International Mother Language Day !

Arts & Culture Culture, Arts, Literature & Linguistics
1

Comprehensive policy needed to protect national linguistic heritage

ISLAMABAD: February 21 is being observed as the International Mother Language Day throughout the world following a unanimous declaration adopted at the 30th General Conference of UNESCO held on November 17, 1999.

The UNESCO took the decision after Bangladesh officially sent a proposal requesting the world body to adopt a resolution declaring February 21 as the International Mother Language Day. This draft resolution was supported by 27 other countries including Pakistan.

UNESCO took the decision bearing in mind that all moves to promote the dissemination of mother languages will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness about linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.

“Of the languages that are spoken in the world, the most significant for our early emotional and cognitive development is that through which we first learn to name our personal universe and by means of which we begin to achieve a common understanding with our parents and the broader community or friends and schools. It is the language of childhood, of intimate family experience and of our early social relations,” says UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura in a massage to mark the International Mother Language Day last year.

He added, “On International Mother Language Day, all the languages are given equal recognition, for each is a unique response to the human condition and each is a living heritage we should cherish.”

Studies show half of the 6000 or so languages spoken in the world are under threat. Over the past three centuries languages have been dying out and disappearing in a dramatic and steadily increasing pace, especially in Americas and Australia. Today at least 3000 languages are in constant threat or dying in many parts of the world.

Experts generally consider a community’s language to be endangered when at least 30 percent of its children no longer learn it.

There are many reasons which can lead to people abandoning their mother languages. One is the breakup of transplanting of community, when individuals or small groups find themselves immersed in a different culture and linguistic environment, which soon stifles their native language. For example the people of Pakistan are on rapid speed adopting the dominant western culture and thus abandoning their own culture and native languages.

A language can also disappear when its users come into contact with a more aggressive or economically stronger culture. Adults encourage their children to learn the language of the dominant culture, especially as a means to get a job.

In Pakistan the native languages are very speedily succumbing to dominant English language. Adults are sidelining their own languages and encouraging their children to learn English because in Pakistan English has been considered as a key to success and get a lucrative job. For some English has become a status symbol in Pakistan as the elite class prefers to talk in English rather than their mother tongue.

Some minorities and their languages come under attack from groups of people who destroy their environment during exploration and exploitation of minerals, timber and oil.

The education policies of the successive governments in Pakistan are heading in a direction that is endangering the very existence of the national languages of the country.

However an endangered, moribund or even extinct language can be saved through a determined language policy.

In Japan for example, only eight people spoke Ainu on the island of Hokkaido in the late 1980s, but today it is being revived after years of ostracism and decline. An Ainu museum has been opened there and the language is being taught to young people, who are rediscovering it.

Sometimes languages that have actually died out have been raised from the dead, such as Cornish, in England, which become extinct in 1777 but has been revived in recent years, with nearly 1,000 people now speaking it as a second language.

Taking advantage of their mother languages a number of small nations throughout the word have attained the destiny of scientific and technological advancement and socio-economic prosperity. The example of Switzerland is before us where despite of its small population four languages are working as officials languages.

Along with the main languages, Urdu, Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi and Balochi, some 69 languages are being spoken in Pakistan. Many of these languages are under threat due to little interest of authorities in their protection. The four main regional languages, Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi and Balochi, need fuller consideration by the government as they need to be declared as the official languages in their respective provinces.

Education in mother language is the basic and natural right of every nation’s child and depriving any child of this right is the greatest violation of international human rights. The setting government should accept this basic human, religious and national right of the citizens of Pakistan and formulate such educational policies under which our mother languages could be protected and thus the cultural heritage of our county could be safeguarded.

Being a supporter of the UNESCO resolution, Pakistan should honour that declaration and accept this basic right and thus confer its responsibilities for the protection of the rich heritage, history, culture and civilization of Pakistani nation.

Language is the most powerful instrument for preserving and developing tangible and intangible heritage of every society. It is the identity of a nation and seizing of this identity is tantamount to cut-off that nation from its national heritage.
A cultural peace can only flourish where people enjoy the right to use their mother language fully and freely in all the various situations of their lives. Acknowledgement and respect for cultural diversity in the area of language inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue, and that all moves to promote the use of mother languages serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to increase development of fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world.

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Education in mother tongue stressed
http://www.dawn.com/2003/text/nat28.htm

By Our Reporter

LAHORE, Feb 21: Speakers at the World Punjabi Congress have urged the government that education should be imparted to the children in their mother tongues.

The two-day conference of the congress, in connection with the World Mother Tongues Day, began here on Friday. Among the speakers was a Dutch linguist, Joan L. G. Baart.

Chief guest Aitzaz Ahsan said no nation could make progress unless it acquired sufficient knowledge in its mother tongue and applied it. He cited the examples of China, Japan, Germany and many other countries and said they had made progress by imparting education to their students in their mother languages.

He said Pakistan should follow them and start educating their children in their own languages. Since the subcontinent had been under the colonial rule for over a century, the people had adopted the language of the rulers, he added.

Mr Ahsan said development of any language was not possible unless its people make progress.

Abid Hasan Minto said no language could make any progress unless there was an environment of tolerance, freedom of expression and genuine democracy. Local languages could make no worthwhile progress in the subcontinent due to the colonial rule.

He said as a teacher of law he had experienced great problems in translating English terms into Urdu as some students could not easily understand them.

He said the feudal system which had been encouraged by the colonial rulers had been the main obstacle in the development of mother tongues and dissemination of knowledge. Not only feudalism, onslaught of foreign culture, globalization, economic policies dictated by the IMF and the World Bank, had an adverse impact on the development of indigenous culture and local languages.

World Punjabi Congress chief Fakhar Zaman stressed to make the mother tongues as medium of instruction in schools and said people have to launch a struggle to achieve this goal.

He said he was not against Urdu which was a language for liaison and it could be adopted as an official language also, but Punjabi and other mother tongues be given their rightful place and introduced in schools as medium of instructions.

He said the Quaid-i-Azam had never declared during his first tour of East Pakistan that only Urdu would be the official language of Pakistan. He had said provinces could have their respective languages for education and other purposes.He said there was also confusion about the connection of Urdu with the ideology of Pakistan. The Quaid’s address at the inaugural session of the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, had dispelled the impression that there would be dominance of any one language in the country.

Dutch linguist and scholar Joan Baart, who is working on the regional languages of the Northern Areas, discussed linguistic diversity in Pakistan and its preservation. He said Punjabi was a much threatened language. It was not used as a medium of instruction or taught as a subject in schools, people did not read and write it or use it for official purposes. Negative attitude about the language were widespread.

He said the spread of a few dominant languages and the disappearance of many local languages was a world-wide phenomenon. There were more than 6,800 languages spoken in the world and the experts had estimated that more than 50 per cent of them would become extinct this century.

Columnist Ahmad Bashir said the ruling class had always influenced the language of the people who had been shaping their culture at the national and local levels. The rulers were not inclined to give the local languages their due place.

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Pashto language, its status in miserable condition
http://www.khybermail.com.pk/c5.htm
By Sher Alam Shinwari

Pashtuns enjoy a long history spread over five thousand years. Unfortunately the history of their origin is still shrouded in darkness.

Throughout their lives they had been in engaged in fighting either within their ranks or against the aggressors. They could not get a chance to equip themselves with the weapon of knowledge. That is the reason Pashtuns could not write their own history.

But one thing is crystal clear that Pashtuns hand been a nation with rich cultural, social and artistic heritage. They have a sturdy physique but delicate emotions. Their sports, games, music, traditions, social norms and folklore have a diversity of flavours and tastes. There are ninety tribes of Pashtuns on both sides of Durand Line. They share a common history in many respects.

There are 33 different accents in Pashto language. The roughness in the accents decreases with vertical downward journey in the Pashtuns areas from the western and southern to the most eastern and northern areas.

The Yousafzai accent has been recognized as the most polite and fluent one. However, it does not mean that the other accents are devoid of these qualities. The fact is that the British used the Yousafzai accent for their political pursuits more than any other accent of Pashto language therefore; it gained popularity and currency in the domain of power in the British era.

The Orient lists contributed tremendously towards Pashto language and literature. The poetry of Khusahhal Khan Khattak and Rahman Baba was translated into English. Pashto language and Pakhtun race got new heights in the pre partition era. The most unfortunate with Pashto language is that it has always been neglected by the so called Pakhtun rulers.

Language is great dynamic force, it is an identity marker, and it is the preserver of cultural, social, historical and traditional values of its speakers. Language reflects the collective psyche of a nation. It plays a prime role in the promotion of aesthetic, social, moral and spiritual aspirations of its speakers.

The speakers must use their mother tongue to express their ideals, emotions and feelings effectively.

Any language which is spoken, written, read and listened by its speakers is considered a living and dynamic one while versa is doomed to extinction and very soon wiped out from the surface of the earth.

The linguists have revealed that mother tongue is the most effective tool for imparting education to the children. Unless Pashto becomes the medium of instruction and also the language of domain of power, Pashtuns in general like other deprived ethnic groups in Pakistan would remain the web of ignorance.

There have been more than three thousand poets and writers born 1880 and 1990. Till now they are the real preservers of Pashto language and literature. Pashto language got immense popularity at the international level due to the Afghan issue in the recent past.

About twelve radio stations broad cast different kinds of programmes in Pashto language across the globe. Many Afghan individuals popularised it on the net. There are more than two hundred literary organizations and associations in the whole world working for the promotion of Pashto language and literature.

Every year a large number of books on a variety of topics are published in Pashto language but the readership is getting thin day by day. But in spite of all this hue and cry that fact remains that Pashtuns feel apologetic while speaking it.

The authorities are reluctant to give Pashto language its due status even on the government controlled electronic media. Hamza Baba said in one of his couplets. Ma way Da Udah Qam Ba Zama Pa Chagho weekh Shee, Malooma Shwwa Ma Ghag Karro Khoba Wulo Ta Pa Khob Kay.

If roughly translated in English it would mean “I thought that my nation will wake up from its deep slumber over my cry but surprisingly I was myself sleeping and I had actually cried in dream.”

Pashtuns must themselves struggle for their due ethnic, linguistic and cultural rights. Also in the Words of Khusahhal Khan Khattak, Pashto language is still like a virgin no one has.

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Mother tongues: ‘the homeland of our innermost thoughts’

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-2-2003_pg7_18

By Wajid Syed

LAHORE: With half of the world’s 6,000 to 7,000 languages running the risk of dying out, February 21 is declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as “the International Mother Language Day”, which was marked across the world including Pakistan.

The World Punjabi Congress arranged a two-day special National Conference in Lahore to promote personal development and cultural diversity of humanity in the country. Talking to Daily Times on the occasion of the Day, the World Punjabi Council chairman, Fakhar Zaman, highlighted the importance of protecting languages. He pointed to the primordial and enduring importance of mother tongues: “The homeland of our innermost thoughts”.

He goes on to emphasizing that the inestimable cultural and intellectual values of languages: “Each in itself represents a conceptual universe, a dazzling and complex array of sounds and emotions, associations and symbols, representations of movement and time.

“The pattern of today’s linguistic map represents our motley, preciously diverse human heritage – tangible where scripts and books exist but intangible and vulnerable where other forms are preferred,” Mr Zaman said.

He said a number of delegations, intellectuals, writers, poets and thinkers participated in the Conference from all over the world and unanimously passed an eight-point declaration.

According to the declaration:

  1. That the national and peoples languages should be declared as the medium of instruction at the primary level as well as the official language of all the four Provincial Assemblies. We recognize Urdu as the official language.

  2. We condemn the decision of the governments of the NWFP and Baluchistan to regard Urdu as the official language. This is tantamount to encroachment of the languages of the toil.

  3. This conference considers that fundamentalism is a great hurdle in the way of the recognition of mother tongues, and that we will begin our struggle against sectarianism, ethnicity, linguistic hegemony and extremism.

  4. This meeting demands that the electronic media be given maximum coverage to the mother tongues.

  5. We resolve that protagonists of the linguistic hegemony and imperialism in the nature of religion and Nazria-e-Pakistan are against the Ideology of Pakistan as envisaged by the founder of Pakistan.

  6. This conference condemns the aggressive attitude of one superpower and appeal to the nations for international peace.

  7. This conference demands that India and Pakistan resolve their differences through dialogue. The two neighbourly countries should allow the writers, poets, artists, intellectuals and sportsmen to visit each other’s countries and the exchange of cultural troupes be allowed so that people-to-people diplomacy come into operation. We feel that the two Punjabs, the East and the West Punjab, will suffer the worst in case of belligerence and diplomacy without the Punjabs involvement that will be simply an exercise in futility. We think that the World Punjabi Congress is the only organization, which can play a role in forming friendly relationships between the two countries, whereas all other forums have chauvinistic underpinnings.

  8. This meeting vehemently supports the struggle in various parts of the world against obscurantism, fundamentalism, extremism, religious bigotry and terrorism and appeal for a new order for the enlightenment and progressivism.

Mr Zaman stresses the role of languages in building an intercultural dialogue, saying: “Encouraging the learning of languages, developing translation, creating familiarity among cultures through dialogue is an expression of peace-building measures.”

He said the government should also work for the progress of mother tongues. “Urdu may be used as the national and linking language but the need for Punjabi spoken and educated at the initial stages is a compulsory,” he added. He told the Times that in a recent meeting with the chief minister of Punjab he had been asked to prepare feasibility for setting up a Punjabi University here. He further said that the provincial government had taken a keen interest in supporting the language through translating the Sufi poets of the Punjabi language into English. Quoting a governmental official, Mr Zaman revealed that the government had decided to earmark up to Rs7.5 million for the purpose.

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Sindhi should be made compulsory: Khuhro

By Irfan Ali

KARACHI: Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, opposition leader at the Sindh Assembly, announced Saturday the launch of a struggle to press private schools to make Sindhi a compulsory subject from kindergarten to eighth grade.

“We have included this issue in our agenda in the Sindh assembly, which should pass a resolution in the current session and then table a bill in the house for necessary legislation in this regard,” Mr Khuhro told Daily Times Saturday.

He said this issue has been put forward to save Sindhi culture. “We demand Sindhi Salees for Urdu and English medium and Sindhi for Sindhi medium in all schools,” he said. Students study English, which is not their mother tongue hence Sindhi might also be taught, he said.

“The present system of education particularly in private schools is deleterious for our children and turns them into aliens,” he said. “The system disallows Sindhi medium instruction and Sindhi as compulsory subject,” he said.

He proposed to form a ‘Save Sindhi Text Committee’, which would comprise Sindhi linguists from the Sindhi Language Authority and Sindh Textbook Board. He called upon parents to break off their ties with owners and teachers of such schools, which do not teach their children Sindhi. He said that the parliamentary party wants Sindhi be introduced as a compulsory subject from primary school and if possible to the intermediate level and then students should have a choice of specialization of any subject. He urged that the Sindh Education Department should keep a check on all private schools besides government schools to ensure that Sindhi is taught as a compulsory subject to those willing to get a Sindhi education.

“We did not undermine the importance of English because it is also necessary to get an education of modern sciences and technologies,” he said. Mr Khuhro referred to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who countered the move aimed at imposing Hindi on Urdu-speaking areas of India in 1871 from the platform of the Urdu Defence Anjuman. The PPPP has launched a campaign to mobilize public opinion in Sindh and its MPAs are talking to people in rural areas in particular over the issue.

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Seraiki centre creeping along

http://www.dawn.com/2003/text/fea.htm#3
Nadeem Saeed

The Bahauddin Zakariya University’s Seraiki research centre is marching forward at a snail’s pace, according to critics.

Established in July 2001, the research centre has recently sketched the syllabus of Seraiki as elective (200 marks) and optional (100 marks) subjects at BA level. It has also printed a booklet Mutalaya-i-Farid Ka Eik Naya Rukh.

Translated into Urdu from Gurmukhi by Haneef Chaudhry, the booklet contains five articles by Dr Kala Singh Bedi and one by Dr Galwant Singh. (Both the writers belong to the Indian Punjab and their work on Khwaja Ghulam Farid is part of their research on Punjabi language and literature as is mentioned in the booklet’s preface written by Dr Anwaar Ahmad, Khurram Qadir and Muhammad Ajmal Mehr).

The sitting vice-chancellor of the university, Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, took an initiative and set up the centre soon after assuming charge. He appointed Islamic Studies and Language Dean Dr Anwaar Ahmad director of the centre.

A building, which was originally constructed for a health club, was handed over to the centre.

In 1989, Punjab Governor Gen Tikka Khan (retired) directed the Islamia University Bahawalpur and Multan’s BZU to establish Seraiki departments. The Islamia University set up the department the same year and introduced classes for masters in Seraiki language and literature. But the BZU put the matter in cold storage by demanding additional funds from the provincial finance department and the University Grants Commission.

Seraiki daily Jhok’s Editor Zahoor Ahmad Dhareja filed an application with the provincial ombudsman in 2000 against what he called delaying tactics by the BZU authorities in setting up the department. After a number of hearings, the ombudsman ordered the university on December 30, 2000 to establish the department.

The BZU representative reportedly assured the ombudsman that the university would set up a Seraiki centre on the lines of the Institute of Sindhiology (Sindh University, Jamshoro).

When contacted, the newspaper editor said the university took several months to formally announce the centre and that, too, without putting down its objectives despite the ombudsman’s orders.

Criticizing the university’s ‘half-hearted’ efforts for the Seraiki centre, Mr Dhareja pointed out that there were not only several linguistic errors in the syllabus for BA, but some of the unpublished books had also been included in the course. A novel, Bairre Wich Daraya (river in the boat), by Aslam Ansari had been included in the course, which the editor claimed was non-existent.

However, Dr Anwaar Ahmad said the university while finalizing the course outline consulted the novelist, Aslam Ansari, who assured the university that his work would soon be published. The novel was unfortunately yet to be published, he added.

As far as the MA Seraiki classes were concerned, he said, although the syllabus for was being prepared, the university had no immediate plan to launch classes because it had learnt a lesson from the ‘failure’ of the Islamia University’s Seraiki department. He added the introduction of MA classes at the university would be of no use without a feeding institute.

“Keeping in mind the Islamia University’s experience, we have adopted a cautious route for the Seraiki cause,” he said.

Dr Anwaar said a publication cell would soon be set up at the Seraiki centre while a library, having audio-visual aides, and a museum of Seraiki belt’s archaeological sites were also on the university’s list. The centre was also thinking to organize training workshops to conserve the local traditional art forms, he added.

But he minced no words in saying that rapid growth with meagre annual budget of Rs0.5 million was next to impossible. A sum of Rs0.2 million for contractual posts for the centre has also to be paid through the annual allocation.

Islamia University Seraiki department’s head Prof Javed Chandio, however, refused to call his department a failure. Since its inception in 1997, there had been at least 20 students in each class of the Seraiki department, he said, adding the number of students sometimes swelled to 50.

Prof Chandio, who is also BZU board of studies member, claimed the problem started when the university closed down the department in 1998 on the ground that terrorists had started getting admissions to the centre. Inviting protests by the Seraiki speaking, the university had to reopen the department within eight days, but the controversies remained there, he said.

Thereafter, the authorities revised the admission schedule for the Islamia University, depriving the graduates of other universities, including the BZU, of the MA Seraiki option.

He also cited less demand in the market to be the cause of lack of students’ interest. Although the provincial education department had approved eight posts of lecturers in Seraiki, the finance department notified only two in 1998 - one at the SE college Bahawalpur and the other at the Government College in Multan.

He said 100 students opted for Seraiki as either elective or optional subject every year at the SE college while 35 opted for it in Multan soon after the approval of syllabus by the BZU a couple of months ago.

He said the BZU authorities would have to overcome ‘shyness’ to give Seraiki language and literature its due. He claimed Seraiki was next to Sindhi as far as number of annual publications were concerned.

Prof Chandio urged the BZU to clearly define the objectives of the Seraiki centre and print more books. “There is no need to set out on the journey already covered by the people for their Seraiki identity,” Prof Chandio advised.