FLOGGING a dead horse is our favourite national pastime. Pakistani society keeps on kicking up controversies dead long ago. One such debate is: what should be Pakistan’s national language, or, keeping in view the latest whip, ‘languages’?
Though the issue of Pakistan’s national language had been settled once for all in country’s 1973 Constitution (Article 251), some quarters have been kicking up the row during the last few years. Raging for the last few years, of late the debate as to what should be our national language/s has picked up some more heat. The issue was part of deliberations at Karachi Arts’ Council’s recent Urdu conference as well, with some speakers favouring the adoption of some more languages, in addition to Urdu, as Pakistan’s national languages. Some columnists too have recently raised the issue and emphasised that Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi and Pashto should be declared Pakistan’s national languages.
Strangely enough, some foreigners and foreign-funded NGOs too have been favouring adoption of different Pakistani languages (incorrectly called provincial and/or regional languages) as Pakistan’s national languages. In a programme held at a certain department at a university in Karachi a few months ago, some foreign academics tried to convince the students that declaring Urdu Pakistan’s national language did not make sense and different Pakistani languages should be made Pakistan’s national languages instead. Aside from what is correct or incorrect, the question is: what interests do foreigners have in replacing Urdu with several languages as national language of Pakistan? Simply put, it’s none of their business.
This writer has been writing on the issue in these columns and had once also mentioned the proposed constitutional amendment bill that Ms Marvi Memon had tried to introduce at the National Assembly and later on at Senate of Pakistan (Dawn, Feb 17, 2017). In the bill, it had been suggested that 10 languages may be made Pakistan’s national languages, namely, Balochi, Balti, Brahvi, Hindko, Punjabi, Pashtu, Shina, Sindhi, Siraiki and Urdu. But the move fizzled out when some members of the Senate suggested that instead of 10 just five languages, namely, Urdu, Panjabi, Sindhi, Balochi and Pashtu, could be made Pakistan’s national languages. This naturally alienated, rather infuriated, the supporters of the languages that were excluded from the proposal. Thus the unscrupulous move to undermine Pakistan’s unity and national harmony was foiled somehow. But now the issue is being raised again, and quite vociferously.
With due apologies, some of the proponents of the idea of making several languages Pakistan’s national languages may be influenced by political, ethnic or economic interests. But we must take into account some other aspects of the issue. These aspects concern linguistics, or the science of language. So let us see what the term ‘national language’ really means. David Crystal says in his The Penguin Dictionary of Language that a national language is “a language which is considered to be the chief language of a nation state; for example, French is the national language of France, and also the country’s official language --- used in such public domains as the law courts, government and broadcasting. However, in a multilingual country, such as Belgium, Singapore or Ghana, there may be no uncontroversial candidate for a national language and one or more of the languages used in the area may be designated official [language/s]. Several countries have two or more official languages, representing the interest of the chief population groupings.”
Fine, so Pakistan may have several languages as national languages since ours is a multilingual country. But the problem is there are 76 languages and dialects — some experts put the figure at 73 — spoken in Pakistan and declaring a dozen or so of them national languages would create a sense of estrangement among the speakers of languages that are left out. The number of such languages may be as high as 66.
In such situations, a lingua franca can solve the problem if it is made a country’s national language. What is a lingua franca? It is a common language between speakers whose native languages are different. According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, lingua franca is “any language used for communication between groups who have no other language in common: e.g. Swahili in much of East and Central Africa where it is not native”. As put by Victoria Fromkin et al in An Introduction to Language, lingua franca is “ a language common to the speakers of diverse languages, that can be used for communication and commerce; e.g. English is the lingua franca of international airline pilots”.
Now the fact is: the only language that can truly be called Pakistan’s lingua franca is Urdu. Love it or hate it! Urdu is the language used by entire Pakistan for communication. So in a way, Urdu is the factor that binds the whole nation together. Urdu is a symbol of Pakistan’s unity and national harmony. As for other Pakistani languages, they should be taken care of, promoted and may be adopted as provincial languages, if a province’s assembly so desires, as mentioned in the Article 251 of 1973 Constitution.
Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2020
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