Hiroshima and Nagasaki have successfully recovered from the deadly attacks of radiating atomic bombs that hit them in 1945, but sadly Pakistanis could not recover from the after-effects of colonialism even after 74 years of its ‘physical disappearance’ in 1947. Our thoughts are still occupied and captured though physical bodies witness no shackles and it is the worst form of slavery which automatically transcends down to generations after generations who willingly follow the routes designed by the colonialists without any application of resources and artillery on their part. We are still under the trance or hypnotism that has been practiced 74 years ago on our ancestors and it is proliferating its effects everywhere. The famous quote that says “you can capture a man but not his thoughts” has been totally wrong when it comes to our part of the world. We may seem physically free , but our minds are clearly incarcerated. The recent video of some ‘local English’ ladies in Islamabad making fun of their employee for his poor English-speaking skills, is an example of this widespread mental incarceration. One wonders, have we really got freedom from British colonialism?
Unfortunately, this ‘English culture’ is not just limited to a fraction of our population, it is the case with almost all of us somewhere so deeply rooted in our foundations that we don’t even know it and assume that we are free from it while actually we are not. Simple questions can answer these invisible incarcerations. For example, if I ask myself, why am I writing this article in the first place in English language which is not a language of the majority of our people. And why are there so many English newspapers where more than 50% of the population cannot understand simple English, let alone a complex English newspaper. All this is a silent struggle to maintain our false superiority complex and stature which is catalyzed by collective social behaviors of people who respect and admire someone dwelling on foreign culture and mock and ridicule others who follow their own traditions or customs. In my case, after all these years I can picture that old time to myself now just as it was then in my school when I was first mocked and ridiculed for my poor English pronunciation by teachers and students alike. And those mockeries haunt me even today; I am still searching google to pronounce new words correctly, careful not to become an object of ‘shame and mockery’ again.
The British have successfully replaced us with experimental subjects like ‘cats’ used by Thorndike and ‘dogs’ by Pavlov in their experiments. Thorndike, in his experiment in 1898, put a cat in the puzzle box, which was encouraged to escape the puzzle box to reach a scrap of fish placed outside. With repeated efforts, the cat learned that only passing through these steps can lead him/ her to the food. While Pavlov in the 1890s, conditioned a dog by ringing a bell which was followed by food given to him. With repeated attempts, the dog tended to salivate once the bell was rung, thinking that it was this bell that brought him food. During their colonization, the British conditioned us in a similar way and we (‘the Thorndike’s cats and Pavlov’s dogs’) started believing that it is only ‘the English language, culture and sycophant attitudes towards our lords’, that can bring us prosperity and wellbeing and that psyche still rests within our heads. I believe even those dogs and cats might have exposed this fallacy later in their lives or at least it would not have traversed to their generations as opposed to us, who generations after generations could not overcome this delusion. Still today we are conditioned by our parents and teachers from day one that English is our only chance to survive.
This discrimination based on the manner of speaking English is affecting us everywhere. Employers start ‘salivating’ like Pavlov’s dog when they see an ‘English oriented gentleman / lady’ during their recruitment and interview processes. So, if your English is good, it rings the bell, leading you to get a good job easily no matter how bad your execution skills may be for the desired work. As a result, we spent a lot of time mastering our English language skills rather than the tasks and techniques needed to perform as part of our real jobs. The aim seems to be that doctors, engineers and other professionals need to be good at English at any cost but need not necessarily be good at doctoring and engineering and other skills they will actually be dealing with.
Like us, China has been subject to colonial rule from the 1840s till 1949, but she did not adopt the language and culture of colonialists. How positively this has impacted China can be evidenced easily as she is now nearing its destination to lead the world. Had their scientists and professionals engrossed in learning English the whole of their lives, the results could not have been different from the devastations we have culminated for ourselves by worshipping the ‘English Culture’.
See the tragedy and helplessness lying within our story; we are bound to criticize English language and its culture only by using its medium i.e. English. Our leaders are ‘manufactured’ in English institutions, many of them can’t even speak their own local languages. The famous slogan once coined by Khawaja Hassan Nizami for the development of Urdu i.e. “Urdu Bolo, Urdu likho, Urdu parho” has been replaced successfully and for all practical purposes by “Read English, Write English, Think English and Live English”. With these attitudes and culture, Urdu and other vernacular languages and our cultures and traditions will be dead soon and like dinosaurs, we will become extinct and wipe out from the list of nations of the world. But at least dinosaurs have left behind their such indelible cultural imprints that the world is still remembering and studying them even after millions of years of their extinction; I wonder what for, if ever will we be remembered for?