Death of Farsi language in Pakistan

[peagle]

 

[waz]

That's sad. Farsi should be made part of the curriculum, it's part of our shared history.

 

[peagle]

That's sad. Farsi should be made part of the curriculum, it's part of our shared history.

It seems it is a limited part of the curriculum in KPK and Balochistan, but the demand is not there. Pakistani society enlarge has taken Urdu to heart. This points to a natural growth towards a unified society, with a singular Pakistaniat, which can only be a good thing.

 

[Chacha_Facebooka]

That's sad. Farsi should be made part of the curriculum, it's part of our shared history.

Urdu, Farsi, English, Arabic, Punjabi/Pushto/Sindhi ... these are children, not computers. Children should only be taught their mother tongue + urdu until college. Then they can pick up others as needed.

 

[Dariush the Great]

Urdu, Farsi, English, Arabic, Punjabi/Pushto/Sindhi ... these are children, not computers. Children should only be taught their mother tongue + urdu until college. Then they can pick up others as needed.

Persian influence in Urdu is huge and even the national anthem of Pakistan is in Persian.. in fact, even Pakistan, the name, is Persian in origin. It should be made the second language in Pakistan, after Urdu.

 

[waz]

Urdu, Farsi, English, Arabic, Punjabi/Pushto/Sindhi ... these are children, not computers. Children should only be taught their mother tongue + urdu until college. Then they can pick up others as needed.

Children learn and pick up languages very fast at a young age.

 

[Itachi]

In 50 years, it'll be the "Death of Urdu in Pakistan". As either Chinese or/& English fully replace Urdu unless something's done. Before that, the regional languages like Punjabi, Sindhi etc will go extinct...

Children learn and pick up languages very fast at a young age.

New research says that even adults can pick up new languages, albeit not as fast as kids. But it's still doable.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

It's fascinating how fast things change.

Just over a century ago; some of the first British travelers to modern-day Pakistan recorded how the lingua-franca of the region was Farsi and that even local dialects of Farsi existed (which they termed as "Sindho-Persian"), the same travelers noted how they could not find anyone that could "converse in the lingua franca of India" (Urdu/Hindi) in their city of stay (Hyderabad, Sindh).

 

[Azadkashmir]

farsi channel with Iranian representatives.

 

[peagle]

What does modern day Pakistan has to do with fire worshipper's language?

Bit of an extreme view, lol

But you cannot deny the fact that Farsi is a rich part of Pakistan's linguistic history. For it to die-off would be very sad, not just culturally but also intellectually, because our national language, Urdu, is heavily influenced by Farsi. By keeping Farsi alive and living within Pakistan, it helps to enrich us in so many ways.

Plus, most Pakistanis like the as you say "fire worshipers", they are our brothers and sisters, although I think you might need to renew your knowledge of history. They also helped Pakistan in our wars with India, let us not forget everything for sake of political expediencies.

 

[Bilal Khan (Quwa)]

It would've made sense to adopt Farsi as the national language instead of Urdu. Why? Because the Mughal court language was actually Farsi. Heck, Farsi was even the court language in Bengal at one point. Moreover, adopting Farsi would've raised more of a barrier between us and the Hindustan mainstream culture.

Either Farsi or Arabic should've been the way forward (ideally both as it would've enabled us to build bridges with both the Arab and Iran-Afghan world). Imagine the kind of weight our diplomats and leaders would've had if they could directly speak to these rulers in KSA, Jordan, Iran, Afghanistan, etc in the mother tongue (you don't build personal ties through interpreters).

For all those who wanted to erect a civilizational divide between Pakistan and India, then adopting Farsi would've been the logical choice. This was the language of the Muslim rulers who conquered and settled in these lands after the Arabs, and, at one point, governed most of South Asia with it.

We did a crap job appropriating the Muslim civilizations of South Asia. If there was one thing we should've learned from India, it was culturally linking back to a 1,000-year legacy. Instead, we tried this patchwork identity building combining Urdu and English gentry culture. We literally had a civilization ready to adopt, and we didn't do it.

However, if we had done it, I think we would've created a unique Neo-Mughal identity in 1-2 generations, e.g., Farsi infused with South Asian cultural influences. And this would've been the outward manifestation of what it meant to be Pakistani (with Islam driving inward).

PS: I say this as someone whose grandparents came from Hyderabad-Deccan, so I have nothing against Urdu. However, I know that my ancestors spoke Farsi way back when, and in all likelihood, as did the rulers of Punjab, Sindh, KP, Baluchistan, and the Bengal. Farsi was the language of Muslim rule in South Asia.

 

[Gangetic]

It would've made sense to adopt Farsi as the national language instead of Urdu. Why? Because the Mughal court language was actually Farsi. Heck, Farsi was even the court language in Bengal at one point. Moreover, adopting Farsi would've raised more of a barrier between us and the Hindustan mainstream culture.

Either Farsi or Arabic should've been the way forward (ideally both as it would've enabled us to build bridges with both the Arab and Iran-Afghan world). For all those who wanted to erect a civilizational divide between Pakistan and India, then adopting Farsi would've been the logical choice. This was the language of the Muslim rulers who conquered and settled in these lands after the Arabs, and, at one point, governed most of South Asia with it.

We did a crap job appropriating the Muslim civilizations of South Asia. If there was one thing we should've learned from India, it was culturally linking back to a 1,000-year legacy. Instead, we tried this patchwork identity building combining Urdu and English gentry culture. We literally had a civilization to adopt, and we didn't do it.

PS: I say this as someone whose grandparents came from Hyderabad-Deccan, so I have nothing against Urdu. However, I know that my ancestors spoke Farsi way back when, and in all likelihood, as did the rulers of Punjab, Sindh, KP, Baluchistan, and the Bengal. Farsi was the language of Muslim rule in South Asia.

@JamD please add this to my "how to re-engineer Pakistan" list. Thanks.

Too late for that now lol, especially in the information age.
But if a language were to be chosen in hindsight, it would've been better to use Punjabi but add Pashto/Sindhi/Baloch/Dardic/Hindi words.

 

[peagle]

It would've made sense to adopt Farsi as the national language instead of Urdu. Why? Because the Mughal court language was actually Farsi. Heck, Farsi was even the court language in Bengal at one point. Moreover, adopting Farsi would've raised more of a barrier between us and the Hindustan mainstream culture.

Either Farsi or Arabic should've been the way forward (ideally both as it would've enabled us to build bridges with both the Arab and Iran-Afghan world).

PS: I say this as someone whose grandparents came from Hyderabad-Deccan.

I see your reasoning, the idea in its purest form, and in principle I would agree. But the only thing is, we had an interesting time introducing Urdu as a national language, it created quite a stir in some regions, I shudder to think the results of attempting to introduce Farsi or Arabic in a country the majority did not speak and were almost entirely illiterate.

 

[Maira La]

What does modern day Pakistan has to do with fire worshipper's language?

The fire worshipper's language brought you Hanafi Islam.

 

[peagle]

Too late for that now lol, especially in the information age.
But if a language were to be chosen in hindsight, it would've been better to use Punjabi but add Pashto/Sindhi/Baloch/Dardic/Hindi words.

Good God no, that would have opened a can of worms, everyone can do without.
Urdu was an extremely good and obvious choice, and logical taking ground realities into account.