Urdu in Pakistan
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Urdu in Pakistan
A Language Of Cohesion Reviewed By Naseer Ahma
For a common reader, it may be both amazing and amusing to note that scholars across Pakistan have never believed that Urdu was swept into this part of the subcontinent with the waves of immigrants from the other side of the border in 1947. They have rather insisted that the language was born and brought up here much before it flourished in the fertile grounds of Lucknow and Delhi.
About a century ago, the then vice-chancellor of the Punjab University, Sir Pirtaul Chandra Chatterji, floated a proposal that the province’s official language be Punjabi instead of Urdu. Punjab’s lieutenant governor Louis lent support to the proposal. But the Muslim intelligentsia erupted in agitation against the suggestion, calling it a sinister conspiracy against Punjab’s cultural and political identity. In newspaper editorials and articles, they vehemently opposed the proposition. They argued that Punjab’s mother tongue was Urdu, which was a developed form of Punjabi. They insisted that Urdu and Punjabi were not separate languages.
Punjab-based researchers insist that a major part of Urdu and Punjabi vocabulary is common. They quote numerous examples to prove that simple Urdu and simple Punjabi are identical in many aspects.
The most famous proponent of the theory that Punjabi is actually the old form of Urdu was Hafiz Mehmood Sherani. In his essay ‘Urdu ka irtiqa kis zuban say hua?’, Sherani says: ‘We see that in its rules of grammar, syntax, Urdu is very close to the Multani language. Nouns and verbs of both languages end with ‘alif’ (The first letter of the Arabic alphabet.) Both have the same procedure of making plurals. ...up to 60 per cent of the words in Punjabi and Urdu are common.’
Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik says that a new language emerged when the speakers of Prakrit, Persian and Arabic got together. Baba Fareed Ganj-i-Shakr (1173-1265) was the first poet to make this new language, which can be described as old Urdu, the vehicle of his literary expressions, says Malik.
Scholars in Sindh argue that with Mohammad bin Qasim’s arrival in this part of the subcontinent, the need for a common language had arisen. The young Arab general’s troops included men speaking Persian and Turkic besides Arabic. The local people spoke Sindhi. And the languge that emerged from these language was a precursor to Urdu.
In his essay ‘Urdu zuban ka asli muallid Sindh’, Pir Hussamuddin Rashdi says: ‘The Muslims first of all arrived in Sindh and here Arabic and then Persian languages commixed with the Indian languages. So this fact is clear that Sindh is the birthplace of Urdu.’ He also quotes Syed Suleiman Nadvi who had said: ‘What we call Urdu now must have taken shape in the valley of Sindh.’
It is heartening, as Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik has stated in his preface to the book, that people love their national language as much as they find its origin somewhere around them. It augurs well for national cohesion.
Dr Jamil Jalibi, apparently having all theories about Urdu’s birth in view, says: ‘Similarly as it has its kinship with the Multani and Punjabi languages, Urdu has its primal and old relationship with the Sindhi language.’ Scholars of Balochistan claim that the Arabs arrived in Makran during the caliphate of Hazrat Omar (RA), long before Ibn Qasim’s arrival in Sindh, therefore, Urdu’s seeds were sown in Balochistan earlier than in any other part of the subcontinent.
Scholars of Abaseen, which includes the NWFP and the northern areas, say the language developed when the troops of the Mughals crossed the Khyber Pass into that part of the subcontinent. They camped in the areas of Peshawar and Kohat. Their interaction with the local populations gave rise to a language that is called Hindko. They argue that Hindko, which is the main language of Peshawar, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan and Hazara, is the earlier manifestation of Urdu.
Farigh Bukhari argues that Delhi and Lucknow became the centre of Urdu’s growth and progress only because those places were the capital cities of the emperors. But the dough of the language that came into being with the embrace of Persian and Sanskrit had been prepared in the rugged land of the NWFP when the Iranians began invading India, which was a ‘gold bird’ to them. Beginning with the first invasion of Mahmud Ghaznavi in 1001, these inroads continued till the rule of Nadir Shah Durrani. These foreign invaders needed the help of the locals to remove the linguistic barriers and the language that emerged from their interaction was called Reekhta.
Another claimant to Urdu’s motherhood is the lowly Gojri, the language of goat-herders of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir. Arguing that since a large number of literary Urdu are found in that tongue of the illiterate nomads, Gojri may be the foundation stone of Urdu.
The fifth volume of the book deals with Urdu in Kashmir. The writers in this volume mainly discuss how Urdu entered and prospered in Kashmir. But some of the writers quote examples to prove that Urdu had roots in the hills of Kashmir. For instance, a long poem, Masnavi Gulzar-i-Faqr, spread over 40 pages, was written by Sheikh Mohiuddin of Mirpur about 300 years ago.
Where Urdu was born is a subject that will engage the attention of linguists for an indefinite time. But it is heartening, as Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik, the chairman of the National Languge Authority, has stated in his Preface to the book, that people love their national language as much as they find its origin somewhere around them. It augurs well for the national cohesion.
The five volumes not only discuss the purported origin of Urdu in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Abaseen and Kashmir, but they also have articles by and on eminent literary men of those areas.
The National Language Authority (Muqtadara Qaumi Zuban) deserves accolades for publishing such a splendid book
Pakistan mein Urdu (five volumes) Compiled by Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik, Syed Sardar Ahmed Pirzada and Tajamal Shah National Language Authority, Islamabad 2,735pp. Rs1,810
