Re: PMLN delegation visits 90
Bhutto comes much later ... it was actually the resistance to cultural colonization...
I have heard from a number of people ..that Baba-e-urdu declared all non-urdu .... " local " [Bengali , Sindhi , Punjabi , pashto , Balochi ..etc.etc.etc... ] languages as Un-Islamic, and only URDU as Islamic .
thus defying the acknowledgement of History, Cultures and societies that were thousands of year old...including that of Bengal ...
..read on Bengal language movement ... for a starter .
What you heard is propaganda for those who like to live with propaganda and do not care to know or even find out truth.
Pakistan never had URDU as sole national language status while Bengal was with Pakistan, so why blame Babe-e-Urdu?
*Pakistan had no national language until 1956 and in 1956 URDU and BENGLA both became Pakistan national language (English getting used as Pakistan official language).
*
After 1956, all Pakistani currency, stamps and official documents had both languages on them and for all purpose where URDU could be used in Pakistan for official work, use of BANGLA was also an option.
In 1973 when Pakistan was making correction about language after fall of East Pakistan, Pakistan government used parliament to decide what should be done.
In NA, parliamentarians voted to make URDU as sole national language (keeping English as official language) and showed intention to replace English with URDU as official language in near future.
As for provinces: Punjab, Sarhad (KPK), and Baluchistan voted to make Urdu as their sole provincial language.
Sindh voted to make Sindhi as sole provincial language of Sindh, so riot broke out in Sindh, and in the end, Sindh changed that to make Urdu and Sindhi as provincial language of Sindh.
So, why so much ignorance about language issue?
Actually URDU was chosen to make National language of Pakistan because since time of Mughals, even though language of court was Persian, Urdu was widely used by educated people (be they Muslim, Hindu or Sikh), especially Muslims all over subcontinent to communicate with each other.
English (not language but rulers) for same reason promoted URDU in subcontinent replacing Persian as lower court language though they replaced Persian with English as upper court language.
Lahore became the center point of URDU during English rule and Punjab became bastion of Urdu support, and that is the reason Urdu writers and poets (even during pre-1947 British rule) were mostly from Punjab and that is true even now (after 1947).
So why so much ignorance?
Fact is that, Bengalis were most pro-Pakistan but discrimination, not accepting them as equal and giving Bengal un-equal rights and bad treatment, caused their disenchantment with Pakistan. They wanted to get their rights within Pakistan but people of West Pakistan due to their ignorance (or self-interest) and propaganda from haram-khor west Pakistan ruling class took that (at least portrayed that) as desire for Bengal to secede.
It seems that Pakistan ruling elites (mostly from northern Punjab) do lot of propaganda and declare all Pakistani communities (especially people as well as leaders from outside Punjab) wanting and talking about their rights and equal treatment within Pakistan as traitor ... or people wanting separation from Pakistan … as if loyalty to these haram-khor corrupt elites mean loyalty to Pakistan and accepting their right to exploit Pakistan (about whom they do not care) as their birth right… and if any Pakistani talks about their right and protest against exploitation (especially if that Pakistani is not from Punjab) then to these elites it means disloyalty towards Pakistan and desire for separation ... and to protect their exploitation, these haram-khors do all sorts of propaganda against such Pakistanis, portraying them as traitor then persecuting them using state machinery they control).
Urdu does not belong to any community or area. It is different matter that some adopted Urdu earlier then others for their own good and convenience.
Urdu has words from all Muslim languages (Arabic, Persian, Turkish) and have grammatical structure plus words that is common amongst local languages of northern subcontinent (Punjabi, Hindko, Saraki, Sindhi, Rajisthani, Purbi, Gujrati, Bengla, etc) … so, politicians of Pakistan decided that they can use Urdu to bind Pakistani diverse nationalities into one nationality.
Bengal protested and thus Pakistan in 1956 (that is when Pakistan got its first constitution) got divided between Bengali (East) and Urdu (West) Pakistan. That not only divided the nation but created immense misunderstanding, mistrust, exploitation and deprivation … resulting in separation from each other (Bengal became independent from Pakistan).
Separate language gave people of both wings separate identity to build on and caused difficulty in becoming and thinking as one nation. Exploitation by haram-khor ruling elites was seen by Bengalis as their exploitation by another nation (Urdu speaking Punjabis) rather than exploitation of haram-khor community of same nationality.
These haram-khor elites were exploiting west Pakistan too, especially under-privileged communities from Punjab, KPK, Sindh and Baluchistan. But in West Pakistan due to language (Urdu), country was getting together as one nation, and hence many exploited people saw exploitation of haram-khor elites as exploitation by people of same nationality (Urdu Pakistan). Though there were exception in Baluchistan and interior Sindh where people saw them as people of different nationality (Punjabi) ... but with time, due to same language (Urdu) making each other understand better, people are getting united as one nation, though most from outside northern Punjab are raising voices against their getting exploited, but also realizing that at ground level, all are one and are equally getting exploited by haram-khor elites.
Anyhow, it seems some powers want to play same game in remaining Pakistan too.