Abstract
ABSTRACTPunjabi today is written in both Gurmukhi, utilized in the Indian Punjab, and the Perso-Arabic script, called Shahmukhi in Punjabi, which is utilized in the Pakistani Punjab (and each among their respective Diaspora communities). Speakers of the language were divided along religious lines with the formation of post-colonial successor states to British rule in 1947, whereby a script divide came to parallel both a national border and religious difference. Beyond this inscription of difference, however, Punjabi as a primary language is shared among those living in both the larger section of Punjab, the Pakistani Punjab (with approximately 70 million speakers), and the Indian Punjab (with perhaps 30 million), with a significant number of speakers of the language outside of the two Punjab states, in South Asia, and in the wider Diaspora. This essay explores the articulation of support for Punjabi in both India and Pakistan, in its two scripts, and the political contexts that have both enabled and constrained that support since Independence/Partition.
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