INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

oral tests before professional reciters. The prime motive for learning Punjabi is to
pursue knowledge to read, recite and understand the sacred texts.
For Sikhs the Punjabi language is also intimately associated with the cultural
and ethnic aspects of the Sikh identity. Most of my informants were bilingual with
sound knowledge in Hindi which they used in conversations in their everyday social
life. When visiting the homeland of the Punjab some said they felt linguistically alienated
from the native land, being ridiculed for their mixture of Punjabi and the local
Bhojpuri dialect typical of Varanasi. The loss of the Punjabi language is a loss of a part
of one’s identity, just as proficiency in spoken Punjabi becomes a signifier for a religious
and cultural identity.
LITERACY OF TOTAL POPULATION BY RELIGION IN VARANASI DISTRICT 2001
(Percentage of literates of total population within each religious community)
Total Sikh population (4496) 71 % urban 78 % rural 54 %
Total Sikh population male 77 % female 63 %
Rural male 67 % female 38 %
Urban male 82 % female 74 %
Total Jain population (1747) 81 % urban 83 % rural 68 %
Total Christian population (4499) 74 % urban 77 % rural 65 %
Total Buddhist population (985) 64 % urban 79 % rural 49 %
Total Hindu population (2627565) 56 % urban 69 % rural 50 %
Total Muslim population (497516) 44 % urban 42 % rural 44 %
All religions total population (3138671) 54 % urban 61 % rural 49 %
Figure 4.
The emphasis on language education in the urban Sikh community has resulted
in a high rate of literacy in comparison to other communities in the district (See Figure
4). The percentage of literates among the total Sikh population in Varanasi was 71
in Census 2001. The variables of gender and residence display significant differences
between urban and rural areas: literacy is highest among Sikh men in urban settings
(82 percent), while only two-fifths (38 percent) of Sikh women in rural areas are registered
as literate. Sikh women living in the city of Varanasi, on the other hand, constitute
a fairly literate community (74 percent), considering that the rate of literate
women of the total female population in urban areas counts to only 43 percentages.
The statistics presume that literacy implies the ability to read and write a language.
In the local context a claimed literacy, however, is not always conditioned by
writing. When I asked the respondents in the semi-structured interviews on their
language knowledge the major part (71 percent) stated they were fluent in Punjabi
and were able to read and write the Gurmukhi script. The majority had learnt Punjabi
from their families, in school and the gurdwara, while some said they were self-
52
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008