March 21, 2004

‘English cannot be abandoned or even ignored in today’s world. We should make Urdu the medium of instruction and at the same time ensure that students know enough English to consult modern sources of information on the Internet,’ says KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Peerzada Qasim

PAKISTAN has always had a love-hate relationship with English. Though politicians have rallied against the language and termed it a legacy of British colonial rule, they have failed — or done very little — to oust English and replace it with Urdu.

A recent publication by the Aga Khan University and Oxford University Press, titled Language Policy, Planning and Practice: A South Asian Perspective, points out that Pakistan is not the only the country contending with the language question. Indeed, twenty-four out of the 54 former British colonies accord the English language an official status.

Dawn Magazine recently spoke on the issue to Karachi University Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim, who, prior to his current assignment, was the first vice-chancellor of the Federal Urdu University, and solicited his views about the language controversy. Here are the excerpts from the interview:

Q. Can Pakistan afford to ignore the English language which has become the lingua franca of the world?

A. The medium of instruction has been the subject of many debates in Pakistan. According to one school of thought, Pakistanis would be threatened with extinction if they did not learn the English language. On the other end of the spectrum, some argue that if Urdu was not the medium of instruction, Pakistanis would not only forfeit their language, but also their identity.

One can read and understand a subject in a foreign language. One can even express one’s views about the subject in a foreign language. But the thought process that operates unhindered when one is employing one’s own language does not initiate when one is using a foreign language. The avenues of thought and analysis remain blocked when a person is using a foreign language.

Let me make clear that I am not advocating that a student should not study English at all. He should learn the language so much as to be able to read the primary sources in their original form. He should be able to consult modern means of information, such as the Internet.

I maintain that even in so-called Urdu-medium educational institutions, teachers should enable their students to acquire communication skills in English. Just imagine this scenario: a student learns about a natural phenomenon in a classroom in Urdu. He deeply thinks about the subject and then takes part in a discussion on it in a manner not trammelled by the constraints of the language. In this way he fully understands the subject. And then he is enabled to study the subject in detail in the English language.

In a recent survey of the Urdu Bazaar, we found that many students who go to English-medium schools and colleges purchase books in Urdu to better comprehend the subjects they are studying in English. I have often experienced as a teacher that many a time a student does not ask a question in classroom because he cannot phrase his sentence properly in English language. If Urdu is the medium of instruction, students would have no hesitation in putting questions to the teacher. They could also make classroom discussions more fruitful and meaningful by taking part in it in the language they know very well.

Q. Are you suggesting that Urdu should replace English in our educational institutions?

A. No, I am not suggesting that Urdu should replace English in our educational institutions completely. In other words, I am not advocating the complete abandoning of the English language, which in any case is not possible in today’s world. I am told that in a country like China, which has attached a great deal of importance to their own language, they are fast realizing that they must also learn the English language. They have initiated crash programmes for people to learn what they describe as functional English.

In Pakistan we should make Urdu the medium of instruction and at the same time ensure that students know enough English to consult modern sources of education, such as the Internet.

Q. Despite the fact that Urdu has been declared the national language in the Constitution of the country, it has not been given the status it deserves. What are your views?

A. Urdu has not been enforced the way it should have been. It has become so widespread because of its own potential. It has not been promoted by the government. A lot of litigants who do not know a word of English fail to understand what their lawyer is saying in the courts. They would be able to understand the court proceedings if Urdu is used in our courts. In the same way, Urdu should be used in government offices. If Urdu is used on TV and newspapers, more people would learn about national and international events.

Q. What steps should the government take to enforce Urdu?

A. It should enforce Urdu in courts and in government offices. Interestingly, the government has already done some spadework about it. The Muqtadra Quami Zuban was tasked to coin Urdu words and expressions that might be used in government offices. They have prepared a large number of books containing such expressions which have been gathering dust for a long time in their store houses. If those terms and expressions had been implemented then, they would have been simplified by now and gained wide currency.

Q. It appears that Urdu terms and expressions for some English words have been made by very unimaginative translators. This has not helped the cause of the Urdu language. Is it so?

A. Unfortunately, our translators found a very easy way of coining Urdu terms. When they hit upon an English word for which they was no Urdu equivalent, they would consult Persian and Arabic dictionaries and choose words from there, without the slightest regard for the currency of these expressions.

A new expression should be easy to understand. It should roll off the tongue easily. It should be facile. Since we have drawn on Persian and Arabic sources, we have coined quite a few extremely difficult terms which are taking a long time to gain currency.

Similarly, we should also be accommodating about those terms which have already gained currency. We should not reject them simply because they are not in Urdu. For instance, it is no use trying to replace the term ‘thermometer’ with ‘maqiyasul harara’. Everybody knows what a thermometer is. A man in the street knows what a rocket is. But he would have a hard time remembering what a ‘khatang’ is. The word ‘khatang’ would find place in our everyday vocabulary with difficulty because there is already an easy word for it. The most that we can do is write in parenthesis the Urdu equivalent of an English word which has carved a niche for itself in our common vocabulary. This would enable a student to learn the Urdu equivalent without having to use it.

Q. Do you think the recently established Urdu University would help the cause of Urdu?

A. The Urdu University simply proves that all fields of human knowledge — whether sciences or the fine arts — can be studied, understood and taught in the Urdu language. Since the Urdu language is understood by most of the people in Pakistan, this seat of learning is for the masses. This university offers an excellent opportunity to those who want to stay in this country and at the same time educate themselves.

All technologies, sciences and other subjects can be taught in the Urdu language. This is not to say that the students of this university are forbidden to consult English books. Far from it. Students can turn to any book they want to. But we want teachers to ensure that topics are discussed in classrooms in the Urdu language. This would go a long way towards enabling students to take part in the discussion in a very uninhabited manner.

Other than Usmania University, there is no university in the subcontinent that offers all courses in Urdu. The Federal Urdu University of Science and Technology has acquired the second slot.

Q. What position, in your opinion, does Urdu occupy in Pakistan?

A. Let’s first see what relation a language has with people. To my mind, a language has two types of relations with people. One relation is that of love, and the other of necessity. A language becomes very enriched when it has both types of relations with people. That is to say, it is loved by its speakers and also serves as a medium of communication for them. We observe that people love a language only in two cases: either if it is their mother tongue, or if they become so fond of it that they seek to acquire command over it.

A large number of men of letters made Urdu their medium of expression despite the fact that it was not their mother tongue. The names of Iqbal, Sir Abdul Qadir and Faiz Ahmad Faiz spring to mind. Why did they adopt the Urdu language? Because they noticed that Urdu provided them better and freer access to the common people.

You can find many instances in which people devoted all their lives to Urdu despite the fact that it was not their mother tongue.

The other aspect is that of necessity. A person living in one province of Pakistan and knowing his mother tongue only could converse with the citizen of another province only when he learns the Urdu language. A child born in any area of Pakistan first learns his mother tongue and then the Urdu language when he needs to interact with other communities. In this way the Urdu language binds the peoples of different areas of Pakistan. It can therefore be said that Urdu is our national language. This fact finds expression in our Constitution, which has declared Urdu to be the state language.

There is another aspect of the Urdu language which needs elaboration. It is important that the people of Pakistan must have a few things common among them. This promotes unity, inter-provincial harmony, and federalism. In our daily life we observe that Urdu is the only factor which brings about these three things. I often say that Urdu is one of the many blessings that Pakistan has.

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