Perils of Urdu — as national language | By Dr Yasin Khan Durrani
FROM the day this universe was created, human beings communicated with each other in different ways, which helped in the development of a language.
Language is not just a mode of communication or self-expression, it is one of the most powerful tools of living a social life. Moreover, it plays a vital role in the personality development of a person.
In Pakistan, Urdu is not only our mother tongue but also a unifying force between various regions of diverse ethnic communities.
In fact, it is a common lingua franca and an easiest mode of communication, well understood.
Although the native language of our national father Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was different from Urdu, yet he spoke and communicated well in Urdu in his speeches.
According to 1971 census, 38.78% people speak Punjabi, 18.24% Pashto, 14.57% Sindhi, 3.02% Balochi, 12.19% Saraiki and 8% Urdu while others 3.02%. Why Quaid-e-Azam stressed the need to adopt Urdu as a national language of Pakistan, because he realized and believed it to be language of the sub-continent, being easily understood and could be easily adopted by different provinces, though the percentage of Urdu was the least spoken language at the time of partition. However, Saraiki and Hindko were included with Punjabi in the 1951 and 1961 census.
In fact, enforcing Urdu as an official language will open up doors for the revival of Urdu culture and will not be a hurdle for smooth functioning of different institutions.
It will certainly raise the literacy rate of the country. If we look at a much smaller country like Sri Lanka, they practise their own language and their literacy rate is almost 100%.
We are not a superpower like China, their native language Chinese is one of the most widely spoken language yet they have a strong economy.
There are many countries smaller than us and they have adopted their own national language and they are doing well at the socio-economic platform.
Moreover, it is not a sound justification to adopt a foreign language in every walk of life.
Almost in all the Arab countries, people can easily understand and communicate well in Urdu.
It is spoken as a first language by nearly 70 million people and as a second language by more than 100 million people, predominantly in Pakistan and India.
The main drawback we may face in the next few years will be the use of Urdu side by side of English as a co-language.
The question arises, what will happen to those who want to go abroad through scholarships and exchange programs.
In Saudi Arabia, Arabic is their national language, and one can see that foreign trained specialists in various professions have outnumbered beyond our expectation.
Today if a foreign specialist in a particular field applies for a job in an Arab country, he will not be placed in the main stream and will be absorbed in some peripheral or a rural establishment as their own specialists are abundantly available and they are quite adept in both native and English language.
Hence it is not necessary to gain advanced knowledge through English, the days are gone when these countries lacked expert professionals.
People may get stunned to now if Urdu is being imparted as a national language and not English in professional colleges.
The real problem is not the language per se but the inferiority complex deeply embedded in our minds, resulting in our long period of slavery as a backward race.
In fact, Urdu language has an immense capacity of absorbing new words from all other languages.
For example, Urdu is an official language of Osmania University Hyderabad Deccan where education is imparted in Urdu as a compulsory language.
My own teacher qualified MBBS in Urdu in 1930 and did his specialization in English from the UK. I had the honor of being taught by him with ease.
In fact, teaching and learning in a mother tongue make us understand and comprehend much better.
Foreign intruders always attacked our cultural roots through demeaning our mother tongue.
The names of our great scientists Ibn-e-Sina and Al-Zahrawi were changed to Avicenna and Abulcasis respectively.
Despite the fact Muslims founded almost all the modern sciences when the West was completely in the dark.
In Pakistan, the official language of Azad Kashmir is Urdu and all official correspondence and academic teaching is carried out in Urdu.
Currently, in Pakistan every student is bound to give tests like IELTS, GRE, TOEFL in English in order to check their English proficiency. This is not possible until we have a command over the English language.
Some of our cricket players are excellent on the ground and they speak Urdu but know English very little and same is true for the players of the other counties.
It has been observed that most of the political leaders representing the country will speak in their own national language but a Pakistani will speak in English.
What a shame? We must express ourselves in our own national language at the important platforms.
We are not undermining English as a second language. It is good to learn English as it is spoken in several countries as a co-language.
For example learning Arabic is immensely helpful in understanding the Holy Quran and learning English as a co-language or any particular language will familiarize with the culture of the country. Therefore, we must translate and publish our books swiftly in Urdu.
Quoting an example, all the Vietnamese in USA study Medicine in their national language after translating medical books in Vietnamese language. Just look at Reader’s Digest which is published in many languages.
According to CIA’s official website, Urdu is the first language of about 8% of Pakistanis, who migrated from India.
The largest spoken language in Pakistan is Punjabi, a mother tongue of 45% of population living in Pakistan.
In fact, Urdu is a mixture of different languages such as Arabic, Persian, and Turkish; and English is considered to be the primary language of science and technology.
If we adopt Urdu as an official language, we have to translate everything in Urdu which may prove to be a daunting task.
Over the years, Urdu has adopted many words from the English language like station, college, ticket and files, etc. These words are now part of the Urdu language.
The Constitution of Pakistan (1973) clearly stated the adoption of Urdu as an official language in the next 15 years.
The time period of those 15 years expired in 1988 but no practical steps were taken in this regard and English remained the official language and a predominant source of communication.
Unfortunately, despite explicit orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Urdu has not been officially adopted as a national language.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the Government of Nawaz Sharif to immediately adopt Urdu as the official language of Pakistan and the Government departments were directed to translate all their policies and rules in Urdu in a period of three months.
Authorities thought that three months’ time is too short to replace the official English language with Urdu.
If they want to stick to the decision, they should implement through a gradual, step-by-step process.
On the other hand, we should not erase English from offices as it is a language that plays a vital role in internationalization of our position in the world. But unfortunately, this decision had not been implemented as yet, which is regrettable.
However, the rulers falsely started a debate throughout the country that we should stick to English which is an international Language.
Finally, a few words of advice to our young mothers to teach their little children with the alphabet “Alaf ” for Allah (SWT) and Noon for “Namaz” in the beginning of their learning process. — To be continued.
The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
