The Endangered Language

Written by Hafsa Ahsan • November 2011

There is a need for Pakistan to wake up to the threat of globalization and attempt to preserve the Urdu language before it becomes extinct. As the national language of Pakistan as well as the official language of five Indian states, Urdu has come a long way. According to “A Brief History of Urdu” available on BBC, Urdu has developed over a span of no less than nine hundred years under Persian, Turkish and Arabic influence. Those interested in history will discover that the development of Urdu over the ages makes for a very enlightening study. However, for the past couple of decades, Urdu as a language has been on the decline. There are several reasons for this.

Most of the mass media to which the young and the old alike are exposed today, does not portray the language in its pure form. The medley that comes across contains vocabulary of English and Hindi mixed with Urdu. This happens mainly because of a lack of knowledge of Urdu in general and its vocabulary in particular – when individuals cannot think of a suitable word in Urdu to express themselves they switch to English and/or Hindi.

On the other hand, there is a wide exposure to media content in English and Hindi, which is again, making the audience more aware of these two languages. Combine that with the aforementioned fact of the same audience being less exposed to ‘pure’ Urdu without any contamination and you have the current result: very few individuals speaking ONE language at a time, without introducing words of another.

The mindset of the majority in Pakistan is that ‘Urdu-medium’ is the lowest, derogatory social standard. Hence, an education or conversation in ‘Urdu-only’ is looked down upon. This is the attitude of the majority, especially the new generation, who would rather speak broken English than fluent Urdu. One only needs to contrast this with the fact that the subject of Urdu has quite a lot of credits in foreign universities to realize its true worth.

In a majority of educational institutions, English is the official language. Urdu is restricted to one class per day, or at most three times a week. Some schools do ensure that poems of Iqbal are recited in the morning assembly and that elocution and declamation contests are held in Urdu as well. However, certain schools actually impose punishment and fines if they hear students conversing among themselves in Urdu. In such a scenario, one cannot really blame the new generation for imbibing a disparaging attitude towards Urdu.

For most aspiring writers, the attractive language is English – and not just because they are proficient in it. It is generally believed that English journalism and the publishing industry pays more lucratively than the one in Urdu. Of course it does, but then, this has negatively affected the aspirations of those who could have produced wonders in Urdu.

However, one should not feel that all is lost on the Urdu front. There have been some positive developments with the advancement of technology. Following are some of them:

Plays based on novels

In recent years, production houses have started to telecast drama serials and soaps based on the novels and novelettes published in Urdu digests. Such serials and soaps have encouraged their audiences to actually hunt down and read the novels on which they are based. One need not look any further than the drama serial “Dastaan” which was broadcast by a TV channel. During the days the serial was on air, book stores known for their English books, had the Urdu novel on prominent display.

Urdu online

There are now many websites promoting Urdu literature. Many novels and short stories are available online for free viewing and downloading. Similarly, there are also many websites that provide a literary forum to aspiring writers.

Urdu periodicals

A vast majority of people read Urdu periodicals, whether it is the weekly supplement that comes with the Urdu newspaper, or the monthly current affairs magazine. Digests are of course very popular with women as they provide light reading material.

The question now arises is: what needs to be done? The pros are very significantly outdoing the cons – is there something that can be done? The answer is yes. Certain steps can be taken to ensure that classical Urdu does not become extinct in the near future. These steps can be taken at both the individual and state level.

There is a need to ensure that children are taught Urdu properly without any infusion of a foreign language. This includes teaching them proper vocabulary so that they do not switch languages when speaking. Moreover, parents as well as educational institutions need to ensure that they do not censure children speaking in Urdu. In fact, they should be encouraged and their mistakes corrected.

There is a dire need for more literary circles to promote classical Urdu literature and poetry. Concrete steps are also needed to include such material as part of the school curriculum. Most importantly, the state itself must consider reversing the production of content in English and attempt to introduce more awards and stipends for writers in Urdu.

Many countries in South Asia are genuinely trying to conserve their language in this age of globalization. For instance, in India, regional literature (most notably, Bengali literature) continues to thrive. Pakistanis need to wake up to the threat of globalization and attempt to preserve their national language before it is too late.