Is Urdu dead?
Poor Urdu.
I didn’t care much for Urdu growing up. It was just something I had to do in school, not “learn”, but cram just enough to clear the exams. Even though I was schooled in the FSc system, and took urdu literature, my reading proficiency was so poor that Amma had to read chapters to me prior to the exam, in the hope that I would remember enough to scribble something half meaningful in my broken handwriting. I eventually triumphed with a glorious D. I would never have to look at Urdu again.
After escaping the torture of Urdu language, when I entered university in suburban Punjab (PIEAS), I was horrified to see “Urdu medium” students – y’know the type who actually read Jang? To rescue them from their lingual misfortunes, I set up, along with three urban kids, an English Literary society to teach the masses the joys of English conversation. And everybody gladly enrolled; part of the reason of course was that 2 of the 3 girls on campus where in my little English-speaking clique. We had one language to rule them all. But the real reason is that the “Urdu medium crowd”, as we disparagingly called them, despite their high grades, and smart minds, felt less capable. Urdu was the burden they carried, a scar too obvious to hide.
Fast forward 10 years.
I now realize how grave our mistake really was and how dangerous is the precedent that we set. I see parents whom we would deride in the immaturity of youth, as being “urdu medium”, now only speak to their toddlers in English. I see an entire generation, not recognizing the beauty of their language, struggling to speak where I once merely struggled to read and write. I know a case in which the son of an Urdu teacher grew up not knowing the language that was supposed to be his. In cafes and restaurants, radios and TVs, all I hear is either English, spoken in a plastic accent meant to impress, or a vile form of Urdu adulterated and abused.
What have we done!?!
During my travels, I have occasionally been complimented “…your English is really good”. The 18-year-old me would have been joyous, but I now cringe because I have only recently begun to understand the sub-print: “…(as your second language)”. But where is my first language? My stamp of identity?
It is in tatters, dying a painful death from neglect, from discrimination and from the shame of defeat, not at the hands of its erstwhile colonial masters, but us, its supposed saviours.
Is Urdu dead?
-Adnan
ps. Sabeen and Zak, thank you for your efforts to trigger the reawakening of our generation. One Ghalib event is more inspirational than years of bland classroom instruction.
Tags: death of urdu, demise of urdu, ghalib, mirza ghalib, t2f
29. December 2010 at 05:44
We hope the next generation will not be as lost as yours (and partly mine) was. Perhaps parents will question themselves and start paying more attention to a language like Urdu (and their own regional languages) so that their children can see loads of things that are neither better nor worse than in English but just different. Differences bring out the humanity in the kids. It brings about tolerance. And more. It adds to their view of life from other aspects. Reading translations is ok when you don’t know the language, but to read your own words in another language is painful – if you can read the original.
29. December 2010 at 07:48
See I am a Pak born Sri Lankan…I grew up speaking Urdu, Sinhala, Memoni, and a sprinkling of Tamil. Studying in Malaysia I picked up Bahasa Malay and as since childhood my obsession for Punjabi continues. Just be grateful that your beautiful language lives and spreads and is spoken. Unlike those silly Western anthropologists who are trying to archive a forgotten Andaman islands language…its the will of God. Leave it and be happy
29. December 2010 at 07:50
good to read your side of the story .yes we are not taking proper care of our first language ,we are still ignoring it big time with out paying attention to this fact that what if one day urdu disappears completely ? how would we express our selves. using foran language? gosh its not a good feeling. interesting thing is that these days urdu is not just being effected by english but also Bollywood hindy too. the kind of vocabulary used by our youth is a gift from bollywood films. although urdu has this tremendous capacity to adjust any other language in it but still we need to rethink about our attitude towards urdu language.
29. December 2010 at 13:26
@Zak, thanks for chiming in. I sure hope that the next generation is better anchored than ours.
I agree with your point about Urdu not being better or worse than English-just different. We do not need to dismiss other cultures or languages to appreciate the beauty of ours.
@Caffinolic, You’re quite the world citizen! It is indeed heartening to hear people in the most random countries speak Urdu. Maybe there is hope after all.
29. December 2010 at 15:53
I’m as khatta-angeraiz as they come. You can tell that from my handle! I used to think that Urdu was dying too but then two things have happened and I am content that it’s here to stay:
1. Whenever I call up a bank or a telecom help line, they always give me an option between Urdu and English. I’ve realized that to complain, place an order, ask for information; we just can’t do it better than in Urdu. I can’t imagine arguing with a customer services rep in English
that’s just me, but i find it comforting.
2. The second thing was the launch of Pring (http://pringit.com). We’re an SMS-centric communication network. As most educated Pakistani engineers, we started the whole thing in English. So, if you sent an SMS to 2323 (or 030-5555-5555 for Mobilink & Telennor), you would be greeted with an English welcome message. But we noticed that 90% people talked in Romanized Urdu on our public page. After a number of feedback sessions (we have lots of those), we realized users wanted Urdu and wanted it as default. We changed our language over SMS by default to Romanized Urdu. The result? 3x increased engagement, higher command usage, increased sign-up rate and higher “activation” (using the service after first contact or logging in after registration). Our service is now completely bilingual. Every command, every tip and every message is translated into both Urdu & English.
Urdu is so important to us that we’re working with academic experts to understand it more (algorithms and WordNet like stuff). What are users saying? What do they like, what don’t they like? What’s hot right now, what’s not?
I’m really excited about the future of Urdu, no matter how much English may be pervasive, Urdu is where we will always be able to do a “heart-to-heart”… or so I hope!
My friend and batchmate from GIKI Zeeshan & his team have done a great job in promoting automated translations in Pakistan and abroad (http://www.paktranslations.com/). I think that with all the media flourishing and social networking, Urdu will rise to reflect its actual usage,
30. December 2010 at 01:24
A most interesting comment and something like my own journey to rediscover Urdu. Wuld be great if we can talk about this furher.
30. December 2010 at 08:52
Nice. Tweeting this.
4. January 2011 at 00:48
Thanks so much for writing this! I am not sure which Ghalib event inspired this, but I have been literally raging over this issue for years now albeit silently inside. I have never met another person who felt the same way and for one reason or another have hesitated to express myself to the masses. Please visit my blog as I am about to post my experience with Urdu right now!
8. April 2011 at 08:00
Thank you so much for writing this. I have a two year old growing outside of Pakistan, who I am struggling to make sure will know Urdu, and what I found sad was on my most recent trip to Pakistan I was waiting with him at the Doctor’s clinic and he was the only child speaking in Urdu. The other children were only speaking in English.
On the other hand I have heard of a group of teachers in Pakistan who are making efforts to ensure that teaching Urdu can be made as uncomplicated as teaching English ( ie Alphabets) to children for there is no denying that Urdu is a much more complicated, difficult and hence a more deep language than English.
29. April 2011 at 13:44
We have to save urdu … its not just our mother language, it is our identity!
17. May 2011 at 06:49
The condition of Urdu is worse in India. I belong to Haryana state which was part of united Punjab. My Grandparents knew only Urdu. My parents read Hindi and Punjabi. Our generation read only English and some Hindi(passing marks required). Urdu signboards from old Delhi are becoming rare…
My dadaji used to say that all languages except Urdu are tough and rubbish. I tried to learn Urdu but got stuck when it came to joining alphabets…
I hope Urdu has a bright future and is not lost in tide of Firangi languages.