‘No threat to Punjabi language’

The two-day conference,organised by Punjabi University’s World Punjabi Centre in collaboration of Sahitya Academy,New Delhi,concluded on Monday.

Fakhar Zaman,Chairman,Pakistan Academy of Letters,Gurumel Sidhu,president of the USA chapter of the WPC,S P Gautam,V-C of MJP University,Bareilly,S S Gill,V-C of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences,Jaspal Singh,V-C of Punjabi University,and Sutinder Singh Noor,Vice-president of the Sahitya Academy voiced their opinion on the report.

Deepak Manmohan Singh,Director of the WPC,said 25 of the 200 delegates from India and abroad,participating in the conference,presented papers during the conference.

Speaking on the occasion,Fakhar Zaman dubbed the UNESCO report the culmination of a conspiracy hatched by vested interests. He advocated the need to constitute a joint commission of Punjabi supporters settled across the world.

Supporting Fakhar Zaman’s idea,Jaspal Singh said instead of worrying about the UNESCO report,we should gear ourselves up to wipe out such propagandist strategies,based on hypotheses rather than scientific studies. He reiterated his conviction of Punjabi University acting as a facilitator to any individual and organisational endeavour made in the direction of promoting Punjabi language and culture.

He also released a set of books by Harjit Singh Gill,a voluminous work edited by Fakhar Zaman on Amrita Pritam,and books written by Kirpal Singh Pannu,C P Kamboj and Avtar Dhanjal on the use of computer technology for the promotion of Punjabi language.

Professor of Genetics at California State University,Gurumel Sidhu in his keynote address on ‘Transnational Punjabi Culture and Literature’ highlighted various aspects related to the subject,including cultural camouflage,cultural amalgamation,cultural transformation and cultural metamorphosis.

S S Gill hinted at the emergence of cultural symbiosis in the wake of the mighty forces of globalisation where languages and cultures will merge into a common entity.

Prof S P Gautam was of the opinion that religious conflicts were more damaging than issues related to linguistic differences. He urged the Punjabis on both sides of the border to help break the ‘Indo-Pak wall’ like the Berlin Wall.

Deepak Manmohan Singh disclosed that prominent among those are participating in the conference include J S Dhaliwal,President of the Canada Chapters of the WPC,Anne Murphy from the University of British Columbia,Manmohan,First Secretary,Indian High Commission,Afghanistan,Patrick Frolicher from Germany,Minakshi Verma from France,Veena Verma,Darshan Dheer and Devinder Kaur from the UK and Amar Jyoti from Holland.