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Saraiki nationalist movement refers to the efforts to establish a collective identity for the Saraiki (Template:Lang-ur) ethnic group in the Punjab province of Pakistan and to secure an official status for the language and people. As of 2002, there were approximately 30 million Saraiki people, who were speaking the Saraiki language, in central Pakistan in the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces, mainly based in the former princely state of Bahawalpur.

Beginning in the 1960s,Riaz Hashmi Saraiki nationalists have sought to gain language rights and lessen Punjabi control over the natural resources of Siraili lands. 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 nationality recognised, to have official documents printed in Saraiki, a Saraiki regiment in the Pakistan Army, employment quotas and more Saraiki language radio and television.

Several parties are working on this mission like Pakistan Saraiki Party, Siraikistan Qaumi Movement, and Saraiki National Party. Majid Kanjoo is one of the leaders of the Saraikistan movement.

Aims of Saraiki Movement

The Saraiki movement was the combination of language planning and efforts to establish a collective identity to convince the Saraikis and others of the status of Saraiki as a separate language distinct from Punjabi. It also aimed to establish Saraikis as a separate nationality 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 an ethnic language serves its speakers as an identity marker. It is the only behaviour that carries extensive cultural content. 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 as they define them.

Like many such movements, the Saraiki movement also started in the name of cultural revival and promotion. Articulation of the economic conflict with the upper Punjab region later gained prominence after the language identity was established. Factors like geographical, cultural and linguistic differences with Punjabis and the settlement of Punjabis in Saraiki areas before and after the partition on their own do not account for the need of Saraikis to assert their separate identity through the Saraiki movement in the 1960s. What really lay behind it was the lack of development of the Saraiki 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, at least in the eyes of Saraiki political leaders. 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?

"People will redefine themselves when circumstances make it desirable or when circumstances force it on them" . Dorian

The Saraiki nationalist intellectuals reacted to the a perceived threat to their language and identity and set out to develop an ethno-linguistic consciousness in order to resist the assimilation of their language. The efforts towards this cause were directed towards creating a Saraiki identity. Initially this was done to counter the fear of identity extinction and to get rid of the ‘misleading' label of Punjabis. These endeavors have been termed as the Saraiki movement'. Attempts have been made to get the support of the Seraiki 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 Bengalis, Sindhis, Mohajirs (Urdu speakers) and Pakhtoons . Now the Saraikis are counted as one of the five indigenous nationalities and Saraiki as a distinct language at some official and unofficial levels. 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' . The Saraikis 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.

See also

• Saraiki people
• Saraiki language
• Saraiki literature
• Saraikistan
• Saraiki Wasaib
• Saraiki Culture
• Bahawalpur (princely state)

References

• Saraiki Language and Ethnic Identity by Dr Saiqa Imtiaz Asif.

http://www.wasaib.com/english-article/seraiki-language-and-ethnic-identity.html

• http://pak1stanfirst.com/index.php?start=12

External links

• Saraiki province: a bone of contention for many

• Seraiki people
• Nationalism
• Nationalism by country or region
• Seraikistan