Chowrangi

A Question of Our Identity

As I traveled the streets of Karachi, I realized there are only two constants in this city – people and schools. It would be easy to fool someone into believing the overwhelming number of educational institutes inhabiting every nook and cranny of a seemingly never ending metropolis exist because of people’s thirst for knowledge. That theory is quickly discarded when searching, often in vain, for non-curriculum books or just a library.

Does anyone read anymore? The correct seems to be when trying to become a doctor or an engineer.

Each institution claims to be ‘certified,’ usually by a foreign university or college in an attempt to validate its existence in an otherwise monotonous collection. Medium of instruction is almost always English making it hard for anyone to guess the national language is Urdu. If the obsession with light skin was not enough, the inferiority complex has managed to find its way in other walks of life.

This had become starkly clear upon attending my cousin’s graduation from the Pakistan Naval Academy. The officer corps boasted titles inherited from the British Navy and the English language. My cousin was commissioned to become a sub-Lieutenant while the sailor class, presumably those who studied in Urdu medium schools, left with Urdu titles. The ceremony was conducted in English, speeches were delivered in English, and I’m certain if there was a way to eat the food in English that would have happened too.

Another cousin of mine born and raised in Pakistan stared blankly when I used the word ‘mushkook.’ Initially, I imagined it was the look of offense for calling her suspicious but quickly realized she was trying her best to decipher its meaning. I repeated the word in English hoping the angrezi-medium schools have done their job properly but she was just as puzzled.

I meet people in increasing numbers who begin their sentences in Urdu and finish in English or vice versa. Others seemingly incapable or unwilling to express themselves articulately without resorting to the language not their mother tongue.

To take away a nation’s identity, first step is to take away their language. I hope we can still turn around.

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Faraz Ahmed

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23 responses to “A Question of Our Identity”

  1. Hend Avatar
    Hend

    Pakistan and India are multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic countries unlike China, Japan and most others.

    Giving example of India, most Indians are under wrong impression that Hindi is the national language, it is not. It is just the principal official language out of 25 odd other official languages (not counting 300 odd dialects) which include English, Urdu, Oriya…

    There is a considerable opposition to declaring Hindi as a national language from those whose mother tongue is not Hindi (60-65%), thus it is not the language of the majority. To people who speak Dravidian languages, Hindi is as foreign as Chinese.

    If you have to reduce dependence on English then you need to make highest education levels available either in one common language or in each official language. The former is ruled out because the majority is not proficient in one common language and is also opposed to it. The latter is ruled out as being too tedious and expensive an undertaking.

    Most importantly, when you eliminate English and adopt a new one, you need to have a sufficient scientific and business level competence to bring new research and developments in the new language.

    You need sufficient backing of technology such as softwares, internet, translations to make tools and information available in the new language.

    Countries like Pakistan and India did not lead the industrial revolution, they did not lead the modern inventions which changed this world. Their various local languages though highly evolved in literature, have not sufficiently adopted to technology and business which evolve everyday. There is not sufficient mechanism to make latest information available on ongoing basis, update educational resources in these languages.

    It is not possible to do all this in every local language.
    If you decide to do this in the national language which happens to be the mother tongue of minority then others who don’t speak it as mother tongue have not much incentive to give up English (a vast resource) in favour of the national language.

    Reply
  2. Faraz Ahmed Avatar
    Faraz Ahmed

    What I find interesting is that you don’t find the Chinese converting their syllabus to English and yet they are the next emerging superpower.

    Same goes for other developed countries such as France, Germany, Holland, etc. all of whom maintain their national languages as the dominant one and use English when required as James mentioned.

    Why is it that Pakistan/India and a handful of other countries feel the need to let English dominate? I just picked on Urdu but the same could be said for other languages in the subcontinent.

    Reply
  3. Hina Safdar Avatar
    Hina Safdar

    Urdu hai jis ka naam hum jante hain Dagh
    Saray jahan main dhoom hamari zaban ki hai

    Reply
  4. James Killian Spratt Avatar
    James Killian Spratt

    Aslaam Alaiqum, Faraz Ahmed: Very interesting article. It comes to me that not all people’s work will require the use of English, but for anyone whose employment involves any use of literate ability, proficiency in it is almost a must.

    The British influence of “Empiah” in your part of the world is well known, then the Allies won World War II and the language of world aviation was made English; every international pilot from anywhere was required to learn the common language in order to be able to communicate with ground controllers and land safely at airports in other-language countries. Then came the Internet, which is mostly in English, and it seems at this time that it can become one of–if not THE–most important binding force for mankind. The world’s getting smaller.

    A oulta haath, you can teach your little children “aik, dou, theen,” and a seedha haath, you can teach them “one, two, three;” their hungry little minds can handle it, and twenty years from now they’ll love you all the more for it.

    Congratulations to your cousin; I know you’re proud of him. I was a sailor once myself. A song for the sailor:

    “I knew a lad who went to sea, and left the shore behind him.

    I knew him well–the lad was me–and now I cannot find him.

    Away, away, away he went, and left the shore behind him…”

    Reply
  5. Umm Zakiyyah Avatar
    Umm Zakiyyah

    If taught properly, children at a young age can master more 1 languages. So there’s no reason to put Urdu on the side for the sake of ‘civilisation’ or ‘Westernisation’.
    In fact, English is deteriorating at a very fast pace because of a lot of foreign cultural immersion into the language, as well as an increasing vocabulary of slang. It’s to the point where ‘Hinglish’ is a language = Hindi + English and so on.
    So it becomes even more important to hold on to Urdu as a national language.

    Reply
  6. Shakir Lakhani Avatar
    Shakir Lakhani

    @ abdussamad, the people you spoke to in Murree can understand Urdu because Hindko is their mother tongue (a language similar to Punajabi). However, if you had gone into the villages around Murree, and the rural areas of Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and NWFP, you’d have found no one who could speak Urdu. I don’t agree that 75% of Pakistanis can understand Urdu, I have travelled throughout the country and I know better.

    Reply
  7. abdussamad Avatar
    abdussamad

    Well there is nothing wrong in learning English. Its just that people here use it to show off instead of using it as a communication tool. However a person’s mother tongue should take priority at home.

    @Shakir: I live in Karachi and once I visited murree on vacation. I found that even at the other end of the country Urdu was widely understood. It may not be the mother tongue of many Pakistanis but Urdu is spoken and understood by at least 75% of the people.

    As far as IT is concerned Indians are better educated. Indians also take IT seriously while few Pakistanis do.

    Reply
  8. tayab Avatar
    tayab

    The inferiority complex is a curse on most of us. It starts from our “so called leaders/rulers. Most of them make fool of themselves pretend to be civilised and highly educated and when you see them in an english speaking country they can not communicate at all whilst never leave any oppertunity to speak in assmbly in english where mojority of elected members can not read or write.

    Reply
  9. Hend Avatar
    Hend

    SL

    English is not the national language of India.

    There are 20-25 odd official languages (one for each state) of which Hindi and English are just two.

    Reply
  10. Shakir Lakhani Avatar
    Shakir Lakhani

    Less than 15% Pakistanis have Urdu as their mother tongue. In most places in rural Sindh, NWFP, Baluchistan and even in Punjab, very few people speak Urdu. Mr. Jinnah’s biggest blunder was declaring Urdu as the national language. This created resentment among the Bengalis, who ultimately seceded. If English had been made the national language in 1947, today we could have beaten India hollow in all fields. As the Chinese say, “Indians are ahead of us in IT because they are proficient in English.”

    Reply
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