Perils of Urdu — as national language
DESPITE the explicit orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Constitution of Pakistan (1973) which clearly stated the adoption of Urdu as an official language in a limited period till 1988, no practical steps were taken and English remained a predominant source of communication.
During the court proceedings any argument or judgment is being documented in English, which is never understood by the appellate.
Similarly, in our teaching hospitals, we have observed many erratic practices in case reports, treatment as well as the progress of disease which are written in English and the poor patient lying in the bed will never follow his progress.
It could be a wrong interpretation of the signs and symptoms of the disease and on the top of it, the patient cannot interfere in his treatment due to lack of English.
According to the renowned Pathologist of Pakistan Prof. Dr. Anwar-ul-Haq, says that he never faced any difficulty in writing the Histopathology and Cytopathology reports of the patients in Urdu.
While serving in Saudi Arabia, we observed that patient’s treatment is always written in Arabic as a routine.
After joining the Health Department, it took me just seven days to follow their routine practice of writing in Arabic, because I knew Urdu. Poetry is the beauty of language. If we translate Iqbal, Ghalib’s and Faiz’s poetry in English we will lose all its charm, luster and impact.
Once, I visited UAE and visited a shopping mall, the shop attendant looked at me and recognized me as a non-Arab fellow he addressed me in Urdu, although I could speak in Arabic comfortably, yet I preferred to continue in Urdu.
After disembarking at the air-port, the taxi driver was an Arab, but he preferred talking to me in Urdu, saying are you Pakistani? I can speak in Urdu – I replied Ma fe Mushkil.
Just imagine, foreign nationals have adopted our national language and speak in Urdu with ease, but we are shy for using our national language.
Our educated mothers feel pride in teaching our children to start with “C” for cat and “D” for dog., and not “Alaf “ for Allah (SWT) and “Noon” for Namaz. They think that teaching in English will make them a more cultured person right from day one.
In fact, this class falsely suffer from inferiority complex ingrained in their minds in English teaching schools, where little importance is given to Urdu.
We are very happy that the present regime has stressed the teaching Arabic in schools as compulsory subject.
It has been proved beyond doubt that our children learn much better in mother tongue, and we must feel proud to teach them in Urdu side by side of English.
We studied Urdu in a village school, our parents were Persian speaking but they encouraged us to speak in Urdu; as a result with the passage of time, we gained proficiency in Urdu.
Our national poet Ahmed Faraz originally from Kohat, a Pashto speaking Pathan, has written all his kalam (poetry) in classical Urdu, because Urdu is a very resilient language and can be adopted easily.
Historically speaking, Urdu was developed in 12th century in north western India, serving as a linguistic modus vivendi after the Muslim conquest.
Its first major poet was Amir Khosro (1253–1325), who composed dohas (couplets), folk songs in Rekhta-Zaban-e-Urdu until the beginning of the 19th century.
Urdu shares the same Indo-Aryan base which has borrowed extensively from different sources i.e., Arabic and Persian but Hindi from Sanskrit usually treated as independent languages.
Their distinction is most marked in terms of writing systems: Urdu uses a modified form of Perso-Arabic script known as Nastaliq (nasta?lîq).
On the contrary, English is a colonial language used by 7% of urbanized Pakistanis, not as a first language.
It was introduced after capitulation and annexation of Sindh (1843) and in Punjab (1849) replacing the Persian language and was used in the executive, legislative, judicial, even by armed forces.
In 1973 constitution Urdu was recognized as the sole national language of Pakistan and English as a co-languages was also granted official recognition along with Urdu.
In fact, Pakistan is home to five main languages i.e., Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki and Urdu in addition to many local languages.
The country also has several other regional languages, like Gujari, Kashmiri, Hindko, Brahui, Shina, Balti, Khowar, Dhatki, Haryanvi, Marwari, Wakhi and Burushaski including Biharis. (8%).
According to the 1998 census, Punjabi is most widely spoken language in Pakistan (39%) and Bengali in East Pakistan.
Article 251 of the Constitution declared that Urdu and Bengali would be the official languages at the national level, while provincial governments would be allowed to make provisions for the use of local languages. Eventually, Punjabi was granted status of a provincial language in Punjab.
Pashto is spoken by 18% of Pakistanis, mainly in the KP, Northern Baluchistan as well as Pashtun communities of Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and part of Afghanistan as the official language.
Sindhi language is presently spoken by 15% of Pakistanis in Sindh and parts of Baluchistan and Southern Punjab.
It is written in the Arabic script. The largest Sindhi-speaking cities are Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Dadu, Jacobabad, Larkana and Nawabshah.
Balochi or Brahui popularly spoken by 3% of Pakistanis (1998 Census), mostly in Baluchistan amongst Regional Languages are Saraiki, Brahui, Shina in Gilgit–Baltistan.— To be continued.
—The writer is a retired professor from Rawalpindi Medical University, and Hon. Professor of China’s Tianjin University.
