Mushtaq Soofi

February 21 is the International Mother Language Day celebrated every year all over the world with the express purpose of preserving, protecting and promoting the incredible linguistic diversity we humans have. Linguistic dinversity, in a sane world, would be a robust expression of multi-dimensional human potential and thus an immensely fecund source of irreplaceable intellectual, literary and cultural richness. But sadly we have a world driven in a large measure by an imperceptible streak of insanity that has its roots in a sick fear of diversity, be it linguistic, racial or religious. The fear itself has its origins in the subterranean world of insecurity that accompanied our early forebears at the cusp of evolutionary process. Fear of diversity is in fact fear of the unknown. The unknown, being something other than familiar, creates visceral uneasiness in the recess of our sub-conscious, raising our instinct driven antennas in anticipation of an amorphous threat to our survival. But when the unknown through a tense and tedious process of exploration becomes known and is appropriated, adds to our strength by providing us yet another tool in our struggle for survival. So our fear of diversity implies lack of knowledge and hence a spectre born of ignorance.

Ignorance provides a sellable rationale for wiping out what appears different or is different through insidiously peaceful means as well as brute force. Ethnic and religious diversity has caused innumerable conflicts and wars. Linguistic diversity is no exception. All the empires and most of the modern nation states invariably have suppressed the languages other than those used by dominant groups and classes in the name of so-called national unity and social cohesion. Single language per se, history tells us, cannot guarantee the politically motivated ideal of unity. Arabs (of various hues) using various dialects of Arabic have more dozens of nation states while Indians having dozens of languages are comfortable with a single nation state. Pakistan is a good case study in terms of nexus between politics and language. Interestingly the international Mother Language Day is a byproduct of Pakistani politics which used its language policy as an ideological and political tool to suppress the cultural diversity and plurality of its various regions having distinct historical identities.

Leaders of Pakistan Movement in 20th century presented distinct religion based cultural identity of Indian Muslims as a rationale and justification to carve out a new country comprising the areas where they were in majority. Language was an important element of such an identity component. Urdu flaunted as the language of Indian Muslims, an assertion only partly true, did play a role in creating a package stamped with separate Muslim distinctness. But political tools always have a relative significance. A political tool effective in a situation may become useless, even counterproductive in changed circumstances. And this is exactly what happened with Urdu after the emergence of Pakistan. It lost its relevance as a uniting link between different provinces/regions of the country which had and still have their own distinct languages older than it. When the government of Pakistan declared Urdu as the sole national language in 1948, Bengalis of erstwhile East Pakistan, proud of their literary and cultural heritage, vociferously resented the decision. Dhaka University became the hub of new cultural politics. Police fired on the protesters on Feb 21, 1953, killing four students who were agitating for the rights of the Bengali, the language of the majority of the country. This brutal act had huge but unanticipated consequences for the future of the country. Faced with relentless agitation the central government finally conceded the demand and declared Bengali as one of the national languages but the damage had already been done to the national fabric.

After the separation of East Pakistan, the parliament of Pakistan framed a new constitution in 1973 that partly solved our linguistic conundrum by giving the provinces power to make the languages of the areas under their jurisdiction as their official languages. Consequently Sindhi along with Urdu became the official language of Sindh province. In recent times the previous government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa introduced the teaching of Pushto, Hindko and other languages of its regions in schools and colleges. Dr. Abdul Malik, the chief minister of Balochistan, some time back announced that different languages of the province like Balochi, Pushto and Brahvi would be taught at school level. As far as Punjab, the biggest province, is concerned, the situation is extremely pathetic to say the least. Its elite, full of cultural self-loathing, egregiously exhibits its contempt for the language/languages spoken by the people of Punjab. A bit of teaching and study of mother language/languages at college and university level, the practice currently in vogue, is like having a rootless tree. What is urgently needed is the reversal of this absurd top to down policy. Denying our children the teaching in their mother language/languages is a blatant violation of their universally recognised fundamental right. Such a policy, various UNO reports indicate, has resulted in a high drop-out rate at primary level in Punjab. As a first step to rectify the abysmal situation what is needed is the immediate introduction of mother language/languages in schools and colleges throughout Punjab. This will give tremendous boost to literacy, reducing the travails of learning among the children.

Punjab’s elite must revisit its educational and cultural policy that presents a small number of academically qualified but culturally alienated young men and women from the upper crust as a mark of its success while scaring away an overwhelmingly large number of children of the under privileged. Language is the key if we want to tackle the problems of ignorance, illiteracy, extremism and cultural alienation in our part of Pakistan. People will no longer be quiescent if they are denied their linguistic rights indefinitely in the name of unity laced with dollops of ideology. The ground reality of the country does not fall into the trope of ‘one nation one

language’. — soofi01@hotmail.com

From : DAWN February 23, 2014