Saving Urdu for Urdu's Sake

Saving Urdu for Urdu’s Sake

By Syed H. Abbas (Co-Founder, Urdu At Home)

It is no secret that interest in the Urdu language in both public and private schools has been steadily eroding for the past two decades. But, has anyone lately checked the content of the Urdu books that our children study in schools these days? I am not talking about the public schools or the mom and pop private schools. I am talking about the leading private school systems that are considered to be elite and a status symbol for many across the country.

The Urdu curriculum that is taught in most schools across Pakistan is not only outdated, it borders on the indoctrination of the students towards an ideology which historically has never been a part of the language. Every Urdu course book starting from grade one has religious content injected into it. The amount of content increases with every grade and by the time the child reach fourth grade it looks like an extension of Islamic studies. Each book starts with “Hamd” and “Naat” followed by stories about the holy prophets. The issue is not what’s in the content, which to be fair (in almost all cases) teaches something good. But, the issue is with the placement of this content in a language course.

Some might argue that since Pakistan is an Islamic Republic, it’s appropriate to have some Islamic content in our language books. This argument, at best, is a flimsy one, and it might have had some weight, if there was no other subject where Islamic studies were being taught. But, when there is a separate subject which teaches Islamic injunctions, there is absolutely no need to include any religious text in the Urdu language books that is studied by both Muslims and non Muslim children.

I teach my daughter about Islamic values by buying books on Islam and with the same token expect to buy Urdu books which teach about the language. I am all for teaching the ethical and moral lessons to the kids in the Urdu language books, but it can easily be done outside of the religious themes. In any case, there is a separate course on Islamic Studies where the lessons on ethics and moral values are already given, using examples from our religion.

There is something inherently and fundamentally wrong when we push a particular ideology or agenda on our young kids especially when you are teaching a language. By inserting text about religious themes we are in essence giving Urdu a status of a sacred language. In my view, it’s another way of saying, Urdu is just for the Muslims and non-Muslims are not welcome to study it.

How and when did this encroachment start, and who is responsible for all this? I think most of us all are old enough to remember how, when and why this practice started. It’s not that these books are published by government-run publishing houses or that they are just being taught in public schools in under- privileged neighborhoods. These books are published by the private publishing houses like Oxford University Press and are taught in the so-called elite private schools systems across the country.

The people who are sitting on Urdu text book boards have been there for decades. They have successfully hijacked this beautiful language for their beliefs and ideologies. We need to take notice and should not allow such people to associate Urdu with a religious ideology or philosophy otherwise I fear that there will not be another Prem Chand, Upendra Nath Ashk, Rajinder Singh Bedi and Firaq Gorakhpuri. Unfortunately, it seems that the great publishing houses and the so-called private school systems have also turned a blind eye to this growing tide.

There is a growing need to fundamentally shift away from the way we teach Urdu to our kids. We have to broaden its scope and teach our kids about different cultures, people, their way of life and the similarities and differences between them. We need to use our language to teach about tolerance and understanding, and how we can become better human beings by respecting other viewpoints even when we don’t agree with them. Religious education should only be imparted in the religious courses and the motivation (however noble it might be) to insert religious themes in other subjects should always be kept in check.


The author lives in Silicon Valley, CA, USA and is the co-founder of www.urduathome.com.

Why not make "Urdu" cool again?

“If any child is caught speaking in Urdu, he will be punished”.
When I saw this sign in the middle of the play ground of a boys-branch of a leading private school system, I asked myself “Where Am I? Am I already too late?” Ironically, I had gone back after 6 years in the silicon valley to pitch my idea of improving Urdu language skills by using interactive technology.
When I raised the issue with the school’s administrator, who also happened to be my sister’s friend, she looked puzzled and asked with a gentle smirk - “Hassan, where have you been living? In Pakistan, parents spend huge amount of money to send their kids to private schools. Do you think they want their kids to build Urdu language skills? Don’t you know, it’s Not-Cool”.

She went on to give me a brief lecture on the education system in Pakistan and how the private school system industry had mushroomed in the last 25 years. Apparently, the industry owed its dramatic rise to the increasing lack of trust in the public education system.
I came to know that even the private school system industry is Multi-Tiered. The top tier or the “so called” International School Systems charge fees in excess of thousands of dollars. The middle tier includes big school systems such as City Schools, Grammar schools and Beacon House School systems. Each one of these has hundreds of branches all over Pakistan. The third tier schools are the mom and pop i.e. one or two branches schools which cater to the “Private School Education” obsession of the rest of the population.
"But why is there a sudden lack of interest in learning Urdu?" - I inquired again stubbornly, not really listening to her and thinking about all the nice time I spent growing up in 80’s reading my favorite Urdu novels.She did not have an answer, but apparently, with the sudden growth of private schools and the one dimensional emphasis on learning English, improving Urdu language skills became less of a priority among parents and schools. Schools started introducing watered down versions of Urdu text books just to teach the bare minimum.
After the initial shock of seeing my plans evaporate into thin air, I started looking at the silver lining amongst the gloom. When spoken in its true form, Urdu is one of the most beautiful languages in the world in my opinion. It is not a faith based language and is worth saving for future generations.
It’s been more than three years since I had that conversation with my sister’s friend. A month after that conversation, I left my job as a Business Analyst with a leading payroll firm in the US and embarked upon building a small and a very dedicated team, that shared my vision of making Urdu “Cool” again.


Syed Abbas,
Founder, Urdu At Home.com