Saga of a fading Punjabi culture: Curtains down on Faridabad's 'Bannuwali' Ramlila

FARIDABAD: “Seven decades ago when our ancestors came here from Pakistan, all they could bring was their culture and language, but now that is ending too.” Gurcharan Singh Bhatia, organiser of ‘Jagriti Ramlila’ in NIT 2, Faridabad, broke the news to an enthusiastic crowd of spectators — young, kids and elderly — that there was no ‘Bannuwali Ramlila’ this year.

Try as he might, he could not find enough people who could speak Bannuwali, an offshoot of the Saraiki dialect of Punjabi originating in and around Bannu city of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The fourth generation ‘Bannuwals’, now living in Faridabad, seem to have lost touch with their mother tongue.

Jagriti Ramlila

In 2013, Jagriti Ramlila Committee started, rather resumed, staging Ramlila skits in Bannuwali, reserving two days of the week for it. It was a hit from the start, attracting spectators from Faridabad, and even Kanpur and Bareilly.

Anil Kumar (60), who used to play Lord Ram in Bannuwali Ramlila, is an amateur actor. “When I speak in my own mother tongue on the stage, it is our way of telling the world that Bannuwals are still alive; our language is still alive.”


History of a dying tradition

Bannuwali is grouped with sister dialects Dehrewali, Parachinari, Kohati, and Multani. There’s a saying in Punjab that the language drastically changes as one crosses each of the five rivers of the region.

NWFP being the western-most region of Greater Punjab, these Saraiki offshoots, given the Pashtun influence, sound alien to regular Punjabi speakers. But Bannuwali is different from Multani, according to Bannuwals who point out nuanced differences between the two. “Despite their differences, Bannuwali originates from Punjabi,” eminent linguistic scholar and former PSEB chief, Prof Yog Raj, says, while explaining how once a dominant dialect in NWFP’s Bannu lost prominence in Punjab over time.

Ramlila: A cross generational affair

He says: “When you look at the sentence-formation, the placement of verbs and adjectives, and the overall grammar of the Bannuwali and standard Punjabi, you see a lot of lexicological similarities. Just some vocabulary and the tonality of the language change, which is the case with Punjabi once you cross each of the five rivers in the region.” He adds that the Majhi dialect of Punjabi gained dominance in the region because it was spoken in Lahore and Amritsar.

But he is anguished at how “regional dominance” has resulted in dying out of certain dialects. “Dogri and Bagri separated from us due to political differences; and now these Saraiki sub-dialects are slowly dying because they were looked down upon by certain regions,” says Prof Raj.

‘Then Partition, now Hindi assimilation’

Tracing the origin of Bannuwali, Yograj Angrish, professor of Punjabi at Panjab University, says: “Historically, Saraiki has been a major dialect of Punjabi. Multani and Bannuwali are among its prominent sub-dialects. Others are not widely spoken.”

Prof Angrish adds that Bannuwali in particular has lost most of its original form due to assimilation of foreign words. “Back in Pakistan, they don’t speak Bannuwali like they used to, as there’s a lot of Urdu and Pashto influence. The Saraiki-speaking populace no longer wants to associate with the Punjabi identity due to certain political reasons, and consider Saraiki an independent language,” he says.

While Hindu and Sikh Bannuwals who migrated to India after Partition still associate with the Punjabi identity, their descendants have picked up regional tongues.

Dilbagh Bhatia (49), who plays Ravan, says younger generation has given up the sub-dialect. “Youngsters prefer modern education and want to learn English. Even at home, most Bannuwals talk to their children in Hindi as it is the local language,” he says.

A script in waiting

Bhatia says he could not find young actors, even fourth-generation Bannuwals, who spoke Bannuwali well enough to perform on stage. Before the resumption of this Ramlila in 2013-14, smaller versions of Bannuwali Ramlila would be performed at socio-cultural events.

The latest Bannuwali script was prepared by the then director, late Ramesh Dua, in 2013. “We still have the entire script. We used to perform two episodes,” the actors say. Present director Om Prakash, who helped Dua at the time, says they just want the kids to learn their language.

The script is waiting for an eager generation to learn the dialect and perform. Till then, the show must go on.

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