English

Multiculturism tolerance in Pakistan:

"Multiculturalism" is the co-existence of diverse cultures, where culture includes

racial, religious, or cultural groups and is manifested in customary behavior’s,

cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking, and communicative styles.”

Multicultural society is a society where people of different races, cultures and

traditions live side by side with a mutual respect. Multiculturalism is beneficial to

a society, because it consists of people from different ethnic backgrounds,

cultures and religions living and working together– we talk about a cultural

diversity and tolerance means “Tolerance is the ability to accept diversity and to

live and let other people live.”

Pakistan has never resolved the issue of pluralism and diversity. In essence,

Pakistan suffers as much from a failure of multiculturalism’ as it does from a

failure of religious tolerance. In modern nation states, nowhere is one ‘national

community.

Pakistan is home to one of the most diverse populations in the world. This is

the country where exists a wide diversity of culture, traditions and languages.

Although nation of Pakistan has been, and still is, facing mighty internal

challenges which threaten even its existence and it is often accused of being a

fundamentalist and intolerant society, yet it is not true because this is the

nation of tolerant, loving and resilient people. The fact was further reinforced

by a recent “World Values Survey,” that ranks Pakistanis among the most

racially tolerant people in the world.

Conflict arises not because people hold different opinions but because people

are unable to tolerate different opinions. Difference itself is never the cause of

conflict. The inability to reconcile the difference, to respect it and to cherish it

leads to instability. In Pakistan ‘difference’, be it religious or ethnic is being

portrayed in such a way as it is the only cause of conflict.

Instead, in most of the nation states, we have many communities that are defined

by the ties of faith, tradition, ethnicity or language. These differences can never

be dismantled. But they can be resolved. It should be remembered that Pakistan’s

crisis has always been the inability to resolve provincial and ethnic tensions and

that religious extremism is merely a response to these failures. There is a dire

need to hear the voices of sanity from the different ethnic and linguistic

communities caught up amongst ruthless political violence.

It is worth noting that the Bengalis as a distinct linguistic community were not the

only ones who refuted the idea of Pakistan. Indeed, the Pakhtun and Baloch

nationalists had also opposed the accession of their regions to Pakistan.

Likewise, the Sindhis had supported the idea of Pakistan, but only in the hope that

it would be a decent ralised confederation of the Muslim majority provinces.

The question of identity and representation has been an issue of contention in

Pakistan since independence. Smaller provinces, concerned about their under-

representation and a lack of cultural recognition, are always disappointed with

the state. Because of the state’s ignorance of diversities and absence of any

multicultural or pluralistic policy, several groups within the population have been

witnessing a history of intolerance and violence towards each other because of

ethnic, linguistic and sectarian differences.

Advantages of multiculturism:

it helps to break down barriers between ethnic groups which are caused by

ignorance. Human beings have a tendency to be suspicious of cultures they do not

understand. Living with different cultures brings a better understanding of other

cultures, enrich our lives and helps to encourage tolerance.

Disadvantage of multiculturism:

• One of the negatives is that cultural differences can divide a society. This

can lead to prejudice and discrimination towards minorities

• There will always be people who think that their religion and culture is

superior and right and that other beliefs and cultures are inferior and wrong

• These people try to blame ethnic minorities for social and economic

problems even when it is not true.

• Because of different opinions there sometimes occur lots of riots, e.g. in

London last year

• Racism is sometimes a problem of multicultural society

Multiculturism education:

• Multicultural education aims to prepare children for living in a multicultural

society.

• Its major aim is to create equal educational opportunities for students from

different racial, ethnic and cultural groups and to help all students to acquire the

knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to function effectively in a pluralistic

democratic society and to interact and communicate with peoples from diverse

groups.

Conclusion:

Therefore, in my research, I would delve into the deep for studying the

differences which exist in Pakistan. By doing so I would make efforts to find out

the reasons why still government has not turned towards the multicultural

agenda despite witnessing so many conflict and violence.

Along with that my research will also tilt to know whether the approach of

multiculturalism, if the state adopts, will yield benefits in Pakistan. I would like to

see whether there is any scope for Pakistan for grappling with the idea of

multiculturalism. IN short, I will see the whole story from multicultural lenses and

would prefer to catch up a solution in the same approach.

Multilingualism in Pakistan:

“Multilingualism is the natural potential available to every normal human being

rather than an unusual exception: “given the appropriate environment, two

languages are as normal as two lungs”.

to have another language is to possess a second soul.

— Charlemagne (742/7 – 814), king of the franks

Pakistan is a multilingual country. Its national language, Urdu, is the mother tongue

of only 7.57 per cent people though it is very widely spread out in the urban areas of

the country otherwise. Its official language is still English as it was when the British

ruled the country as part of British India.

Language policy in Pakistan is meant to strengthen the state. This is taken to

mean that there should be a national language which should symbolize the

nation-state. This language is Urdu. The policy also claims to modernize the state.

The language for this is English which is a depository of scientific and

technological knowledge which can modernize and, thus, empower the state.

Both policies, in practice, empower the ruling elite or, as in the case of English,

the Westernized and urban part of it. Let us examine the two policies in some

detail before looking at their role in weakening the indigenous languages of the

country.

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. It was a symbol of Muslim separatism in

British India and, next only to Islam, the Muslim League used it to mobilize.

Muslims against perceived Hindu domination and the struggle for Pakistan. The

ruling elite of the country, which was dominated by the West Pakistanis (mostly

the Punjabi military and Mohajir bureaucracy in the early years of Pakistan),

continued to privilege Urdu over the indigenous languages of the country so as to

counteract fissiparous (ethnic nationalist) tendencies. The major consequence of

the privileging of Urdu has been ethnic resistance to it. As mentioned before,

Urdu is not the mother tongue of most Pakistanis as census figures given earlier

illustrate. However, Urdu is indeed the most widely understood language and

perhaps the major medium of interaction in the urban areas of the country. Even

ethnic activists agree that it could be a useful link language between different

ethnic groups. However, it has been resisted because it has been patronized,

often in insensitive ways, by the ruling elite of the centre.

English was supposed to continue as the official language of Pakistan till such time

that the national language (s) did not replace it. However, this date came and

went by as many other dates before it and English is as firmly entrenched in the

domains of power in Pakistan as it was in 1947. The major reason for this is that

this is the stated but not the real policy of the ruling elite in Pakistan. The real

policy can be understood with reference to the elite’s patronage of English in the

name of efficiency, modernization and so on.

This has created new generations, and ever increasing pools, of young people

who have a direct stake in preserving English. All the arguments which applied to

a small Anglicized elite of the early generation of Pakistan now applies to young

aspirants who stand ready to enter the ranks of this elite. And their parents,

themselves not at ease in English, have invested far too much in their children’s

education to seriously consider decreasing the cultural capital and importance of

English.

The advantages that multilinguals exhibit over monolinguals are not restricted to

linguistic knowledge only, but extend outside the area of language. The

substantial long-lived cognitive, social, personal, academic, and professional

benefits of enrichment bilingual contexts have been well documented.

there are tolerance-related and promotion-oriented rights. In Pakistan we have

the former but not the latter. This means that, while we keep paying lip service to

our indigenous languages, we create such market conditions that it becomes

impossible to gain power, wealth or prestige in any language except English and,

to a lesser extent, Urdu. It is this which must be changed and the change must

come by changing the market conditions.

Globalization will increase the power of English because it will open up more jobs

for those who know it. These jobs will be controlled by multinationals which are

dominated by the U.S.A. This will increase the demand for English schooling which

will make parents invest in English at the cost of their own languages.

Conclusion:

In short, by supporting English through a parallel system of elitist schooling,

Pakistan’s ruling elite acts as an ally of the forces of globalization at least as far as

the hegemony of English, which globalization promotes, is concerned. The major

effect of this policy is to weaken the local languages and lower their status even in

their home country. This, in turns, militates against linguistic and cultural

diversity; weakens the ‘have-nots’ even further and increases poverty by

concentrating the best paid jobs in the hands of the international elite and the

English-using elite of the peripheries. English, after all, is the language of the

greatest power in the world. English spread because of American economic

power, American control of world media and international commerce.

We have seen that the language policies of Pakistan, declared and undeclared,

have increased both ethnic and class conflict in the country. Moreover, our

Westernized elites, in their own interests, are helping the forces of globalization

and threatening cultural and linguistic diversity. In this process they are

impoverishing the already poor and creating much resentment against the

oppression and injustice of the system.