Professional Documents
Culture Documents
There are many reasons for this, including migration and urbanisation, but it
mostly boils down to the fact that Pakistani authorities at both the state and
provincial level, as well as the country’s intelligentsia in general have largely
failed to make the effort to propagate linguistic diversity. There is the ironing out
effect of Urdu having been declared the national language, with nary a thought
given to the fact that there is a difference between ‘official’ and ‘national’
languages. Had the handful of major languages spoken in Pakistan been considered
and treated as ‘national languages’, as the country’s multicultural realities dictate,
it would have kept them strong while simultaneously making space for the revival
of smaller, more endangered ones. Similarly, the fact that English is considered the
language of the elite and of officialdom means that anyone with upwardly mobile
intentions focuses overwhelmingly on this, at the cost of his or her mother tongue.
At the end of this trajectory is a dismal future where not only have languages been
lost irretrievably, but with them their literature, folklore, wisdom and
connectedness. Is it too late to turn course?