Taking serious note of the warning issued by UNESCO that Brahui, the only ancient Dravidian language in Pakistan faces serious threats of extinction; Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI) jointly with Actionaid Pakistan and Brahui Academy Quetta organized a national level seminar on Brahui Language and Literature on May 11-12, 2014 With the theme of „literature for peace? the two day seminar was organized in Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi. About 175 delegates including Brahui, writers, researchers, scholars, poets participated in the seminar.
The seminar was presided over by Nawabzada Mir Lashkari Khan Raisani while renowned scholar and former Advocate General of Balochistan Mir Salahuddin Mengal was the chief Guest. About 20 research papers were presented in ten sessions during two day seminar. The research papers included papers on Brahui orthography, different aspects of Brahui language and literature, Brahui poetry, modern Brahui literature, history of Brahui language, role of magazines and newspapers, literary institutions etc in Brahui language and other key topics. Brahui and Sindh writers participating in the seminar were of the view that Sindhi and Brahui languages are same Dravidian languages and traces of both the languages are available in the remains of Mojen Jo Daro and Harapa. A number of resolutions were presented in the seminar in the conclusion. According to one resolution the column of „ Brahui language ? was removed from the census form during the last census under a conspiracy as a result Brahui speaking were included in other languages or simply in the column of „ others? resultantly speakers of Brahui language were shown in reduced numbers. This has inflicted serious loss to Brahui language. It was demanded of the government to restore Brahui language column in census form.
The participants of the seminar also demanded that Brahui language be included in the competitive examinations of CSS as compulsory language as all other languages of Pakistan are included in those examinations but Brahui has yet not been included.
The seminar demanded that Brahui language should be taught as optional subject in different universities of Pakistan including Qaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, International Islamic University Islamabad, Federal Urdu University Islamabad, National University of Modern Languages Islamabad and other universities. Brahui lecturers should be appointed for Education Department (colleges) Balochistan as per Blochi and Pashto languages in Balochistan for teaching Brahui subject in the colleges. Brahui Academy Quetta should be provided funds for constructing its own office building as has been done in the case of Balochi and Pashto Academy in Balochistan and the annual budget of Brahui Academy should be increased and brought as par with the budgets of Balochi and Pashto Academy. The government advertisements of Brahui newspapers, magazines and journals should be increased.
On this occasion “Baba-e-Brahui Awards” were given to a number of researchers and writers including Dr. M. Salahuddin Mengal ,Allama Johar Brahui, Prof. Dr. Abdul Razzaque Sabir, Maulana Abdul Khalique Ababaki Brahui Mohammed Ishaq Saoz Brahui, Dr Abdul Rehman Brahui and others. On this occasion Maulana Mohammed Fazil Durkhani Brahui Awards were also given to a number of Brahui and Sindhi writers including Sayed Hakim Ali Shah Bukhari, Azad Anwar Kandhro, Dr. Ghulam Mohammed Lakho, Deen, Mohammed Kalhoro, Ali Hassan Malah , Imdad Hussaini Ghulam Mustafa Solangi, Bedil Masroor Ayaz Bhagat, Ali Dost Aijaz, Agha Gul ,Prof. Javed Akhter ,Ms Jehan Ara Tabasum, Mrs Neelam Moomal ,Monthly Istar Soorab, Monthly Mehr Nushki and Sultan Ahmed Shahwani. Seminar was followed by Brahui – Sindhi Mushaira and Brahui Musical program which continued till late night.
