates of Punjabi heritage including Ujjal Dosanjh,
Tarlok Sablok, Sukh Dhaliwal, Nina Grewal, Surjit Kooner (these are just
some names of BC politicians) and dozens of other candidates running
across the country. Since they are all using this language in their
campaigning, the language should also be their responsibility. No
one can deny that this is not a simple matter and it may take a long
time to get Punjabi recognized in Canada. But it should at least become
an item on someone's agenda during the election. In the last Municipal
elections one of the main parties contesting the Vancouver School Board
did put Punjabi language on their agenda and issued a press release. Now
the community can and will ask them to do what they promised in their
press release, which was to add Punjabi classes in some Vancouver
schools. One
thing that should be made clear is that we are not demanding that
Punjabi should be placed at par with English or French; nor are we
saying that we do not accept Canada's official languages. We fully
respect these languages and their historic place and rights in Canada.
The knowledge of English language is essential for surviving not only in
Canada but also anywhere in the world. Recognizing this fact, a huge
amount of money is spent in teaching and developing English in Canada.
No one has any issue with that. The only thing we are asking for is that
Punjabi should also be recognized for its contribution to the
development of this country and a penny or two from our tax dollars
should also be spent on this language. We believe that this is a
reasonable demand. As
a community we have lived here for close to 110 years. We have come a
long way from the day Komagata Maru was sent away from Vancouver. The
Punjabi community is an integral part of Canadian society now. Yet we
have not achieved much for our language in this society. We have been
very successful in helping our relatives and friends to come to Canada
and permanently settle here. Is it not time that we should also make an
effort to have landed status for our mother language Punjabi as well? Sadhu
Binning Vice
President, PLEA Teaches
Punjabi at UBC sbinning@interchange.ubc.ca
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