Beaconhouse receives backlash for terming Punjabi language foul

Beaconhouse School System, which is one of Pakistan’s top schools, has come under fire after calling the Punjabi language ‘foul’ and banning it from usage within and outside the school premises.

Beaconhouse School System received a lot of criticism, especially from people among Punjab, because of a controversial text that one of its circular contained. The English medium private school’s categorisation of the language as ‘foul’ not only perpetuates colonial stereotypes, but also reeks of racism.

According to a circular issued by the school’s Sahiwal Boys Campus on August 22, the headmaster prohibited the use of foul language in the school.

“Foul language is not allowed within and outside the school premises in the morning, during the school hours and after home time. Foul language includes taunts, abuses, Punjabi and the hate speech,” the circular read.

The ban drew strong criticism on social media and even editorials were written about it and people asked the school to take back the released circular forthwith, and demanded action in this regard.

The reaction was quite obvious because Punjabi is the native language of more than a 100 million people all over the world and is the tenth most widely-spoken language.

People took to twitter to express outrage over the issue.

Tania Saleem @TaniaPalijo It’s nothing new all the so elite English meduim schools forbid children from speaking any native language.

elegantaquaria @SarYousuf reacted that this is how our so called education system is teaching the children how to disown their identity.

Another one reaction beautifully that Mother tongue is the road map of a culture, pedigree of a Nation, blood of soul and wine upon lips.

Najam Qureshi @NajamQ

the notification has numerous grammatical mistakes, which makes Headmaster’s authority over English questionable.

Zarqa Paul @PXarqa

Today I am ashmed of giving a service of decade to Beaconhouse School System.

Ayman AWFUL Sherwani @AymanSherwani

*Ban Punjabi* or *Punjabi is a foul language* is actually defamation.

Beaconhouse’s response:

Beaconhouse School System was quick to respond to this growing outrage and issued a clarification, which state that Beaconhouse is outraged at reports on social media suggesting that it has banned Punjabi at its schools. This is clearly an attempt to malign our name either by certain competitors or by others with vested interests that we are not aware of.

“We are NOT going to disown the circular that has been shared on social media, but we need to STRONGLY clarify (which anyone who reads English can easily understand from context) that our School Head in Sahiwal was referring to a ban on profanity and cursing in Punjabi, which was apparently an issue with a few older students at his school,” the clarification reads.

In the said circular, he wrote: “Foul language is NOT ALLOWED within and outside the school premises, in the morning, during the school hours and after home time. Foul language includes taunts, abuses, Punjabi [curses] and the hate speech.” His attempt to be “diplomatic” and “delicate” by avoiding the word “curses” (or swearing) has badly backfired.

Social media vigilantes need to consider that if he meant that students should not speak Punjabi at school, how could he possibly have banned its use after home time? And would a Punjabi head possibly classify his mother language as ‘foul’?

Beaconhouse is deeply respectful of our national language Urdu and of all regional languages. It is pertinent to mention that over half of our students and staff are from the Punjab. It is all the more reprehensible, therefore, that social media vigilantes should suggest that our Sahiwal Head was actually referring to the highly expressive and lyrical Punjabi tongue as a ‘foul language’ when it is perfectly clear that it is a misconstruction of English expression on his part and/or a failed attempt to be overly diplomatic.

‘Hashtag activists’ are hereby requested to contact concerned parties before casting judgment and spreading hate and misinformation, the clarification read.