Urdu is not our language: Mahmood Khan Achakzai in PDM's Karachi gathering.

[Neurath]

Where did I hear that last time before?
Oh yes, (1971 flashbacks).

The Indians, they're back at it again. Creating political instability, fueling racial tensions, breaking us from within.
In the beginning I used to think that India's support for PDM was a conspiracy but day by day, the PDM wants me to think otherwise through their actions.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

How about making English the national language?

English is a neutral and universal language, which has borrowed words from all over the world.

If English were introduced as a national language in my country, I wouldn’t feel salty or get offended by it and would in fact welcome it. But if Urdu, Mandarin (Chinese), German or any other language we’re introduced as a national language, I would take issues with that and would oppose vehemently.

I see nothing wrong with what Achakzai said, Urdu is not his mother tongue, and it’s limited to a that specific region, a language like English is universal and I doubt he would complain about that.

What are your thoughts on this @Indus Pakistan @Pan-Islamic-Pakistan @HRK Would you be fine with a language like English taking the place of national language as people would certainly take offence if a language like Farsi were to be reinstated in the region or any provincial languages, do you think that would be a solution to Achakzai’s concern? English as national language and provincial languages taught by each province?

English is already taught in all public schools, so it is in effect a de facto second official language.

I don't see how you can call English any more 'neutral' than Urdu. If, instead of Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, or Pashto was the official language, then one could argue that a 'neutral' language was needed, but Urdu is in effect a 'neutral' language, and it now has a long history in Pakistan.

Ethnic nationalists/racists need to stop making mountains out of molehills and focusing on regressive issues and instead focus on the future and on strengthening our national identity with what we already have.

The time to make these kinds of structural changes in the framework of the nation is long gone. The time to 'change the official/national language of Pakistan' is long gone.

 

[Imad.Khan]

Brother, if we weren't a little emotional, we wouldn't be proper Pakistanis lol

lol exactly, does that mean you are with me in my quest to change the national language to Klingon?

 

[peagle]

lol exactly, does that mean you are with me in my quest to change the national language to Klingon?

Count me out lol. But, I am still your brother.
I am, and shall always happily remain an obedient servant of Urdu

There are very few words in this world that, when I just think of them, my heart smiles.
Allah, Islam, Muslim, Pakistan, Urdu, Nana, Nani and few others
(to be clear my religiosity is very low, it's about identity)

Stay emotional (tiny little bit lol), stay happy and stay blessed.


p.s.
Klingon rocks lol

 

[Itachi]

How about making English the national language?

English is a neutral and universal language, which has borrowed words from all over the world.

If English were introduced as a national language in my country, I wouldn’t feel salty or get offended by it and would in fact welcome it. But if Urdu, Mandarin (Chinese), German or any other language we’re introduced as a national language, I would take issues with that and would oppose vehemently.

I see nothing wrong with what Achakzai said, Urdu is not his mother tongue, and it’s limited to a that specific region, a language like English is universal and I doubt he would complain about that.

What are your thoughts on this @Indus Pakistan @Pan-Islamic-Pakistan @HRK Would you be fine with a language like English taking the place of national language as people would certainly take offence if a language like Farsi were to be reinstated in the region or any provincial languages, do you think that would be a solution to Achakzai’s concern? English as national language and provincial languages taught by each province?

If you adopt another's language, your children will adopt their culture and your grandchildren will adopt their way of life. Someone wise said this long ago.

Urdu doesn't need to be anyone's mother tongue but it needs to be taught and spoken, as much if not more, than English.

Regional languages should be made as important as speaking English also. There is so much benefit to this that I can write a 100 pages on it (don't dare me tho).

 

[Dalit]

Isn't he Afghan?

The Pakistan hating Afghan at it again.

 

[Itachi]

The Pakistan hating Afghan at it again.

Last of his kind.

 

[Dalit]

How about making English the national language?

English is a neutral and universal language, which has borrowed words from all over the world.

If English were introduced as a national language in my country, I wouldn’t feel salty or get offended by it and would in fact welcome it. But if Urdu, Mandarin (Chinese), German or any other language we’re introduced as a national language, I would take issues with that and would oppose vehemently.

I see nothing wrong with what Achakzai said, Urdu is not his mother tongue, and it’s limited to a that specific region, a language like English is universal and I doubt he would complain about that.

What are your thoughts on this @Indus Pakistan @Pan-Islamic-Pakistan @HRK Would you be fine with a language like English taking the place of national language as people would certainly take offence if a language like Farsi were to be reinstated in the region or any provincial languages, do you think that would be a solution to Achakzai’s concern? English as national language and provincial languages taught by each province?

I have a suggestion. Make English the national language of Afghanistan.

Last of his kind.

Yes, his kind are not many.

 

[letsrock]

My opinion may not be popular here but i am not great fan of urdu and ever worse association urdu with Islam or even muslim culture. While pakistan adoption of urdu is not as unfair as indian imposition of hindi. Its usage must still be restricted only for co-ordination purposes.

Its very important people are taught in their native tongues and this obsession with urdu is killing languages such as punjabi/sindhi. A language is an intellectual heritage and what even the Brits could not kill the so called self governments are killing them.

Anyway Urdu is fairly an ornamental language with no real science/medicine./engineering content in it. Keep it ornamental and focus on real languages spoken by people.

 

[Cherub786]

Anyway Urdu is fairly an ornamental language with no real science/medicine./engineering content in it. Keep it ornamental and focus on real languages spoken by people.

And Pakhto has science, medicine and engineering content in it? Please

Urdu is the language of Indian Muslims full stop. Without a national language you can’t have a nation. Just learn from Israel, they revived Hebrew to unify the nation which spoke diverse languages. In North America people come from diverse backgrounds and speak so many different languages, but in order to live in North America English is essential. How can that bald idiot Achakzai speak against Urdu? He is definitely a traitor and strict action has to be taken against him.

 

[Rakesh]

Urdu is a Islamic imperial language that was utilised by Muslim empires to ensure they could speak to their empire in India

It became the language of the muslim court

Language of Muslim courts was Persian.

 

[H. Dawary]

I have a suggestion. Make English the national language of Afghanistan.

I sincerely hope we do.

If you adopt another's language, your children will adopt their culture and your grandchildren will adopt their way of life. Someone wise said this long ago.

Urdu doesn't need to be anyone's mother tongue but it needs to be taught and spoken, as much if not more, than English.

Regional languages should be made as important as speaking English also. There is so much benefit to this that I can write a 100 pages on it (don't dare me tho).

Fair enough, you have your opinions, but just know that English is the only language TODAY that is universal and is borrowed from ALL languages.

 

[H!TchHiker]

Bhai sab se phle tu mujha Sir maat kho .... we all are brothers may be older or younger to each other .....


No one ever objected of any common man wearing his or her local attire but again plz go check that picture and read it with PML-N politics of playing ethnic card only at the time when find itself in difficult political situation .....

I think you will agree Symbolising local attire to incite political unrest should not be encouraged .... or should it be ..... ???

I hope you still remember the slogan "Jaag Punjabi Jaag Teri Paag Nu Lag Gaya Daagh" by PML-N against Benazir

And BTW do women wear Traditional Turban in Punjab .... ???

Or wearing of Turban by Maryam Safdar in a Political Press Conference should not be read as Political Card of inciting Ethnic Politics ..... ???



So what is the point .... ??? an act of Ghulam Dastagir who was supporting Ayub Khan a dictator is justifiable even during those days or in current Political situation where PML-N is supposedly leading a campaign of 'True Democracy' with the slogan of "Respect the Ballot' ..... ??? and then sending a delegation of PML-N leaders and issuing the the photo at the day of Gujranwala Jalsa ..... while Karachi Jalsa was already announced and every one from PDM was aware of it .....

A simple question this should not be considered a Political Messaging to a particular community .... ???

Then It must be a coincident a third btw in a row that out of blue a particular language was targeted by a Racist and so called Nationalist while neither the so called movement or Jalsa was about this Language ....



Again as said earlier nobody object if any of the common man wear his traditional attire and nobody objected about this even in current situation but the objection is political use of this because of their previous track record .....

now plz tell me Achakzai is symbol of national Unity and Ethnic harmony ..... ???


Who is getting offended have you seen any mass protest or public response on these provocations in Karachi, bhia if only an effort of pointing the Political tactic ethnic hatred to expose the purpose of so called political and democratic leaders is Violation of Jinnah Shaib Principles then this time my friend you are wrong ......

Just because this time vast majority of Urdu speaking community has voted for PTI is it justifiable for these so called National Leaders to attack that community ..... ???

we can debate on this unnecessarily so to avoid it you could post your facts .... I know mine .....

Goodbye ....

Achkazai is not a symbol of national unity and neither he claim does ,I think ..He just represent to some extent pashtoons in balochistan ..
I don't know whether wearing turbon by women in Punjab is thing ...
I don't think majority of leaders are attacking Urdu speaking community of karachi ? May be I am wrong but I don't infer this conclusion by just saying that Urdu is not my language.
Pakistan is a federation and not some single ethnic country so we will have to listen to everyone having different culture and languages ..
Nobody is supporting what father of khurram dastigar did..for me his father and the person his father was supporting i.e ayub Khan both were traitors in front of fatimah Jinnah ...issue is people only speak one way

 

[karakoram]

Pashtu is my native language. Urdu is my national language and i don't have any problem with that. Achakzai is failed politician aur yahe baat ker ke apni ahmiyat barhana chahte hein. Other wise they are irrelevant to Pakistani politics.

 

[p(-)0ENiX]

While not directly addressing the points raised in the original post, there are a few things that need to be addressed. Urdu is an Indo-Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Aryan family of Prakrits or in particular the Central Zone region of the Indo-Aryan linguistic continuum. Sanskrit itself is a member of the Indo-Aryan branch; a minor off shoot of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Other members within this grouping would be the Kalash language, other Dardic languages, et cetera. Pashto belongs to the Eastern Iranic branch of the Indo-Iranian language family. The point being that these languages are related and constitute no more than regional morphological changes occurring over the natural course of time as mutually intelligible dialects evolve in to unintelligible ones.

In essence, this whole debates revolves around whether or not it is acceptable to speak a different form of your native tongue with blatant disregard to their shared origins. The Indo-Iranian tribes imposed their tongues on the locals and the varied and sometimes poor adoption on part of the indigenous resulted in grammatic and syntactic differences coupled with retention and evisceration of certain lexicons, which fuel the diversity of the linguistic spread. If any of you were to traverse back far enough, you would find that the speakers of Vedic Sanskrit would find the speakers of Avestan somewhat intelligible. An interesting fact here is that during the Indo-Iranian expansion, a branch of the Indo-Aryan speakers would travel westwards with the Iranic tribes and end up sandwiching themselves between the Egyptians, Hittites, & Assyrians. They were called Mitanni and their tongue is relatively mutually intelligible to Sanskrit.

In any case, Pakistan, which inculcates a chunk of the Indo-Iranian settlement zone shouldn't feel ashamed to speak any Indo-Iranian tongue, everyone of which retains shares an easily discernable link to a local dialect. Those of you that speak Urdu and Farsi for instance could attest to that. Another point that I feel needs to be highlighted is the fact that languages aren't colonial. Switching from the Sanskrit "mitar" to the Latin "mater" or the English "mother" doesn't imply enslavement. If anything, I would be uttering words originating from the same source and would remain attached to the speech of my forefathers. These were just some of my thoughts skimming through this thread.

Anyway, some of the viewers might enjoy the videos below because they add a contextual framework to this debate.