Nationalists demand that Sindhi language be given the status of a national language on the occasion of International Mother Language Day. PHOTO: IRFAN ALI/EXPRESS
“The use of Sindhi language should be enforced in the government offices, courts and educational institutions,” demanded Dr Mushtaq Phul of the Sindhi Adabi Sangat (literary fraternity), which organised a rally in Hyderabad.
The speakers drew attention to how the Indian government has preserved its languages by making them state languages. “The Sindh Assembly has already passed a law to use Sindhi as the official language and ensure its compulsory learning right from the school level.”
Members of the Pakistan Siraiki Party rally on International Mother Language Day.
Sindh Taraqi Pasand vice chairperson Dr Rajab Memon suggested that district-level committees should be formed to monitor the teaching of Sindhi language in schools.
Writer Yousuf Sindhi suggested that protests should be held outside schools that do not teach Sindhi.
Sindh Language Authority chairperson Dr Fehmida Hussain, who was speaking at a separate lecture, warned of the potential threat to historic South Asian languages. She stated a research study of the Lahore School of Economics, which said that 33 out of the 700 South Asian languages may vanish in the next few decades. “Although Sindhi language doesn’t face such a threat at this point in time, there is a need to accord our language the recognition it deserves,” she said. The event, titled ‘Globalisation of cultures and importance of mother tongues’, was organised by the non-profit Sindh Agriculture Forestry Workers Coordination Organisation.
Dr Hussain also pointed out the threat of extinction to some Sindhi dialects and called for measures for their preservation. She said that her organisation is recording the dialects, fables, stories and folk literature from sughars (folks) of Sindh. “The promotion of multilingualism is the only way forward to protect all our indigenous languages and dialects,” she contended. “This can be done by recognising Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi and Pashto as national languages.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 22nd, 2014.
COMMENTS (11)
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@ovais what a big lie, Im a Karachite myself and there are alot of Sindhis in Karachi. District Malir and District South along with Gulshan and keamari towns have alot of Sindhis. Total there are around 3-4 million Sindhis in Karachi and 50% Hyderabadis are Sindhis . Demographics are Changing :) So, its the right of Sindhi's to make a lawful demand for their language . Why was the language of only 7% imposed on the rest of 93% of Pakistan ?
@Progressive Sindhi: Marvelously put. (Y) thumbs uP.
Mother Language Day - No words to express a feelings , pakistan government promote and protect those beauty in a awesome manner .
Isn't Sindhi already a national language? My NIC card is in Sindhi and my family has been residing in Karachi for over 50 decades now. Do they mean official language? Those are just Urdu and English.
Language is a social and economic need. Let us consider these real life facts: 1. I know a Punjabi speaking family who is settled here in Karachi for many years. It comprises an elderly couple and their three daughters. The sons live abroad. The couple speaks to each other in Punjabi and their eldest daughter. The two younger daughter speak only in Urdu. The father speaks to them in Urdu and the mother speak in Punjabi and the younger daughters respond in Urdu. The next generation will have stopped speaking in Punjabi altogether as they will have no need for it.
As for me, my grandfather spoke Pushto but I, having been educated and raised in Karachi, cannot even understand Pushto.
There are so many Sindhi speaking people whose forefathers had migrated to this region from Arabia or Iran, as their names would suggest. But they have grown in Sindhi-speaking areas and hence adopted Sindhi as their language.
Children from Pakistani families who migrate to English speaking regions such as United States or UK have to speak English and soon lose touch with Pakistani languages.
So, basically, it is no big deal. Only Hebrew is the language which has been revived and adopted by Israel. It is not spoken anywhere else in the world.
what a lie of a day "no one speak sindhi in Karachi and Hyderabad" I don't know how people speak lie with out feeling any shame or some kind of hesitation while speaking a lie which entire world know that it is a white lie. I also know some people call milk black and they can argue on that milk is black will any one believe in that , obviously no one believe in that or ignore on the mentality of the person. In 1947 population of Karachi was around 300000 the 95 population was sindhi speaking , after partition some 200000 people come to Karachi as immigrant and by the way they are still calling themselves immigrant never been proud to be son of soil. They are proud be British, Canadian , Australian but unfortunately be ashamed to be called sindhi. They proudly learned English , French or any other language but never tried to learn the language of land which provide protection and refuge to them , do we have any medicine for that mentality???? for your information in Karachi 4 million people who speak sindhi and are proud to speak the language of land, and in Hyderabad 80% people are sindhi speaking .therefore 85% population of Sindh speak sindhi and are proud off to speak the language of soil.
How completely illogical. Sindhi (as recognized by the nationalists) is already a state language and is an acceptable medium at all govt offices, provicial assembl, etc (inspite of the fact that almost half the province's population can't understand it). Now these people want implementation of sindhi in ALL govt correspondences and work? Do we want that rest of Pakistan to suffer the same administrative and intellectual fate that sindh is suffering because of such an ardent imposition of sindhi culture in all spheres of public affairs???
no one speaks sindhi in karachi and hyderabad which makes up to 50 percent of the population of sindh. what logic .