BARRISTER TAJ MOHAMMAD LANGAH & MISS SAJIDA LANGAH

BARRISTER  TAJ  MOHAMMAD LANGAH &  MISS SAJIDA LANGAH

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

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Jhumar

Jhumar or Jhoomar is a lively form of music and dance that originated in the Multan and Balochistan region in Pakistan, but thrived in Punjab (Pakistan) & Sandalbar areas. It is slower and more rhythmic form of bhangra. Jhumar comes from Jhum - which means swaying. The songs evoke a quality which reminds of swaying. Though the content of these songs is varied- they are usually love with emotional songs too. The Jhummar is a dance of ecstasy.
Jhumar is a folk dance performed during the harvest season in Punjab. It is a living demonstration of the happiness of men. The dance is mostly performed by the Baluchi and Seraiki people of Southern Punjab.
Any time is Jhummar time especially during Melas, weddings and other major functions and celebrations. The emphasis of Jhumar is recreating the gaits of animals and birds. The movement of animals, the ploughing of the field, sowing of seeds and harvesting are shown in the original progression. The dance is also performed in circle, to the tune of emotional songs. The costumes of the dancers are very colorful.

Dancing Style

Performed exclusively by men, It is a common feature to see three generations - father, son and grandson - dancing all together. The dance is without acrobatics. The movement of the arms only is considered its main forte. Toes are musically placed in front and backwards and turnings are taken to the right, sometimes the dancers place their one hand below the ribs on the left and gesticulate with the right hand. This dance does not tire out its performers and it is normally danced on moonlight nights in the villages away from the habitation. The dancers of this dance let-off a sound, "dee dee" in tune with the beat of the dance which adds to its grace. This dance has also been integrated into Bhangra.

Types Of Jhumar

There are three main types of jhummar, each of which has a different mood, and is therefore suited to different occasionally, reason of its predominating mood. They are:
  • satluj jhummar
  • beas jhummar
  • chenab jhummar

Writing system

There are three writing systems for Sarāikī, though very few Sarāikī speakers—even those literate in other languages — are able to read or write their own language in any writing system. The most common Sarāikī writing system today is the Perso-Arabic script, which has also been adapted for use on computers. Saraiki has a 42-letter alphabet including 37 of the Urdu alphabet and five letters unique to Saraiki. The Saraiki keyboard can also be used for other languages such as Punjabi & Kashmiri. The Devanagari and Gurmukhi scripts, written from left to right, were used by Hindus. Though not used in present-day Pakistan, there are still emigrant speakers in India who know the Devanagari or Gurmukhi scripts for Sarāikī.[22][23] Traders or bookkeepers wrote in a script known as Langdi, although use of this script has been significantly reduced in recent times. The transliteration from and to Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts for Saraiki language can be made online.[24]
In the process of creating a distinct Sarāikī written language, activists have paid attention to creating a standard script and orthographic norms. Orthographic and linguistic standardization of Sarāikī seems more connected with the politics of identity. Although Saraiki shares four implosive sounds with Sindhi, care was taken so that the Saraiki script and the representation of these symbols should be different from that of Sindhi so that the Sindhis should not lay any claims over Saraiki literature as theirs.[citation needed]

[edit] Saraiki in Sindh

In Sindh Saraiki is widely spoken in Kashmore, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Ghotki.

[edit] Saraiki in Balochistan

In Balochistan Saraiki is widely spoken in Barkhan, Naseerabad, Jafarabad and Jhal Magsi.

[edit] Saraiki in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Saraiki is native language in the districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank .

[edit] Saraiki in India

In India Saraiki is spoken in Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar, Bhiwani, Panipat districts of Haryana, some area of Delhi and Ganganagar district,Hanumangarh and Bikaner districts of Rajasthan.It is also spoken some parts of Punjab.It is spoken at low scale.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Abstract of speakers’ strength of languages and mother tongues – 2001, Census of India (retrieved 19 March 2008)
  2. ^ a b Rahman 1997:838
  3. ^ a b c Shackle 1977
  4. ^ Javaid 2004
  5. ^ A.H. Dani, Sindhu-Sauvira: A glimpse into the early history of Sind In Hameeda Khusro (ed), Sind Through The Centuries (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1981) pp. 35-42
  6. ^ Department of Saraiki, IUB
  7. ^ Department of Saraiki, BZU
  8. ^ District Government, Bahawalpur
  9. ^ District Government, Multan
  10. ^ Population by Mother Tongue, Website of the Population Census organization of Pakistan
  11. ^ Broadcasts in Different Languages, Website of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation
  12. ^ "Introduction". Afghan Hindu. http://www.afghanhindu.info/afghan_hindus.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
  13. ^ Masica 1991:18, 20
  14. ^ Grierson 1904-1928, volume of 1919. "Lahnda" was his novel designation for various dialects up to then called "Western Punjabi", spoken north, west, and south of Lahore. The local dialect of Lahore is the Majhi dialect of Punjabi, which has long been the basis of standard literary Punjabi.
  15. ^ a b Grierson 1919:239ff.
  16. ^ a b Masica 1991, Appendix I:220-245
  17. ^ The spelling with retroflex 'Ḍ' instead of 'D' is according to Masica 1991.
  18. ^ Pakistan census 1998
  19. ^ "Colonies, posh and model in name only!". NCR Tribune. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030319/ncr1.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  20. ^ "Seraiki". Ethnologue. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=skr. Retrieved 2007-07-14. 
  21. ^ Masica 1991
  22. ^ "Multani poets relive memories of struggle". Indian Express. http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19980127/02651164.html. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
  23. ^ Balfour 1885: 1095
  24. ^ Saraiki Online Transliteration

[edit] References

  • Asif, Saiqa Imtiaz. 2005. Saraiki Language and Ethnic Identity Journal of Research (Faculty of Languages and Islamic Studies), 7: 9-17. Multan (Pakistan): Bahauddin Zakariya University.
  • Balfour, Edward. 1885. The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia: commercial, industrial and scientific, products of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures. Volume 3; Entry on "Multani Writing". London: B. Quaritch. Google Books view.
  • Grierson, George A. 1919. Linguistic survey of India. vol. VIII, Part 1. Calcutta. Reprinted 1968 by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi.
  • HEC, Islamabad pakistn.Letter No. 20-/R7D/09 -5243 Dated 20-01-2010.
  • Javaid, Umbreen. 2004. Saraiki political movement: its impact in south Punjab. Journal of Research (Humanities), 40(2): 55–65. Lahore: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of the Punjab. (This PDF contains multiple articles from the same issue.)
  • Masica, Colin. 1991. The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge University Press.
  • Pakistan. 1998. Population and Housing Census of Pakistan.
  • Rahman, Tariq. 1997. Language and Ethnicity in Pakistan. Asian Survey, 1997 Sep., 37(9):833-839.
  • Shackle, C. 1976. The Saraiki language of central Pakistan: a reference grammar. London:School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
  • Shackle, C. 1977. Saraiki: A Language Movement in Pakistan. Modern Asian Studies, 11(3):379-403.

[edit] Further reading

Problems in nomenclature

The historical inventory of names for the dialects now called Sarāikī is a confusion of overlapping or conflicting ethnic, local, and regional designations. "Hindki" and "Hindko" -- which means merely "of India" -- refer to various Sarāikī and even non-Sarāikī dialects in Punjab Province and farther north within the country, due to the fact they were applied by invaders from Afghanistan or Persia. One historical name for Sarāikī, Jaṭki, means "of the Jaṭṭs", a northern South Asian ethnic group; but Jaṭṭs speak the Indo-Aryan dialect of whatever region they live in. Only a small minority of Sarāikī speakers are Jaṭṭs, and not all Sarāikī speaking Jaṭṭs necessarily speak the same dialect of Sarāikī. Conversely, several Sarāikī dialects have multiple names corresponding to different locales or demographic groups. When consulting sources before 2000, it is important to know that Pakistani administrative boundaries have been altered frequently. Provinces in Pakistan are divided into districts, and sources on "Sarāikī" often describe the territory of a dialect or dialect group according to the districts. Since the founding of Pakistan in 1947, several of these districts have been subdivided, some multiple times. Until 2001, the territorial structure of Pakistan included a layer of Divisions between a Province and its Districts. The name dialect name "Ḍerawali" is used to refer to the local dialects of both Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan, but "Ḍerawali" in the former is the Multani dialect and "Ḍerawali" in the latter is the Thaḷi dialect.[15][16]

Classification within Indo-Aryan

Sarāikī, Sindhi and Punjabi are all members of the Indo-Aryan subdivision of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Although Punjabi and Sarāikī are mutually intelligible, they differ in consonant inventory and in the structure of the verb.
In 1919, Grierson maintained that the dialects of what is now the southwest of Punjab Province in Pakistan constitute a dialect cluster, which he designated "Southern Lahnda" within a putative "Lahnda language". Subsequent Indo-Aryanist linguists have confirmed the reality of this dialect cluster, even while rejecting the name "Southern Lahnda" along with the entity "Lahnda" itself.[13][14] However, outside of Indo-Aryanist circles, the concept of "Lahnda" is still found in compilations of the world's languages (e.g., Ethnologue).
There is a tendency for some discussions of the Sarāikī dialects and their emerging standard literary language to incorrectly include dialects or languages spoken farther north, in particular Hindko and Modern Panjistani. This error is due to confusing Sarāikī (Grierson's "Southern Lahnda") with Grierson's larger category of Lahnda, within which Grierson included dialects spoken north of the Salt Range. While the more northerly dialects are considerably similar to Sarāikī in linguistic structure, starting with Grierson they have been recognised as definitely distinct from the dialect cluster spoken south of the Salt Range.

Saraiki nationalism

Saraiki nationalist movement refers to the efforts to establish a collective identity for the Saraiki (Urdu: سراییکی) linguistic group in the Punjab province of Pakistan and to secure an official status for the language. As of 2002, there were approximately 15 million Saraiki people, who were speaking the Saraiki language, in central Pakistan in the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces, mainly based in MULTAN ,BAHAWALPUR , RAHIM YAR KHAN ,DG KHAN ,RAJAN PUR
Beginning in the 1960s,Riaz Hashmi Saraiki nationalists have sought to gain official language status and to create a new province out of southern Punjab. This has led to a proposed separate province Saraikistan, a region being drawn up by activists in the 1970s. The 1977 coup by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, a centralist ruler, caused the movement to go underground. After his death in 1988, the Saraiki movement re-emerged with the goals to have a Saraiki language recognised, to have official documents printed in Saraiki, a Saraiki regiment in the Pakistan Army, employment quotas and more Saraiki language radio and television.
 party are working on this mission  Pakistan Saraiki Party BARRISTER  TAJ  MOHAMMAD LANGAH &  MISS SAJIDA LANGAH   of the leaders of Saraiki speakerstan movement.

Aims of Saraiki Movement

The Saraiki movement was the combination of language planning and efforts to establish a collective identity to convince Saraiki speakers and others of the status of Saraiki as a separate language distinct from Punjabi.It also aimed to establish Saraiki as a separate language by invoking shared awareness of the local past among the people living across the Saraiki region speaking different dialects of the Saraiki language. Consensus on the name Saraiki for all the dialects spoken in the Saraiki region was a part of this reaction. Creation of a Saraiki identity in south-western Punjab involved the deliberate choice of a language called Saraiki, as a symbol of this identity. Language was chosen as a unifying symbol because a local language serves its speakers as an identity marker that can successfully separate them from other ethno-linguistic groups that share identity on another basis,such as culture,traditions and religion (in this case Islam).It was chosen also because it was an aspect the leaders thought will serve to unite the group and will be useful in promoting the interests of the group and ethno-politicians.
Like many such movements, the Saraiki movement also started in the name of cultural revival and promotion.What really lay behind it was the lack of development of South Punjab region which was not voiced in the first phase, ethno-nationalism is generally a response to perceived injustice. In general, the slogans and demands of the Saraiki nationalists have been coupled with linguistic rights and economic grievances, but in the late 1990s and the following decade, the linguistic issue has ceased to have much importance. This is evident in the charter of demands made at the end of a Saraiki conference held in December 2003, in which, out of twenty-one demands made, only one pertained to language. (Daily Khabrain, 2003)


How was the Saraiki Identity Created?

The Saraiki nationalist intellectuals reacted to the a perceived threat to their language and identity and set out to develop an ethno-linguistic consciousness. The efforts towards this cause were directed towards creating a Saraiki identity. Initially this was done to counter the "misleading label of Punjabis". These endeavors have been termed as the Saraiki movement'. Attempts have been made to get the support of the Saraiki speaking middle-class using economic reasoning to support the partition of the punjab on linguistic lines.

Outcome of the Saraiki Movement

The Saraiki movement has been successful at some levels. It is responsible for creating a sense of collective identity among the Saraiki speakers even if it has not been successful in forming a pressure group like that of the )PAKIATAN SARAIKI PARTY )Awami League, Jeay Sindh Quomi Mahaz, MQM and Awami National Party . Now the Saraiki is counted as one of the many languages of Pakistan. Saraiki was also included in the question about languages in the censuses of 1981 and 1998. Despite all this, however, the symbol of language which came out as the most powerful symbol in this movement has not yet acquired much evocative power' . Saraiki speakers are still not as emotionally attached to their language as the speakers of some other regional languages of Pakistan are. The Saraiki movement helped to give a collective name Saraiki' to different dialects and made people embrace this name for their collective identity but it ultimately failed to influence ordinary Saraikis to take pride in their language or consciously increase its usage in different domains.