FREMONT,CA: The Punjab Cultural Society of Fremont, California held a fund raiser dinner/Punjab Night 93 July 16 at the Flamingo Palace for the Punjabi Studies program at the Berkeley University, {t Was One Of the most successful Punjabi cultural programs ever put together in California. The audience was kept spellbound for several hours while the young and charming Punjabi men and women gracefully performed Bhangrha and Gidha in its pure Punjabi form and Sang Punjabi folk songs.
The objective of the campaign was to provide for the resources to ensure the teaching of Punjabi at the Berkeley University. This was a Breatsuccess. More than 600 people attended this function, Hundreds of Punjabi men and women clad in their traditional Punjabi suits and Gresses came to attend this show, At $100) every single seat was sold Out. The mood of the audience was Quile upbeat.
Punjabi is spoken by almost 100 million people and is one of the major spoken languages of the world. Punjabi has been around for almost one thousand years. The Muslims use Farsi letters to write Punjabi while the Sikhs and other Punjabis in the Indian Punjab use Gurmukhi letters to write Punjabi, The alphabet used to write Punjabi is Gurmukhi.
As Punjabi speaking people you will be glad to know that Berkeley University has approved a Punjabi Studies program which will start this year. According to Balbir Singh Ragi, more than $75,000 has been collected for this. Some additional funds have gone directly to the University, Almost all the funds (about 989%) were contributed by the Sikhs. Many Sikh families contributed generously for this cause, The Tut Brothers of Watsonville, CA were the largest financial contributors to this program.
According to Steven Poulos, Vice chairman, Center for South Asia Studies, UC Berkeley, there will be a single semester of Punjabi studies this year (9394). Next year (9495), there will be two semesters. The Punjabi classes will start on August 23, 1993 at Berkeley University. Dr.Atamjit Singh, Chairman of Punjabi Studies at Guns Nanak Dey University, Amritsar, will be teaching Punjabi at Berkeley, He will be on a leave of absence from his regular job. He is a well-known Punjabi instructor and literary figure in Punjabi literary circles. He has also taught Punjabi in Japan to the Japanese students as well as Sikh students.
The establishment of Punjabi studies program at the University of Berkeley is one of the best things that can happen to the Punjabi community in this country, specially to the younger Punjabi generation. This will ensure that they can read and understand the “Mul Mantar,”” Guru Granth Sahib, Chandi Di Var of Guru Gobind Singh, and at the same time enjoy the Punjabi literary classics such as Heer of Waris Shah, Mirza of Pecloo, Luna of Shiv Batalvi, and songs of Nand Lal Noorpuri. Most importantly they can maintain their religion, heritage, and culture, by ‘so doing they can Share it with the fellow Americans and make a significant contribution to the American society.
The Berkeley University started to teach Sanskrit in 1906 and, later was among the first universities in the country to develop the study of the languages and peoples of the Indian subcontinent. The University of Berkeley and Dr Steven Poulos deserve a great applause from the Punjabi community for taking this bold step.
Many thanks to the hardworking Sikh professionals, artists and students who contributed to making this event such a success.
By Tarlochan S. Nahal
Article extracted from this publication >> July 23, 1993
