Articles on Pakistan's language issue
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IMPOSING A NEW CULTURE ON PAKISTAN
"Most of the textbooks, on both school and college levels, persist
in preaching that the United Provinces was the home of Pakistani
culture. The clear message is that Pakistanis should accept this
culture; but nobody explains what it is, beyond the Urdu language.
In practice this culture is being imposed upon us through the very
effective means of the textbook. This raises many problems and
some issues of substantial importance:
* The fact is that the United Provinces was the home of a decadent,
brittle, pale, nostalgic reflection of the Moghul culture that had
passed away, not a developing, strong, healthy, indigenous culture.
It was owned only by the upper crust of the society; the home-grown,
common-man, _bhayya_, way of life was looked at contemptuously by the
'cultured' classes. The crust was hard, and did not contain much
within it. This superficially aristocratic culture was not shared by
any class in the rest of Muslim India, nor would it have been
acceptable to Pakistanis unless it were imposed upon them through
state machinery.
* The influence of the MAO College and the Aligarh University has
been grossly exaggerated. Only a handful of students from other
provinces attended them. There were several other educational
institutions situated nearer home and producing more graduates...
* This culture had a very strong element of loyalty to the British
and, by extension, to any master or liege lord. In this respect,
and in no other, it shared the value system of the Punjabi
culture. But other cultures of India and later in Pakistan were
less inclined to call their political masters their _mai bap_
(mother and father).
* The political culture of the United Provinces was littered with
anti-Muslim League and anti-Pakistan movement spokesmen and
organisations, and this did not endear it to Pakistanis...
* The principal, central and vitalizing force in the U.P. culture
was its language, Urdu. The unifying advantage of Urdu in
Pakistan has been offset by four serious developments:
- strangling of the Punjabi language, and aaccelerating its
disappearance;
- obstructing the development of Baluchi ass a written
language;
- creating great resentment in Sind; and
Has the price paid been commensurate with the convenience of
having a so-called 'national' language?"
(From: KK Aziz, 1993, The Murder Of History: A Critique of History
textbooks used in Pakistan, Vanguard Books, Lahore, 278pp.)
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Taken from Dr. K.K. Aziz , The Murder of History in Pakistan.
Culture and Inferiority Complex
The double claim that the people of the UP were in the forefront of
the struggle for the creation of Pakistan and that their culture is
the source or foster-mother of Pakistani culture has produced problems
of identity for the indigenous population of Pakistan. Space does not
permit a full treament of its impact othe various provinces taken
sperarately. I will concentrate on the Punjab as a case-study because
I am more familiar with it.
The mind of the largest province of the country has been put to total
confusion by the following factors born of the claim:
1: An inferiority complex of the severest kind has struck the Punjabi.
he is told that his own role in the freedom movement was marginal and
inappreciable. For many years he had supported the Unionist Party,
which was an enemy of the Muslim League and an obstacle in the path to
leading to independence, he voted for the partition only in 1946.
Therefore he was a latecommer to the ranks of the patriots. He was a
laggard, and should be made aware of it. His own culture is also
inferior, and the better parts of it borrowed from Delhi and United
Provinces. He sided with the Urdas in rejecting the Bengali as a
national language; when the concession was made with great reluctance,
he mourned it loudly in company with them. In doing so, he made
bitter enemies of the people of East Pakistan, but he did not care.
2: By accepting Urdu in his schools, literature, journalism and
everyday life he let down his own toungue be thrown on the dunghill of
history. By supporting the cause of Urdu in Sind he alienated the
Sindhis who then bracketed him with the Urda usurpers of their
province.
3: By failing to challenge the Urda claim of the superiority of the
U.P. culture he made a confession that he had no culture of his own,
thus disowning his own past and its contribution to this life.
4: In politics he was very happy to make common cause with the
Urda-dominated federal government in (a) creatin the ONE Unit of West
Pakistan, thus angering Sind, Balushistan and NWFP. (b) allowing the
identity of his own province to be lost, and (c) lending support to
the rest of of West Pakistan in opposition to East Pakistan (the
raison d'etre of the One Unit scheme). By thus playing into Urda
hands, he made two grievous mistakes: he made the Bengalis look at him
as their chief enemy, and, as the largest component of the West
Pakistan province, dominated the smaler partners and alienated their
sympathies. In sum he made himself thoroughly un-popular with every
other group in the country to please the tiny 3 percent (1950s'
figure) Urda population.
5: By continuing to concentrate on producing Urdu literature, he
denied the Punjabi language a chance to revive itself, thus sending a
message to the urduas that he was at one with them in rejecting Punjabi
as a respectable language and considering Punjabi literature as
something unworthy and low.
This self-abnegation is probably unique in the history of the nations
anywhere. but was it self-abnegation? I can see no element of denial
or self-sacrifice in it. The Punjabi did what he did with pleasure,
confidence, pride, almost glee. He went further than any other
Pakistani group in adopting Urdu as his everday spoken tongue, even at
his home. There was no compulsion for the change. The pathan student
studied through Urdu-medium but spoke Pashto at home. The Sindhi went
to Urdu-medium schools but stuck to own language in his domestic and
social life. The argument that Urdu-medium schooling results in Urdu
speaking home life is a false one. The Punjabi had gone to
Urdu-medium schools since 1855 but had not made hismelf Urdu-speaking.
The trend started in the 1960's under political pressure from Karachi
and Islamabad and because the anti-Bengali feeling in which the
Punjabi decided to support the Urdas. Yet his decision was made of
his own free will and without demur.
He chose Urdu becasue he was convinced that his own culture was either
inferior or non-existent. The proaganda which had its beginnings with
M. Hussain Azad and Altaf Hali and others brought to the Punjab by the
British to found the province's school system now bore fruit. A
century of insidious effort had not gone waste. but by thus flattering
the Urdas the Punjabi intelligentsia ensured the demise of their
native tongue which their fathers and forefathers had spoken for over
a thousand years.
The Punjabi was happy at the thought that, owning Urdu as his
language, he added one more weapon to his armory of domination over
the rest of Pakistan. he already enjoyed an unalterable majority in
the population of the country, an overbearing majority in the national
army, and an unchallengable majority in the civil service. With the
urdu language in his pocket his victory was complete(though he had put
himself in the pokcet of th Urdas; but preferred to shut his eyes to
this reality). Now he also became the dominant linguistic and
cultural group in the land. Did he realize that his victory was
engineered by people who looked at him with overt and deep contempt
and, in private conversation, called him a Punjabi Dhagha (ox; a
symbol of stupidity)? It did not matter. He had at least been
accepted as a civilized person speaking the "national" language. It
did not occur to him that he had achieved "respectibility" by
alienating himself from his own history and culture. I suggest that
he reckons the price he has paid, even if the account is made up in
Urdu.
********************************
LINGUISTIC CLEANSING:
The Sad Fate of Punjabi in
Pakistan
By
Abbas Zaidi
Punjabi is the mother tongue of well
over 120 million people. It is the
language of two groups: the Sikhs of
East Punjab in India (who use
Sanskritised script), and the
Punjabis of West Punjab in Pakistan
(who use Persianised script). The
two groups cannot read or write each
other's writing, but their oral
communicability is one hundred
percent.
Before the partition of India in
1947 these two peoples used to live
side by side. Some of the richest
poetical traditions--the Sufi and
romantic--of the Indian-Pakistani
subcontinent are to be found in
Punjabi. The immortal Punjabi love
epic Hir-Ranjha is the acme of what
Matthew Arnold called "high
seriousness". And yet, Punjabi is
also the most jokes-inclusive
language of the Subcontinent. Even
the non-native speakers of Punjabi
accept that it is an exceptionally
rich language: just one expression
couched in the right tonal emphasis
or written from the right
perspective is worth scores of
locutions, and the same expression
can convey a variety of meaning in
the same and different contexts if
given the right twist. It is a
language of nuances and double
entendres. Sometimes the two
meanings are contradictory (e.g., "X
is a healthy man" or "X's figure is
athletic" can mean just the
opposite.). Sometimes one meaning is
wit-packed and the second is serious
(e.g., "The mullahs efficiently
carry out their sacred duties in the
mosque" can also mean they do wicked
sexual things there). Most of the
time one meaning is an ordinary,
intended statement, while the other
is playfully sexual (e.g., "Shall I
pour [milk/water]?" secondarily
refers to penetration, and more). If
someone wants to experience
synaesthesia, let him learn Punjabi.
Recently I met a Sikh in Brunei. He
was in his mid-20s, born in
Malaysia, and had never been to the
place of his origin, i.e., the
Indian Punjab. But he could speak
perfect Punjabi. He said to me, "If
a Sikh cannot speak Punjabi, he is a
fake Sikh."
And yet, Pakistani Punjabis must be
the only linguistic group in the
world that has a dismissive--even
derogatory--attitude towards their
own language. I have lived in or
visited a number of countries. I
have talked to countless Punjabis
both in Pakistan and outside. Most
of them, Pakistani Punjabis wherever
they may actually reside, are
willingly, even proudly, dumping
their own language in favor of Urdu.
The most aggressive
anti-Punjabi-ists come from the
educated and semi-educated classes.
As soon as they acquire the most
minimal academic advancement, the
first thing they do is jettison
their natural language. I have never
seen or heard of an educated, or
even semi-educated, Punjabi parent
who is willing to communicate with
his or her own child in their native
tongue. Rather, they strongly
discourage and often rebuke their
children if they even suspect that
they might be talking to other
children in Punjabi, because
speaking Punjabi is considered a
mark of crudeness and bad manners.
A young child speaking Punjabi is at
best an amusing curiosity for adult
Punjabis. In a posh social or
academic gathering anyone speaking
that language is either trying to be
funny or himself soon becomes the
butt of jokes. A poet who writes in
Punjabi finds an audience
predisposed only to ribald
entertainment.
Pakistani Punjabis' negative
attitude towards their language can
be demonstrated by the fact that
there is not a single newspaper or
magazine published in Punjabi for
the 60 million-plus Punjabi
speakers. Historically, every
Punjabi journalistic venture has
died soon after its launching. The
latest venture was a daily
newspaper, Sajjan ("Friend"), edited
and published by Hussain Naqi, an
Urdu-speaking Indian emigrant. It
only lasted a few months. Yet, all
the regional and provincial
languages like Sindhi and Pushto
have a proud history of publication.
Sindhi, a minor language compared
with Punjabi, can boast scores of
daily newspapers and periodicals.
Yet, while Pakistani Punjabis can
certainly speak their language, they
can neither read nor write it. I
estimate that not more than two
percent of Punjabis can read or
write Punjabi. Add to this the fact
that, after Urdu speakers, Punjabis
on average are the most literate
group in Pakistan and you see what
irony there is.
Consider the following breakdown of
the speakers of the various
Pakistani languages:
Punjabi 48.2 %
Pushto 13.1 %
Sindhi 11.8 %
Seraiki 9.8 %
Urdu 7.6 %
Other 9.5 %
What can one make of this situation?
Is it not a linguistic schizophrenia
on the part of Punjabis? Urdu is
regarded as the "correct language",
the language of taste and class, by
the Punjabis themselves. Quite apart
from what others think, it is they,
the Punjabis, who think that Punjabi
is an "indecent" or "vulgar"
language. Some of them say this is
because of the Punjabi accent, the
rude way individual words and
expressions are uttered, or because
Punjabi is the language of the
illiterate and the uncouth; or
because there are countless swear
words and double entendres in
Punjabi; or because Punjabi is just
plain déclassé. Hence, Punjabi has
multiple semiotic indictments
against it even before it is
expressed.
And yet, a language's capacity for
double entendre is actually at the
heart of its expressiveness and
power, making these objections to
Punjabi as ridiculous as General
Franco's charge that Basque was a
"language of dogs".
The only places in Pakistan where
Punjabi is uninhibitedly spoken are
the so-called backward rural areas
or city slums. These misfortunate
people look up to prosperous
educated Punjabis--the landed
aristocrats, industrialists, the
yuppies and the bourgeoisie--as role
models. As they become educated they
discard their mother tongue along
with their uncouth dress and
manners. Hence the formula seems
simple enough: the more educated a
Punjabi is, the more anti-Punjabi
and Punjabi-less he or she becomes.
Ironically, the illiterate Punjabis
are the most genuine Punjabis.
The responsibility for such a state
of affairs lies with the Punjabis
themselves, especially the "Wake Up
Punjabi" slogan-mongers. Is it not
significant that in Pakistan's
history no Punjabi leader of stature
has addressed a mass rally in
Punjabi? Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's
current and twice-elected prime
minister, is a Punjabi. It was he
who some time back raised the "Wake
Up Punjabi" slogan while challenging
then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's
supremacy. Yet his track record on
Punjabi is as bad as any other
Punjabi leader's. Bhutto, who was
also twice elected prime minister,
is a Sindhi. She always talks to the
Sindhis in Sindhi. Similarly, Urdu-,
Pushto-, Seraiki-, and
Baluchi-speaking leaders and
intellectuals always use their own
languages when talking to their
people either in private or in
public.
Sindhi, Pushto and Urdu are
compulsory languages for Sindhi,
Pathan and Mohajir students, and the
Baluchis are working hard to evolve
a script for their own language. A
number of official activities are
transacted in these languages. The
Punjabis are the largest linguistic
group in Pakistan. They are also the
most powerful political and economic
group. Pakistan is an agrarian
society, and the Punjab feeds the
whole of Pakistan ("Punjab" means
"the land of five rivers"). But
there is not a single school where
Punjabi is taught. Nor has Punjabi
ever been part of the school
syllabi. Pre-university as well as
college courses in the Punjab are
taught in Urdu. In a majority of
cases, the characters, their names,
and the situations projected in
narratives, poems and social
descriptions are based on the
culture of Urdu speakers and have
nothing to do with the Punjab. There
are a number of universities in the
Punjab, but it is only in the
University of Lahore that a small MA
Punjabi department exists, and even
then the students admitted are more
interested in finding a cheap
residence in Lahore than in studying
Punjabi.
The books published in Punjabi in
any given year can be counted on one
hand. Compared with scores of Urdu,
Sindhi, Pushto, and other minority
languages (e.g., Seraiki and
Kashmiri), there is not a single
full-fledged Punjabi research
institution in Pakistan except for a
misshapen Punjabi Adabi Board which
is notable principally for its
inactivity. The few research works
in Punjabi owe their existence to
individual efforts. One may argue
that this state of affairs can be
explained by economics, but why does
economics affect only Punjabi in
this way?
The average Pakistani Punjabi would
answer my questions thusly: (i) The
reason the Sikhs have never
discarded their language is that
their holy book, the Garanth, is in
Punjabi; (ii) we must use Urdu
because it is our national language.
To which I reply: (i) The Koran is
in Arabic, but its readers have not
dumped their own native languages
simply because of that fact.
Moreover, the Punjabis, along with
other Pakistanis, never learn
Arabic; they read the Koran without
understanding a word of Arabic. And:
(ii) All the different ethnic groups
in Pakistan know Urdu, but they have
not jettisoned their own languages
for the sake of a national language
whose native speakers make up less
than eight percent of the general
population.
Language has played a very
significant role in Pakistan's
history, a fact which makes the
Punjabi question all the more ironic
and tragic. When Pakistan was
created in 1947 as East and West
Pakistan, it was claimed by its then
rulers--who were Urdu speaking
emigrants from India--that Pakistan
would last till the Day of Judgement
with Allah's blessing: two (East and
West) wings, one religion, one
nation, one country, and one
national language-Urdu.
But the blessing was not realized,
and before it could celebrate its
first anniversary the whole of East
Pakistan was rocked to its
foundations with bloody "language
riots". The Bengalis refused to
accept Urdu because it was an
imposed, not their own, language.
They said they would lose their
identity without their mother
tongue. In turn, they were dubbed
"anti-Pakistan" for their opposition
to Urdu.
The pro-Urdu lobby in West Pakistan
then played the Islamic card: Urdu
amounted to Islamic identity.
Anti-Urdu was anti- Islamic. Calling
the Bengalis anti-Islam, the
religious scholars of West Pakistan
argued that Islamic identity should
transcend Bengali identity if the
Bengalis were to consider themselves
true Muslims.
But the language of theology could
not overcome the theology of
language, and in 1971, before
Pakistan could celebrate its silver
jubilee, East Pakistan had become
Bangladesh, "Land of the
Bengali-speaking People". And as the
Bengalis were about to start
preparations to celebrate their
first independence anniversary, the
province of Sindh became a scene of
language riots between the speakers
of Sindhi and Urdu, shaking the very
foundations of the newly-elected
government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto,
the most popular and powerful leader
(he was both the country's president
and chief martial law administrator)
in Pakistan's history. Bhutto
appeared on TV and spoke in English,
Sindhi and Urdu. He joined his hands
together and, pointing them towards
the people said, "For God's sake,
let it (i.e., language rioting) go!"
Again the religious scholars played
the Islamic card. One of them said,
"The end of Urdu will mean the end
of Pakistan and Islam."
The province of Sindh has continued
to be a hotbed of ethnic violence
between Sindhi and Urdu speakers.
Sindhi nationalists want a separate
homeland, Sindhudesh, exclusively
for speakers of Sindhi, while Urdu
speakers threaten that any
"conspiracy" against "Pakistan and
Urdu" would meet with an "iron
fist". They themselves had planned
to establish "Jinnahpur", an
Urdu-speaking province within Sindh
itself. Their scheme was thwarted by
an army action against the Mohajirs
in 1992.
Since Pakistan's creation, the
Pathans have been lobbying for
Pakhtoonistan, the "Land of the
Pushto speakers". Nowadays they talk
about separating from Pakistan
itself and forming a greater
Pakhtoonistan with Afghanistan, a
majority Pathan country, even though
severe differences exist between
medieval religious obscurantist
Talibaans and so-called liberals.
The nationalist movement in the
South of the Punjab is based upon
the Seraiki language. Other examples
can be multiplied. Yet, no similar
debate exists amongst the Punjabis
about Punjabi. They are secure in
the belief that their language is
merely a source of embarrassment
rather than of a proud common
identity.
Amrita Pretam, a Punjabi poet and
fiction writer, once invoked the
soul of Waris Shah (the Hir-Ranjha
poet) when hundreds of thousands of
Punjabi women had been raped by
their own countrymen during India's
partition. One is tempted to again
invoke the name of this great
Punjabi bard whose language is being
consigned to an historical black
hole by the Pakistani Punjabis
themselves. What are the inheritors
of the language of Waris Shah and
numerous other Punjabi literary
titans, both inside and outside
Pakistan, doing about this shameful
neglect of the Punjabi language?
Will Punjabi ultimately become like
Latin, a dead language with no one
left who can actually speak it?
We find throughout history that
dictators who want to terminate a
target group are assiduous in their
attempt to first efface the language
of that group. Pakistani Punjabis
are their own dictators. If they
continue to treat their language the
way they are doing at present, in
future there will be a strange,
baffling mass of "ethnic" Punjabis
who will not know their own
language. Or, if somehow
miraculously Punjabi isn't lost in
Pakistan, it will become at best a
pidgin.
Love for one's native tongue is a
universal phenomenon. At minimum, a
language is a mark of personal as
well as national identity. It's a
glue that holds its speakers
together as a people. This is why
language has been so pivotal in the
history of nations, a stronger bond
than religion, land and even race.
At present, written and spoken
Punjabi is heavily punctuated with
Urdu words and phrases which are
foreign both semantically and
phonetically. Mohajir (i.e., the
Urdu-speaking people) and Punjabi
temperaments are poles apart in
terms of cultural values and
attitudes. Many would argue that
Islam is the common bond among all
Pakistani people, which in the
course of time will transcend all
the differences. I am not sure this
is true, but what, however sadly, I
am sure of is that at the rate
things are going, Punjabi will have
disappeared before the end of the
next century.
(Abbas Zaidi <m...@brunet.bn> was
editor of The Ravi (1985),
Pakistan's premier and oldest
academic magazine published by
Government College, Lahore. He also
edited Interface (1990-91) for the
Program in Literary Linguistics,
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
Zaidi has taught English Literature
in Bahauddin Zakariya University,
Multan, and worked as assistant
editor for The Nation, Lahore.)
*************************************************
INDIAN-HINDU TV CHANNELS PROMOTE HINDU-INDIA
Hindu-Indians Operating Under the Deceitful Cover of South Asia
http://www.InformationTimes.com
http://topica.com/lists/infotimes/read/message.html?mid=1715563996
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1669
by SYED ADEEB
Sunday, 21 December 2003
Mr. Charles W. Ergen
Founder, Chairman and CEO
DISH Network/EchoStar Communications Corporation
Ms. Soraya Cartwright
Executive Vice President of DISH Network
E-Mail: executivecustomerserv...@echostar.com
Mr. James DeFranco
Executive Vice President
DISH Network/EchoStar Communications Corporation
Dear Mr. Ergen, Ms. Cartwright and Mr. DeFranco:
(1) Please note that there is NO language in the whole world
called "South Asian Language," but you have displayed the logos,
information and links of Zee TV, TV ASIA, Sony Entertainment
Televison, B4U and Z Cinema -- the 5 propagandistic Hindu-Indian TV
channels of Hindu-India -- under the "South Asian Language Packages"
heading of the DISH Network Website's International Programming
Webpage. Indian-Hindu dictators, tyrants and rulers proudly claim
that Hindi is the major official or national language of India;
therefore, you should have listed Zee TV, TV ASIA, Sony Entertainment
Televison, B4U and Z Cinema under the "Hindi Language Packages"
headline. Moreover, the so-called "South Asian Language" is not a
language of India because "South Asian Language" does not exist.
Hindi (also known as Hindustani) is the primary tongue of only "30%"
of the people of India, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), but 14 other official languages -- Bengali, Telugu,
Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi,
Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi and Sanskrit -- are also spoken in India.
(2) Why you have not published Pakistan's PTV Prime (PAK TV)
information under the "South Asian Language Packages" heading of the
South Asia Webpage of the DISH Network Website? Don't you know that
Pakistan is also a big country in South Asia (population 150 million)
and that Urdu, one of the many languages of 3 South Asian countries --
Pakistan, India, Bangladesh -- is the major official language of
Pakistan.
(3) You should also note that South Asia consists of 10 independent
countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan (currently occupied
illegally by the Imperialistic Mafia), India, Sri Lanka, Nepal,
Bhutan, Maldives, Iran and China where people speak many different
languages. That is why printing the logos, links and other
information about Zee TV, TV ASIA, Sony Entertainment Televison, B4U
and Z Cinema of Hindu-Indians under the "South Asian Language
Packages" headline is grossly misleading.
(4) Another misleading statement of the DISH Network says: "For the
complete South Asian television experience, ... call ... today!" You
should change this statement, which has been published on the
aforementioned International Programming Webpage of the DISH Network
Website, to: "For the complete Indian-Hindu television
experience, ... call ... today!" because Zee TV, TV ASIA, Sony
Entertainment Televison, B4U and Z Cinema are NOT "South Asian
television" channels. They are Hindu-Indian TV channels, which
telecast the cultural, social, religious and political dogmas of an
elite section of the Hindu-Indian society. The 5 Indian-Hindu TV
channels represent the repressive ruling class or cult of Hindu-
Indians and completely ignore Muslims, Mughals, Kashmiris,
Sikhs/Punjabis, Christians/Nagas, Jews, Buddhists, Dalits, Bengalis,
Manipuris, Tripuris, Assamese, Tamils, Dravidians, Jains, Telugus and
many other religious/ethnic minorities, endangered nationalities and
oppressed nations of India and Kashmir.
(5) Certain Indian-Hindu con-artists based in the USA, Europe, India
and elsewhere promote Hindu-India -- a Fundamentalist, Terrorist,
Mafia State ruled by terrorists, barbarians, mobsters, thugs and
religious fanatics -- under the cover of South Asia to fool the
American and European people for political, strategic and other
reasons. Hindu-Indian cunning propagandists have even organized
public seminars about the illegally occupied State of Jammu & Kashmir
under the 'South Asian Conference on Kashmir' banner. In the past,
the Information Times and the Pakistan News Service (
www.PakNews.com ) have exposed this 'India-South Asia' scam of some
Indian-Hindus many times, but the Hindu-Indian scam-artists continue
to hide the terrorism, barbarism and racism of corrupt and tyrannical
Hindu-Indian rulers under the veil of South Asia and South Asians. We
hope that after reading this letter you will understand, realize and
recognize that India is not South Asia, South Asia is not India,
countless Hindu-Indians are operating under the curtain of South Asia
and all activities of Indian-Hindus in the USA, Europe, India and
elsewhere are not South Asian.
(6) Here are a few examples of the Hindu-Indian 'South Asia' Fraud:
A. The so-called "South Asian Journalists Association" (SAJA) is
actually an Indian-Hindu Journalists Association.
B. The so-called "South Asia Analysis Group" (SAAG) is actually an
Hindu-Indian Analysis Group.
C. The so-called "South Asia Terrorism Portal" (SATP) is actually an
Indian-Hindu Terrorism Portal.
D. The so-called "South Asia Intelligence Review" (SAIR) is actually
a Hindu-Indian Intelligence Review.
E. The so-called "Friends of South Asia" is actually Friends of Hindu-
India.
F. The so-called South Asian Departments of many Think-Tanks or Stink-
Tanks are controlled, managed or directed by Indian-Hindu
fundamentalists, extremists and bigots.
G. Almost all television and radio programs; newspapers, magazines,
newsletters, websites and other publications; and gangs, groups and
organizations owned, controlled, managed or led by Hindu-Indians in
the USA, Europe, India and elsewhere -- which claim that they are
South Asian or Asian entities or which are operating under the
deceitful cover/banner of South Asia or Asia -- are actually the
enterprises of Indian-Hindus.
SOME PROBLEMS WITH PAKISTAN'S PTV PRIME:
(7) The Information Times, America's daily international newspaper
based in the Washington DC area ( www.InformationTimes.com ), has
received several complaints against Pakistan's PTV PRIME (PAK TV)
from its subscribers. Therefore, we urge you take the following
actions to resolve those complaints:
(8) Please advise the PTV Prime management to respond to its
customers' e-mail questions, complaints and letters. Many Pakistani-
Americans have sent e-mail messages to the two official e-mail
addresses of PTV Prime -- i...@prime-tv.com and
webmas...@prime-tv.com -- located at http://www.prime-
tv.com/html/contact-index.htm -- but they never received any reply
from PTV Prime.
(9) Kindly ask the PTV Prime management to publish the PTV Prime's
weekly, biweekly or monthly schedule of programs (programming guide)
in the PTV Prime Website ( http://www.prime-tv.com ).
(10) PTV Prime needs to redesign and fix its Website, which really
sucks. For example, several Web links of the PTV Prime Website,
including the "Download Schedule USA" and "Schedule," are not
working. The PTV Prime Website's five defective links, which show
blank/empty Webpages, are as follows:
http://www.prime-tv.com/html/schedule-index.htm (Schedule)
http://www.prime-tv.com/html/Weekly%20Schedule%20(USA).xls (USA)
http://www.prime-tv.com/html/general-index.htm (General Programs)
http://www.prime-tv.com/html/children-index.htm (Children Programs)
http://www.prime-tv.com/html/upcoming-index.htm (Coming Attractions)
(11) The DISH Network's PTV Prime main Webpage does not contain any
link to the Programming Guide of PTV Prime.
Reference:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/international/a_la_cart
e/ptv/index.asp?viewby=1&packid=10034&sortby=1 (PTV Prime Webpage of
DISH Network Website).
Reference URLs for Points No. 1, 2, 3, 4:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/international/packages/
south_asian/index.shtml (Five Indian-Hindu TV Channels of Hindu-
India).
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/international/a_la_cart
e/ptv/index.asp?viewby=1&packid=10034&sortby=1 (Pakistan's PTV Prime
TV Channel).
(12) The following are excerpts from a Rediff article of December 4,
2003, written by an Indian-Hindu Fundamentalist, Rajiv
Malhotra: "There has been an aggressive campaign across American
campuses to construct an artificial new identity for Indian students,
known as 'South Asian,' by denigrating 'Indian' as being inferior
and/or less politically correct. Aditi Banerjee, a law student at
Yale University, is one of the courageous whistleblowers challenging
the legitimacy of the category of 'South Asian' identity."
"The very grouping known as 'South Asia' is a US State Department
construction under a foreign policy initiative known as 'area
studies' started during the Cold War. However, Indians may prefer to
identify with Southeast Asia rather than South Asia. Shouldn't
Indians make this critical choice of classification and framework
rather than being dictated to by foreign think tanks and academics?
In this regard, China controls its brand management, while India is
simply being led."
"SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association) illustrates how some
institutions with the 'South Asian' nomenclature are compromising
India's interests. SAJA consistently placates Pakistan. Its 5 percent
Pakistani members leverage the collective power of SAJA to neutralize
the 95 percent Indian members. Hence, it cannot write critically of
Pakistan, leave alone assert a pro-India stance on Kashmir and other
issues. But Pakistanis have a separate Pakistani Journalists
Association in parallel, and, are also proud leaders of Pan-Islamic
movements on campuses. They, clearly, do not suffer from cultural or
identity shame. The Pakistani government is a silent but active force
in these situations."
If you have any questions, then please do not hesitate to contact me
at the Information Times.
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