Urdu: From Potent to Puny
By Syed Osman Sher
Mississauga, Canada
Among the many languages of Pakistan the most controversial is Urdu, which, ironically, also stands as the national language. Before the birth of Pakistan, Urdu was one of the elements which distinguished the Muslims from the majority community of the Hindus. In this way, it had bestowed on them a separate identity. Truly, in all corners of the undivided country, from NWFP to Assam and from Kashmir to Travancore, the Muslims cherished Urdu as their language, because it was they who had invented it.
When the Muslims came to India they had to mix up with the local people, and had to complete the daily routine of life in conjunction with them. In this course they learned the local language, Hindi or Prakrit. Here the role of the Muslim hordes was more important than that of ordinary Muslims, who were confined mostly to courts. It was this role of the armies in the development of Urdu that it gave its name. Urdu means army in Turkish.
The next stage was to develop a script. So they started writing this spoken language in the “Roman” script of their time, i.e., Arbo-Persian-Turkish script, introducing at the same time their vocabulary into it. Its popularity among the Muslims, even among the new converts, was facilitated by the fact that they had to learn the Arabic script for reading the Qur’an. Thus the Muslims all over India, from North to South, and from East to West, started to write this language in the new script. Hence Urdu, both spoken and written, came into shape. The regional languages, like Punjabi, Bengali, Sindhi, Pushto, Baluchi, Gujrati, Telgu, Marathi and Oriah were not forsaken. They continued as the languages of both Hindus and Muslims in the respective regions, but Urdu, primarily due to its script, came to be identified with the Muslims all over India. Later, it became one of the pillars of the Two-Nation Theory that had later borne the child, named Pakistan .
At the time of dividing the nation of India legally through an act of Parliament into two by enacting Separate Electorates, the Secretary of State, Viscount Morley, said on February 23, 1909 at the second reading of the Indian Councils Bill in the House of Lords: “ Only let us not forget that the difference between Mahomedanism and Hinduism is not a mere difference of articles of religious faith. It is a difference in life, in tradition, in history, in all the social things as well as the articles of belief that constitute a community”. Viscount Morley did not mention language as such but it was included in the words “in life, in tradition, in history, in all the social things.” However, it was elaborated on many occasions later by the Muslim League and its supreme leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Before we discuss this point, let us see how the radical Hindus had come to regard Urdu. The All-India Hindu-Mahasabha, a Hindu communal party launched in 1913 by Madan Mohan Malaviya, had coined the slogan “Hind-Hindi-Hindu.” That meant that Hind belonged to the Hindus whose language was Hindi, and other languages, if any, belonged to non-Hindus. The communal Hindus set up yet another party, the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh, whose President declared at the Ajmer session of 1933: ‘Hindustan is the land of the Hindus alone, and Musalmans and Christians and other nations living in India are only our guests. They can live here as long as they wish to remain as guests.’ As for the language, the Mahasabha session resolved: ‘Urdu is a foreign language which is a living monument to our slavery. It must be eradicated from the page of existence. Urdu is the language of the Malechas which has done great harm to our national ends by attaining popularity in India.’
In 1937, provincial legislatures were elected under the Government of India Act of 1935 on the basis of Separate Electorates. Of the eleven provinces, the Congress gained clear majority in Madras, Bihar, Orissa, UP and CP. In Bombay it won nearly half of the seats. Surprisingly, in NWFP and Assam it was the largest single party. Only in Bengal, Sind and Punjab, the Muslim League was the winner.
One of the various irritants to the Muslims of the Congress rule in the Provinces was the treatment of their language. Therefore, at the 1938 session of the All-India Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah had to say: "There is not the slightest doubt that the most aggressive attitude was taken up by the Congress Government on the threshold of their assuming office…They are pursuing a policy of making Hindi compulsory language, which must necessarily, if not completely, destroy — at any rate, virtually undermine — the spread of the development of Urdu; and what is worse still, is that Hindi with its Hindu Sanskrit literature and philosophy and ideals will and must necessarily be forced upon Muslim children and students."Further, before the famous Pakistan Resolution of 23 March 1940 was passed, Muhammad Ali Jinnah had argued on March 22 thus: “It is extremely difficult to appreciate why our Hindu friends fail to understand the real nature of Islam and Hinduism. They are not religions in the strict sense of the word, but are, in fact, different and distinct social orders, and it is a dream that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality, and this misconception of one Indian nation has gone far beyond the limits and is the cause of most of your troubles and will lead India to destruction if we fail to revise our notions in time. The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, and literatures”.
In the wake of this Resolution, Pakistan was born. Consequently, the percentage of the Muslim population in India came down to a very low level, while, at the same time, those of other people rose very high. Urdu lost its claim to be of some significance. It had lost its clout in India. In many of the States in India it was no more recognized even as a language of that region and Urdu was banished from schools. Urdu had thus to survive now less on official patronage and more on its own intrinsic force as a literature. Its forceful diction, elocution and poetry had already earned for Urdu immense popularity among the non-Muslim population. They had played a significant role in its development in the past, so they continued endearing this language.
When Pakistan came into being, more than half of the population was found speaking the regional language, Bengali. By being the language of the majority this language suddenly gained in stature in Pakistan. As Urdu had played its political role in defining the national character of the Muslims of undivided India, the Bengali language now started playing its own political role. Throwing to the wind the old symbol of Muslim nationalism, Bengal raised a strong voice for making Bengali another national language, beside Urdu. It may be mentioned here that Bengali script and language had incorporated in itself to a very large extent the same features “of Hindi with its Hindu Sanskrit literature and philosophy and ideals” to which M.A. Jinnah had earlier objected. In 1948 Jinnah, now the Governor General of Pakistan, declared during his visit to Dhaka that Urdu would be the only national language of Pakistan. However, no harm seemed to be cropping up by adopting Bengali as anther national language. After all, the educated people of India were fully soaked for long in English language and literature without losing the old cultural tinge of being Hindus or Muslims or Sikhs. But Bengali was not destined to be the national language of Pakistan. It was so because, one, the position of Bengal in the new country was politically secondary in relation to the combined strength of the other four provinces. Two, by acceding to this demand, the pre-Partition arguments about Urdu being the language of the Muslims, and thus a symbol of Muslim nationalism, would have fallen flat on the ground. Third, the voice of Jinnah, the undisputed leader, prevailed despite the Bengalis’ disregard for the old cry of Muslim nationhood, howsoever superficial it might prove to be when they had already achieved a country where they had found themselves in a majority.
Pakistan was undone in 1971. East Bengal, with the majority of population of Pakistan, separated and called itself Bangladesh. The rump continued with the old name, Pakistan. The Muslim nationhood shrunk further, and the playing field for the language further narrowed down in Pakistan. Provincialism and regionalism took hold of the old Muslim nationalism. Here the people had their own regional languages like that of East Pakistan, and forgetting in the same way the old All India Muslim culture which had defined them as a separate nation, laid stressed now more on their own local culture and language.
Such endearment was natural as it was their mother tongue. But a national language had to be designated, which could at the same time present a semblance of unity. Urdu came to their rescue, because that was the only language in which the people of the four provinces could converse with each other. Its past status, as the national language, thus continued. The commonality of this language was the single most forceful factor for uniting the four provinces, because as Muslims they all knew this language.
However, Urdu was accepted only half-heartedly. It seemed to be only a marriage of convenience. The local languages are dearer to the heart of the populace. Urdu is socially and officially considered as a foreign language imported from India. This is why the people who have come to Pakistan after migrating from India are called Urdu-speaking, not only by the society at large but also officially. In this regard the Judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the suo motu case number 16 of 2011 regarding law and order situation in Karachi of September 2011 may be seen where these people have been constantly referred to as “Urdu-speaking”. The non-acceptance of the indigenous people for themselves as the speaker of the national language, and assigning it to the immigrants from India, seems harshly ironical.
The above describes Urdu’s dominant role in undivided India, as also the fragile state to which it has reached in the present India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
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