ABSTRACT
‘Proto-Siraiki’ was the language which caught the attention of the British colonisers who were on official postings in different locations where this language was spoken, identified broadly as South Punjab. The colonial research on ‘proto-Siraiki’ can thus be observed only as initiating preliminary reflections on the language and culture. After the creation of Pakistan, the gaps in colonial research led to a general presumption and Punjabi population’s claim that Siraiki is not a ‘language’ but, a ‘lehja, ung’ or ‘variant’ of Punjabi. The Partition of the subcontinent was largely based on cross-communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims, which subsequently became transformed into a conflict of political ideologies. Urdu, the official language of Pakistan, symbolises the nation-state’s connection with the high cultural Indo-Muslim identity. In the late colonial era, Urdu came to symbolise a pan-Muslim identity, reinforced by the Muslim League before and after the Partition.
