By Rakshat Puri INDIAN Punjab's Chief Minister Amarinder Singh visited Pakistani Punjab recently.
His visit coincided with the World Punjabi Conference which was held at Lahore at the end of January and beginning of February.
That Conference is to be followed shortly by a 'Patiala heritage conference' in which Pakistani-Punjabi musicians and others are expected in Patiala.
Amarinder Singh's visit took place in the midst also of continual concern over language that is being and has long been expressed in various ways by various leaders and non-leaders in other parts of India.
In addition, it coincided with the steps and measures that India and Pakistan are slowly agreeing to take for allowing the people of the two countries-related historically and culturally from as far back as one can imagine--to once again establish contact socially, culturally, trade-wise, profession-wise, need-wise etc.
This was evident during the proceedings at last month's summit-level conference in Islamabad of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, when important "sideline" meetings took place between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and General Pervez Musharraf.
Vajpayee is on record as having suggested a single SAARC currency along with the moves slowly underway towards turning the region in the direction of becoming a single tariff barrier.
There have been suggestions too for the establishment of a SAARC Parliament, somewhat on the model of a European Parliament.
Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha actually expressed some time ago his hope that SAARC would become a South Asian Union.
He mentioned as model the European Union.
In all this expression of hope and aspiration over the direction in which SAARC might be turned; why should not a single language for the region also be considered? Would it not open minds, revive and re-strengthen ties? Would it not quicken SAARC's movement towards becoming a South Asian Union? Adoption by the Association of a single SAARC language seems increasingly essential.
True, the European Union-which has been frequently cited as a possible model-does not yet formally have a single EU language.
But the unwritten custom there is that, if necessary, English might be used-American English, not British English.
There was a time when, during Britain's colonial high-time in history, the sun never set on English speech.
A few years after the last world war, it might, in ordinary circumstances, have set.
But then, in the post-war circumstances, there rose one of two, and subsequently the only, super-power: the English-speaking United States of America.
So, English not only did not fade after the passing of British colonial rule.
Today, China, Indonesia, Japan, and many other countries where the British did not rule, and therefore did not embed English, are spending millions to encourage English-education in schools and universities.
History gifted English to South Asia.
Therefore, among many other gainful advantages and possibilities came, for example, India's early progress in Infotech and outsourcing.
Other countries are endeavouring with freshly gained knowledge of English to move on to the same path.
Countries such as China, Thailand, Indonesia and others.
But in India nowadays, a curiously self-detrimental kind of concern over language has nevertheless begun to be expressed-most loudly by religio-political leaders.
This is so presumably in Pakistan, too.
And perhaps also other South Asian states.
Religio-political leaders-Hindu, Muslim or any other-have usually a dark preference for building airless culture-dungeons to place their populations in.
Last September, Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi suggested for example that English be removed from India as a medium of education, and be replaced by the "national" language or State language or one's mother tongue.
He did not take into consideration, evidently, the socio-economic and other advantages being gained from acquaintance with English which history gifted to India.
Nor did he seem to take into consideration the lesson-teaching results of the West Bengal Left Front government's discouragement to English-teaching in the State.
A generation grew up there which some in Kolkata were heard describing as qualificationally handicapped because of insufficient familiarity with English.
Eventually, the West Bengal government did turn round to direct its efforts at re-introducing English in education, from the primary level! But the harm had been done-even if temporarily.
It is to be noted of course that area-wise English indeed is the most widely known language in South Asia.
Therefore, English will anyway continue to be learnt and understood in the region-as it is allover the world--to meet global needs and urges in communication, trade, technology, socio-political affairs and events.
But English-knowing people in South Asia are a small fraction, in the middle classes.
And they are not likely to own English as their language even if they are more than commonly familiar with it.
They might on the other hand own a region-based common language.
But there is of course no likelihood of the masses in the South Asian region becoming adequately familiar with English in the foreseeable future.
Therefore a single South Asian language for SAARC seems, in the prevailing circumstances, essential for creating a single regional entity of independent states.
The most widely familiar regional language in South Asia-in its many variations-is what has traditionally been described as Hindustani.
It is even mentioned in the Indian Constitution (Article 351, not the Eighth Schedule).
Hindustani is an elegant and adaptive language.
Written in the Persian script, it tends to have a Persian-Arabic inclination, and is known as Urdu.
Written in Devnagari, it inclines towards Sanskrit, and is called Hindi.
As in Sindhi, which in 1967 was included in the Indian Constitution's Eighth Schedule by the Constitution (Twenty-first Amendment) Act: the choice of script for writing Sindhi-either Devnagari or the original Arabic-derived script-is left to the Sindhi-using individual.
Among the prime virtues of Hindustani is that it can and does borrow, adopt and modify to its purpose words and phrases easily from other languages.
In this it very much resembles the English language.
English has grown to be what it is with its tendency of free borrowing-witness the Hobson-Jobson Dictionary, published originally a century ago, in 1903, by John Murray, London.
It lists over seven thousand English loan-words from India.
Indeed, from South Asia.
But while Hindustani (thanks most of all perhaps to Bollywood films!) is familiar in most parts of South Asia, the Devnagari and Persian-Arabic scripts are not.
Therefore at least one other official script for Hindustani would be necessary before it can be formally suggested as SAARC's own single regional language.
Unofficially, people might be encouraged to write Hindustani in the script of their own mother-tongue if they wish.
This would help enlarge Hindustani.
Hindustani would be Tamil-ized, Sinhala-ized, Hangla-ized, Malayalam-ized, Kashmiri-ized, Marathi-ized, Pashto-ized, Gorkhali-ized etc.
From each it would absorb new inflections and longer communicative reach.
The best third script that might officially be suggested for Hindustani as SAARC's single language would undoubtedly be the Latin, or Roman, script.
Consider, for a supporting example, the way of the Indian army.
It has personnel from every part of India, covering almost every language spoken in South Asia.
The Indian army has chosen to put Hindi for its personnel in the Roman script.
But the Indian army has used the English alphabet for Romanizing Hindi.
The SAARC authorities-a SAARC Language Commission?-would have to desist from the easy temptation to borrow the English alphabet.
The Roman script would have obviously to be subordinated to the phonetics of Hindustani.
An initial step in this direction might usefully take the form of sound-wise 'fitting' letters of the Roman script to both Hindi's Devnagari and Urdu's Persian-Arabic alphabets.
Such 'fitting' and regulation of the Roman script would of course require SAARC's assigning experts to the task.
There seems much to contemplate on concerning this issue, considering the reported results of Indian Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's journey to Pakistani Punjab.
There seems even more to think about on the warm and sentimental way in which delegates from Indian Punjab were welcomed and treated when they went to attend the World Punjabi Conference at Lahore.
Old-times sentiment ruled.
A single SAARC language in various scripts--joined to a single SAARC tariff barrier, a single SAARC currency, a SAARC Parliament, easier cross-boundaries travel, increased contacts between common people, and other such steps and measures-could, it would appear, hasten significantly the Association's journey to becoming a South Asian Union.(Asia Features)