By Prof. Saeed Ahmad

Government College of Commerce, Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan

Words are strength. Words are power. Everyone knows but not us. We hate words, we hate our languages and result of our hatred is weak base of the country. Just look around our country, especially India, China and Iran. None of these countries reject words and languages of their own area. We are the only strange country where we put containers in the way of the words. We tried to block Bangla words. We have been trying to block all the words of our languages. Perhaps we are the only nation who loves to block our own words. We happily use the words and languages, which do not directly belong to us. We feel fear from the words of Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, Pushto and Kashmiri. We do not know words’ strength. We do not want to know the strength of these words, which are born in the Indus valley. We want to circumcise these words too.

Probably it would be a matter of great interest for the masses of this country that Punjabi and Sindhi have thousands of such words, which are in two letters form, we pull them long and make three or four letters words just to promote Urdu. Just see the following words of Punjabi: sap, iT, muCH, kan, nak, aKh, bul, are two letter Punjabi words. We force Punjabi children to learn Urdu words saaNp, eeNT, mooNch, kaan, naak, aaNkh, hoNT and thousands other long words. We prohibit Punjabi words in the school. These words are Kafirs. Our great Sufis used these Kafir words. Baba Farid Jee, Sultan Bahu, Shah Hussain, Bulleh Shah, Sachal SaeeN, Waris Shah, Mian Mohammad Bakhsh, Hafiz Barkhurdar, Hashim Shah, Khawaja Ghulam Farid used these words in their poetry. These words are not allowed in our schools. Our children are not given the strength of these words. The ruling classes,   (sitting in Islamabad on the name of federation and in the Punjab), don’t want to give this strength to Punjabis. They know these words will also become a source of great strength for Punjabi children, as Urdu words are a great source of strength for Urdu-speaking children. With the power of these words they have power of unity. They get this power by learning their mother tongue Urdu. They learn Urdu words from their parents, neighbors, books written by Urdu-speaking, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushtoon and Kashmiri writers and poets, the print media of Pakistan and electronic media of India and Pakistan. Indian movies are great source of strength for Urdu speaking kids. Our higher authorities understand the strength of these words but just for the Urdu-speaking children. The words, which are spoken in any part of our country, are the strength for the people of that area and if they will become powerful by learning and using their own words they will become threat to the country. Bravo! A great theory is under practice in our country.

This behaviour is adopted since the birth of this country. You can find fifteen languages printed on the currency notes of India and eight languages on the currency notes of China and two national languages on the currency notes of Afghanistan but we do not allow Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto and Balochi on our currency notes.  They respect the words of their own countries. Respecting words means respecting people. We do not believe in respecting our masses so we do not believe in the strength of words. For God sake, now change you imperialistic policy and try to understand the meaning of the slogan by the president “First Pakistan” and give due places to the languages of this country. Give strength to the people of this country. Also allow their languages the same opportunities in print and electron media, which are given to Urdu. Adopt two-language policy i.e. Urdu English for Urdu speaking migrants from India and their children (though they should also learn Sindhi), Sindhi English for Sindhis, Punjabi English for Punjabis, Pushto English for Pushtuns, and Balochi English for Balochis. It is my humble request to the authorities that please give the same strength of words to Punjabis; Sindhis, Balochis and Pushtuns which you have given to Urdu-speaking children. Then you will understand the real meaning of the slogan “First Pakistan”.