Pakistan Lost - Ep. 04 - The Imposition of Urdu on Pakistan - ft. Mannan Ahmed Asif 

So ironic. At 3:00 , Jinnah declaring in English to a Bangla speaking audience that Urdu will be the state language.

Sidhi language is also recognized as 15th language of Indian 22 languages.

Pakistan studies: urdu was made national language as a symbol of national unity *East Pakistan left the chat*

I am from Kerala, India. My mother tongue is malayalam, i speak and understand english and hindi. I am learning german and japanese for the past 2+ years. Languages don't make you superior, it makes you free to explore other cultures and converse people from different regions.

I am from UP and my mother tongue is Hindi (Khariboli/Kauravi dialect of western UP). There is decent population of Punjabis in my hometown and also through songs, I know Punjabi. Haryana is not far from my place, so i know Haryanvi too. I studied English at school, went to Maharashtra for MBBS, so i know Marathi as well. In my college, many of my friends were Gujarati, so i can manage some Gujarati as well. Now, i have been in Chennai for around 5 months for my Post graduation, i am slowly learning Tamil to interact with patients. So, overall i know Hindi, English, Haryanvi, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil with variable degree of proficiencies.

Even the announcement that Udru will be national language was not made in Urdu. 😮

I'm from Mansehra (KPK) and most people speak Hindko and Gojri language. It's painful to see my elders not teaching these rich languages to their children, causing rich geological, biological and medicinal vocabulary going extinct. Now I've started to transcribe rare words in my diary to preserve them and I'm optimistic to think that my struggle will at least change the preception of my people that their languages are not backward and rustic languages but have a rich culture and history and knowledge.

Excellent video as always,our parents migrated during partition from Bahawalpur to indian Punjab,and they bring with them the Saraiki language and even our kids still speak it more comfortably and fluently at home

Imposition of Urdu on Panjab has been the worst thing that happened to us

Urdu never was our language 😢 Long live sindhi ❤️

Talk about Urdu; but in English.; that’s how complex the matter is. Thanks for the research and upload. U are doing this nation a favor which is unmatched.

I live in the Maharashtra state and in most of the schools we are taught English, Hindi and Marathi. We are taught to communicate with the whole world while also keeping our own culture and language alive.

The creators of Pakistan thought themselves as successors of Delhi Sultanate. They did not get Delhi so they took the language which is spoken from Delhi to Lucknow. Shah Waliullah was born in Muzaffarnagar and died in Delhi, Galib was born in Agra and died in Delhi. But their language is Pakistani 😂😂😂😂. Of course The Shah was scholar of Arabic and Persian but his mother tongue was Urdu and he used to call himself Dehlawi.

Urdu was Born in Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh in India and Urdu is a Recognised Official Language of India, Pakistanis Are free to Speak Urdu in a Punjabi or sindhi Accent we don't have any problem But it's a Fact that Urdu is an Indian Language , Urdu cannot be a Pakistani Language Same way Mexicans Speaks Spanish is not a Maxican language it's Spanish which has come from Spain

The problem of Urdu wouldn't be there if there was no Pakistan. The imposition of Urdu as a national language is not only the Urdu speaking populace's fault. The Punjabi elite spoke and wrote this language and they wholeheartedly supported this imposition. The Punjabis are in the majority and they impose their will in different matters all the time. They never stood up for their language and literature of this language as it didn't suit their lifestyle.

When i went out of karachi, i never saw a single guy speaking urdu with the same accent, having the same stereotypes, i might disagree that urdu is being imposed on pakistani people.

Fun Fact: Even Sindhi, Kashmiri, Bangla and Urdu are Official Languages of India. There is so much wrong with Pakistan that I am glad My forefathers did not Ended up that side of the Border.

Despite being a multilingual country, Pakistan has a complex relationship with its languages. While Urdu is the official language, many regional languages like Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, and Saraiki are spoken by millions of people. However there is a disconnect between spoken and written forms of these languages. - Punjabi is widely spoken in Pakistan, but its script, Gurmukhi, is not commonly used in Pakistan. Instead, the Persian-Arabic script is used to write Punjabi. - Sindhi, Balochi, and Saraiki languages have their own scripts, but they are not widely used in education or official contexts. This disconnect has historical and political roots. The promotion of Urdu as the national language has led to a neglect of regional languages and scripts. Additionally, the use of Persian-Arabic script for writing regional languages has been encouraged, which has contributed to the decline of indigenous scripts. This has resulted in a loss of cultural heritage and a disconnection from the linguistic and literary traditions of the region. Many Pakistanis are unable to read or write in their native languages, and instead, rely on Urdu or English for education and official purposes. It's important for Pakistan to recognize and address this issue, promoting linguistic diversity and preserving regional languages and scripts. This would enrich the country's cultural heritage and strengthen regional identities.

I can't live with Hindu I can't live with Bengali I can't live with Baloch I can't live with shia I can't live with phakthoon I can't live with Sindhi The list goes on Fisrt line was thought of by Muslim league in 1906 Other lines followed/will follow Because the thought process is same

I speak 3 languages, English in office, Hindi in public and Malvi at home and with relatives. That's how it works in India, we value all our languages. We have to balance all in order to make sure our Mother tongue doesn't get extinct.

My ancestors migrated from jhang to east Punjab and that was the dialect of Punjabi that was spoken by my grandparents, but it slowly died off unfortunately. Now if I ever wanna hear it I have to look up Pakistani videos by native jhangi speakers. So I’m glad it’s still spoken in Pakistan and Urdu imposition hasn’t killed it.

I have Sindhi Hindu Friends in India. They are quite intelligent, do well at academics and are generally from wealthy business familes.

Southern states of india protested against hindi as official language. Therefore, English was adopted as official language as well. Even today hindi is taught as a subject in whole India, not all subjects but just one single subject for few years in school. Indian leadership at the independence quelled the problem of imposing a language in 1950s n 60s. Pakistan should have learnt from it.

My native language is hindko, it's understandable why alot of pakistanis are against urdu. It was difficult for my parents to understand when they went to school. But it is a good thing to have urdu and english as the national languages its easier to talk to people in the country with.

Growing up and almost till my early 20s I used to think that Hindi is the only National for India. However, now wiser and well travelled, i accept my earlier view of a National Language was flawed and narrow minded. I now regret to have not learned Tamil, Marathi, or Punjabi when I had the chance! Indias only strength is accepting and celebrating its diversity!

2500 years ago when Panini was compiling the Sanskrit grammar, he already acknowledged the language variety in India and that is why for thousands of years, all Indian dynasties and empires had both their own language and Sanskrit going hand in hand. All of the languages survived. This is what happens when a mindset alien to the land decides on these stuff.

These series is ❤. The graphics, narration and how it all comes together is just perfect! Thanks for this Shehzad.

I am so grateful to our forefathers that actually made Urdu the National Language of Pakistan. Not only has made this Pakistan integrate better but just the shear Beauty of this Language; oh man what can I say. Speaking Urdu doesn't mean you have to abandon your other mother languages but no Language in the entire Sub-Continent can match the glory of the language of Mughal Darbar. Just like French is considered the posh language of west, Urdu is the French of indian region. The language of Love, Poetry and Indian Royality. اردو ہے جس کا نام ہمیں جانتے ہیں داغ سارے جہاں میں دھوم ہماری زباں کی ہے

You will find south indian muslim speaks Urdu instead of local language eg Hyderabad has telegu language. Such is the desire to prove thier Arabic lineage.

In the Indian subcontinent you can't have only 1 language as the national language... realized by Indian leadership but wholly missed by Pak leadership.

میں لکھنوی ہوں اور میری مادری زبان اردو، میرے والدین کی زبان اردو، میرے آبا و اجداد کی زبان اردو لیکن پھر بھی انتہا پسندوں (ہندو اور مسلم) کی نظر میں مجھ جیسے لوگوں میں کچھ گڑبڑ ہے 😂

U should be amazed that Sindhi Language (that originally belongs to Sindh) is also one the 22 official languages of India... this is how great India is in claiming, conserving and securing its roots and its heritage.....

I am North Indian ❤ from Uttarpradesh I was born and brought up in ❤ Mumbai ❤. Marathi is the local language of Mumbai .Mumbai has a multicultural society yet Marathi is a must . Switching to another language changes people completely i was considered dumb student and very poor in basic communication because every student in my school speaks in their own mother in public but my mother was considered funny,stupid and sometimes inferior to others This really impacted my understanding about my own culture and look down to my self because this is how Bollywood portraits bhojpuri or avdhi speaking people thanks god thing are changing now but very slow still bihari speaking person is labour or illiterate, bhojpur,avdhi, purvanchal are not much celebrated in Mumbai society I found little content and I hope this helps everyone to be under the importance of "Mother tongue" Mother tongue plays a crucial role in the development and preservation of a culture's heritage. It is often the primary means through which a community expresses its values, traditions, and beliefs, and it serves as a repository of the community's history and cultural identity. The use and preservation of mother tongue are essential for passing down cultural knowledge from one generation to the next. It helps to maintain cultural diversity and ensure that each community's unique voice and perspective are heard and celebrated. Additionally, a strong connection to one's mother tongue can contribute to a sense of belonging and pride in one's heritage, leading to greater cultural appreciation and understanding. Forcing a society to switch to another language instead of their mother tongue can have significant negative effects. It can lead to a loss of cultural identity and heritage, as the community's unique language and traditions are replaced by those of another culture. The loss of mother tongue can also make it difficult for individuals to express themselves fully, leading to a sense of alienation and disconnection from their community. In addition, language is closely tied to cognitive development and learning, so a sudden shift to a different language can lead to educational and developmental setbacks for children and adults alike. Overall, forcing a society to switch to another language can have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences that can impact both individuals and communities

@shehzad I watched this yesterday and had to step away so I can think this through. So here are my thought. 1) The core question is does a new or any country need an official language ? The answer to that question is Yes it does. Because it allows the government to communicate with its citizens. Every law that is passed, every road sign, every official document, every speech on the national level has to be done in a language that can be understood by majority of its population. Even if a country does not declare a "national" language it still uses a specific language to communicate with its citizens. So it becomes a matter of semantics if India has an official language or not. Because it uses Hindi as the defacto national language at Federal level. 2) So now the next question is "Was choosing Urdu the right decision ?". I don't think it works that way in the real world. Every decision made at that level has unintended consequences. Your choices usually are to choose between the worst to least worst. Ideally we should have chosen Bengali as the official language as it was the language of the majority or Punjabi. In both the cases all the things you have mentioned would still have happened. So you are stuck with the least worst option. I think the idea was that Urdu would force the majority to adapt. Also it was the language of the elites so it won out. 3) But just because Urdu became the national language doesn't mean that other languages "lost". We have a problem at societal level where we look down on arts. Culture is spread through art. In all other places its the elites (Artist, Scholars, Professors, Rich folks you know the actual elites not the bastardized version we have in Pakistan) that promote art, language and culture. The last Sindhi singers that I am aware of were Alan Faqeer and Shazia Khusk. Where are the rest ? The same with Baloch artist. Or Punjabi artist or Urdu artist. Does the local culture promotes their own artist ? We as a society put all artist in the box of marasi and the wonder why the language and arts is dying. We could have any language spoken in Pakistan and we would be at the same spot. 4) We as a society have to understand that it is beyond our government to do its basic job. So we have to build a better world around us. I will give you a real world example. Go on RU-vid and try to search "Pakistani Stand-up". You will see clips from 2 or more years ago. What is stopping you or any other stand up to put up clips on RU-vid ? How do you expect to be discovered by someone in Dadu or DG Khan if they cant discover you ? I know the answer is that there is no infrastructure or people arent ready and so on. But someone has to build it. And it order for you to become successful you need it to be built. So put stuff on RU-vid and get the ball rolling. You already have an example in Tabish who made it to mainstream through this process. The dramas, the movies, the books everyone is waiting for someone to magically solve the problem. Thats why our culture is dying. Not just sindhi or balochi or punjabi all our culture is dying.

i m from India my mother tongue is Urdu , but i suggest u all pakistani to learn English as ur primary language , because English is more important in daily life than Urdu

we have gone ahead with Urdu, now Urdu has become the need of Pakistan more than the last 77 years. Now a new identity has been formed in Pakistan with Urdu. Those who thought that there should be one nation and one language now Pakistan is moving towards this direction very fast, now there is no way back.Pakistani nation has accepted Urdu from the last 77 years so in todays Pakistan urdu is widely spoken and understood in all provinces. Welcome to the new era of Pakistan. Very right decison by the quaid e azam

Urdu and English should be the official languages, but regional languages should be recognised and should be taught at regional level. In my view Pakistan should have multiple official languages. It is unethical and disrespectful to let all languages and cultures of Pakistan die because of one language imposition.

A nation carved out in the name of religion with multiple cultures is bound to fail. United India (Akhand Bharat in Hindi) is the only solution, whether it's 10 years from now or 100.

My ancestors were the great Kushans. They spoke Tocharian. It boils my blood that neither the mention of Kushan dynasty nor of Tocharian language was in my school textbooks.

As a Punjabi it's actually so sad that Pakistan is killing Punjabi and other regional languages instead of celebrating it. What can we do to promote our regional languages?

The imposition was incredibly important and useful - allows various ethnicities to communicate with each other through a common medium, Urdu. This model works in Singapore, China and many other countries, sometimes "imposition" is needed for nation building in various areas

I am a Gujrati and it hurts to see how Gujrati language slowly died in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan 🇵🇰

Excellent video. In India, for 70% of our provinces & 60% of the population the mother tongue is not Hindi ... and while from time to time the centre has tried to expand the use of Hindi, such attempts have been looked at with suspicion outside the Hindi-speaking areas. Well, from what I hear from you (and others) about what happened with Urdu in Pakistan, it appears that any Indian attempts to 'impose' Hindi have been extremely mild ... and am I thankful for that! In India, basic literacy in all states & territories is in the local language, as is the medium of instruction for the 'masses'. Our education system has a '3-language formula' which allows the typical student to be exposed to English, the local language AND Hindi ... though other combinations are possible. Hindi grows organically, through exposure to movies & television for example.

I am happy you showed the correct map of India, being a Pakistani that was very brave of you😅

Shehzad, Great video. I'm south Indian. In our schools we are given the option to select three languages. Many learn their native language as the first, English as the second and Hindi as the third. Fluency in speaking Hindi suffers as it's the third, but it helps learn and stay connected with North India.

In India gujrat ,punjab, bengal , assam, marathi, telgu, tamil,, kannad ,, malayalam all are recognised as an official languages in their own state.we promote our culture our languages.

Writing from India. I've been non stop watching podcasts by you and some of the podcasters in Pakistan. I feel sad in a way india might not have so many great ones. But I so agree with this video. I come from a South Indian state called Karnataka. The language is kannada and I'm glad it is not pushed down. It's older than Hindi or Urdu. India has tried to make Hindi the national language back in the 60s but thankfully failed as it was met with violent protests and suicides in non Hindi states. I can speak Hindi or English with a non kannada speaker so it serves the purpose. Surprisingly Sindhi and Punjabi are official languages in India while Sindhi is not a majority in any state. Also I feel so sad that Pakistan has forgotten its history and you have rightly mentioned Pakistan's history is way old and richer than post 712 AD. Majority of Indus valley civilization was in what is so called Pakistan today!

It was wonderful that you mentioned Amrita Pritam ...(just shows the depth of your education level)... I actually studied in college with her grand daughter!!!

The beauty of Urdu is that if you lie in it they would say ' wow, wow and wow !' and won't even catch that you are lying. In certain circumstances, it could be embarrassing or down right dangerous.

Yes but in school i was forced to learn sindhi, which i couldnt relate with.

Urdu imposition was a mistake and I am glad that many South Indian states are preserving their culture and languages by pushing back against Hindi imposition. Such an imposition can be seriously harmful. Amazing video!

As an Indian Sindhi, I have always been insecure of my language as its 'birthplace' is now part of Pakistan. Sad to learn that the language isn't even thriving in the place of its birth.

Both common pakistani and Indian citizen do not realise that Urdu was originated in India only...It's our language.. We Indians had always denied this fact by saying that it was never our language and Pakistani govt imposed it on there citizen by saying that it's their language,where it was hardly spoken by few people...what an irony this is...

I think we should create a new language from different languages spoken in every part of the country if we are so averse of Urdu as a national language. Other choice is English which is understood by even fewer. I grew up in different part of Punjab, Sind and visited Blochistan and NWFP/Pukhtunkhwa. Everywhere we communicated in Urdu and almost everywhere the local people understood Urdu.

My mother tongue is Urdu i am from kanpur 😊

I don't remember the name but some Indian freedom fighter once stated that ... A real indian would never associate Urdu with Persian and Hindi with Sanskrit ... These are both Indian languages... We fail to understand that there is alot more than just religion than connects people ...

I am GOB SMASHED that some people in Pakistan find Punjabi "foul". Like WTF ?!?!?!!!!! I am no fan of Punjabi rap but artists like Honey Singh were very popular in a non-Punjabi speaking region like Guwahati, Assam (I studied there for a while).

I live in northern India. My office language:English My Daily life language: Hindustani (nobody here realises that they speak a mix of Hindi and Urdu😂) My Home Language: Maithili And i understand Punjabi pretty much ❤. It's such a wonderful experience to know multiple languages (ofcourse u can't be perfect in all). So on average an Indian knows/understands 3 languages. So i would recommend our brothers across borders to learn whatever language u come across ❤

I never learned Urdu because my urdu teachers were absolute assholes & made me hate the language lol

Now here’s the funny thing: the biggest proponents of Urdu as the national language of pakistan were themselves not native Urdu speakers themselves. Mr Jinnah‘s mother tongue was Gujerati although he had pretty much adopted English as his first and only spoken language. He was never heard speaking in Urdu or Gujerati in public. Liaquat Ali was Punjabi. Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar was a Pashtun, Khwaja Nazimuddin was Bengali, Feroz Khan Noon was Punjabi. In fact if you go through the list of all the leaders from Pakistan’s inception until now with the exception of Parvaiz Musharraf, not a single one has been a native Urdu speaker. So the imposition of Urdu as the lingua franca if you really wish to put the blame had to be on the political elite that sees it as an extension and an integral part of the two nation theory and by default a necessary tool to keep the two nation theory alive. The rationale being that Muslims of India as a separate nation from the Hindu majority were also culturally and linguistically different to them and adopting Urdu as the national language of muslim pakistan was as critical as adopting a blanket muslim identity for the newly formed nation. It was and remains a bad idea and I say this as a native Urdu speaker. Although it’s usefulness as a language of communication between the country’s multi lingual population has some merit

Though Ambedkar and Co were very wise not to include Hindi as National lang in the constitution, I don't think Hindi wasn't imposed on Indian states. When india became independent, there were only national parties ruling all the states and they did not hesitate to ask everyone to speak in hindi. Hindi was made compulsory second language in schools until protests(infact violent protests) erupted in tamil nadu and other southern states. However, The whole north india almost lost their respective native languages but it didn't work in south because the languages there were once empire languages in those regions, thus the languages got too rooted in those respective societies to succumb to hindi imposition. In addition to that, anglophilia(only for language) emerged in southern coastlines during british rule. And there is no reason to sideline English for hindi due to lucrative opportunites abroad. Later, Regional parties became stronger by gradually sidelining national parties in respecitve states. Bollywood today doesn't have a market in south because Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam has stronger Pop movie cultures in their own languages that there is no space for hindi movies to get in. However, We've all already swept by english and sooner or later all our languages die eventually.

Thanks from India. Explained it so lucidly.

Lovely video.. crisps naration and clear justifications to arguments. I have never forgot one sentence from the book 'India after Gandhi' that "language is stronger force than religion". The glaring example is creation of Bangladesh. Thankfully our forefathers (Indian) realised this too early and made federal (almost autonomous) states based on languages. This theory was further proven right few years after Independence. There was 'united Maharashtra' state which had two languages, Marathi and Gujarati. But eventually they couldn't go along well and divided in two states .. gujrat and Maharashtra. There is even violent history over ownership of Bombay (now Mumbai) which eventually went to Maharashtra. Today these both states are doing well using that opportunity as a lesson and cooperating with each other. Do you see any similarity here? No? Let me explain (which no one has ever said, but it's my own observation). Let's say United Maharashtra was united india. And Mumbai was Kashmir. There is violent history to India Pakistan partition too. Kashmir went to India and Pakistan both partly. But what India Pakistan couldn't do later is what Maharashtra and Gujrat did. Coming back to language. Whenever I listen Bollywood songs on FM radio where they play random songs.. most of them are either Punjabi or have Punjabi words. I always joke that Bollywood assumes that all Indians know Punjabi. But i know very well that there are Marathi, gujrati or even South Indian words in the songs and this diversity is very well taken. It's really sad that many Pakistani speak Punjabi but Devmukhi script is lost there. In contrast, it's thriving in India. Our currency has its denomination written in all the official languages including Urdu and Sanskrit. To go into more details, even in Marathi (our mother tongue) , we have some sub-languages. Our is Ahirani. And you will be surprised that though it has limited literature, it is still taught in schools. Now a days it has thriving music industry also. This holds true to every part and state of India. I wish one day you could visit India and i or someone like me could show you around.. not just tourist places but real flavour of India which is diversity.

why did not do whole podcast in local languages of the country? everybody understand each language or somebody forcing you to do that in urdu/english

Pakistan has. Language of India Urdu. Religion of Saudis. Islam. Culture of India. Land of Vedas, where the four ved were written. It has nothing of it's own. Even the surnames are Sikh and Hindus.

Being Indian ..good to see such an informative Pakistani channel

Thank you for adopting Urdu as National language and thank you for the partition. We Indians are extremely grateful 🙏

14:33 People of indus valley traded with ancient egyptians and greeks and romans

After all the arguments presented in the video I am still unable to understand how a country can get by without a lingua franca. Is it not possible to promote regional languages without criticizing the presence of a national language? When did Quade Azam say "don't promote your regional language"?

@ThePakistanExperience I have listened to this guy for the first time. But, my impression is 'he has a lot of frustration to Urdu. I don't argue that how other languages in other parts of the world emerged. I would just say Urdu has fulfilled the gap. I am living in England and I can say that "90% of people are school leavers, don't know the vocabulary, don't know the actual Oxford English language, don't understand the william Shakespeare and William wordsworth. They speak slang language which is combination of Polish, Irish, galic and walish verbs. I understand, Pakistan is currently in bad financial situation. But it is not as bad as this guy is telling. We are loving and caring people's.

Punjabi language sacrificed the Most.But Songs Made Punjabi More attractive now

Fact bro: Javed Akhtar talks that Urdu has had a tradition in Punjab. Though strangely, it isn't Punjab's mother tongue

Finally, someone made a video about it from Pakistan . Don't get me wrong, but by enforcing urdu, the Pakistani elite actually damaged the language itself inside pakistan. I heard that Muhajirs are good urdu speakers in pakistan, and Punjabis made Punjabi mixed urdu, which is really bad to hear 😅. Correct me if I am wrong?

All languages are beautiful. Politics of language has deep roots in Pakistan. Our state made these deliberations to fuel the identity crisis.

Jinnas family lives in India. His family no more Muslim also.

But, now almost all Pakistanis 99% above understand and speak Urdu to at least some extent. But, they don't speak Urdu as such but rather Urdish (Urdu + English) or rather Hinglish (Hindi+English). I support their idea of making Urdu as National language because only this language is the key to national harmony and strengthening ties with India.

amazing video shehzaad im shocked to learn that pakistan people dont even know who bhagat singh was here in india in school we have a chapter name akbar the great history should be taught as it was.

As a British Pakistani who visits often (just got back from a 2 week trip); my family are from androon Lahore, so Lahore is the city I have most exposure to there. I observed on my recent trip that in the city, Punjabi seems to be viewed by the more upper class/affluent classes as a working class lamguage and shunned in favour of Urdu. Punjabi is however spoken far and wide still amongst the masses. My extended family there; many of them can't speak Urdu with a high degree of fluency because Punjabi is the mother tongue. This strange relationship some of the more elite classes seem to have with the regional mother tongue, and their desire to impose their linguistic preferences reeks of identity crisis to an external observer. I get the need for a lingua franca in such a diverse nation - but you cannot displace a people's true language without major issues unfolding.

Bhai, As you rightly said Urdu is an indian language and I personally love it. I am happy that it is the national language of paxtan. Helps to preserve it.

Pakistanis thought that urdu is language of Muslims and Hindi is language of Hindus, but in reality if you dig deeper, then you will find that Islamic scriptures are written in Arabic and Hindu scriptures are mostly written in Sanskrit. So Ideally, Arabic should be considered as Muslim and Sanskrit as Hindu.

Thankyou for highlighting the importance of diverse languages in Pakistan including our Sindhi. It has 52 alphabets. How it's vastness can be decreased forcefully or by imposition of Urdu which was non existent as anyone's mother tongue in newly formed Pakistan.

Though i have discovered this in recent times, perception because of what Pakistan did, was that Urdu as language of Muslims. As the story goes, administrative language of Mughals was farsi, and average peasant spoke hindustani khadi boli. So the farsi and khadi boli amalgamated to form two sister languages Urdu and Hindi. Hindi has more Sanskrit words and Urdu has words from more farsi origin that's the only difference. They are kind of one and same in a way. Though as an Indian Urdu/Hindi is more of unifier for us than for Pakistan i feel. Though this language imposition also could have existed in india if not for member of parliament from South of India. When we were growing up we were taught by our school teachers that Hindi is our national language but that's thankfully not the case. I understood it when i got an it job in South of India then i understood why they rejected Hindi and it's good thing in long run. No dictator (enter choice of right wing party in power here) can have his full control over whole country at same time due to language barrier. That's what makes India diverse and beautiful. And i have discovered after following this podcast for a year now that Pakistan is lot diverse than what our general perception was. These countries are so similar, i don't understand why we got parted, it's absurd. We should have been like US, federation of states with more power to states than the centre. This would have worked. But what has happened, has happened i don't think it's possible now. We have done too much propoganda in our respective countries against each other for it to be possible. Maybe we need common enemy to unify again, i don't know what that would be.

Your attempt to create these amazing "subject pieces" are truly educational and insightful. kudos to you brother.

Clear, concise & very interesting narration. It gives me a new perspective to look at our Indian languages & thought processes as well. In the south we fight against the imposition of Hindi as the lingua franca for pretty much the same reasons. Our ancestors never needed one lingua franca to trade, travel or live before. Why do we need one now? European countries who tried it haven't completely succeeded either. Smaller regional languages persist like Breton, Provencal, Basque, Welsh, Cornish, Scottish Gaelic etc. & some are even being revived in parts of France & England. So even the colonizers haven't succeeded fully in establishing their colonial idea of standardization with one lingua franca. Humans don't like uniformity. Everyone strives to be unique. Even if we all talk in one language today, in about 500 years, that will evolve to 10 different languages & 50 dialects.

Urdu is our language and pakistani have stolen our language. In my state UP all signboards airports, railways, roads, government buildings, etc are written in Urdu along with English and Hindi, UP state education has Urdu as one of the main subject.

I am from lahore pakistan i am 13 i personally hate seeing urdu imposed my frandparents speak punjabi but my parents dont i want to learn speak punjabi but it is so hard

Urdu was disguised Islamic project of Jinnah even Kashmiri discarded their own language & script due to the opium of religion and made Urdu their official language. Only Bengalis people irrespective of their faith resisted Urdu for their language & Script which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.

There is difference between hindi and urdu . Its the same difference of Language spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia. We are mixing up both. The reason of imposing one language is so people can communicate with each other and know each other. They can still speak their regional language but imposing one language is not a mistake. Imposing English was way better than Urdu I guess because it is global language and it would be very easy for our people to travel from one place to another.

excellent question and very valid observations. Brilliant comment about being able to read sub titles for Kana Yaari (a great song in different Baloch dialects). I hope this video starts a debate and we recognise that the Pakistan identity is a mix of many cultures, its history does not start with the invasion of Mohammed Bin Qasim but goes thousands of years before that. Thank you for this episode of The Pakistan Experience.

I agree with everything in this video but honestly now it's too late. We have to live with it.

Every language is beautiful in its own way. Thank you for the brilliant show. And a very bold one. You are doing great work. All the best to you. P.S. As modern studies have found out that best results are achieved if kid is taught in his mother tongue.

I understand that Jinnah himself wasn't fluent in Urdu. It is said that he announced to the Bengalis in East Pakistan that Urdu would be the official language even in East Pakistan. What is remarkable is that he made that statement not in Urdu or Bengali but in English.

I Can't emphasize enough how coherent your your argument is.... ❤

please provide the referance of the sir syed statement that he and his fellows disliked reading urdu in 1864.

This Urdu is basically Arabic language equivalent for Indian subcontinent. It is called "language jihad". Arabic language was superimposed over entire middle East and North Africa by destroying their local languages, eg. Hebrew in Egypt. Urdu is used to destroy the native traditions and language to prove Islamic supremacy and hinduphobia. Sadly, over the long-run, Indian subcontinent muslims still have to go through identity crisis and ashamed of their own hindu ancestors and are lost in the world leading to frustrations, terrorism and social confusion. Sorry, but sach kadwa hai. 💔

Urdu is the Indian language..if Islam was the basis of the creation of Pakistan then Arabic should have been the national language.

Sir urdu up ki hai Hmare desh m hm apni mother tongue m baat krete hai jese ki jammu ki dogri kashmir ki kashmiri

Punjabi is #recognised as most spoken Language in Australia which I think is big big acheivement as people from 200 countries exist in Australia but bcoz of Indian Punjabis and none of the Pakistani #prefer to speak in Punjabi........

Urdu is language native to india.

Jinnah himself was Gujarati.. He saying urdu as national language and that too in english is just icing on cake and disaster in making.. no prize in guessing the state pakistan is in today