Linguistic Diversity in Pakistan
In this article, APF Blog Writer Noah Usman interviews Zubair Torwali, Founder and Executive Director of Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (Institute for Education and Development), an organization that works to empower marginalized communities in northern Pakistan through linguistic and cultural revitalization.
The Dominance of Urdu & English
While Pakistan is a country made up of diverse languages and ethnicities, the leaders of the young Pakistani state chose to elevate Urdu to national prominence, a move motivated by the language’s links to the Muslim communities of the former British Raj. At the same time, the prevalence of Urdu among Pakistani elites has always been challenged by English, which assumed greater influence initially with the onset of colonialism in the subcontinent but continues to retain importance among certain Pakistani populations due to the global relevance of the English language. Despite the prominence of English and Urdu in Pakistan, the languages of Panjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Balochi also remain well known due to their large number of speakers divided across provinces that are roughly identified by their ethnic affiliations.
The Diversification of Language in Pakistan
Zubair Torwali With Colleagues in Pakistan
Lesser known is the fact that approximately 80 languages are spoken across Pakistan, with many of them concentrated in the Northern Areas. Due to the mountainous terrain of the Northern Areas, the local inhabitants became geographically isolated much more easily, diversifying the languages of this area at an incredibly fast rate. Each language offers a unique lens into the region’s history and diverse perspectives. While most of the provincial languages belong to the Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-European language family, many smaller languages belong to the Iranic and Dardic groups, while some, such as Burushaski, are language isolates (languages that are not connected to any other language).
The communities speaking these lesser known languages, many of which are endangered, face a variety of obstacles in preserving their culture, ranging from a lack of governmental funding for native-language education to the dearth of awareness of linguistic diversity among the Pakistani public. But language revitalization efforts are rapidly gaining ground and offer a beacon of hope.
Linguistic & Cultural Revitalization
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with language activist Zubair Torwali, Founder and Executive Director of Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (Institute for Education and Development), an organization that works to empower marginalized communities in Northern Pakistan through linguistic and cultural revitalization. Idaara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (IBT) works in a variety of avenues to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity, including by publishing books in endangered languages such as Torwali, teaching these languages to students, organizing academic linguistics workshops and training workers in traditional arts and design.
Mr. Torwali is a speaker of the Torwali language, of which there are approximately 120,000 speakers located in the Swat District of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Torwali entered the field of language revitalization after experiencing linguistic discrimination as a student. Throughout school, Mr. Torwali felt he was “regarded as inferior” due to his linguistic and cultural differences with school staff and it was these feelings that eventually motivated him to preserve his communities, languages, and cultures.
“I was looked down upon by the teachers because I could not speak their language.”
Despite the vast linguistic diversity in Pakistan, minority communities continually face pressure from the linguistic majority to center their identity on Urdu and English, and to a lesser extent on provincial languages, a phenomenon which Torwali refers to as “internal colonialism.” Similarly to the manner in which English was imposed by the British Empire on what became Pakistan, Urdu and Pashto, as described by Torwali, are continually imposed upon the inhabitants of the Northern Areas in academic settings, a phenomenon which stigmatizes their native languages even further.
“For the last many years, I have been advocating for these languages from the South, from Karachi and Balochistan, to the North in Gilgit and Chitral.” Torwali has experienced that, despite the fact that almost all of these languages would be classified as such by any linguistic measure, mainstream Pakistani society tends to view these languages instead as “dialects”, diminishing their perceived cultural and historical value.
“There are … hurdles because of the peculiar mindset of certain people who regard Pakistan as a homogeneous nation.”
Zubair Torwali With Students in Pakistan
“Language without culture is just noise.”
It is especially important to note that, despite the role of Urdu in unifying the people of Pakistan and shaping their national identity, such an approach has come at the expense of recognition of the true cultural and linguistic diversity of this country. The lens through which Pakistani culture is viewed has been blurred so that more attention is focused on national identity, which only associates with Urdu and English, and to a lesser extent on provincial identity, which associates with Panjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, and languages with similar numbers of speakers. As a result, the visibility of lesser-spoken languages has faded substantially.
This set of circumstances has rendered many marginalized linguistic communities dependent on the private sector to establish native-language education centers, which are mainly supported by foreign entities, as language documentation and revitalization efforts have greater infrastructure outside of Pakistan. The wide range of organizations that aid in this effort include Wikitongues, the Endangered Alliance, and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.
Technology and the Internet similarly provide a mixed set of circumstances for marginalized linguistic communities. Torwali explained that the Internet has not leveled the playing field of languages to the extent often perceived. Since most Pakistani languages are written using modified versions of the Perso-Arabic script - which itself is not well accommodated online - many communities remain unable to express themselves online in their native languages. In order to counter this, Torwali worked with Google to develop a Torwali keyboard for Android, and is currently working with Apple to accomplish the same.
A Discussion of COVID-19 in Torwali
A Traditional Torwali Song
Still, social media has provided a significant platform for minoritized communities to express themselves and revive their cultures. By sharing video and audio files across the Internet, linguistic communities can connect with their national and global diasporas and have, in the case of the Torwali language, revitalized local musical and poetic traditions. By venturing into social media, marginalized linguistic groups have also improved public access to vital information on public health and community affairs.
The IBT has implemented similar campaigns for a variety of minoritized languages in the Northern Areas, and the resultant enthusiasm is highly promising. According to Professor Ghil’ad Zuckermann, Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide, Australia, language endangerment is best countered when targeted at younger demographics, to the extent that the level of endangerment of a given language should not be measured solely by the total number of speakers, but by the percentage of children that speak the language, as this is a more predictive indicator of survival.
Language Elitism
In the fight to preserve marginalized Pakistani languages, Torwali emphasizes that communities must continually counter an economic elite that favors Urdu and English, which causes people to “leave their language, they leave their culture. They lost their self-esteem, they lost history … [in order to] mimic other communities.”
Of the range of possible ways to reclaim identity, perhaps none is as stark as Torwali’s choice to adopt the name of his ethnicity and language as his surname, serving as a strong statement for cultural and linguistic autonomy. This change, in and of itself, has contributed to an increase in self-esteem and cultural pride among members of the Torwali speaking community.
“I was the first person who wrote ‘Torwali’ … as his second name in 2004, [and] gradually now I see that people proudly call themselves Torwali”.
When asked how activists should approach language revitalization, Torwali stressed the importance of a holistic approach:
“You really need to integrate the language revitalization with other issues as well…decolonizing is the actual thing. If we do that, we reverse the language shift, we can revitalize our languages, our culture. In working to revitalize endangered languages, we must combine language with all facets of our identity, because, as Torwali eloquently put it, “language without culture is just noise”.
Learn More
Revitalizing Endangered Languages: Chapter 1 - Why Revitalize?
Revitalizing Endangered Languages: Chapter 7 - Attitudes and Ideologies in Language Revitalisation
Remember the Dying Languages of Northern Pakistan
Video: Why Revive A Dead Language? | Interview with Prof. Ghil'ad Zuckermann
Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi Official Website - Torwali People and Culture
Facebook Page for the Society for Endangered and Lesser-Known Languages of Pakistan (SELP)