February 21 is the International Mother Language Day that is celebrated the world over explicitly recognising the linguistic diversity and thus stressing the right of each and every language/dialect to exist and flourish.
The recorded human history clearly shows two things; linguistic diversity and ruling clique’s effort to impose a singular official language.
State, whatever its nature is averse to diversity or plurality because it apparently offers a spectacle of chaos which carries within it germs of concealed anarchy which if not kept tight under the repressive politico-ideological lid, have the dangerous potential to imperil the stability of the order.
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Levelling and standardisation help the elite to create monolithic identity eliminating the space for dissenting voices and threatening noise that challenge the monolith called state.
History of languages which have been dominant at some point of time is history of suppression of other languages spoken by the dominated.
Greek, Sanskrit, Aramaic, Persian, Arabic, Mandarin and English stand tall on the corpses of innumerable peoples’ languages.
South Asia is a special case because of its geography and intermingling of races and ethnic groups with distinct languages and cultures in its long history.
Its linguistic diversity is proportionate to its stunning biodiversity.
Biodiversity has suffered because, in the words of Nietzsche, ‘earth has a disease called man’; man exploiting all kinds of natural resources to the point of denuding his planet of all the riches it is endowed with. Linguistic diversity has also suffered because human society too has a disease called rulers.
They insist on uniformity and a single worldview. Such a devious act of insidious intent is not only against historical process but also against the nature which invariably spring up ‘God’s plenty’.
It’s a different matter that ‘God’s plenty’ is shared unequally in an unjust social structure.
Rejection of diversity is in fact what has cofounded the linguistic and-cultural landscape of Pakistan.
It is an outcome of certain deep-rooted fallacies which have historically wrought havoc with almost all cultures and countries.
One such fallacy which refuses to fade out is rooted in the highly misleading concept of one country one language. One country one language in the opinion of our elite is panacea for socio-political cohesion though history has debunked this myth time and again.
We find in our present world countries which have multiple languages and are socially cohesive and politically stable.
Switzerland, Russia, Canada and India, to name a few, have more official languages than one. In the Middle East we see altogether a different phenomenon.
People there speaking variants of the same language have more than 20 states.
A report carried by this paper last week says that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) yet again has asked Pakistan on the occasion of International Mother Language Day to revisit it language policy if it wants its children to have easy access to education.
Unesco Policy Paper urges the government to ensure “that children are taught in a language they understand”. The imposition of Urdu as the language of instruction has become a source of alienation in Pakistan which has six major linguistic groups and 58 smaller ones.
The nature of language is such that “while it strengthens an ethnic group’s ties and sense of belonging, it can also become a basis for their marginalisation.
Education policy must ensure that all learners, including minorities’ language speakers, access school in a language they know”.
The paper stressed that primary education in the mother language was required in order to consolidate the gains of teaching in early years.
It’s all plain common sense but as they say common sense is the most uncommon thing in this world.
All this has been quoted not because it expresses something unique but because it reflects the considered opinion of a reputable international organisation to which our ruling political party and the Punjab government may pay heed.
And in a way they did. Mian Atta Muhammad Maneka, senior political leader and provincial minister, took out time to address the Mother Language Rally organised by Pakistan Punjabi Adabi Board in collaboration with a host of cultural bodies on Feb 21 in Lahore pledging his support for the introduction of mother language in schools and colleges in Punjab.
And pleasantly surprising was the rare statement by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on the question of mother language which though a very serious problem, is low in the priority list of his government.
He said that mother language provided identity to nations and hence its importance could not be ignored.
Well Mr chief minister, mother language has been ignored in Punjab for too long and now is the time to end the linguistic violence that has been bruising the soul of Punjab since 1849, the year the British colonialists occupied this ancient and glorious land of five rivers and threw out our mother language from the indigenous educational institutions. soofi01@hotmail.com
Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2016