Re: Changing Pakistan's national language?
Although we Pakistanis are greatful to Jinnah's efforts in the creation of Pakistan, as a human being he was not perfect. Jinnah's choice of Urdu as Pakistan's national language was his biggest mistake with long-term negative consequences for Pakistan. And his harsh words/attitude for Pakistanis against Urdu imposition is deplorable particularly when he stated those against Urdu as enemies of Pakistan. Similar condemnations for an aspect of other nations' founding fathers is not uncommon. For an extreme example, the founding fathers of the USA are condemned for their racist comments/attitude towards the Blacks, Native Americans, etc. But nations evolve with time.. modifying their stance on critical issues for the greater benefit of its peoples and national interest.. based on the ground realities whether that be for the sake of unity, fairness, equality, freedom, etc. Same thing applies to Pakistan with regard to the unjust imposition of Urdu as the national language.
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica:
"Urdu originated in the region between the Ganges and Jamuna rivers near Delhi, now the official language of Pakistan.... In the sociopolitical realm, Urdu and Hindi are different languages, but the colloquial basis of both is identical.... Less than 8% of Pakistanis—mainly immigrants and descendants of immigrants from India after the 1947 partition—speak it as a first language."
I know many Indian Hindus very well and I can assure you that there is very little difference between their Hindi language and Pakistan's (actually Muhajir's) Urdu language. They are one and the same language with the only difference being that Urdu has a little more of Persian words and is written in the Perso-Arabic script, whereas Hindi has more of Sanskrit words and is written in the Devangari script. Written script does not mean any thing nor does loan-words ... for example, Azeri language of Azerbaijan has some Russian words and is written in the Cyrillic script, whereas Azeri language of Iran has some Persian words and is written in the Perso-Arabic script. Regardless, Azeris of both countries are the same people speaking the same language! Same thing applies to Urdu and Hindi.. they are almost the same language and the whole world knows that!
Urdu was originally called Hindustani.. Hindi was extracted from it during the British rule by ejecting many Persian words and adopting Devangari script (at Fort Williams College.. where Urdu was also further developed.. and communalization of Hindustani language was invented).. Hindustani evolved during the declining period of Muslim rule due to the interaction between Persian speaking Muslim rulers and Khari-boli speaking Hindus of UP/Delhi/MP/etc. region. Hindustani (aka Urdu or aka Hindi) was only native in those regions of UP/MP/Bihar/Delhi/etc. With the invention of Two Nation Theory and communalization of north India, the Persianized form of Hindustani now was called Urdu and remained the mother tongue of only Muslims of UP/MP/Delhi/Bihar/etc. (and Muhajirs in Pakistan) whereas the newly engineered Sanskritized form of Hindustani was called Hindi and slowly became the mother tongue of Hindus of these same regions. But they were still the same languages and still are.. for example if Turks of Anatolia adopted the Latin script less than a century ago and added words from English/French... it still remains the same Turkish language, regardless of those minor changes! You are living in a fool's paradise by denying the fact that Hindi and Urdu are the same language!
Sindhi, Balochi, Pashto, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Seraiki, etc. are distinct languages.. and have nothing to do with Urdu! Urdu only made some inroads in Pakistan region during British rule but was limited to the few educated/elite because of the then Hindustani Muslim domination of politics/education/etc. It was only after 1947 that Urdu made some serious inroads in Pakistan under the banner of national language, and Muhajir domination of media/govt.
Since Urdu and Hindi are the same language, Urdu as the national language of Pakistan has caused an identity crises in Pakistan. Much of the world perceives Indians and Pakistanis as the same people because they speak the same language (Urdu/Hindi).. only divided by religion. The fact is.. Urdu is only the mother-tongue of Muhajirs from UP/MP/Delhi/Bihar/etc. who happen to be only less than 7% of Pakistanis. So this is cultural domination of one ethnic group (a small minority) on others. Bengalis resented it and we lost them mostly because of that. Many other Pakistanis resent Urdu. Enough is enough... Urdu should be eliminated as Pakistan's national language.
Hindi is the mother-tongue of India's largest ethnic group (30%) and the country itself has/had the issue of Hindi language imposition on other ethnic groups. This language has mostly dominated in Indian media including Bollywood. Everyone knows how popular Indian media and its cultural elements are spreading its tentacles in Pakistan. So the cultural invasion from India is a reality... and to whitewash this ongoing destruction ("Indianization") with denials is committing a silent cultural suicide.
By the way, there is nothing wrong with taking pride in one's ethnic identity.. they are one of the many layers of an individual's identity.. de facto. To deny this basic right is like telling some one not to talk about your height because others might have different heights. Taking pride in one's ethnicity does not equate to prejudice or superiority complex. The evil of prejudice/hatred/superiority complex is a whole different subject and can be found in every thing including religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, etc. As long as we accept and respect each other including the ethnic differences, and keep unity based on our common: history, linguistic identity, geography, religion, racial background, cultural roots, defence, and/or economy/commerce... then Pakistan will remain unified FOREVER... provided that there is fairness, equality, and freedom. So let's make change that is fair and make the country stronger by replacing Urdu with Dari/Farsi.
As I said in my previous posts, I am confident that Dari/Farsi will be the perfect choice as our national language because:
This language is not the mother-tongue of any ethnic group of Pakistan thus eliminating the cultural domination of an ethnic group and the resentment among other ethnic groups because of it.
This language and its derivatives were mostly spoken in Pakistan region in the pre-British period. That is to say, Rig Vedic Aryans spoke Vedic an Iranian language closely related to Avestan, ... Achaemanian and Sassanian periods had Old Persian language spoken as one of the major languages, ... Scythian, Parthian, Kushan, Hephthalite, etc. periods had different Iranian languages spoken such as Bactrian, Old Saka, Pahlavi, Tocharian, etc. as major languages, .... Turkic, Afghan, and Mughal Muslim periods exclusively had Farsi as the official language, ... even local kingdoms such as Ranjit Singh's and others had Farsi as the official language, etc. So this is the natural/historical language of the region.
This language will end the cultural invasion from India since Pakistanis will not be able to comprehend any Indian language. This will make the Pakistani identity stronger and distinct from India's. Indian movies/tv/music will not culturally corrupt the Pakistanis nor brainwash them with Indian/Hindu media's propaganda.
This language will make Pakistan closer to its western neighbors since the same language is spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. This will benefit Pakistan economically because of the closer cultural-linguistic ties with the abundant natural resources/energy-rich region. Pakistan film-industry will also be influenced by the classy Persian film-industry giving a much more artistic and respectful dimension to the currently cheap (Indian-influenced) Pakistani films.
I will get back to the issue of language riots in Sindh during the 1970s