International Mother Tongue Day: Call for linguistic pluralism, cultural diveristy

Event organized by the British Council and Idara-e-Baraye Taalm-o-Taraqi to mark International Mother Tongue Day.

ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a seminar on Monday emphasised the promotion of linguistic pluralism and diversity to preserve the cultural heritage of various communities.

The event was organized by the British Council and the Idara-e-Baraye Taalm-o-Taraqi (IBT) to mark International Mother Tongue Day.

The day is observed annually in memory of four students in the former East-Pakistan (Bangladesh) who were killed by Pakistani law enforcement agencies on February 21, 1952, in Dhaka while protesting for the elevation of Bengali to official language status. The day was declared Mother Tongue Day by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1999.

A large number of linguists, civil society activists and academics attended the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Fauzia Minallah, an artist, writer and human rights activist said the government of the day did not accept the importance of the Bengali language or the demands of the majority of population of united Pakistan which led to the killing of four students.

“We should learn lessons from this incident and not play with the cultural heritage of different communities,” she maintained.

“Language and cultural heritages are key sources of identity which should be promoted and preserved,”, she added.

She feared that the major part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is adopting Arab culture rather than their own, which threatens local norms.

She cited that some people are targeting the shrines of religious saints in the province, adding that Sufism is a key part of our culture.

Minallah opined that society stands on two extremes; on one side is the peak of religious extremism, on the other, a westernised culture, both of which have destroyed our culture, norms and languages.

Dr Khadim Hussain, Managing Director Bacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation (BKTEF), said that regional languages are a key source of indigenous knowledge and they push forward the cultural values and lifestyle of a society.

He expressed concern over Arab culture being promoted in K-P. He was of the view that promoting linguistic pluralism is the need of the hour.

Dr Khadim also criticised parliamentarians for opposing the devolution of the culture ministry to provinces on the ground that the provinces did not have the capacity to tackle the cultural issues.

“If Pakistan can afford missiles and bombs, why can’t it preserve its cultural heritage?” he asked.

Mushtaq Ghadi from Quaid-e-Azam University said that mother tongues have a direct link with history and the loss of a mother tongue means the loss of a culture’s history.

“There is no concept of one nation and one language anywhere in the world except Pakistan”, he asserted. He said that Pakistan has to end this concept, or the same situation that culminated in the separation of East Pakistan could erupt in today’s Pakistan. “It is high time to resist barriers which create hurdles in flourishing mother tongues.”

Dr Hassan Wahgah said that every language is a national language, and just because some languages are more widely spoken than others does not make them any more or less important. “Languages are punished due to being an indentity marker”, he asserted.

MNA Bushra Gohar notably said that Urdu is the language of a handful people, which was imposed upon the majority in Pakistan.

Dr Aasim Sajjad, Zaman Khan and others also spoke on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2011.