A question about Pakistan

[Rahul46]

Originally posted by Tanweer
Hi friends,

I don't understand why Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. Urdu is a language of north India. As far as I know, Pakistani languages are Sindhi, Panjabi, Baluchi, Pashtu and Brahui. Why couldn't one of these become the national language? When our ancestors were with the Pakistanis (i.e. before 1971), Bangla and Urdu were the national languages. Now only Urdu remains. But what happened to other ones? Are those languages so undeveloped that they don't possess the quality of being the national language?

Tanweer Malik

You should send this letter to the goverment of Pakistan. He would be able to answer your questions very well than we do.

[IRONMAN]

Originally posted by Tanweer
Hi friends,

I don't understand why Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. Urdu is a language of north India. As far as I know, Pakistani languages are Sindhi, Panjabi, Baluchi, Pashtu and Brahui. Why couldn't one of these become the national language? When our ancestors were with the Pakistanis (i.e. before 1971), Bangla and Urdu were the national languages. Now only Urdu remains. But what happened to other ones? Are those languages so undeveloped that they don't possess the quality of being the national language?

Tanweer Malik

SALAM TANWEER,

YOU ARE RIGHT THERE ARE MANY LANGUAGES OTHER THAN URDU IN PAKISTAN, BUT URDU IS LIKED BY MOST OF THEM. THE REASON IS PROBABLY THAT MOST OF THE LITERATURE AND POETRY WAS AVAIABLE IN URDU, AND PUNJABIS MOSTLY SPEAK IT BECAUSE IT IS MORE CLOSE TO URDU LANGUAGE. URDU IS A LANGUAGE OF NORTH INDIA BUT IT HAS MANY WORDS OF TURKISH, PERSIAN AND ARABIC LANGUAGE. SO MOST OF THE MUSLIMS SPEAK IT. LANGUAGES OTHER THAN PUNJABI ARE NOT MUCH CLOSE TO URDU LANGUAGE AS COMPARED TO PUNJABI, SO OTHER PROVINCES' PEOPLE DON'T SPEAK IT MUCH.

[rez]

salaamz all

nice explanation ironman

i just wanted to add another point:

urdu, though only 8% of population speak it as their mother tongue, is used as a national unifying language. its not practically feasible to have 5 national languages to run a country (like pakistan) so i guess they adopted on urdu cos that was commonly known as "the muslims" language in india.

the point abt literature is very interesting n i havent really seen it froom that point of view. punjabi literature has mainly been in gurmukhi script, n from sikh sources so muslims there havent really taken it to heart....hence urdu was the only viable alternative.

i guess with bangla, even though much of the literature was from W bengal, n frm hindu writers, bengalis still associated with it, n so whilst bangla was so strong as a literary language (tagore got nobel prize) they felt that they couldnt take urdu instead of bangla as a national language. (also the arguement that more than half of the poulation spoke bangla.)

neways does anyone know when bangla became a national language in pakistan?

take care everyone

ma3assalama

[fugitive]

what is the name of the site?
www.pakistan.com?

[jamalzia]

Again as a student of history and also languages, I know Pakistan has an intersting history as far as languages is concerned. Urdu, no doubt, originated in northern India. The Moughals and the elite Nawabs including nawabs of Murshidabad Bengal liberally patronized it as it copied persian in many ways that was the language of learning and court. Thus Urdu became a kind of status symbol even among Bengali Muslim Elite.

In Punjab even long before partition of India, Urdu had become the language of Punjabi scholars and elite. For instance, Urdu's all major modern poets are Punjabis such as Mohammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz and many others. The reason was simple Urdu for its script and idiom was closer to Punjabi and Sindhi than Bangla. For some reason, Urdu also impressed the local accent and literature too. Sindhi for example has enormously been impacted by Urdu. Sind has the largest Urdu speaking population in Pakistan. This synergy was therefore natural. In Urban Areas of Pakistan Pashtoons, Balochis and Punjabis are also increasingly shifting to Urdu. At least their children speak fluent Urdu. In London I met a baluchi family whose first language was Urdu. At least children were conversing only in Urdu and English. So Urdu is playing a great role in homogenization of Pakistanis although this homogenity is not conspicously visible.