Should dying languages be left to die?

LAHORE: Holding on to old languages is a hindrance to the evolution of a culture suited to today’s era of globalisation and secularism, held the government at the final day of the Lahore School Debate and Declamation 2011.

Students from the University College of Lahore (UCL) argued in favour of the topic of the final round. This house would let dying languages die_ while the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) team opposed it.

The four-day event came to an end on Tuesday with Lums as the winners.

Abbas Ali, Raza Hassan and Khadija Bukhari represented UCL-A and Haider Naqvi, Ali Javed, and Nayab Gohar Jan represented Lums-B.

The government defended the topic saying that languages no more held utility in a culture. “Protecting old languages challenge the process of change,” they said.

On the contrary, the opposition said that a language was a culture’s identity that it could not afford to lose. A nation’s culture, they said, was largely based on its languages and it certainly was the state’s responsibility to preserve it.

“Languages die over time and become a part of a forgotten cultural heritage when people prefer official languages over their native ones. For instance, English is a global language and is imposed upon us. We are never given a choice to officially communicate in our native language. This is linguistic colonialism,” they said.

While some judges felt that some questions remained unanswered, G Rhydian Morgan, the chief adjudicator, said that both sides had explained well how languages died. “Debates are based upon logic and analysis. The basic aim of debates is to raise questions and it was certainly delivered, he said.

Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, the LSE dean, presented the trophy to the winning team. The best speakers and runner ups were awarded medals by LSEAD, the LSE debating society. The Best Speaker Award was given to Fatima Bukhari, the president of the UCL Debating Society.

Dr Chaudhry said that people could not be blamed for the death of languages. “Nobody can favour death. That is what made this debate interesting and very difficult to argue upon,” he said.

Raza Hassan, a finalist from UCL, said that debates about culture and religion always led to confusion. “Culture and globalisation go side by side. We cannot keep culture and avoid globalisation or the other way round.”

Meanwhile, Urdu debates were also held at the same venue, but on a smaller scale. A team each from Lums and the Government College University debated over the topic: Iss awam ki rai mai Pakistan khud mukhtar kharja policy banana ka haq kho chukka hai (The house believes that Pakistan has lost the right to form an independent foreign policy).  The Lums team won this event too.

A total of 70 teams from various institutions participated in the debating contest.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2011.