Daily Times

Socrates said centuries back, “The misuse of language induces evil in the soul,” and it stands true even today, but our electronic media is bend upon misusing Urdu and every day be that a talk show or a drama we come across many such instances and words which brutally destroy the very fabric of the language about which famous Urdu poet Daagh Dehlvi had pronounced,

“Urdu hai jis ka nam ham hain jantay hain Daagh

Hindustan main dhum hamari zaban ki hai.”

(Only we know Daagh what Urdu is, our language is famous all over Hindustan)

Urdu a very rich language is being treated as an alien language in the country of which it’s the national language. Just a couple of days back in one talk show on one of the most popular private TV channel, one participant started reciting his poem in Punjabi though the talk show was in Urdu, another guest responded in Pashto, instantly, that was the most polite decent and courteous way of reminding the Punjabi speaking guest that the talk show in progress was in Urdu and it’s not essential that all the viewers understand Punjabi and in case if they do than they must be familiar with other regional languages of the country also.

It has become a routine that while talking in Urdu, all of a sudden our anchors or one of the guests intentionally or unintentionally switch over to any regional language mostly in Punjabi. The use of English language words even complete sentences is a matter of routine and these are used in all Urdu shows without any hesitation as if they are part and parcel of Urdu Language. On March 21, 1948, in than East Pakistan, the father of the nation Quaid E Azam in clear words said Quote “But let me make it very clear to you that the state language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language. Anyone who tries to mislead you is really the enemy of Pakistan. Without one state language, no nation can remain tied up solidly together and function. Look at the history of other countries. Therefore, so far as the state language is concerned, Pakistani language shall be Urdu” unquote`. Thus Urdu was declared as the national language of the country. Urdu was the language which was spoken and understood almost at every nook and corner of the country, so the Quaid made it crystal clear that Urdu would be the national language of the newly independent state. After declaring Urdu as the national language no concrete steps were taken by the governments of the day for promoting the language at the grass root.

Pakistan produced excellent Urdu poets and writers, like Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Josh Malihabadi, Ahmad Faraz, Saadat Hasan Manto and Ashfaq Ahmed, etc to name a few. It is a never ending list of world class giants of literature. The poets and prose writers of Urdu hailing from different provinces of Pakistan, with a mother language other than Urdu, never used any word of their native language

Pakistan produced excellent Urdu poets and writers, like Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Josh Malihabadi, Ahmad Faraz, Saadat Hasan Manto and Ashfaq Ahmed, etc to name a few. It is a never ending list of world class giants of literature. The poets and prose writers of Urdu hailing from different provinces of Pakistan, with a mother language other than Urdu, never used any word of their native language. Muhammad Iqbal, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Abu Al-Asar Hafeez Jalandhari and many more are such examples. Though their mother tongue was not Urdu, in their poetry, they never used a single word of their mother tongue. It’s a sad state of affairs that on the one hand the poets and writers of Pakistan rendered countless services for the promotion of the language, on the other hand our media especially the electronic media is bend upon miserably distorting the language.

There were times in sixties and seventies when Pakistan Television used to telecast drama serials and informative talk shows while taking special care of the language and pronunciation, those TV serials are still popular among the masses though in black and white and with very little resources, but left an everlasting memory in the minds of the viewers, serials like Dhoop Kinaray, Angan Tehra, quiz show like Kasoti, informative shows like Sylani Kay Sath, and many more.

With the advent of private electronic media houses, not only the standard of production and that of story has gone down but the worst part is the Urdu language is being brutally destroyed with countless mistakes of pronunciations and adulterations’ of words of other languages.

Same goes to any regional language shows, in which the use of any Urdu word seems totally unfit. If we watch any world famous channels say in English we never find the guests or the anchors speaking few words in French, German or any other language, but why this trend has taken over not only on the electronic media but in the print media also, as many a places we find Pakistan written as Bakistan, the advocates of this simply forget that in Arabic there is no “Pay” (P) where as Urdu alphabets includes a proper “P” for correctly pronouncing the name of our country.

The story doesn’t end over here certain words which were considered as the words spoken in the streets and by the whores, indecent ridiculous and improper words are used not only in the drama but in the advertisements one such word is “Yar” (Friend) which is most commonly and frequently used.

I remember that during our child hood days if ever by mistake we utter the word “Yar” we used to get quite a punishment from our elders, while now this practically forbidden and prohibited word is being used regularly without any remorse on the electronic media thus spoiling one of the most decent and sophisticated language of the world that is Urdu.

In the words of famous religious scholar Ahmed Deedat ” Language is key to the heart of the people” so by spoiling and adulterating the Urdu language our media especially the electronic one is directly inflicting and striking the heart of the people of the land of pure.

The writer can be reached at aamiraqil@gmail.com