Urdu

From Urdu to Hindi and then English, Kai Chand the Sar-e Asman sets out on a creative journey.

Language has been intimately related to ideology and power in Pakistan. While Urdu is conspicuous as a symbol of Pakistani identity and national integration, other ethnic groups have seen this as a version of internal colonialism. Indigenous languages thus become tools that serve to assert ethnic identity and ensure a wider mobilisation.

Urdu education must be brought to mainstream educational institutions by overcoming the political descrimination Urdu has suffered as a virtual synonym for religious education. The issue is a political one and demands political will and strategy to address it.

The association of Urdu with Muslims as their mother tongue, a post-independence phenomenon, had damaging consequences for Muslims. It alienated Muslims from areas other than north India from their regional languages and it weakened the case of Urdu for state patronage as facilities for its instruction as part of a secular syllabus could simply not be provided on an all-India level. As this paper points out and what has been seen in other aspects besides Urdu, it was in this aspiration to be an all-India community, they lost sight of what could be achieved regionally or even locally.

While Urdu has given way to more career-oriented education, commitment to its revival must solely base itself on a cultural, religious and political identity. An experimental, even innovative educational approach as seen in other regional mediums might provide a welcome strategy.