Was Jinnah Wrong on the Language Issue?

[nvra911]

Was Jinnah Wrong on the Language Issue by Declaring Urdu as the State Language of East Pakistan too?
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I was discussing Indo-Pak politics with my Dad and we came to a disagreement over this topic. I think that Jinnah made the wrong call on declaring Urdu as the lingua franca of West AND East Pakistan too. I'm not saying that whether he should or should not have said that - I'm just saying that I feel that his opinion on this matter was wrong and lacked foresight.

I've pasted below an excerpt from the book Constructing Bangladesh by Sufia Uddin where Jinnah's exact speech to which I'm referring to, is reproduced.

I would appreciate if I can hear sincere opinions from forum members. Please no bashing or abuses -I am a Pakistani, born in Rawalpindi and proudly associate with my identity and people of my land.

 

[ajeeba]

Urdu should not have been the national language of Pakistan. Urdu is still a great threat to regional languages.

 

[Zafar Malik]

Jinnah bhi aik insan thay unhon ne agar urdu ko pakistan ki qaumi zaban declare kiya tha tu unki niyat pa shak nahein kiya ja sakta nah hi karna chahiye .haan agar Arabic ko national language qara de diya jata tu yeh islami riyasat ke liye
bahut hi umda baat hoti urdu rabta zaban tu zaroor hai magar qaumi zaban kabhi nahein rahi .Agar Arabic ko akhtiyar kiya jata tu beshumar faide hote . Quran Majeed ko samjhna har aik ke liye asan hota mullan se hum log bach jate . arab countries mein acche taluqaat hote aur wahn humko indians se ziyada waqaahat milti . ab bhi der nahein hoi arabic ko qaumi zaban ka darja de ke aik time frame mein iss ko mukamal raaij kiya ja sakta hai .

 

[BrotherKantu]

ارے بھائی اس ملک کا اصل مسلہ تو جہالت ہے
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[Zafar Malik]

Urdu should not have been the national language of Pakistan. Urdu is still a great threat to regional languages.

agree with you , punjabi sareiki pashtu and sindhi ....are greater than urdu . and the big problem is urdu speeking
population ko aik zaam hai keh woh doosron per fauqiyat rakhte hein ya unko koi shurkhaab ke par lage hoey hein .

 

[atensari]

What is the solution and its implementation.

 

[sabir1]

oh bhai quiad e azam ka peecha choro . unhain gaey hoay 65 saal ho gaey . yeh batao hum logo nay kitna teer mara.

 

[zafarbokhari]

Arabic should have been national language as proposed by then Agha Khan to Jinnah Sahib. But he did not agreed. Urdu is language understood by more than billion population in Indian sub-continent. As far as spoken Urdu is concerned, it was primarily spoken in Sind and India but each region has different Urdu. Urdu was introduced because of largely understood language, Urdu speaking population has nothing to do with that. India could not vanish Urdu from her film industry and poetry. All top world universities have Urdu departments. We must adopt Arabic as national language while Urdu and other regional languages should also flourish with natural process. Language and culture can not be imposed like Martial Law. It grows with time.

 

[drkjke]

jinah was not wrong on language issue.bengalis did not separate from us just due to language,their were numerous other reasons.for one the Bengalis were too much under hindu influence,in 1971 majority of teachers in east Pakistan were hindu,the bengali youths heart beat with their Bengali hindu neighbours not their muslim Pakistani brothers.so it would have happened no matter if you had declared Bengali as national language of whole Pakistan.you can see present bangaldesh and how much they love india and hate Pakistan.this will show you the main reason of separation.alas now again in remaning Pakistan the traitor monkeys are trying to ignite linguistic and ethnic hatred by these new linguistic provinces demand,and I than see chance of 1971 break up again in future unless these putrid brain people of mqm/ppp etc are controlled.these people are so low level that they are igniting linguistic hatred just to gain political advantage.to save the future of this nation such people must be dealt strictly.till such people are around we have no future

 

[drkjke]

oh bhai quiad e azam ka peecha choro . unhain gaey hoay 65 saal ho gaey . yeh batao hum logo nay kitna teer mara.

haha.you remind me of something....you know ppp people always claim that failure of ppp govt was due to aamriat of zia ul haq. the very small matter that he was martyred 30 years ago,does not change their opinion...no wonder this is the "planet of apes"

 

[LovelyVirus]

Been through similar topic with some bangla guys. IMO this should have been non issue and not the cause of eventual breakup. Urdu as a state/national language was idle choice for it being neutral (non native) language was already wide spread in sub continent unlike bangla which was mainly concentrated to Bangal province. Had bangla been made national language then west Pakistan would have been struggling and complaining. The perfect policy could have been to declare Urdu as national language and local langugaes as provincial languages. That means in schools children could study both urdu and their regional language. Gradually every one (like it is now in Pakistan) would have been able to understand and speak Urdu at national level. In short bangali demand was unfair.

To someone's comment above for Urdu destroying regional language. I would say Urdu is not the cause instead it's one of the main symbol/source (other than religion) of Unity for Pakistanis otherwise there is so much regional bias/hate among us. The local langs are not destroyed but one can say they are not developed as much as urdu did (even the later is not well developed scientifically to use it as medium of studies). But realistically it is not easy to develop multiple langs that too when there is no real need of that.

I myself is happy and satisfied to have one common lang for our country despite being not a urdu speaker by birth. Many of you don't realize how important a common national language is for the development and prosperity of a country. Look at well developed countries and even china. The whole nations speak one language and feel proud about it.

 

[LovelyVirus]

Arabic should have been national language as proposed by then Agha Khan to Jinnah Sahib.

That was also not a bad choice and could actually make it easy for some blind followers to read and understand Quran on their own.

 

[Humi]

well the outcome does suggest so....but perhaps if we were a bit more tolerant and understanding in the following years, we would have been a bit better off..

 

[lurker]

I don't think Urdu was a mistake. Its the predominant language in the region anyway. I think perhaps something like what Ataturk did with his language reform and he came up with a completely new language.

 

[desicad]

I don't think Urdu was a mistake. Its the predominant language in the region anyway. I think perhaps something like what Ataturk did with his language reform and he came up with a completely new language.

which region you call predominant urdu?........

 

[Dhiraj Kumar]

There should be no official language in a big country . Hindi is not Indian national language too !!

Let state decide their language , just follow english!!

That w as the best thing happened to India :) we sucked all jobs from usa,europe!!:lol::lol::lol:

 

[Humi]

There should be no official language in a big country . Hindi is not Indian national language too !!

Let state decide their language , just follow english!!

That w as the best thing happened to India :) we sucked all jobs from usa,europe!!:lol::lol::lol:

yes even I was thinking that English would have been a better idea at that time...

 

[desicad]

There should be no official language in a big country . Hindi is not Indian national language too !!

Let state decide their language , just follow english!!

That w as the best thing happened to India :) we sucked all jobs from usa,europe!!:lol::lol::lol:

Well as per the constitution of India Hindi in Devnagri script is the official language.....but the good thing is that it was never forced on the states with other regional languages allowing them to maintain their culture and identity.......

 

[miafridi]

jinah was not wrong on language issue.bengalis did not separate from us just due to language,their were numerous other reasons.for one the Bengalis were too much under hindu influence,in 1971 majority of teachers in east Pakistan were hindu,the bengali youths heart beat with their Bengali hindu neighbours not their muslim Pakistani brothers.so it would have happened no matter if you had declared Bengali as national language of whole Pakistan.you can see present bangaldesh and how much they love india and hate Pakistan.this will show you the main reason of separation.alas now again in remaning Pakistan the traitor monkeys are trying to ignite linguistic and ethnic hatred by these new linguistic provinces demand,and I than see chance of 1971 break up again in future unless these putrid brain people of mqm/ppp etc are controlled.these people are so low level that they are igniting linguistic hatred just to gain political advantage.to save the future of this nation such people must be dealt strictly.till such people are around we have no future

I was about to say the same thing but then found this post.

 

[mubashirrao]

If i am a father having five sons, Two of them speaks Urdu the other two also understand urdu, but one does not understand urdu. And i want them to be brothers with a strong relationship, unity, harmony and brotherhood and obviously communication does matter for each of them to achieve all this. But the fifth one instead of following the other fours chose to leave. Is it the wise decision for the fifth one? A sane mind would say No way.. Well why don't people look on this side of the picture that Jinnah Rehmatullah Alaeyh wanted this nation to be one! The purpose was to unite them all so they can face the challenges together as we all know unity is the strength but the one Bengali boy was not sane enough. Just imagine if Bangladesh was still part of Pakistan with nukes with them would anyone dare? especially India! Would there be Kashmir issue anymore if India had Pakistan on both of her side with Nukes?
Imaan, Ittehad , Tanzeem this is what Quaid said all his life and if bengalis were so loyal to this motto or respected their leader Quaid then the case would be different. Infact they should be considered traitors who betrayed their leader.
That's all.