'Respect For Mother Tongue': This Karnataka Professor Has Been Promoting Punjabi Language, Know Why

In an interesting take of events, a 47-year-old professor has been seen going around Punjab, urging the shopkeepers and business owners to put up signboards in the Punjabi language. The catch in it? The professor carrying out a crusade to promote Punjabi is neither a native of the state nor did he speak a word of the language for most of his life. Pandit Rao Dharennavar, hailing from the Bijapur district in Karnataka, had moved to Chandigarh in 2003 for a teaching stint. He is currently posted as an assistant professor at a Postgraduate Government College in Chandigarh, and his reason for campaigning for a language foreign to him is heartwarming.

Every Day Is A Mother Language Day

The assistant professor is popular among the crowds for being vocal against the glorification of gun culture, drugs, liquor, and violence in Punjabi songs. His latest efforts are directed towards promoting the Punjabi language that captures the authentic culture of the state. His move comes after the Punjab government's direction to public and private buildings to put up signboards in the Punjabi language before International Mother Language Day, which falls on February 21.

The Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann called for this mass movement on November 2022 and requested people to place boards prominently in Punjabi along with other languages as a mark of respect to the mother tongue. Taking this message to the masses, Dharennavar went around with a placard with the Punjabi alphabet to help shopkeepers write the names of their shops in the regional language. So far, he has gone around Khanna, Ludhiana, Moga, Patiala, Rajpura, Mohali, and Fatehgarh Sahib with his message.

He will visit several other cities in and around Punjab as he firmly believes that the natives should feel proud to put up signboards in their mother tongue. A report by NDTV quoted him saying, "I tell them they should give due respect to their mother tongue and write names of their shops in Punjabi before any other language." He has been getting tremendous responses from the shopkeepers who have pledged to put up the boards in the Punjabi language.

Bridging The North And South

Dharennavar, a Kannadiga, had learned the Punjabi language after he had realised that his students were not proficient in English. One fine day the South Indian decided that he should learn Punjabi so as to teach and connect with his students better. At a time when the South-North divide has become extremely conflicting with the imposition of one language over another, professors like Dharennavar sets an example of appreciating the diverse cultures of different states.

Having picked up the language over time, Dharennavar went on to translate the Sikh religious book "Japji Sahib" into the Kannada language and "vachanas" from Kannada into Punjabi. He built a bridge between both languages as people kept dividing the regions further. He stressed the need for a translation centre in Punjab that could take the rich Punjabi literature, poems, and novels to other languages and people of the country. Noting some of the timeless classics in the language, Dharennavar says, "The works of famous poets like Sant Ram Udasi, Pash and Shiv Kumar Batalvi should be translated into other languages like Kannada, Tamil so more and more people should know Punjab's literature."

Dharennavar has immense respect for the language and its rich heredity and hopes that the Punjabis treasure it well and good. He currently gives Punjabi lessons to doctors at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research who hail from the southern states and find it challenging to communicate with patients in their local language. Dharennavar has also named his daughter after Mata Khivi as a tribute to the wife of the second Sikh Guru Angad Dev. Language is an emotion and a cultural expression that continues to be passed on through the efforts of individuals such as Dharennavar.

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