On behalf of the North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) and the millions of Punjabi speakers across North America and the global diaspora, Satnam Singh Chahal, Executive Director of NAPA, wish to place on record our deep concern and profound disappointment at the continued and systematic failure of successive Punjab governments to enforce the Punjab Official Language Act, 1967 a law that has now been neglected for over five decades.
Every year, on Punjabi Bhasha Diwas, we witness the same painful spectacle: politicians garland poets, auditoriums echo with slogans of pride, and resolutions are passed with great fanfare. And every year, the morning after, government officers across Punjab return to their desks and continue drafting files, orders, and court documents in Hindi and English languages inaccessible to the very people these offices are meant to serve.
.The Punjab Official Language Act, as strengthened by the 2008 amendment, is unambiguous in its mandate. All official correspondence, court proceedings, government offices, public sector undertakings, schools, colleges, and universities are required by law to conduct their work exclusively in Punjabi. Enforcement committees were established. Inspection mechanisms were created. Penalties of up to ₹5,000 were legislated for non-compliance. Yet, to date, not a single senior official is known to have faced meaningful disciplinary action under Section 8-D of the Act. The law exists. The will to enforce it does not.
NAPA finds it particularly painful to note that the Punjabi diaspora in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States has, in many instances, demonstrated a deeper commitment to preserving and promoting the Punjabi language than the government of the state that gave birth to it. Our communities run Punjabi language schools, support literary organizations, broadcast Punjabi media, and advocate for the language’s recognition in legislatures abroad — while back home, children in elite schools in Chandigarh are discouraged from speaking their own mother tongue, as though fluency in Punjabi were a mark of shame rather than pride.
NAPA therefore calls upon the Government of Punjab to take the following immediate and concrete steps:
- Convene the State Level Empowered Committee without further delay, in accordance with the Act, and ensure it meets on its mandated schedule going forward.
- Activate all District Level Empowered Committees and mandate regular, documented inspections of government offices, courts, and educational institutions for compliance.
- Direct the Director of Languages, Punjab, to conduct inspections with full authority and political backing, and to levy penalties without fear or favour.
- Initiate disciplinary proceedings against officials found in persistent violation of the Act, as provided under Section 8-D.
- Issue a clear directive to all private and government schools that Punjabi must be taught with the respect and priority it deserves as the official language of the state.
A language does not die in a single moment. It dies in a thousand small surrenders — in every file unsigned in Punjabi, every court order written in English, every child taught to be ashamed of their tongue. Punjab is making those surrenders, day by day. It must stop.
NAPA stands ready to work with the Government of Punjab, with literary organizations, with civil society, and with the global Punjabi diaspora to ensure that Punjabi does not merely survive as a ceremonial language but thrives as a living, vibrant language of administration, justice, education, and daily life in its own homeland. The time for celebration without accountability is over. The time for action is now.