Is Urdu the best option for socio-economic development of Pakistan as a nation?

Last week I read an article in the Daily Express by Orya Maqbool Jan, a famous columnist of Pakistan, in which he emphasized the belief that in the past five thousand years no nation has ever achieved the pinnacle of success and development unless it has adopted its own language as a source of education. Resting his case he further mentioned that we need to translate all the existing knowledge base into Urdu if we want to stand as a developed nation.

My first response to this belief was a mix of respect for his love towards Urdu and disagreement with his point of view that we can’t be creative in any other language except our own, as he had once mentioned in a TV show (Azaan TV).  I thought, creativity has nothing to do with language. Language is a tool of communication of thoughts and creativity. You can transfer your creativity into Arabic, Urdu, English, digital codes and graphic animations. After a day or so, I revisited my thought and took interest in reading more. I tried to find answers to my own questions. Is transferring creativity into your own language quicker and into any foreign language  slow ? Does it take too much time because first you would have to master that language? Can development at the national level can be achieved by using a second language or not?

What is development? We can define development in different ways. GDP, per capita income, life standard and poverty eradication, are the most commonly used terms to define and explain development. The World Bank in its 1999 World Development Report  stated that it is a multidimensional process including major changes in social structures and economic stability. The most attractive and appealing  is the explanation of development in economic terms as emphasized by the West, “the path towards maximization of goods and services per head”. This may be easy to measure. However, some authors such as Wiseman Magwa and Davie E. Mustafa, are of the view that development is a multi-dimensional process involving changes in attitudes, structure and institutions in a given society. They hold the view that the needs of societies are different and not identical. I focused on this broad explanation because we are facing social problems, political problems and economic problems altogether. Based on this broad definition, can a second or third language (foreign) bring development to Pakistan? Is it Urdu that can trigger the multidimensional change process for development?

Let’s not consider all the languages and dialects spoken in Pakistan to keep it short and to the point. Urdu is our national language and lingua franca. We have five major languages; Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki and Balochi. It means Urdu is not the first language or mother tongue of most of the Pakistanis and native Urdu speakers are about 8% of the total population. But a fact about Urdu language is that almost every Pakistani uses it as a second language. If we start systematically, counting indigenous languages, then Urdu is our second language and English third. English is our secondary official language -- dominantly officail. If we talk about language of the masses in Pakistan, definitely it is Urdu. If we were to choose a language for any big national-level change it seems to be Urdu because of the simple fact that it is the most understood and spoken language of the population.

Language can be an aid to development as well as barrier to development. If I stick to the broader definition of development, aforementioned, then English is a barrier to development in Pakistan. It is not the language of the masses. The best way to reach the masses for any social, political and scientific purposes is through the use of the language they easily understand. Concepts and terminologies can be constructed in indigenous languages as well, although it would need a huge and exhaustive effort due to the fact that we haven’t done something like that yet. According to Wolff (1999), the development of a whole country in terms of its economy or political culture hinges on communicative efficiency based on language. Again, it seems Urdu would be efficient in such a case, at least in the case of domestic commerce, product and services, policy matters, administration and politics. If Ufone comes up with commercials in English language, would most of prospective & current customers, the target market, understand the packages they offer? If a school kid in a K.G. class was taught the word, "apple", wouldn’t we need to make him understand first in his native language? His mind would use the native language to identify apple, unless he was brought up with parents who always speak English. If Imran Khan or Nawaz Sharif comes to Chitral or Peshawar and addresses the public in English would that work for them to gain socail and political support?

Molvi Abdul Haq, Baba-e- Urdu, used to emphasize that Urdu is the thing that unites the whole nation. Sometimes, this thing seems to me to be Urdu and Cricket. We have been acting like an emotional nation throughout our history. Projecting English as a language of development doesn’t seem to fit the nation’s affective component of social structure. Joshua A. Fishman, in the World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators and A Cross-Polity Survey, states, “ Linguistically homogenous polities are usually, economically more developed, educationally more advanced, politically more modernized, and ideologically and politically more tranquil and stable."

Kishe (2003) holds the idea that there seems to be a correlation in Africa between underdevelopment and the use of a foreign language as the official language of a given country. Can we hold this theory for Pakistan, in Asia? After all, according to World Bank statistics, the nominal GDP of Pakistan in 2010 was 174,799 million USD,  not very different from South Africa’s 363,704 million USD--even worse. In this same continent called Asia, Japan and China have Japanese and Chinese respectively as their official and national languages and their economies are booming. Is Urdu the missing link to our socio-economic development? Do all the stake holders of development in Pakistan understand English fully? 

There are also benefits associated with learning a secondary language, in our case, English or any other. For example, increased cognitive abilities, higher job opportunities, greater access to research-based knowledge, cultural awareness and higher scores in standardized international tests. I would never say no to learning a second or third language whether it is English or Arabic. Usually it has been noticed that English in our country is associated with elites and bureaucracy. This is also one of the reasons we opt for English because, humans,  rational egoists, first think of themselves and their families. Every young man will go for English unless there is a change in the system, to bring linguistic homogeneity in education system in Pakistan.

On a national level scenario -- mass scale development, participation of masses and effective and quick flow of information throughout Pakistan, Urdu seems to be the best option. All alone, Urdu, too, can’t bring about miracle if we are not committed to be honest, moderate, tolerant and responsible citizens of Pakistan.
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References and useful links:

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GDP.pdf

http://utilika.org/pubs/etc/ndld-asl.pdf

http://www.polytechnic.edu.na/academics/schools/comm_legal_secre/comm/nawa_journal/language-and-development-Magwa-Mutasa.pdf

A trip to Shawnee National forest: To explore the part of America famous for its natural and recreational sites.

January 27-29,2012.

Paul Starcher, International Student Counselor at University of Evansville, introduced me to the University of Evansville Venturing Crew 365 but I had to get registered with the Boys Scouts of America (BSA) and pass “Youth Protection Training” to join them in their events or community services. It took me a few days to do that and my first trip with the crew was to Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. It cost about $60 dollars (from registration to the whole trip) but the fun I had and things I learned are beyond the monetary value I just mentioned.

Shawnee National Forest is located at about a 2 hours’ drive from Evansville. We, a group of 28 students, set off on the evening of January 27 and reached “Garden of the Gods” at about 8 pm. It was my first formal camping trip and it was a great chance to learn things from setting up tents to working on a team. It was a lot of fun to make a fire with wood and I said, “I can smell my home now”, which made the friends laugh out loud (In Chitral we make fire by woods in our homes, may be a surprise to many of you). At night it got pretty cold but in the morning going to see the sunrise in the wilderness of the forest was a mesmerizing moment. After a  breakfast of scrambled eggs, we started hiking and I came across huge pine and oak trees, ponds and streams, small herbs (as I can’t name) and different scenes which were the manifestation of the greatness and beauty of nature. We took some memorable pictures together capturing nature in the background.

Descending was a little tough as we all were tired but we waited for each other, making sure everyone is in the queue and sang on the way back to keep ourselves encouraged and energetic. We went to Burden Falls and enjoyed our time near the 100 foot high water fall. I was the first to reach the bottom of the water fall and also the first to slip and get some cold water on my jeans. As soon as we arrived back to our camping site I changed my jeans and joined the team for cooking and collecting wood to make a fire. I loved the rice with hot sauce. After dinner, we had a game which was a mixture of dance and songs.

On the morning of  January 29, we went to the observation trail in the Garden of the Gods. There were giant and marvelous rocks which had been shaped into different images like hogbacks and camel. According to the printed information I read on one of the rocks, these images are the result of sedimentation.There used to be a sea in this area some 320 Million years ago. This also depicts the role of nature in shaping our history and geography. After an hour of rock climbing and photography we were on our way back, after a memorable 2 days trip.
Last but not least, I am lucky to have a visit to the “Camel Rock” and take a picture with it because in 2016 this rock is going to be featured on US coins, part of US Mint’s “ America the beautiful” quarters program. 

Things I learned!

I learned a high sense of responsibility. Back at home I used to go on tours and trips with friends and ,unfortunately, in open places like a camping site or playground we would not bother to pick up the trash, papers etc. left behind by us. But here I saw that our team had a trash box or drum with them and we used to put any useless thing into it, from fruit peelings to used plastic plates. On the last day when we were about to pull down our tents and pack back we stood in a line in such a way that the whole camping site was covered horizontally. Then we started walking till the end picking every small bit of anything left by us, if any. Eventually, we left the camping site as clean as we had received it.

The second thing I learned was conservation of nature. In our whole hiking trip, in which we covered about 60 miles on the average, I observed that the trees are not smote down anywhere. There are instructions printed not to carry any grass seed outside the forest or bring new ones. There were specific routes to be followed while hiking so that not every part is trodden down by the people.

Thirdly, here in the USA, I found out that the laws for preservation of nature, archeological artifacts and historical avenues are well defined and implemented. It is because preservation of such things would ultimately lead to more tourists, greater revenue and higher standards.

I feel more responsible about nature around the globe after this trip.