'URDU IMPERIALISM' IN PAKISTAN: REALITY OR MYTH

Syeda Sughra Naqvı

doi:10.18769/ijasos.336558

EN

'URDU IMPERIALISM' IN PAKISTAN: REALITY OR MYTH

Abstract

The dominant status of Urdu language is a reality in the multilingual society of Pakistan. The mother language of only 7.59% of the population is the national language of the country that provides opportunity to traditional rivals of Pakistan to provoke ethnic crises, hiding the reality of its being the only source of country-wide communication. The paper highlights the considerable criticism of the language policy in Pakistan that is endangering the ‘cultural capital’ of local and regional languages through Urdu imperialism. However, contrary to the controversial criticism of its status, the focus of the paper is to argue that Urdu is a natural phenomenon of the region that supports free integrity of the nation and not an imposed one. Its origin, evolution and development as a lingua franca is as natural as the status of English language as a lingua franca for the world. Therefore, it suggests solutions to revive the cultural capital through reforms in education policy in collaboration with language policy rather than criticizing the status of Urdu as the national language, which is the best choice, indeed, because the ubiquity of Urdu is not a myth.

Keywords

Multilingualism,Urdu Imperialism,reality/myth,cultural capital

References

1. Kia (November 21, 2015), The World’s Most Multilingual Countries – Ranked, Published in Atlas & Boots, (1a, 1b, 1c) 2. PouranSeifi (March 25, 2015), Language Policy in Multilingual and Multicultural Pakistan, Publication Date:, Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Vol 2, No. 3, (2a, 2b) 3. Tariq Rahman (January 10, 2015), Language policy, multilingualism and language vitality in Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan--- Retrieved (3a, 3b, 3c) 4. Constitution of Pakistan, (1973), Article 251 5. Capstick T. (2010), Promotion of Linguistic diversity in Pakistan Urged, (The British Council’s advisor in Pakistan) Published in International The News 6. Pouran Seifi (2014), Importance of Education in Mother Language for Iranian Bilingual Students, Advances in Social Sciences and Research Journal.1 (8), pg. 156-163 7. Gouleta E. (2013), Linguistic Policy and Practice in Pakistan: Implications for Literary and the Education of Children, Bilingual Basics 8. Abdul Jamil Khan (2006), Urdu/Hindi: An Artificial Divide: African Heritage, Mesopotamian Roots, Indian Culture & Britain Colonialism, Algora publishing, pg. 178 9. Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman (2003), Sheldon Pollock, ed., A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture Part 1, Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions From South Asia, University of California Press, p. 806 10. Rahman, Tariq (2011), From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History Karachi, Oxford University Press (10a, 10b) 11. M. Abu Bakar (March 9, 2014), Multilingual Culture of Pakistan, Slideshare, Slide No. 7 12. Rahman, Tariq (2014), Pakistani English (PDF), Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, p. 9 13. Rahman, Tariq (2000), The Teaching of Urdu in British India (PDF), The Annual of Urdu Studies. 15: 55. 14. M. Ilyas Khan ( september 12, 2015), Uncommon Tongue: Pakistan’s Confusing Move to Urdu, BBC News Islamabad 15. LAD-F: Legislative Assembly Debates of the North-West Frontier Province (LADF 12 October 1932: 132) 16. LAD-B. Legislative Assembly Debates of Baluchistan LAD-Bal 21 June and 15 April 1990 17. Rahman, Tariq (1996), Language and Politics in Pakistan, Karachi, Oxford University Press. 18. Bourdieu, Pierre (1991), Language and Symbolic Power. (ed.) John B. Thompson. Trans. From the French by Gino Raymond and Mathew Adamson. Cambridge: Policy Press. Edition used, (1994 reprint) 19. Mahatma Gandhi (1920), No Culture Isolation For Me, Newspaper

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

-

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Syeda Sughra Naqvı
France

Publication Date

August 31, 2017

Submission Date

August 30, 2017

Acceptance Date

July 11, 2017

Published in Issue

Year 2017 Volume: 3 Number: 8

DOI

https://doi.org/10.18769/ijasos.336558

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA34LP55DA

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

EndNote

Naqvı SS (August 1, 2017) ’URDU IMPERIALISM’ IN PAKISTAN: REALITY OR MYTH. IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences 3 8 387–390.