[lg policy] Pakistan: Saving Languages

[Harold Schiffman]

Saving languages <http://www.dawn.com/news/1315594/saving-languages>
Editorial <http://www.dawn.com/authors/2677/editorial> — Published 2 days
ago

WITH the second edition of the Pakistan Mother Languages Literature
Festival getting under way in Islamabad yesterday, it is worth pondering
over the value attached by communities to the languages they are rightly
proud of owning. But what must also be highlighted is the divisiveness that
has arisen from what is understood by many as the state’s effort over the
years to homogenise the population. From the choice of Urdu as the
‘national’ language to bureaucracy’s retention of English as the medium
through which officialdom conducts its affairs, the promotion, or
otherwise, of one language over another has always been a political issue
that has even led to serious violence. Given this context, celebrations of
linguistic diversity through means such as the festival take on greater
importance. The two-day event in Islamabad, hosted collaboratively by
public and private organisations including Lok Virsa, the Sindh department
of culture and the Strengthening Participatory Organisation, brings
together over 150 writers, intellectuals and critics that write in over a
dozen languages other than English and Urdu. Besides attractions such as
music, performances and food stalls, the backbone of the event is the
availability of books in languages including Brahvi, Seraiki and Balochi,
as well as the major provincial languages, and their translations in Urdu
and English.

If the effort of continuing to make the languages festival can be sustained
over the coming years and the event itself expanded in both academic
quality and size, it holds the promise of being a game changer in terms of
saving and reviving languages and dialects in the country that are at risk
of being lost. The hard fact is that other than arguably the provincial
languages, the state never really has made a concerted push towards a
cohesive, all-inclusive and above all, doable language policy. The back and
forth over the issue in different provinces, from whether or not students
ought to be taught in their mother tongue at the primary level, at times
reaches remarkable proportions — consider, for example, Sindh’s move to
make the Chinese language compulsory in schools, or a PML-N MNA’s recent
comment that terrorism is increasing in the country because students are
not being taught Arabic. There can be no argument that it is good to teach
students more than one language; but certainly the indigenous languages,
those inherited by the land that constitutes Pakistan, ought to be given
precedence. There is no need to put the cart before the horse.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1315594/saving-languages


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