The trend of language endangerment has never been so alarming as in
the last 200 years. There is hard evidence that number of languages
in the world is shrinking: of the roughly 6,500 languages now
spoken, up to half are already endangered or on the brink of
extinction.
More conflicts have been created between the world languages than ever before, causing languages to disappear at an increasing rate. According to an estimate the coming century will see either the death or doom of 90% of mankind's languages. When a language dies, it forebodes the death of the culture, world-view and aspiration of a speech community.
The problem of language endangerment in Pakistan is no less than any other part of the world. The 6 classified and 8 unclassified languages in Pakistan have the total number of speakers in the range of few thousand to 60 millions. Minority languages are most prone to endangerment. The linguistic majority (Punjabis) in Pakistan tends to deprive members of the minority groups of their legitimate linguistic and cultural rights. Such a mind-set aims at killing a language without killing its speakers.
Although Urdu, not Punjabi is the official language of Pakistan along with English, any demand made by Pashtoons for their legitimate linguistic, identity and cultural rights are met with strong opposition from Punjabis. Pashto, which is one of the 6 classified languages and second biggest language after Punjabi is made suffer deprivation and even endangerment in some areas. Despite the fact that Mianwali and Attok were the districts with large Pashtoon population, in 1901 when British establishment in India carved out N.W.F.P (NorthWestern Frontier Province) of Punjab, they put the both districts with Punjab. Pashto, which was once the main source of communication in these regions, has become extinct in most parts due to the bureaucracy and Punjabi influence. Pashto has been denied even minimum rights and privileges in its home Province N.W.F.P. According to the census nearly 80 per cent of the population of N.W.F.P. retained Pashto as their mother tongue where as 15 per cent Hindco and 5 per cent claimed Saraiki as their mother tongue. And yet Pashto is not used as a medium in primary school or as an official language. Only in some government schools it is taught as an optional subject at primary level.
Pakistan stands tall among the nations of the world. It was created in the name of Islam and it belongs to no one but the people who live in it. Pakistan is unified by religion- A unique Pakistani form of Islam. Pakistanis are neither one linguistic group nor a single race. It is not a new thing; almost every country in the world consists of more than one nationality. No matter whether its America or Britain, Spain or Czechoslovakia, Russia or China, India or Indonesia they all have different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. There are many different groups of people who live side by side in Pakistan. Word Pakistan is not reserved for any of these nationalities but it is the name of the union which each of these nationalities joined on the basis of equality. Islam is the only and the strongest bond that holds Pakistanis as a single union.
Unfortunately Pakistan is a country where native languages suffer deprivation and are prone to extinction. Soon after its creation Pakistan was taken over by a particular group of imported bureaucrats, who implicated the people of Pakistan in self-made issues, exploited sectarian and ethnic diversities and suppressed political freedom. They controlled the print and electronic media and imposed a system that was contrary to the local culture and values. This group and their local followers who were not interested in anything but money and power have been denying Pakistani nationalities. Punjabis are in majority in Pakistan and yet, Pakistani Punjabis must be the only group in the world that has a dismissive-even derogatory-attitude towards their own language. They are not only cynical about the idea of renaming N.W.F.P., Pashtoon and Pashto; they have a negative attitude towards their own language too. They are proudly dumping their own language in favour of Urdu and it is due to the influence of those bureaucrats who were imported during and after the partition.
Love for one's native language is a universal phenomenon. At minimum, a language is a mark of personal as well as national identity. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and the only source of communication between the different groups of Pakistanis but one can not deny the importance of local languages. There is no doubt that Urdu is developing as a Pakistani people's language, but it should be developed alongside multilingualism. Pakistanis from different linguistic backgrounds should have opportunity to get education in their mother tongues as well as in Urdu. "Monolingualism is a disadvantage like illiteracy. Bilingualism should be regarded as an educational norm".
Race, language and land are three basic and most important elements of a nation. In this respect Pashtoons are a complete nation. A language is not safe unless it is recognised as a national and official language in a country or a state. In Afghanistan leaders were traditionally Pashtoon and the term 'Afghan' was itself seen as synonymous with Pashtoon. The people of ethnic minorities were originally from Central Asian States and came to Afghanistan as refugee. The Dari (Persian) speaking minorities, who were alien in Afghanistan, instead they should have learnt the national and majority's language, Pashtoon had to learn their language to communicate with them. Pashtoon rulers had also been unfair with their mother tongue and did not do any thing for the propagation and preservation of Pashto. Due to the irresponsible attitude of the Afghan rulers towards their own mother tongue 'which is not understandable to me' Pashto suffered heavy losses. Pashtoons, who lived in big cities like Kabul, Herrat, and Mazar-I-Sharif etc, forgot their mother tongue and started speaking Dari. Dari became official language of Afghanistan along with Pashto. The situation got alarming but no lessons were learnt.
Zahir Shah, his predecessors and successors turned a blind eye towards this issue of high importance. Pashto became limited to small cities in Southeast and rural Afghanistan while Dari thrived and became language of the educated class in Afghanistan. Now Talibans who are mainly Pashtoon and present leaders of Afghanistan have got a chance to do some thing for the revival of Pashto in whole Afghanistan. They can revert the situation by making Pashto the only national language of the country that every Afghan must be able to read, write and speak. They should also make the Pashto the only medium in school, college and university. Dari should be taught as a compulsory subject in Dari speaking provinces and an optional & elective subject in whole Afghanistan. That is the only way Pashto could survive in the following century and beyond. Dari (Persian) will not be affected after these changes in the educational system as it is already official language in Iran and Tadjikistan which are the main source of inspiration for Persian speaking minorities. Afghanistan is the only country where Pashtoons are in majority, Pashto literature and books published in Afghanistan, print and electronic media of Afghanistan will not only inspire the Pashtoons in Pakistan but through out the world. When Pashto is strong in Afghanistan it will be strong every where.
Pashtoons in Pakistan also need to work hard. They should not only work towards the preservation of their tongue in Pashto speaking areas but they must also do some thing for the revival of Pashto in the areas like Hazara Division and Dera-Ismail-Khan of N.W.F.P. and Attok and Mianwali districts of Punjab which are attached to N.W.F.P., where majority is Pashtoon but apart from a few most have forgotten their mother tongue (Pashto). The Pashtoons should also reclaim Attok and Mianwali districts that were given to Punjab by alien's (British) government. Apart from what I have proposed above, we need to do a lot more to combat with the future challenges. Languages, like all living things, depend on their environment to survive. When they die out, it is for reason analogous to those that cause the extinction of plant and animal species: they are consumed by predator tongues, deprived of their natural habitats or displace by more successful competitors. In this type of linguistic natural selection, though, the survival of the fittest is not determined by intrinsic merits and adaptability alone; the economic might, military muscle and cultural prestige of the country in which a language is spoken play a decisive role. A language's star rises and falls with the fortunes of its speakers. In this day and age of super-sonic motor cars and manned flights to outer space and rockets to Saturn, my Pashtoon brothers are engaged in tribal warfare and honour killings. Where different nations are planing to send missions to other planets we are not able to make a typewriter to word process our beloved tongue. As the only remaining superpower, the United States is now at the zenith of its economic and cultural hegemony. English therefore thrives as the world's lingua franca while languages of the weaker nations succumb to pressure from mightier competitors. Pashto and Urdu can not survive in the coming century unless we transform them in to the languages of science and technology, and that is not possible unless we change our attitude.
In 1898, when Otto von Bismarck was asked what in his opinion was
the most decisive event in modern history, the German statesman
replied: "The fact that North Americans speak English." Asked this
same question a hundred years from now, who knows that some Afghan,
Pakistani or Indian politician may not reply: "The fact that so many
people in these countries take pride in speaking English."
