A Culture on the verge of extinction...

A fainting culture

CULTURE and its indubitable correlation with language has been a theme that almost every individual go through in secondary schools. The argument in itself being self explanatory and straight forward, yet few people grasp the idea in its core.

Culture and language are the two sides of an equation which simultaneously work with other equations to form the system of a nation. Any imbalance on one side can cause the simultaneous equations nontrivial and could therein after leave the system indefinite, unconceivable, and hence unidentifiable.

Language that carries the burden of past on its shoulders in transferring the ideologies, knowledge of religion, literature, artefacts and ancestral psychology; that solves the problems of present in a disguise of source to communicate, argue, debate and appreciate technological ideas; that offers itself as a medium to dream, imagine and shape the future, and after all, makes up the fundamental components of the day to day life and hence carves the lives of the natives in its own way by projecting its past, present and future.

When any of the times past, present or future are doped with the times of foreign element, this gives birth to an extrinsic culture with contaminated values to take forward, and if moods and constraints are loose, a chain reaction starts and language or culture evolves to a brand new civilisation. As a result, ideology, religion, literature, mysticism and emotions, in fact present and future all times of the language and above all a nation’s identity is at alarming risk.

A nuclear empowered steel rock nation although has been facing internal and external stumbling disasters; evolution of culture is leading her towards a long term catastrophe.

Masses believe that these could be the after effects of a turmoil that subcontinent faced for nearly 100 years during British era, nevertheless there are few people who affirm that the paradigm of cultural autonomy which if meshed up with the former idea could give birth to an evolving culture at rockets pace. At the same time there are handful of natives who believe that cultural curiosity is inherited and grows within and is inter related with literacy statistics that if not appropriately directed, could lead the nation to a whole new cultural scenario based on hard constraints imposed by the evolving environment. All these factors when execute in conjunction with each other and work as a soul-body mechanism, give rise to a spontaneous cultural catalyst that could rust even the toughest steel.

A look around over various businesses of life in our country gives us a clear picture of western influence. Readers would agree that undoubtedly admission rate in Urdu related domains has dropped drastically over the past few years irrespective of the population and education rate expansion. Media has again played its role in proving the mounting cultural weaknesses amongst our youth. From an international point of view, these weaknesses were exploited by the technological, economical and media influence of western world over the foreign countries, which developed as complexes into the brains of natives of influenced nations.
Sadly, youth being the backbone of the present times of the nation, could do no favour than satisfying these complexes and using English as a prominence rather a tool for learning.

Part of the blame goes to governing authorities of not being able to generate scholarships, adequate funding and opportunities for candidates interested in Urdu literature or adopting Urdu as a profession. Parents on the other hand, being the victims of westernisation appreciate English as a medium of verbal communication with pupils. Media has played its part in bargaining the space for programs inspired by foreign factor over those scented by cultural values and that are the essence of Urdu and philosophy, which in turn have been distressed by the attitude of commercial giants to sponsor such programs.

This ever growing rust which has been catalysed by national and international community doesn’t seem to nullify until a philosophical revolution could sway the instincts of our nation. There is a strong need of highlighting rational approach towards native and foreign languages and hence to keep cultural norms alive.
This rust can be dissolved by the solution of mutual endeavours from not only the state administration but also strategies adopted by the media should be reviewed and their energies should be utilised to rescue our identity. Above all, concepts of culture and its ideology on individual levels should be understood and appreciated to see the dawn of a new generation of writers, poets and artists and give our young ones the opportunity to listen and read many other Iqbals, Mumtaz Muftis and Ashfaq Ahmeds for the times to come…

Author:
Usman Ghani Waraich

Last edited by ugwaraich on Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:06 pm; edited 1 time in total

simply excellent.

i just wanted to say, that i can't see any G7 or G8 Group using "Dual Language" system in their own countires. Please correct me if im wrong here.

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Guy in the picture is Above Law but NOT U & ME.

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does pakistan really have one culture?

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i think it will get better.

It is sad that culture is being taken towards extincition but Urdu and the current culture of Pakistan is not our culture in the first place. For 93%+ of the population, Urdu is just like English or any other language for that matter. The point is that Urdu isnt native or indigenous. And due to the fact that it has been forced as the national language, the native languages now face extinction.

The fake Mughlai culture of UP and central India has been forcefully made our culture. Farsi was the language of the courts and the language of the literate well into the 1800s in present day Pakistan. It was not until after the acession of Punjab and Sindh into the Empire that the British sought to bring uniformity by introducing Urdu or "Hindustani" as the official language.

It is true that English is being given more acceptance than necessary but so is Urdu.

vc15nets wrote:

It is sad that culture is being taken towards extincition but Urdu and the current culture of Pakistan is not our culture in the first place. For 93%+ of the population, Urdu is just like English or any other language for that matter. The point is that Urdu isnt native or indigenous. And due to the fact that it has been forced as the national language, the native languages now face extinction.

The fake Mughlai culture of UP and central India has been forcefully made our culture. Farsi was the language of the courts and the language of the literate well into the 1800s in present day Pakistan. It was not until after the acession of Punjab and Sindh into the Empire that the British sought to bring uniformity by introducing Urdu or "Hindustani" as the official language.

It is true that English is being given more acceptance than necessary but so is Urdu.

Let me just say that there is a huge difference between Hindi and Urdu. Urdu is made up of several native languages such as persian, arabic, turkish, punjabi, sindhi. Urdu is representative of muslims of subcontinent of India, although its important to give equal importance to the regional languages such as punjabi, sindhi, pushtoo and balochi and kashmiri but Urdu is a strong language that consists of muslim history of subcontinent and all our literature which is a big part of our culture. We shouldnt compare urdu with english as english is not a native language, and urdu is not being forced upon us, probably you should read "Two nation theory".

I like & love urdu it is for me a language to express myself but it is not my culture because culture is something above the languages.I am proud to be Pakistan,can live & die for Islam & Pakistan but to me my language Pashto is my cultural language.I do own all the Pakistani languages & Urdu is the common language which bind us together.Here i will agree with vc 15 nets views.I also do not own the imported Indian culture because my culture,language,civilisation is much older than them.Pitty,we should have a true Pakistani culture,right now it is only mich mach of culture.Yes if we Idea

consider an Islamic culture than it is the only binding force

inayat khan qazi wrote:

I like & love urdu it is for me a language to express myself but it is not my culture because culture is something above the languages.I am proud to be Pakistan,can live & die for Islam & Pakistan but to me my language Pashto is my cultural language.I do own all the Pakistani languages & Urdu is the common language which bind us together.Here i will agree with vc 15 nets views.I also do not own the imported Indian culture because my culture,language,civilisation is much older than them.Pitty,we should have a true Pakistani culture,right now it is only mich mach of culture.Yes if we Idea

consider an Islamic culture than it is the only binding force

Bro, I believe that culture is made up of various things and language is a very important factor of a culture, and then there are various levels of cultures, such as our national culture is made up of regional/folk cultures e.g. Pushtoo, Punjabi, sindhi and balochi cultures. But as you said that Urdu binds us together, I think if we can sacrifice our life for Pakistan we also should respect and give equal importance to Urdu language as it is a major part of our national culture and treasure; Urdu is the foundation of "Two Nation Theory", it is the cause of riots and it is the cause why people were martyred in subcontinent before separation, people gave their lives for this great language. Secondly we should change our mind that Urdu is an "imported" language, we should know that Pakistan has produced GREAT poets writers and scholars in Urdu language than present india has contributed to Urdu, Urdu is actually a muslim language and no matter even if Urdu is called the language of Lucknow or Dilli, it is still a muslim language that is a sign of Islam in subcontinent and also muslims of india are our brothers at the end of the day whether they are in dilli or Lucknow, they believe in one God and in Prophet Muhammad SAW; and I think we should respect and love this great language and promote it in our circle so that our UNITY strengthens.