When it comes to language, it is not only a means of communication but also reflects the cultural and traditional styles of a society, a community. It has its roots extended far from syntax and grammar, if we see it. Each language possesses its own vocabulary, phrases, metaphors, folk tales, and anecdotes, and all these things invest in making a culture.
With a dying language, it is not only the loss of words, but a living culture washes away with it too. All the great remarkable stories, either of war or bravery or traditions of the ancestors that are linked to religious or spiritual means, die with them. Apparently, this is no big deal because in our lens we have various other dominant languages that have taken the place of regional languages, respectively, and we can live without those dying languages, unfortunately. Learning English, French, Spanish and Mandarin is preferred for educational purposes and in the search for opportunities. This is how languages control and bound the world within a few words.
With time, if technology has brought various advancements, it has also caused damage to culture and ethics, on the other hand. We are bound to our mobile phones, laptops, and all these brain-damaging screens because they have altered our lifestyle. In these changed circumstances, what we see is relaxation, easy communication, and a fast-paced world where everything is a click away, but what we ignore is how quickly it is diminishing our values, our traditions, and our culture.
We believe if we preserve things in books, they stay alive forever. Well, it is a lie we are not ready to accept because we are simply transforming it into becoming a history instead of practising it. For this, let us take the example of Sanskrit, a language that is on its death bed only held on by its religious and few academic texts. There was a time when Sanskrit was largely spoken in various regions of the world and held dominance through its cultural values. Then what happened that all of a sudden a language that was used to glean religious text outgrew its era?
How could people who had nothing but religion and philosophy and science attached to them forget about the language all had been inscribed in? Did they stop teaching it to their children and on a random day decide to adopt a new language with new rules, or did the language lose its place with the resolutions in the world? This shows that despite preserving language, its words in a book cannot make it survive for long if not taught and practised regularly.
For the matter of fact, Urdu is a language with graceful expressions, a language that has remarkably rendered its services in providing elegant poetry and prose with intense meaningful depth. Urdu is not just a mere language; it is connected to our cultural and ethical values, our very own identity. A language that holds its roots deep in our history. A language so powerful that Hindus and the British had to start a controversy against it in 1867.
The point that gave the hint of how our identity is in danger. It was not just a language they were after; it was the legacy of Muslims, the Mughal empire. They wanted to uproot the marvellous cultural heritage by taking over our language. Then was Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who protected us from a huge loss. Now, who is going to save this slowly deteriorating language from the hands of the most famous English language?
Yet again after so many years we are standing at the same point; the only difference is that we are not revolting this time. The colonised mindset has successfully been embedded in us, and we proudly own it. Despite Urdu being the national language of Pakistan, we are unable to give it the status it deserves.
If we bother to see, then our mother tongue and regional languages are getting compromised due to globalisation and urban migration. People from rural areas migrate to urban settlements for opportunities in job and educational sectors. This leads them to the learning of English specifically for better survival, making them unlearn their regional languages. For instance, someone speaking Punjabi is considered ‘paindu’, and the one conversing in English is considered ‘literate’. These are the standards we have set for the people in the society, and English as a language is prioritised unfathomably, where once Iqbal and Faiz used to echo with their outstanding, revolutionised Urdu poetry.
Multilingual communities flourish better than monolingual communities, for they have a vast understanding of various cultures that helps them to understand the world dynamically. Even in this time where Urdu is seen as a language of less importance, various book talks, seminars, and cultural gatherings are held to revive it.
Thousands of languages are endangered in this century; if we do not care to practise them soon, they will disappear soon, not even leaving their cultural marks behind.