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Friday March 29, 2024

Call for recognition and promotion of all national languages

By our correspondents
February 21, 2017

Islamabad: The Pakistan Mother Languages Literature Festival concluded with a call for recognition and promotion of all national languages.

Writers, poets and intellectuals from 15 languages discussed the literature produced in national languages and their role in creating social harmony and pluralistic society

Islamabad, Feb 19: The second edition of the Pakistan Mother Languages Literature Festival concluded at Lok Virsa on Sunday with a call for recognising and promoting all national languages and cultural diversity.

“Linguistic diversity is important for the future of the country and all languages should be given equal status at national level,” said a declaration issued by the organizers at the conclusion of the two-day festival.

“The state narrative of one nation one language has proven wrong and should be changed,” the declaration read. It also asked the government to initiate debate on languages issue and make legislation on national languages.

The declaration exhorted on all institutions at deferral level to strive for and take concrete measures for the promotion of national languages. They also called for introducing textbooks in mother languages in schools at primary level to remove disparity and disharmony in society.

Noted linguist and Associate Professor at Summer Institute of Languages Dr Joan Bart in his keynote speech at the concluding ceremony stressed the need for holding such festivals. “These festivals are indication of success of language movements around in the world,” he said.

Some languages which were initially facing extinction are now back on track of revival due to campaign for mainstreaming such languages. Sindh Minister for Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah announced that Sufi Music festival will be held in Islamabad and the provincial govt will support it.

Over 2,500 people visited the two-day festival which was organized by the Indus Cultural Forum in collaboration with Lok Virsa, the Foundation for Open society, SPO and Sindh Culture Department.

About 70 young volunteers from various educational institutions took part in the organization. Over 150 delegates from 15 languages including Sindhi, Balochi, Pashtu, Seraiki, Brahvi, Shina, Turwali, Gouri and Khowar, spoke in 28 concurrent sessions.

On the concluding day of the festival the writers, intellectuals, anthropologists, linguists and critics spoke on ‘language and peoples’ history’, ‘promotion of critical thinking’, ‘cinema in mother languages’ impact of technology and media on languages’.

The most important and well-attended session was Indus Valley – Evolution of Languages, Civilizations”. Noted linguist and intellectual Dr Professor Tariq Rehman in his keynote speech revealed that the people of the Indus civilization were very peaceful and non-violent.

Writer Aziz Ali Dad from Gilgit-Baltistan said the languages of GB were closely embedded with the cosmology of traditional worldview, which was developed in relative isolation. With the exposure to modernity that worldview disintegrated and society left with residual vocabulary without the context that infuses meaning into language.

“The situation is aggravated with the mutation of geographical unity during last hundred years. This caused rupture with linguistic unit which manifest in identity crises and political marginalization,” he said.

“Also modernity being a product of written word forced oral languages in GB to resort to resort to written word but in most cases failed. Written word is an elite medium and not many people got access to it.