Linguistic Imperialism

Well written Zia!!! Even though the tone is humorous, the underlying message is serious enough. Look forward to reading more from you. Way better than the inane stuff about long dead men that is peddled regularly here.

Nicely written. This is a welcome break from the usual hate-filled, my-religion-is-better-than-yours kind of stuff that keeps appearing here.

Even I wondered what happened to the good old, secular sounding ``Khuda Hafiz``. good to know that others also think the same.

Keep it up, Zia.

Great articel Zia, keep it up.

Pakistan was carved out of India, one of the oldest civilizations of this world. Had our rulers of the past and present been more confident of their heritage, there would have been no need to fashion a new Paki culture/history/language/ethos. Afsos (Sadly), Pakistanis were subjected to numerous experiements which finally culiminated with the Arabization of Pakistan under Zia ul Haq. Afghan war, Jihad, war against communism and petro dollars all contributed to a new class of Pakistanis who can stake claims to their Arab/Islamic roots. Poor country like Pakistan did not have enough resources to support its meglomaniac dreams rented itself to the Americans then to the Saudis, first casualty of this marriage was the weak, poor totally dependent writers/poets/thinkers of this godforsaken place. Out of this darkness rose a new list of lietrrati`s such Shah Baleegh Uddin, Dr Israr Ahmed etc etc. who had no desire to stay connected with the hindu dominated past and drove Pakistanis towards a new paradigm, the Arab/Muslim identity. Thus the need to change our history books, our cultural affiliations and of course to change all this you need to change how people conversed with each other ie the linguistic imperialism.

One has to be fair and acknowledge that pre-partition Urdu was promoted to separate Muslims from the Hindus. In today`s world where Pakistan is totally dependent upon foreign aid and searching for a Pakistani identity, decision makes hose the easy way out which was also the more lucrative method.

I liked my Dadda Abba`s urdu, there Khudda Hafiz, Adaab, Zahi Naseeb, thashreef rakhain, aapka ismay gramee (whats your name) etc etc, these things now belong to the past or a very small section of our society. Lingo now found is either arabized or Indianized thru the barrage of Indian movies/TV channels. Then again, thats how societies evolve, whether its a good thing or bad, only time will tell. But one thing is for sure, nobody respects those who do not honor and remember their past.

my sentiments, exactly ........... let`s do our part by sticking with khuda and dumping the arab usurper .........

Allahafis, beta.

Re: # 3
//.....Pakistan was carved out of India, one of the oldest civilizations of this world. Had our rulers of the past and present been more confident of their heritage, ...//

Had your leaders/rulers been more confident of their heritage - they would not have ``carved`` pakistan in the first place.... but that`s separate topic.....

man, you gotta be a heck of a loser to worry about things such as these. and as for the qaumi tarana, i actually happen to like it. and i bet my bottom dollar that the author would be pelted with timaters were he to stand outside the badshahi mosque after juma and suggest that we should change our qaumi tarana cause it sucks. no chance of this happening cause we all know that people who write for the friday times dont have any balls.

Zia Sahib, aap apna KhaRa RakhaiN (i.e, “keep it up” in Urdu). I think the problem in Pakistan is not, per say, the linguistic imperialism but people who make a mole out of a mountain. Every single person in the Netherlands speaks at least 3 languages, 4 in Switzerland, and in India it is at least 3 in major metropolis. I don’t see anything wrong if a few Gulfies have brought some Arab influence with them and introduced that into Pakistani culture. I hear more “Holy Shyt” or “Jesus Fking Christ” in Lahore than I do in New York. “Man” has become mot-de-commencement for any sentence. Ya Habibi, Urdu as it is, is an amalgam of various roots – Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Indo-European, so what if it is now open to some Semitic influence?

The best I heard was at a KFC in Lahore: The cashier talking to a female customer: “Muhtarma, Ya app sirf Breast or ya Legs lay sakti haiN, doono Nahi”. (Translation: M’aam, one can only have either breasts or legs, not both). It was so funny because the female customer was big chested but had flat butt and no legs.

Look at the bright side (Tarf-ul-Noor) that Pakistanis are coming out of their shell (al-Khoul).

Jazak Allah.

having studied farsi, i can understand our ``qaumi taraana`` just a little better, but no one ever really explained it to us as kids. and we had to sing it in daily assembly from class III (the third grade) onwards. it was like little kids having to recite the pledge of allegiance. . . what the heck?!

even if the accident of history does make the urdu language in pakistan rife with paradox, linguistically urdu went through a few changes to set itself off just a little bit from both farsi and `arbi. we say zad instead of the dad of arabic and the ``hay`` following the ``vau`` is pronounced as ``ah`` not ``eh``, as it is in farsi, and the meaning of words from farsi at least that i know of has changed over time as well. there shouldn`t be any reason really for us not to say ramzaan rather than ramadan. as a matter of fact growing up when i did in lahore, i never heard ramzaan pronounced as ramadan. not in the media, not in school, not among our friends. so it is still very jarring to me, to hear fellow desis speaking in urdu and saying ramadan instead of ramzaan. ye kya baghaavat hai?!

of course someone might say ramadan ramzaan what`s the difference, all that matters is being good insaans!!! you say tomayto and i say tomaato. i say urdu should reclaim its place as the hybrid language it is, and leave the dad with the arabic language (and its speakers!).

nice writing zia.

Zia:

I used to think the same way as you do but I have now changed my mind. Regardless of what Jinnah wanted, most Muslims wanted a Pakistan because they wanted to be closer to their Islamic roots. So, if they feel more Muslim using Allah instead of Khuda, or saying Ramadhan instead of Ramzan, or even Eid instead of Id, more power to them.

``The founding fathers, cognizant of this fact, looked west—to Persia and Arabia—for the vocabulary of culture and erudition.``

This is indeed the root cause. Your founding fathers happily committed cultural suicide when they converted to Islam. While their forefathers looked to Sanskrit and Kalidas for the vocabulary of ``culture and erudition``, your forefahers rejected them for the culture and language of the conquerors of the land for such erudition and culture, much like the native Americans did when they converted to christianity.

BTW it is interesting how some of the Arabisation has become so much a part that it is not even considered as as such any longer. For example, the chances are that your Abu or his father called his father ``Abbaji`` and not ``Abu``.

i think some pakistanis can also reclaim urdu`s hybrid status by ceasing this ridiculous ideologically, politically motivated bakwaas that hindi is not part of our language when a good part of our structure is centered around indic languages, and hindi words are part of our rich lexicon as well.

This is just silly. Languages get influenced according to geopolitical realities all the time. Should the English speaking world do away with words like Jungle or mantra, because they have indic roots?

Krishna Hafiz everyone...

Re: # 12

Chaltahi, just as I have always maintained that some influences are fine but some are not. E.g., the new re-mixes of old Hindi songs is a sin deserving of capital punishment, or at least penal amputation. Linguistic influence is no more than Tukey Ham, Halal Chinese, or Chicken Tikka Burritos. I can live with that.

Namasalam and Shalom Siriakal, and Wah Mohammad da Khalsa and Wah Moses di Fateh

Ganeesh Rahim Buttafuco

Zia,
nice writing.
`the month of big appetites and short tempers is called Ramzan. What country are we from anyway? `
I agree with you.
adab, mashalla, inshalla and Allah hafaiz are sweet words.we must use our own words instead of bye bye.

Kulharee, you are in for a huge disappointment because in the coming decades as the flow of people and cultures increase, arabs in Saudi will be breaking bread at iftar parties during Lord Ram-zaan`s fast by reciting the ganesh mantra followed by a reading from the gospel of John and a pre-appetizer toast to Buddha. os you can take the chicken tikka masala and Halalify it all you want but it won`t stop the love among the people of this world.

Chalta-allah ka banda-hai

So, it seems that in the linguistic food chain of eat or be eaten, Arabic devours Urdu which has already devoured and de-supported Punjabi in West Punjab. People shouldn`t start beating their chests and wailing the end of the world just because a language borrows words from another.

In a hundred years time, regional languages will become defunct anyway giving way to 3 or 4 major global languages, two of which it seem will be English and Mandarin given current geo-economic realities.