Notes · PanjabiUK · A-Levels

ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਸਿਆਸਤ: parties, elections, demonstrations and strikes

This topic is sub-theme 3.2.2.1 of AQA 7682, Politics in the Punjab, inside theme 3.2.2, Aspects of political life in the Panjabi-speaking world past and present. Its three bullet aspects are political parties, the electoral process, and demonstrations and strikes, and each of the five sections below says which it serves. The platform's topic id is political-life-1. This topic has to be answered TWICE, and that is not a stylistic preference but a factual necessity: the historic Punjab was divided in 1947 and the two halves now sit inside two different sovereign states with different constitutions, different legislatures, different election commissions, different party systems and different official languages. A sentence beginning in the Punjab the government is doing something is not a sentence at all until it says which Punjab. The specification itself never uses the words India or Pakistan; that is the specification's own reticence, and these notes name the polity every single time because the answers are otherwise simply wrong. The exam technique this topic carries is writing about institutions without caricature: naming the polity, attributing every characterisation, and stopping where legal proceedings begin.

5 sections~34 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 3 · Advanced 1

T·0555 / 13

Exam profile

AO4 · Show knowledge and understanding of political institutions in both Punjabs and respond critically and analytically without caricatureAO2 · Understand written Panjabi on political subjects, including institutional and journalistic registers, and respond in writingAO1 · Understand spoken Panjabi on political subjects, including disagreement between speakers, and summarise it in writingAO3 · Write accurate Panjabi about institutions, using formal register and attribution structures correctly

Operators:ਵਰਣਨ ਕਰੋਸਮਝਾਓਤੁਲਨਾ ਕਰੋਵਿਸ਼ਲੇਸ਼ਣ ਕਰੋਮੁਲਾਂਕਣ ਕਰੋਕਾਰਨ ਦੱਸੋਸਿੱਟਾ ਕੱਢੋ

basic level

In the first year, learn the institutional nouns and the verbs that go with them - to hold an election, to form a government, to resign, to call a strike - and learn to name the country in the same sentence as the institution. Read the politics page of a Panjabi newspaper twice a week; the register is formal, repetitive and therefore learnable, and it is the register a Paper 1 stimulus text will use.

higher level

The full A-Level expects institutional precision and attributed judgement. Two disciplines matter most. First, never let a claim float free of the polity it describes. Second, characterise a party twice - as its own programme presents it and as others describe it - and endorse neither. On the harder material, including the events of the 1980s and any matter currently before a court, state the dated facts, attribute the characterisations, name the naming dispute, and stop.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਸਿਆਸਤ: parties, elections, demonstrations and strikes

ਦੋ ਪੰਜਾਬ, ਦੋ ਨਿਜ਼ਾਮ: the constitutional position on each side of the line#

FoundationAQA 7682 - 3.2.2.1 Sub-theme: Politics in the Punjab - Political partiesAQA 7682 - 3.2.2.1 Sub-theme: Politics in the Punjab - The electoral process

The same name, two states

Fig. 1The specification says the Punjab and never says which one, so this table answers the question it leaves open. Every row is a fact a candidate can get wrong by generalising, and the row set in heavier ink is the one that governs everything else in these notes: the script. The specification names no script either, and the choice made here - Gurmukhi throughout - follows the evidence of the specification's own printed examples.

Start with the words for the two halves, because Panjabi has its own and they are better than anything English offers. ਚੜ੍ਹਦਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ (charhdā Panjāb), the rising Punjab, is the eastern half, the Indian state; ਲਹਿੰਦਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ (lahindā Panjāb), the setting Punjab, is the western half, the Pakistani province. The two names come from the sun and they are in ordinary use among Panjabi speakers on both sides. Alongside them the older administrative terms East Punjab and West Punjab survive from 1947. Learning this pair does two things at once: it gives you a precise way to name each polity in Panjabi, and it shows an examiner that you understand the region as Panjabi speakers themselves describe it rather than through a foreign frame.

Charhda Punjab is a state within the Indian Union. It has a unicameral legislature, the ਵਿਧਾਨ ਸਭਾ, of 117 seats, elected by first-past-the-post from single-member constituencies; the leader of the majority in that assembly becomes ਮੁੱਖ ਮੰਤਰੀ, chief minister, and the ਰਾਜਪਾਲ or governor is the constitutional head appointed by the President of India. The state sends 13 members to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the national parliament. Its capital, Chandigarh, is not part of the state at all but a union territory serving as the shared capital of Punjab and of Haryana - an arrangement dating from the reorganisation of 1966 and a continuing subject of political argument. Panjabi is the state's official language and Gurmukhi its script.

Lehnda Punjab is a province of Pakistan and is by a wide margin the country's most populous, which makes it decisive in national politics in a way that has no parallel on the other side. It has a Provincial Assembly, a chief minister drawn from it and a governor appointed by the President of Pakistan; alongside general seats, the assemblies carry seats reserved for women and for non-Muslims, filled from party lists rather than by direct election. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, passed in 2010, transferred a substantial range of powers from the federal government to the provinces and is the single most useful date to know about the province's present competences. Urdu is the language of administration and education; Panjabi, though the majority mother tongue, has no comparable official standing.

One institution has no equivalent on the other side and is worth knowing because it appears constantly in Panjabi political coverage: the ਸ਼੍ਰੋਮਣੀ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਪ੍ਰਬੰਧਕ ਕਮੇਟੀ, the body that administers historic Sikh shrines in Indian Punjab, which is constituted under legislation of 1925 and whose members are ELECTED. It is a religious body with an electorate, a budget and a politics, and its elections are contested by organisations connected to the party system. Naming it, and noting that religion and elected office intersect institutionally in Indian Punjab in a way they do not in the same form across the border, is precisely the kind of institutional observation that separates an informed answer from a general one.

Worked example

Translating an institutional sentence from Panjabi into English

Translate for Paper 1: ੧੯੬੬ ਵਿੱਚ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਮੁੜ-ਗਠਨ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਚੰਡੀਗੜ੍ਹ ਨੂੰ ਦੋ ਸੂਬਿਆਂ ਦੀ ਸਾਂਝੀ ਰਾਜਧਾਨੀ ਬਣਾ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਗਿਆ, ਜਿਸ ਬਾਰੇ ਬਹਿਸ ਅੱਜ ਤੱਕ ਜਾਰੀ ਹੈ।

Read the whole sentence before translating a word
It is one sentence with a main clause and a relative clause, and the finite verbs are ਬਣਾ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਗਿਆ and ਜਾਰੀ ਹੈ. Panjabi puts the verb last, so an English translator who starts at the left will have to restructure anyway.
Handle the date and the noun
੧੯੬੬ ਵਿੱਚ - in 1966. Note that the Panjabi text uses Gurmukhi digits and your English must use Western ones; this is a script conversion, not a translation choice. ਮੁੜ-ਗਠਨ is reorganisation, and the hyphenated ਮੁੜ- prefix is the ordinary Panjabi way of forming re- compounds.
Unpack the double passive
ਬਣਾ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਗਿਆ has two layers: ਬਣਾ ਦੇਣਾ is a compound verb, the stem plus ਦੇਣਾ, giving decisiveness or finality, and ਗਿਆ makes it passive. English cannot carry both; was made is correct, and adding was decisively made would be over-translation. Knowing what you are choosing not to carry is part of the skill.
Handle the relative clause
ਜਿਸ ਬਾਰੇ ਬਹਿਸ ਅੱਜ ਤੱਕ ਜਾਰੀ ਹੈ - about which the argument continues to this day. ਜਿਸ is the oblique form of ਜੋ before the postposition ਬਾਰੇ, and getting oblique forms right before postpositions is one of the most heavily tested things in this exam.
Choose the English register
ਸੂਬਾ is a state or province; here the two units are the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, so states is right and provinces would be wrong. A translator has to know the institutional facts, not only the words - which is why the political topic and the translation topic support each other.
Write and reread as English
After the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966, Chandigarh was made the shared capital of two states, an arrangement which is still argued about today. Read it aloud: if it sounds like a translation, redistribute the clauses rather than the words.

Result: After the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966, Chandigarh was made the shared capital of two states, an arrangement which is still argued about today. Four things were being tested: the digit conversion, the compound verb plus passive, the oblique relative before a postposition, and the institutional knowledge that ਸੂਬਾ here means state.

Typical mistakes

Writing the Punjab government without saying which one.
Assuming Chandigarh is the capital of Punjab alone; it is a union territory shared with Haryana.
Treating the Pakistani province as a minor unit; it is the country's most populous province.
Assuming reserved seats work the same way in both systems. They do not: the categories and the filling mechanism differ.
Calling the shrine-administering committee a government department. It is a statutory body with an elected membership.

Active revision

ਇੱਕ ਸਾਰਣੀ ਦੀ ਥਾਂ ਪੂਰੇ ਵਾਕਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ (੧੫੦ ਸ਼ਬਦ) ਚੜ੍ਹਦੇ ਤੇ ਲਹਿੰਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਢਾਂਚੇ ਦੀ ਤੁਲਨਾ ਕਰੋ। ਪੰਜ ਗੱਲਾਂ ਲਵੋ: ਦਰਜਾ, ਅਸੰਬਲੀ, ਚੋਣ ਕਮਿਸ਼ਨ, ਸਰਕਾਰੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ, ਅਤੇ ਇੱਕ ਅਹਿਮ ਤਾਰੀਖ਼। ਹਰ ਵਾਕ ਵਿੱਚ ਦੱਸੋ ਕਿ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਕਿਸ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ ਹੋ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

ਚੜ੍ਹਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀਆਂ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਪਾਰਟੀਆਂ: parties in the Indian state#

StandardAQA 7682 - 3.2.2.1 Sub-theme: Politics in the Punjab - Political parties

The party system of the Indian state has a distinctive shape and a datable history. The Shiromani Akali Dal, founded in 1920, is the state's oldest surviving party and the one with the closest institutional links to Sikh religious organisation; the Indian National Congress has been the other pole of state politics for most of the period since 1947; the Bharatiya Janata Party has historically been strongest in the towns and among Hindu voters and has at various times been allied with the Akali Dal; the Bahujan Samaj Party has drawn support among Scheduled Caste voters, which matters more here than in most states because Punjab has the highest proportion of Scheduled Caste population of any Indian state according to the Census of India; and the Communist parties have a long presence in particular districts. Most recently the Aam Aadmi Party, formed in 2012, won the state assembly election of 2022. Give the founding date or the dated result, and the sentence becomes evidence.

Characterise a party TWICE or not at all. Every party presents itself in one way and is described by its opponents and by observers in another, and a candidate who reproduces only one of those has taken a side without saying so. The frame is simple and repeatable: ਪਾਰਟੀ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਨੂੰ … ਵਜੋਂ ਪੇਸ਼ ਕਰਦੀ ਹੈ, ਜਦਕਿ ਆਲੋਚਕ ਇਸ ਨੂੰ … ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ। - the party presents itself as X, whereas critics call it Y. Two clauses, no endorsement, and an examiner can see immediately that you know the difference between a party's self-description and an assessment of it. Use the same frame for a government's record: ਸਰਕਾਰ ਦਾ ਦਾਅਵਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ …, ਪਰ ਵਿਰੋਧੀ ਧਿਰ ਦਾ ਕਹਿਣਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ … - and the same pair works for a record in office as well as for a party.

Two structural features of Punjab politics are worth knowing because they explain a great deal that otherwise looks arbitrary. The first is the religious-institutional dimension: the committee administering historic Sikh shrines is elected, its elections are contested by organisations connected to the party system, and religious and political authority are therefore institutionally entangled in a way that has no exact parallel elsewhere in India. The second is agriculture: Punjab's politics has been organised around agricultural questions - procurement prices, water, electricity, debt - for decades, farm organisations are powerful actors independent of the parties, and any account of the state's politics that leaves out the ਕਿਸਾਨ ਯੂਨੀਅਨਾਂ has left out one of its principal forces.

The vocabulary is formal and largely shared with the wider Indian political register, which makes it learnable from newspapers. ਸਿਆਸੀ ਪਾਰਟੀ political party; ਆਗੂ (āgū) leader; ਵਰਕਰ or ਕਾਰਕੁਨ activist; ਗੱਠਜੋੜ (gaṭhjoṛ) coalition or alliance; ਵਿਰੋਧੀ ਧਿਰ opposition; ਸੱਤਾ (sattā) power or office; ਚੋਣ ਮਨੋਰਥ ਪੱਤਰ manifesto; ਵਾਅਦਾ promise; ਭ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਟਾਚਾਰ (bhrishṭāchār) corruption - a word to use only inside an attribution, never as your own assertion about a named person; ਸਮਰਥਨ (samarthan) support; ਹਮਾਇਤ (hamāit) the equivalent drawn from the Persian layer, commoner across the border. Note that pair: which word a source uses often tells you which Punjab it comes from.

Worked example

Writing about a party without taking its side or its opponents

You have to write three sentences about a political party in a Paper 3 multi-skill answer. Show how to be informative and neutral at the same time.

Open with a fact that nobody disputes
ਇਹ ਪਾਰਟੀ ੧੯੨੦ ਵਿੱਚ ਬਣੀ ਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਕਈ ਵਾਰ ਸੂਬੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਬਣਾ ਚੁੱਕੀ ਹੈ। - this party was formed in 1920 and has formed the state government several times. A date and an office held: both checkable, neither contentious. ਬਣਾ ਚੁੱਕੀ ਹੈ uses the auxiliary ਚੁੱਕਣਾ, which section 3.3.6 names, for a completed and repeated experience.
Give the self-description, marked as such
ਪਾਰਟੀ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਨੂੰ ਕਿਸਾਨਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਪੇਂਡੂ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਆਵਾਜ਼ ਵਜੋਂ ਪੇਸ਼ ਕਰਦੀ ਹੈ। - the party presents itself as the voice of farmers and of rural Punjab. ਵਜੋਂ ਪੇਸ਼ ਕਰਦੀ ਹੈ is the load-bearing phrase; without it the sentence would assert that the party IS that voice.
Give the criticism, also marked
ਦੂਜੇ ਪਾਸੇ, ਆਲੋਚਕਾਂ ਦਾ ਕਹਿਣਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਇਸ ਦੀ ਅਗਵਾਈ ਕੁਝ ਪਰਿਵਾਰਾਂ ਤੱਕ ਸੀਮਤ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ। - on the other hand, critics say its leadership has remained confined to a few families. Attributed, general, and about a structural claim rather than about a named person.
Refuse to adjudicate, on purpose
Do not add ਪਰ ਇਹ ਸੱਚ ਹੈ or ਅਸਲ ਵਿੱਚ. The two attributed positions are the answer. If the task asks for your view, give it as a view about the ARGUMENT - which claim is easier to test, what evidence would settle it - rather than as a verdict on the party.
Check for the three traps
One: is any characterisation in my own voice? Two: have I named an individual in connection with an allegation? Three: have I said anything about a matter that is before a court? All three answers must be no. The third is absolute: state legal facts and dates if they are relevant, and stop.
Notice what neutrality bought you
The three sentences contain more information than a partisan paragraph would, because attributing lets you include claims you would otherwise have to leave out. Neutrality here is not timidity; it is how you get to say more.

Result: ਇਹ ਪਾਰਟੀ ੧੯੨੦ ਵਿੱਚ ਬਣੀ ਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਕਈ ਵਾਰ ਸੂਬੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਬਣਾ ਚੁੱਕੀ ਹੈ। ਪਾਰਟੀ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਨੂੰ ਕਿਸਾਨਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਪੇਂਡੂ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਆਵਾਜ਼ ਵਜੋਂ ਪੇਸ਼ ਕਰਦੀ ਹੈ। ਦੂਜੇ ਪਾਸੇ, ਆਲੋਚਕਾਂ ਦਾ ਕਹਿਣਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਇਸ ਦੀ ਅਗਵਾਈ ਕੁਝ ਪਰਿਵਾਰਾਂ ਤੱਕ ਸੀਮਤ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ। Three sentences, one date, two attributions, no verdict.

Typical mistakes

Describing a party only as it describes itself, or only as its opponents do.
Asserting corruption, or any other characterisation, about a named individual or party in your own voice.
Treating Punjab as a two-party state; the system has changed within the last decade.
Ignoring farm organisations, which are among the state's most powerful political actors.
Assuming an Indian party has any presence across the border. It does not; the systems are entirely separate.

Active revision

ਦੋ ਪਾਰਟੀਆਂ ਬਾਰੇ ਚਾਰ-ਚਾਰ ਵਾਕ ਲਿਖੋ। ਹਰ ਪਾਰਟੀ ਲਈ: ਸਥਾਪਨਾ ਦਾ ਸਾਲ ਜਾਂ ਕੋਈ ਤਾਰੀਖ਼ੀ ਨਤੀਜਾ; ਉਹ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਨੂੰ ਕੀ ਕਹਿੰਦੀ ਹੈ; ਆਲੋਚਕ ਕੀ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ; ਅਤੇ ਇੱਕ ਵਾਕ ਜਿਸ ਵਿੱਚ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਦਾ ਪੱਖ ਨਾ ਲਵੋ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

ਲਹਿੰਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀਆਂ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਪਾਰਟੀਆਂ: parties in the Pakistani province#

StandardAQA 7682 - 3.2.2.1 Sub-theme: Politics in the Punjab - Political parties

The Pakistani province's party system is national rather than regional, and that is its first important difference from the Indian state's. The parties that contest the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab are the same parties that contest the National Assembly: the Pakistan Muslim League in its principal faction, the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, religious parties including the Jamaat-e-Islami and, since the late 2010s, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, together with smaller and regional groupings. There is no equivalent of a specifically Panjabi provincial party comparable to the Akali Dal across the border, which is itself a fact worth stating and explaining: the province contains a very large share of the country's population, so its politics IS national politics rather than a regional variation on it.

Two structural facts shape everything else and both are documented. The first is the Eighteenth Amendment of 2010, which devolved substantial competences - education, health and much else - to the provinces, so that provincial politics in Punjab now decides matters that were previously federal. The second is the relationship between elected institutions and the military establishment, which is a central and openly debated feature of Pakistani political life and has been throughout the country's history: periods of direct military government alternate with civilian ones, and the influence of the establishment in civilian periods is a subject of continuous public argument. Report that as what it is - a documented feature and a live argument with participants on several sides - and do not present any position on it as settled fact.

The recent period is fast-moving and you must treat it accordingly. Pakistan held general elections in February 2024, the results and their aftermath have been the subject of contestation, and governments and coalitions in both the National Assembly and the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab may have changed since anything you read. The correct habit is the one a researcher uses: give the dated fact you can verify, say when your information is from, and tell the reader to check the current position. ਤਾਜ਼ਾ ਹਾਲਾਤ ਬਦਲਦੇ ਰਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ, ਇਸ ਲਈ ਮੌਜੂਦਾ ਸਥਿਤੀ ਤਾਜ਼ਾ ਸਰੋਤਾਂ ਤੋਂ ਵੇਖਣੀ ਚਾਹੀਦੀ ਹੈ। - the current situation keeps changing, so the present position should be checked in current sources. Writing that sentence costs you nothing and protects everything else you say.

There is also a specifically LANGUAGE politics in the province that a Panjabi candidate is better placed to write about than anyone else. Panjabi is the majority mother tongue of Pakistan's largest province and has no official status there; campaigns to have it taught in schools and used in provincial administration have been run by writers, academics and language organisations for decades, and they have made limited institutional progress. Alongside that runs the Saraiki question in the province's south, where speakers regard their language as distinct and have long campaigned for a separate province. Both are live, both are documented, and both let you write about politics in a way that connects directly to the language you are being examined in - which is exactly the kind of connection the AO4 grid rewards.

Worked example

A listening question where two speakers disagree

A Paper 3 listening passage has a journalist and a language activist discussing whether Panjabi should be a medium of instruction in Pakistani Punjab. One question asks: ਦੋਵੇਂ ਬੁਲਾਰੇ ਕਿਸ ਗੱਲ ਉੱਤੇ ਸਹਿਮਤ ਹਨ ਅਤੇ ਕਿਸ ਉੱਤੇ ਨਹੀਂ?

Notice that the question has two halves
It asks for a point of agreement AND a point of disagreement. Half an answer is half the marks, and in practice most candidates supply only the disagreement, because disagreement is louder. Write the two halves as two clauses before you listen, so you cannot forget one.
First pass: separate the voices
You have individual control. Map who speaks when. Two speakers in a Panjabi discussion are often distinguished by register as much as by voice - a journalist may use more Persian-layer vocabulary and an activist more Panjabi-rooted words - and noticing that helps you attribute correctly under pressure.
Second pass: find the agreement
Agreement is usually signalled, and the signals are learnable: ਦੋਵੇਂ, ਮੈਂ ਵੀ ਇਹੀ ਕਹਿੰਦਾ ਹਾਂ, ਇਸ ਵਿੱਚ ਕੋਈ ਸ਼ੱਕ ਨਹੀਂ, ਬਿਲਕੁਲ ਸਹੀ. Listen for one of these and note what follows it.
Third pass: find the exact point of disagreement
Signalled by ਪਰ, ਲੇਕਿਨ, ਮੈਂ ਸਹਿਮਤ ਨਹੀਂ, ਮੇਰਾ ਖ਼ਿਆਲ ਵੱਖਰਾ ਹੈ, ਜਦਕਿ. Be precise about WHAT they disagree on: often two speakers agree on the aim and differ only on the method, and an answer that says they disagree about Panjabi would be wrong.
Write both halves, both attributed
ਦੋਵੇਂ ਇਸ ਗੱਲ ਉੱਤੇ ਸਹਿਮਤ ਹਨ ਕਿ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਨੂੰ ਸਕੂਲਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਥਾਂ ਮਿਲਣੀ ਚਾਹੀਦੀ ਹੈ, ਪਰ ਪੱਤਰਕਾਰ ਦਾ ਕਹਿਣਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਇਹ ਹੌਲੀ-ਹੌਲੀ ਹੋਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ, ਜਦਕਿ ਕਾਰਕੁਨ ਇਸ ਨੂੰ ਹੁਣੇ ਲਾਗੂ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਮੰਗ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ। Both speakers agree that Panjabi should have a place in schools, but the journalist says it should happen gradually, whereas the activist demands immediate implementation.
Check that you have not supplied your own view
The question asked what the speakers think. Your own opinion about medium of instruction, however well informed, is irrelevant material here and would cost the content mark. Save it for the multi-skill task, where it is worth marks.

Result: ਦੋਵੇਂ ਇਸ ਗੱਲ ਉੱਤੇ ਸਹਿਮਤ ਹਨ ਕਿ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਨੂੰ ਸਕੂਲਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਥਾਂ ਮਿਲਣੀ ਚਾਹੀਦੀ ਹੈ, ਪਰ ਪੱਤਰਕਾਰ ਹੌਲੀ ਤਬਦੀਲੀ ਚਾਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ ਜਦਕਿ ਕਾਰਕੁਨ ਤੁਰੰਤ ਅਮਲ ਦੀ ਮੰਗ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ। Two halves, two attributions, and the disagreement located precisely at the method rather than at the aim.

Typical mistakes

Importing Indian party names or Indian institutional categories across the border.
Writing about the current government of the province from memory; the position changes.
Presenting the civil-military question as settled in either direction.
Assuming Panjabi has official status in the province because it is the majority language. It does not.
Treating Saraiki speakers as Panjabi speakers who have been misclassified, or the reverse. Report the dispute.

Active revision

ਇੱਕ ਪੈਰ੍ਹਾ (੧੫੦ ਸ਼ਬਦ) ਲਿਖੋ ਜਿਸ ਵਿੱਚ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਲਹਿੰਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਸਿਆਸਤ ਦੀਆਂ ਤਿੰਨ ਖ਼ਾਸ ਗੱਲਾਂ ਦੱਸੋ - ਪਾਰਟੀਆਂ ਦਾ ਕੌਮੀ ਹੋਣਾ, ੨੦੧੦ ਦੀ ਸੋਧ, ਅਤੇ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਦਾ ਸਵਾਲ। ਅੰਤ ਵਿੱਚ ਇੱਕ ਵਾਕ ਲਿਖੋ ਜੋ ਪਾਠਕ ਨੂੰ ਤਾਜ਼ਾ ਸਰੋਤ ਵੇਖਣ ਲਈ ਕਹੇ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

ਚੋਣ ਦਾ ਅਮਲ: how an election actually works, on each side#

StandardAQA 7682 - 3.2.2.1 Sub-theme: Politics in the Punjab - The electoral process

In the Indian state, elections are conducted by the Election Commission of India, a constitutional body independent of the state government, and the machinery is worth knowing in its own vocabulary because a stimulus text will assume it. The franchise is universal for citizens aged 18 and over, the voting age having been lowered from 21 by constitutional amendment in 1988. Constituencies are single-member and the system is first past the post. Voting is by electronic voting machine with a paper audit trail, the electoral roll is compiled and revised by the Commission, and since 2013 the ballot carries a none-of-the-above option following a judgment of the Supreme Court of India. During a campaign the Commission enforces a model code of conduct which restricts what governments and candidates may do once an election is announced. Each of those is a checkable institutional fact and each is worth more than a sentence of generality.

In the Pakistani province, elections are conducted by the Election Commission of Pakistan. The franchise is likewise universal from 18. General seats are contested directly, and alongside them the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies carry seats reserved for women and for non-Muslims which are filled from party lists in proportion to the parties general-seat performance - a mechanism with no equivalent in the Indian system and a difference worth naming precisely. Voting by Pakistanis living abroad has been the subject of legislation, of pilot schemes and of litigation, and the position has changed more than once; because a very large number of Panjabi speakers from the province live overseas, this is a question that touches the migration theme directly, and it is exactly the kind of matter where you should give the dated facts and then say that the current position must be checked.

Turnout, campaigning and the texture of an election are where a Panjabi source will actually take you, and the vocabulary is specific. ਚੋਣ ਪ੍ਰਚਾਰ (choṇ prachār) campaigning; ਰੈਲੀ and ਜਲਸਾ rally; ਨੁੱਕੜ ਸਭਾ the street-corner meeting; ਚੋਣ ਨਿਸ਼ਾਨ (choṇ nishān) the party symbol on the ballot, an institution of real importance where literacy is uneven; ਮਤਦਾਨ ਕੇਂਦਰ polling station; ਵੋਟਰ ਸੂਚੀ electoral roll; ਗਿਣਤੀ counting; ਬਹੁਮਤ (bahumat) majority; ਜ਼ਮਾਨਤ ਜ਼ਬਤ the forfeiture of a candidate's deposit; ਹਾਰ and ਜਿੱਤ defeat and victory. Note that ਪ੍ਰਚਾਰ carries no negative sense in Panjabi and simply means campaigning or propagation; translating it as propaganda would be a translation error with a political flavour.

One further feature is specific to the Punjab on both sides and belongs in a full answer: the emigrant vote and the emigrant influence. Very large numbers of families in both Punjabs have members abroad, and the political consequences are documented - campaign funding, diaspora organisations that take positions on politics at home, and the recurring question of whether and how citizens abroad may vote. In India, an overseas elector may register but must currently attend in person to vote, and proposals to change that have been discussed for years; in Pakistan the position has been legislated on and litigated. Handle both the same way: dated facts, named institutions, and the instruction to verify.

Worked example

Building a comparative paragraph that never loses track of the country

Write a comparison of the two electoral systems in which every clause is anchored to a polity. This is harder than it sounds and it is where most candidates lose marks in this topic.

Choose your anchoring device before you start
Three work well in Panjabi. Naming: ਭਾਰਤੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ … ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ …. The Panjabi pair: ਚੜ੍ਹਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ … ਲਹਿੰਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ …. Or the correlative: ਜਿੱਥੇ … ਉੱਥੇ …. Pick ONE and use it consistently; mixing them makes a paragraph hard to follow.
Write the first pair of clauses
ਚੜ੍ਹਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ ਚੋਣਾਂ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਚੋਣ ਕਮਿਸ਼ਨ ਕਰਵਾਉਂਦਾ ਹੈ, ਜਦਕਿ ਲਹਿੰਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ ਇਹ ਕੰਮ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨੀ ਚੋਣ ਕਮਿਸ਼ਨ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ। Note ਕਰਵਾਉਣਾ, the double causative of ਕਰਨਾ: the commission does not vote, it CAUSES the election to be held. That is the precise verb and it is also a section 3.3.6 structure.
Write the second pair, about a real difference
ਦੋਵੇਂ ਥਾਈਂ ਵੋਟ ਦਾ ਹੱਕ ਅਠਾਰਾਂ ਸਾਲ ਤੋਂ ਮਿਲਦਾ ਹੈ, ਪਰ ਰਾਖਵੀਆਂ ਸੀਟਾਂ ਭਰਨ ਦਾ ਤਰੀਕਾ ਵੱਖਰਾ ਹੈ। - the franchise begins at eighteen in both, but the method of filling reserved seats differs. A shared feature and a genuine difference in one sentence is worth more than two sentences of contrast.
Spell the difference out
ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਵਿੱਚ ਔਰਤਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਗ਼ੈਰ-ਮੁਸਲਿਮ ਨੁਮਾਇੰਦਿਆਂ ਲਈ ਰਾਖਵੀਆਂ ਸੀਟਾਂ ਪਾਰਟੀ ਸੂਚੀ ਤੋਂ ਭਰੀਆਂ ਜਾਂਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ, ਜਦਕਿ ਭਾਰਤ ਵਿੱਚ ਰਾਖਵੇਂ ਹਲਕਿਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਿੱਧੀ ਚੋਣ ਹੁੰਦੀ ਹੈ। Precision here is the whole mark: the two systems reserve for different groups AND fill the seats by different mechanisms.
Close with a consequence rather than a summary
ਇਸ ਦਾ ਨਤੀਜਾ ਇਹ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਦੋਵੇਂ ਥਾਈਂ ਨੁਮਾਇੰਦਗੀ ਦਾ ਅਰਥ ਵੱਖਰਾ ਹੈ। - the result is that representation means something different in each. A comparative paragraph that ends with a consequence has analysed; one that ends with so they are different has only listed.
Audit every clause
Reread and underline the country in each clause. Any clause without one is a clause that could be wrong about half the Panjabi-speaking world. This audit takes thirty seconds and is the highest-value habit in this entire topic.

Result: A five-clause comparison in which every clause names its polity, one genuine shared feature is acknowledged, the difference is stated at the level of mechanism, and the paragraph closes on a consequence. Apply the same audit to every political paragraph you write.

Typical mistakes

Saying the government runs elections; in both countries an independent commission does.
Describing one system's mechanism and assuming the other works the same way.
Writing about the overseas vote as though the position were fixed; it has changed and may change again.
Giving turnout percentages from memory.
Confusing ਬਹੁਮਤ, a majority of seats, with ਵੱਧ ਵੋਟਾਂ, more votes; under first past the post they come apart.

Active revision

੧੫੦ ਸ਼ਬਦਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਮਝਾਓ ਕਿ ਚੜ੍ਹਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ ਚੋਣ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਹੁੰਦੀ ਹੈ - ਵੋਟਰ ਸੂਚੀ ਤੋਂ ਗਿਣਤੀ ਤੱਕ - ਅਤੇ ਫਿਰ ਦੋ ਵਾਕਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਦੱਸੋ ਕਿ ਲਹਿੰਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦਾ ਢੰਗ ਕਿਸ ਗੱਲ ਵਿੱਚ ਵੱਖਰਾ ਹੈ। ਘੱਟੋ-ਘੱਟ ਛੇ ਤਕਨੀਕੀ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਵਰਤੋ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

ਧਰਨੇ ਤੇ ਹੜਤਾਲਾਂ: demonstrations and strikes#

AdvancedAQA 7682 - 3.2.2.1 Sub-theme: Politics in the Punjab - Demonstrations and strikes

The vocabulary of protest, and what each word claims

Fig. 2Every one of these words could be translated as protest, and every one of them makes a different claim about scale, duration and who is acting. Choosing the wrong one is not a vocabulary slip but a factual error, which is why this table sits in the political topic rather than in the grammar one. The row in heavier ink is the word with no English equivalent and the longest history in Panjabi political life.

Panjabi has a large and precise vocabulary for collective protest, and using the right word is itself an analytical act because each word licenses a different claim. A ਧਰਨਾ is a sit-in held at a place; a ਹੜਤਾਲ is a withdrawal of labour; a ਬੰਦ is a general shutdown called across a town or a state; a ਮੋਰਚਾ is a sustained campaign lasting months or years, a word that carries the sense of a front in the military sense and that has a long history in Panjabi political usage; a ਰੋਸ ਮਾਰਚ is a protest march; ਰੇਲ ਰੋਕੋ and ਚੱਕਾ ਜਾਮ are named tactics of blocking railways and roads; a ਜਲਸਾ is a public rally, usually a party one; a ਭੁੱਖ ਹੜਤਾਲ is a hunger strike; and ਮੁਜ਼ਾਹਰਾ, drawn from the Persian and Arabic layer, is the ordinary word for a demonstration in Pakistani usage. Choosing ਮੋਰਚਾ when you mean ਧਰਨਾ overstates by months; choosing ਧਰਨਾ when you mean ਮੋਰਚਾ understates a movement.

The best-documented recent example, and the one most likely to appear in a source, is the farmers movement of 2020 and 2021. Three agriculture laws were passed by the Indian parliament in September 2020; large-scale protest followed, with Punjab as its centre of gravity and with farm organisations rather than parties in the lead; encampments were established at the approaches to Delhi and sustained through more than a year; the repeal of the three laws was announced in November 2021 and enacted before the end of that year. Those are dates and events, and they are all you need: the movement's meaning, its costs and its consequences are argued about by participants, governments, journalists and researchers, and every characterisation of them belongs inside an attribution. Note also that the movement was heavily organised through social media and was affected by state-ordered internet suspensions, which ties this section to the digital sub-theme.

There is an older Panjabi tradition of the morcha that explains why the word carries the weight it does. Sustained agitations in the twentieth century - including the campaign for a Panjabi-speaking state that preceded the reorganisation of 1966 - established a repertoire of mass, disciplined, long-running protest with religious as well as political organisation behind it, and that repertoire is still recognisable in the way protest is conducted in the Indian state today. Across the border the repertoire is different in form - the ਲਾਂਗ ਮਾਰਚ, the ਧਰਨਾ at a capital, the ਜਲਸਾ - though the vocabulary overlaps. Naming a repertoire, rather than describing a single event, is the move that turns a narrative into analysis.

The 1980s and early 1990s in Indian Punjab are the hardest material in this section, and the rule is the same rule that governs the Partition topic: dated facts, attributed characterisations, no figures, no individual cases, and the naming taught as part of the content. The dated spine is: the military operation at the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar in June 1984; the assassination of the Prime Minister of India on 31 October 1984; the killings of Sikhs in Delhi and other cities in the days that followed, in early November 1984; and a subsequent decade of insurgency and counter-insurgency in the state. Which words are used for these events differs sharply between accounts - riots, pogrom, massacre, genocide are all in use for November 1984 by different actors, and inquiries and prosecutions have continued for decades. State the dates, state that the naming is disputed and by whom, attribute every characterisation, discuss no individual case, and tell your reader to consult current sources on any continuing proceedings. Nothing in this section requires you to adjudicate, and the AO4 grid does not ask you to.

Worked example

Writing about a contested past without adjudicating it

A Paper 1 stimulus text refers in passing to the events of 1984 and the question asks you to explain, in Panjabi, why the writer says the period is still argued about. Show the method.

Establish the dated spine first, silently
Before writing a word, fix the sequence in your own head: June 1984, the military operation in Amritsar; 31 October 1984, the assassination of the Prime Minister; early November 1984, the killings of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere; then a decade of insurgency and counter-insurgency. Dates are the one kind of statement here that is not contested, and everything you write will rest on them.
Say that the naming is disputed, and make that the answer
ਇਸ ਦੌਰ ਬਾਰੇ ਬਹਿਸ ਇਸ ਲਈ ਜਾਰੀ ਹੈ ਕਿਉਂਕਿ ਵੱਖ-ਵੱਖ ਧਿਰਾਂ ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਘਟਨਾਵਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਵੱਖ-ਵੱਖ ਨਾਂ ਦਿੰਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ। - the argument continues because different parties give these events different names. This is a true statement about the discourse rather than a claim about the events, and it is exactly what the question asked.
Attribute rather than assert
ਕੁਝ ਲੋਕ ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਦੰਗੇ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ, ਜਦਕਿ ਦੂਜੇ ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਲਈ ਹੋਰ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਵਰਤਦੇ ਹਨ ਜੋ ਯੋਜਨਾਬੱਧ ਹਿੰਸਾ ਵੱਲ ਇਸ਼ਾਰਾ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ। - some call them riots, while others use words pointing to organised violence. You have now reported the dispute accurately without choosing a side.
Name the second reason: proceedings
ਦੂਜਾ ਕਾਰਨ ਇਹ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਜਾਂਚਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਮੁਕੱਦਮੇ ਦਹਾਕਿਆਂ ਤੱਕ ਚੱਲਦੇ ਰਹੇ ਹਨ। - a second reason is that inquiries and prosecutions have run for decades. A statement about process, verifiable, and it stops exactly where it should: no case is named, no outcome is anticipated.
Refuse the temptations explicitly
Three things do not go in: a number of dead, a named individual connected to an allegation, and your own verdict on responsibility. Each would convert a good answer into an unsafe one, and none of them is asked for. If you feel the pull to include them, that is the moment to reread the question, which asked why it is argued about.
Close by connecting to the language
ਇਸੇ ਕਰਕੇ ਇਸ ਵਿਸ਼ੇ ਉੱਤੇ ਲਿਖਦਿਆਂ ਸ਼ਬਦਾਂ ਦੀ ਚੋਣ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਵਿੱਚ ਇੱਕ ਫ਼ੈਸਲਾ ਬਣ ਜਾਂਦੀ ਹੈ। - which is why, in writing on this subject, the choice of words itself becomes a decision. That sentence is the most sophisticated thing in the answer and it is available to a language candidate more naturally than to anyone else.

Result: A four-sentence answer that explains a continuing argument entirely through the dispute over naming and the length of legal process, contains no casualty figure, names no individual and no case, and finishes by making the point a LANGUAGE point. Use this same method for any contested past you meet in this subject, including the Partition.

Typical mistakes

Using ਧਰਨਾ, ਬੰਦ and ਮੋਰਚਾ as though they were synonyms.
Giving numbers of protesters, of casualties or of days.
Adopting one side's name for a contested event without saying that the naming is contested.
Discussing an individual case or anticipating the outcome of proceedings.
Treating the farmers movement as a party campaign; farm organisations led it and that fact is part of its significance.

Active revision

ਪੰਜ ਵਾਕ ਲਿਖੋ, ਹਰ ਇੱਕ ਵਿੱਚ ਰੋਸ ਦਾ ਇੱਕ ਵੱਖਰਾ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਸਹੀ ਅਰਥ ਵਿੱਚ ਵਰਤੋ। ਫਿਰ ਦੋ ਵਾਕਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਮਝਾਓ ਕਿ ਮੋਰਚਾ ਤੇ ਧਰਨਾ ਵਿੱਚ ਕੀ ਫ਼ਰਕ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਇਹ ਫ਼ਰਕ ਕਿਉਂ ਮਾਇਨੇ ਰੱਖਦਾ ਹੈ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification

ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਸਿਆਸਤ: parties, elections, demonstrations and strikes

5 sections~34 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 3 · Advanced 1

ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਸਿਆਸਤ: parties, elections, demonstrations and strikes

Key points

Translating an institutional sentence from Panjabi into English

Key points

Writing about a party without taking its side or its opponents

Key points

A listening question where two speakers disagree

Key points

Building a comparative paragraph that never loses track of the country

Key points

Writing about a contested past without adjudicating it

Sources

ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਸਿਆਸਤ: parties, elections, demonstrations and strikes

Key points

Translating an institutional sentence from Panjabi into English

Key points

Writing about a party without taking its side or its opponents

Key points

A listening question where two speakers disagree

Key points

Building a comparative paragraph that never loses track of the country

Key points

Writing about a contested past without adjudicating it

Sources