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New York: With 196 of its languages listed as endangered, India tops the Unesco’s list of countries having the maximum number of dialects on the verge of extinction.
India is closely followed by the U.S. which stands to lose 192 languages and Indonesia, where 147 are in peril.
These facts were revealed in the latest Atlas of World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing unveiled by the Unesco. — PTI
Atlas shows world losing its tongue
President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid wreaths at the altar of Shaheed Minar at Friday midnight, leading the nation in paying homage to the language movement martyrs.
Toddlers holding their mothers' hands or riding on their fathers' shoulders also joined the wave of people in showing respect to the language martyrs.
On this day in 1952, police opened fire on a procession of Dhaka University students who demanded that Bengali must be the one of the state languages of the then Pakistan. Several students were killed, forcing the Pakistani government to recognize Bengalias one of the state languages of Pakistan.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) declared Feb. 21 the International Mother Language Day on Nov. 17, 1999 to honor the supreme sacrifice of language martyrs.
Political parties and socio-cultural organizations observed the day by organizing discussions, cultural programs and book fairs highlighting the significance of the day.
Though it is a mourning day, general people observed it as a day of pride and festivity. In their colorful dresses, children were seen joining book fairs or cultural shows.
The authorities tightened the security to ensure peaceful observance of the day.
The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO says more than 100 languages in Australia are in danger of extinction.
The latest edition of UNESCO's atlas of world languages in danger was launched in Paris yesterday and shows almost half the 6,700 languages spoken worldwide could disappear.
Sarah Cutfield from the Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies says the map is a great resource for those working to preserve traditional languages.
She says there is still hope for languages such as Dalabon - from south-western Arnhem Land - as long as it is passed on to the next generation.
"There's only about five fluent speakers of Dalabon that are still remaining and they're spread throughout the Territory," she said.
"So there's a lot that needs to be done to document this language before these elderly speakers pass away."
Politics and the RULING as well as RESISTANCE Hegemony do engage themselves in language RIOTs to mobilise RESPECTIVE Vote BANK. In Maharashtra, ILLUMINITI rule is exposed more than life while the SLOGANS like AMMACI MUMBAI or MARATHA MANUSH flare up BLIND NATIONALISM as HATRED CAMPAIN subverting the ECONOMIC question. the Nationalists do play the role of marketing agents of Desi ILLUMINITI, REALTY and construction sector escalating DISPLACEMENT, DEINDUSTRIALISATION, PRIVATISATION, RETAIL CHAIN, SEZ, HUBS, MALLS, URBANISING!
In kolkata, the Present President of Indian Sahitya Academy, SUNIL GANGOPADDHYAY happnes to be the protagonist of BENGALI language and nationality who deny space for other languages and launch HATERD CAMPAIGN against NON Bengalies.
Now FIRE BRAND Leader MAMATA BANNERJEE takes over.Mamata to set up martyrs memorial, beautify park with MPLAD!
A martyrs column would be set up in her South Kolkata Lok Sabha constituency in memory of those killed in 1952 demanding Bengali as the state language in erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, from her MPLAD fund, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee announced on 21st FEB,2009.
Banerjee who was speaking at a function to celebrate UN International Mother&aposs Language Day said the martyrs column would be set up at Deshapriya Park at a cost of Rs 20 lakh.
She also announced an equal amount from the MPLAD fund for the beautification of Chetla Park in honour of the Nobel laureates.
On the other hand, The West Bengal government presented prime minister Sheikh Hasina 100000 pieces of rasagolla, a popular Bengali syrupy dessert., Saturday, the International Mother Language Day.
Subhas Chakraborty, West Bengal's transport minister, handed one of the sweets packets to Jessore-1 MP Sheikh Afil Uddin at a ceremony at No-Man's Land near Benapol Land Port in Jessore around 11am.
The sweets have been given as a gesture of goodwill on the victory of Hasina-led Awami League in the general elections and in appreciation of the development of democracy in Bangladesh.
Bengali-speaking people from either side of the border joined a fair, seen as reunion of sorts, where the ceremony took place. A daylong cultural function followed..
Amitabh Nandy, a member of Indian Lok Sabha, Jessore-2 MP Mostofa Faruq Ahmed attended the ceremony.
Manx, Aasax, Ubykh, Eyak: Once spoken in, respectively, the Isle of Man, Tanzania, Turkey, and Alaska, all four languages have died out in the last 35 years. Of the 6,000 or so languages still heard in the world, about 2,500 are at risk, and 199 have fewer than 10 speakers left, according to Unesco.
To bring attention to the plight of these endangered linguistic species, Unesco today unveiled an interactive online version of the latest edition of its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. (The print edition comes out next month.) The atlas draws on the work of more than 30 linguists, supervised by its editor in chief, Christopher Moseley of Australia.
Users of the atlas can search by country or area, language name, number of speakers, or vitality, which includes five categories: unsafe, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered, and extinct. Each search takes you to a Google map with balloons that mark the home turf of each language; click on a balloon and you get a series of virtual notecards that give you that tongue’s name(s), latitude and longitude, number of speakers, and status. The Unesco team clearly hopes to add outside expertise to its work; users can record comments or corrections for each entry.
Gatua wa Mbugwa made history this month when he submitted his PhD thesis, written in Gikuyu, to the department of plant sciences of the University of Wyoming, the US.
Mr Mbugwa teaches the global impact of African cultures and agriculture rooted in diversity at the university. His dissertation focuses on a self-regenerating plant species known as Laramie, a pasture legume that enriches soils and improves livestock nutrition and productivity.He translated the thesis into English and attached the translation to the original Gikuyu version.
Kenya’s Ngugi wa Thiong’o, currently the professor of English and comparative literature and director of the International Centre for Writing and Translation at the University of California in Irvine, says Mr Mbugwa’s thesis was written in standard Gikuyu.
He added that Mr Mbugwa has “almost single-handedly invented scientific Gikuyu language, thus proving that scientific research can be reported in an African language without loss of scientific content and value. It should prove an inspiring model for other African languages.”
Mr Mbugwa, a native of Mutunguru village in Gatundu District, also earned his masters degree in agriculture from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, by writing his master’s thesis in Gikuyu language. The thesis was on the effects of biointensive cropping with a focus on Kenyan collard greens.
His achievement demolishes the myth that our local languages cannot express modern concepts. All languages can develop new terms and structures as needed. Léopold Senghor, better known as a poet and first president of Senegal, showed this by translating Einstein’s Theory of Relativity into Wolof, his mother tongue.
Any language, as many linguistic experts have observed, can be “intellectualised” and developed through writing and publishing.
To promote local languages, UN agency Unesco proclaimed the International Mother Language Day — also called the International Mother Tongue Day — in November 1999. It has been observed since February 2000 to promote cultural diversity and multilingual education, among other things.
The day recognises the sanctity of all vernacular languages, promotes mother tongues and creates greater awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions. It recognises that mother tongues help to preserve and develop our heritage, and strengthen the unity and cohesion of our societies. It is part of Unesco’s drive to protect and preserve mother tongues.
Kenya, with as many languages as it has tribes, needs to observe the day with special interest. We need to preserve all our mother languages, for to lose them is to lose our cultural heritage.
A large number of functions were held in Tripura, Assam and West Bengal to mark the Language Martyrs Day, which the Unesco declared as the International Mother Tongue Day in November 1999.
“As globalisation increases, languages die and, of course, English is the great ‘killer language’ because the media and the corporate sector use it. The 21st of February reminds us that despite this inequality of power between mother tongues and the languages of power, we must not give up hope,” said Tripura Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Anil Sarkar.
While speaking at a function at Akhaurah check post along Tripura’s India-Bangladesh border, Sarkar, a renowned poet, said: “We must be conscious of the significance of our mother tongues, which give us identity, which are repositories of culture and which, in the final analysis, make us what we are.”
Language Martyrs Day is marked in Bangladesh to commemorate those who died during protests Feb 21, 1952 against the then Pakistani government’s decision to name Urdu as the national language, despite East Pakistan’s (now Bangladesh’s) Bengali speaking majority.
Similar functions were also held in Karimganj and Silchar in southern Assam.
Silchar saw one of the uprisings in favour of the Bengali language in early 1960s. When the Assam government headed by Chief Minister Bimala Prasad Chaliha, passed a circular to make Assamese language mandatory, Bengalis of the Barak Valley (southern Assam) protested.
On May 19, 1961, the Assam police opened fire on unarmed protesters at the Silchar Railway Station in which 11 agitators died. After that, the popular revolt further strengthened, forcing the Assam government to withdraw the circular and Bengali was ultimately given official status in the three districts of southern Assam.
“The lesson to be learned from Ekushe (as Feb 21 is popularly known) is that there should be no suppression of the culture and language of any region. Moreover, and this is even more important, power and resources should be distributed by the centre in such a just, fair and equitable manner that languages do not become symbols of resistance,” said Mohammad Tariq Rahman, a leader of the Matribhasha Smaran Samity (mother tongue memorial organisation).
Int’l Mother Language Day observed in Paris
UNESCO Headquarters hosted celebrations on the occasion of International Mother Language Day this year, says a press release. The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, opened the celebrations. Enamul Kabir, Ambassador of Bangladesh to France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, participated in the opening session.
As part of the celebration of International Mother Language Day, UNESCO presented a special exhibition of paintings, “Reflection/Narration: Where Are We Going?,” by Bangladeshi artists Monica Jahan Bose and Imtiaz Shohag.
Monica Jahan Bose is an artist and activist from Bangladesh who lives and works in Paris. Her paintings often incorporate passages of Bengali writing, in part as an expression of her intense attachment to her mother tongue. Many of her works navigate the confusion and complexity inherent in our multicultural world, and seek to question what is “home” and our conscious or unconscious longing for that place. Her “Mother Tongue” paintings explore her relationship with the Bangla (Bengali) language, as well as women's literacy and political issues in connection with the language. Though she was born in England and spent most of her life outside Bangladesh, she learned her mother tongue from her parents. She has also taught her mother tongue to her children. Her parents were involved in the struggle to make Bangla an official language in East Pakistan, which later became the independent nation of Bangladesh. The paintings include images of the Shaheed Minar, the symbol of Bangladesh's mother language movement. Her “Water” series also includes Bangla writing and comments on global warming in Bangladesh.
Imtiaj Shohag is a painter from Barisal, who currently resides in Paris. He received his BFA from the Institute of Fine Arts in Dhaka. He was awarded a scholarship to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and completed his MFA there. Many of his paintings reflect his roots in Bangladesh. His recent works focus on global warming and its impact on Bangladesh.
“Don’t neglect mother tongue”
Staff Reporter
Birth centenary of Narla Venkateswara Rao celebrated
VIJAYAWADA: Underscoring the need for making better use of Telugu language, Chairman of the Legislative Council A. Chakrapani on Saturday felt that there was a need to distribute ‘Telugu Shatakams’ in all the schools across the State and make students recite them every day. He advised parents and teachers to encourage children to speak in their mother tongue.
He was speaking as chief guest at the birth centenary celebrations of noted journalist and writer Narla Venkateswara Rao, organised jointly by Visakhapatnam-based Lok Nayak Foundation and the departments of Telugu and Journalism of Andhra University.
Negligence
Over 200 students from Telugu and Journalism departments of Andhra University visited Kowthavaram village, the native place of the late Narla, early in the day and later took out a procession on Mahatma Gandhi Road, which culminated in a public meeting at Montessori Mahila Kalasala.
Referring to the findings of the UNESCO, which said that Telugu language was becoming extinct, Mr. Chakrapani said that it was a result of the negligence shown by the Telugu-speaking people over the last few decades.
“We have to learn a lot from our neighbouring Tamilians and Kannadigas, who are protecting their mother tongue despite several challenges,” he observed.
Bharatiya Janata Party senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu advised youngsters not to fall prey to the foreign culture and forget the importance of Indian culture.
He said the British had planned to destroy Indian culture to set up their empire here.
“We must respect our mother, motherland, mother tongue and mother nation,” he emphasised, adding there was a strong need to make teaching of Telugu language compulsory in all the schools in the State.
Editor of ‘Andhra Bhoomi’ Telugu daily M.V.R. Sastry said one could get many benefits by achieving proficiency in one’s mother tongue.
Fluency
“Fluency in mother tongue helps people learn foreign languages,” he observed.
Animal Husbandry Minister Mandali Buddha Prasad presided over the meeting. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Hindi Akademi and the Lok Nayak Foundation, Kolli Sarada, former chairperson of VGTM-UDA and daughter of the late Narla Venkateswara Rao, P. Bobby Vardhan, Head of the Department of journalism of Andhra University, V. Koteswaramma, director of the Montessori Educational Institutions, and others were present.
India, second fastest growing economy.
February 12, 2009
Text: Rediff Business Desk
It's not all gloom and doom for India. The advance estimates of national income released by the Central Statistical Organisation brings much hope for the ailing economy.
The Indian economy will see the second-fastest growth rate of 7.1 per cent for 2008-09, according to the advance estimates of the CSO.
These advance estimates are based on anticipated level of agricultural and industrial production, analysis of budget estimates of government expenditure and performance of key sectors like, railways, transport other than railways, communication, banking and insurance, available so far.
When Union Home Minister P Chidambaram held the finance portfolio, he had pegged India's growth rate in the current year at between 7 and 8 per cent. He had said that India would continue being the second fastest growing economy in the world despite the global economic slowdown.
Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund had predicted that India would grow at 7.8 per cent in 2008, and 6.3 per cent in 2009.
Dhaka , Feb 20 Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina today honoured 13 persons with an award instituted in memory of&aposlanguage martyrs&apos, who were killed in 1950 demanding Bengali as state language in erstwhile West Pakistan.
The&apos Ekushey Padak-2009&aposaward coincides with the celebration of the UN International Mother Language Day." Ekushey is an shore anchor . The history of the Bengali nation would have been different had it not been for Ekushey," Hasina told the award giving ceremony.
Bangladesh offers the state-level award in memory of&apos Language Movement martyrs&apos, who were killed in police shootout on February 21, 1952 during street marches demanding Bengali be declared as the state language in the then Pakistan when Bangladesh was eastern part of the country.
" Bengali language is being corrupted. Speaking Bengali with English accent has to be stopped, Bengali has to be spoken like Bengali," Hasina said.
The award, carries Taka 40,000 in cash, a gold medal and a citation for contributions to different fields.
Candle vigil remembers those killed in Bengali language riots
19 February 2009
By April Welsh
A THOUSAND people are expected to turn up for a midnight candlelit vigil tomorrow night (Friday) to remember those killed in clashes in East Pakistan 57 years ago over using the Bengali language.
The vigil is being held in East London at Altab Ali Park, in the heart of Whitechapel's expatriate Bangladeshi community, from 11pm Friday until 12.30am Saturday. The Acting High Commissioner of Bangladesh and the Mayor of Tower Hamlets are laying wreaths, with visitors laying wreaths afterwards.
They are commemorating the students and activists who clashed with police in Dhaka on February 21, 1952, to protest against making Urdu the national language.
Many were killed in the clashes which are thought to have inspired the independence movement which ultimately led to the separate state of Bangladesh in 1971.
The Whitechapel vigil is one of many planned tomorrow across the world.
 | |||
In the article published in the February 20 edition of TOI, titled Poll bugles to blow on Bhasha Divas', it had been written that a "Left-backed A portion of Curzon Park is now known as Bhasha Udyan. The Bhasha Shahid Smarak Samiti has, for the past 10 years, commemorated Bhasha Divas here. The samiti is a government-registered social and cultural organization, whose main aim is to promote the Bengali language and culture. Eminent personalities such as Nirendranath Chakraborty, Sankha Ghosh, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Jogen Chowdhury, Bibhash Chakraborty, Suvaprasanna, Dibyendu Palit, Shyamalkanti Chakraborty and others are with our organization. We are not affiliated to any political party. | |||
A file photo of foreign language dictionaries in Paris in 2006 | |||
2,500 languages threatened with extinction: UNESCO
PARIS (AFP) — The world has lost Manx in the Isle of Man, Ubykh in Turkey and last year Alaska's last native speaker of Eyak, Marie Smith Jones, died, taking the aboriginal language with her.
Of the 6,900 languages spoken in the world, some 2,500 are endangered, the UN's cultural agency UNESCO said Thursday as it released its latest atlas of world languages.
That represents a multi-fold increase from the last atlas compiled in 2001 which listed 900 languages threatened with extinction.
But experts say this is more the result of better research tools than of an increasingly dire situation for the world's many tongues.
Still there is disheartening news.
There are 199 languages in the world spoken by fewer than a dozen people, including Karaim which has six speakers in Ukraine and Wichita, spoken by 10 people in the US state of Oklahoma.
The last four speakers of Lengilu talk among themselves in Indonesia.
Prospects are a bit brighter for some 178 other languages, spoken by between 10 and 150 people.
More than 200 languages have become extinct over the last three generations such as Ubykh that fell silent in 1992 when Tefvic Esenc passed on, Aasax in Tanzania, which disappeared in 1976, and Manx in 1974.
India tops the list of countries with the greatest number of endangered languages, 196 in all, followed by the United States which stands to lose 192 and Indonesia, where 147 are in peril.
Australian linguist Christopher Moseley, who headed the atlas' team of 25 experts, noted that countries with rich linguistic diversity like India and the United States are also facing the greatest threat of language extinction.
Even Sub-Saharan Africa's melting pot of some 2,000 languages is expected to shrink by at least 10 percent over the coming century, according to UNESCO.
On UNESCO's rating scale, 538 languages are critically endangered, 502 severely endangered, 632 definitely endangered and 607 unsafe.
On a brighter note, Papua New Guinea, the country of 800 languages, the most diverse in the world, has only 88 endangered dialects.
Certain languages are even showing signs of a revival, like Cornish, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, southern England, and Sishee in New Caledonia.
Governments in Peru, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Mexico have been successful in their efforts to prevent indigenous languages from dying out.
UNESCO deputy director Francoise Riviere applauded government efforts to support linguistic diversity but added that "people have to be proud to speak their language" to ensure it thrives.
Words of warning: 2,500 languages under threat worldwide as migrants head for city
Unesco unveils its first comprehensive database of
endangered tongues
From the tumultuous middle ages to the mid-20th century, Livonian flourished as the mother tongue of thousands in a province on the eastern Baltic coast. Invaders came and went; rulers were appointed and overthrown; but the odd-sounding linguistic hybrid that a minority of locals liked to speak held strong.
Then came the second world war, Nazi occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union. Native speakers of Livonian were displaced and their language assaulted by Russification. Now, from a population of almost 2,500 in the mid-1900s, the number of people who grew up with the language is at an all-time low: only one person now embodies centuries of history and culture.
Whether Livonian's disappearance is viewed stoically as a result of time passing or with horror as a consequence of globalisation, one thing is certain: it is not an unusual case. Yesterday, at its headquarters in Paris, Unesco unveiled its first comprehensive and online database of the world's endangered tongues. According to its team of specialists, there are around 2,500 languages at risk, including more than 500 considered "critically endangered" and 199 which have fewer than 10 native speakers.
"We as human beings should care about this in the same way as we should care about the loss of the world's variety of plants and animals, its biodiversity," said Christopher Moseley, editor-in-chief of the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. "Because each language is a uniquely structured world of thought, with its own associations, metaphors, ways of thinking, vocabulary, sound system and grammar - all working together in a marvellous architectural structure which is so fragile that it could easily be lost forever."
The modern world plays its part. A once healthy language dies because its speakers shift allegiances to that of a bigger, more powerful group of people, and, while this can happen through political pressure and military force, it is now most often brought about by the flood of migration from the country to the city. Perhaps unsurprisingly, two of the countries where the risk is greatest are India and Brazil, which are undergoing rapid economic transformations. "[These trends] often bring about the loss of traditional ways of life and a strong pressure to speak a dominant language that is - or is perceived to be - necessary for full civic participation and economic advancement," said Unesco.
Other factors in a language's decline range from the community's own lack of pride in its heritage or a sudden rash of deaths of native speakers to the spread of so-called "killer" languages such as English, French or Spanish. But amid the gloom, there is some hope. A growing awareness of the need to save natural biodiversity has given an extra boost to the preservation movement. "Linguists are for the first time aware of just how many languages there are in the world and are coming to a better understanding of the forces that are attacking them ... and of ways to control those forces," said Moseley.
The world is seeing revival movements. Inspired by high-profile successes of the 20th century - chiefly the renaissance of Hebrew as Israel's national tongue but also the reclaiming of Welsh, Catalan and Breton - tribes and communities in the remotest corners of the globe are fighting for the right to converse as their ancestors did.
Ecuador's Andoa, a language spoken fluently by only 10 people, has been recently revived by its local people. So far they have collected around 150 words and are on the hunt for more.
There is no doubt that a country, with adequate state support and a willingness on the part of the people, can allow its languages to flourish independently of each other. Papua New Guinea is a shining example: although the nation with the greatest linguistic diversity on the planet, it has relatively few endangered tongues. Even Livonian, with its one native speaker, is being relearned on Latvia's Kurzeme peninsula and used by poets to write verses and parents to chat to their children.
What is crucial, said Moseley, is that moves are taken to protect a language. He advocates recording a language so that future generations can hear words no longer spoken. Ned Maddrell, for example, a fisherman from the Isle of Man, took his duties as the last speaker of Manx very seriously, recording various phrases before his death in 1974. Thus anyone desperate to ask a man named Joe "if the crabs are crawling" can learn the phrase, "Vel ny partanyn snaue, Joe?" And also understand at least one response: "Cha nel monney, cha nel monney. T'ad feer ghoan." ("Not much, not much. They're very scarce.")
Only one native speaker left
More than a dozen languages around the world have only one mother tongue speaker left. While some will die soon, others are the focus of the efforts by younger generations keen to revive their forebears' traditions.
Wintu-Nomlaki
A language divided into two main dialects - that of the Wintu people and Nomlaki people, both from the western Sacramento Valley in northern California. Although only one fluent speaker is recorded, there are several 'semi-speakers' thanks to the language's use in traditional stories.
Livonian
30,000 people spoke the language of the province of Livonia in the 13th century and, although speakers diminished over the years, there were still many of them until the second world war and its aftermath. Since Latvian independence there have been efforts to revitalise it.
Yahgan
Cristina Calderon of Ukika village on Chile's Navarino Island is the last speaker of the indigenous tongue of the Yagan people, but there is renewed interest in reviving the language. Yahgan was among the first South American languages to be recorded by European explorers and missionaries.
Kaixna
The only known living speaker of the language is reported by Unesco to be Raimundo Avelino, 78. The language of the 200-strong Kaixana people, who hail originally from a village near the banks of the river Japura in Brazil, has largely been replaced by Portuguese.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/20/endangered-languages-unesco
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CJ: Partha Sengupta , 2 hours ago Views:48 Comments:1
IN THE year 2000, UNESCO designated February 21, as International Mother Language Day. This designation is based on an event that took place in the year 1952. The event was called ’Language Movement’, which took place in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). This day holds an important lesson for the present conflict-ridden society.
We all know that post-independence in 1947, Pakistan was comprised of two distinct pieces of geography, namely, West Pakistan (the present-day Pakistan) and East Pakistan (the present-day Bangladesh). The year was 1948 and the Pakistani (read, West Pakistani) government decreed that Urdu would be the sole national language across the whole of Pakistan. The intention was to drive home the point that Urdu was the language associated with Islam.
In East Pakistan, Bengalis were a huge majority, (even when viewed as part of the whole of the then Pakistan) and they launched a massive movement against the decree. As usual, the Pakistani government let lose repression, by banning rallies, etc. This culminated in a fierce protest at the University of Dhaka. The government applied force - the police and military entered the university on February 21, 1952, opened fire and killed a large number of students. This event, along with a few others, influenced the history of Pakistan and led to the independence of Bangladesh.
The purpose of writing the article has nothing to do with my mother tongue, except for the fact that I have a better knowledge of the event (though it happened much before my birth).
India as such is lucky to have a potpourri of languages. The Indian government recognizes a number of Indian languages as official languages. It is not that India did not have a problem in this area. Many times in the past, many people protested ’imposition’ of Hindi, especially in the southern states. Fortunately, as polity evolved, such issues ebbed, although off and on some minor incidents do come to the surface.
Actually, the history of ’Language Movement’ or Bhasha Andolan or simply ’Ekushe February’ can be a guiding force and eye-opener in reducing conflicts. It may look like some kind of over-simplification to cite a historical event to solve the problems of a world that faces more complex problems but history can always be a great teacher.
Languages struggling for existence
By Amar Guriro
KARACHI: On the eve of the United Nations (UN) International Mother Language Day being celebrated today (Saturday), Sindhi language and linguistics experts insisted that the government and the general public give equal importance to global languages and regional languages.
Some of the language experts linked the extinction of regional languages to the economical crisis. “Due to the global economic crisis, a great number of people have been forced to migrate from rural areas to urban centres, where the language of business and communication is not their mother tongue. They have to adapt and communicate in the more popular languages of the urban centres, leaving their native tongue behind. Thus, if the economic crisis continues, it will entirely change the basis of mother languages, especially minor languages including Dhakti, Marwari, Gujarati, Kachi and Kalami,” said Dr Om Prakash, a Sindhi language expert. “I personally believe that the economic crisis will hit these languages first before major regional languages, including Sindhi.”
He added that this does not mean that the masses should not adopt and speak the popular languages of urban centres such as Urdu and English, however, while using these languages, they should preserve their regional mother tongue as well. Just like in other parts of the world, the UN International Mother Language Day for is being celebrated in Pakistan. The UN declared the day for mother languages as an international day in 1999 and since then the day has also been celebrated in Pakistan. Talking about the importance of languages, another Sindhi language expert and renowned columnist, Manzoor Mirani, said that besides the economic crisis, the environmental degradation is also affecting regional languages. “Due to the increasing population and the economic crises, several species of birds, animals and plants are disappearing from our land and, thus, the names of these species will not be a part of our languages anymore,” he said. He demanded that the federal government and the Government of Sindh should work to promote local and regional languages, enforce the existing laws for the preservation of these languages and should support all those institutions working for the preservation of local languages.
Renowned young intellectual, Masood Lohar, said that in today’s modern age, besides the importance of mother languages, universal and market languages such as English also have an importance that cannot be neglected. “A child can learn several languages at the same time, so it is necessary for parents to let their children learn global languages such as English beside their native language, otherwise, they will have a difficult time being successful in the future,” he said, adding that no one can deny the importance of international mainstream languages.
Despite the fact that is has been a while since Pakistan was established, regional languages of the four provinces that include Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi and Siraiki have not yet gotten a national status, whereas in Europe, India and other countries, there are several national languages.
“As a part of a planned conspiracy, the regional and local languages spoken by the vast majority were not given their due status,” said famous lawyer Ayaz Latif Palejo. Quoting Article 251 of the international declaration of human rights, he said that national language is protected but at the same time the declaration also guarantees the preservation and promotion of the mother language and culture of every person. He demanded that the government make amendments and declare at least six languages as national languages of Pakistan. He suggested that Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi and Siraiki, besides Urdu, be declared national languages. “Besides declaring these regional languages as national languages, the government must use these languages in state procedures and should amend civil court procedures to include these languages as well,” he added.
Anthropologist Ishaq Mangrio said that all the languages have equal importance and each language will grow with its own speed. He added that no one can marginalise regional languages.
Different organisations have planned to celebrate the International Mother Language Day to highlight the importance of mother languages. Sindhi Adabai Sangat, in collaboration with civil society organisations, has planned to commemorate the day throughout Sindh. It has planned a gathering of writers, social and political activists, intellectuals and individuals at the Culture Department Mumtaz Mirza Auditorium near the MPA hostel today (Saturday).
‘Language Martyrs’
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