Unfortunately English is actually quite useful

Let's consider the other side a little.

There are very real and very gambhir challenges in prioritizing local languages or choosing one to be the main local language. These are made more severe when a country is multi-ethnic and multi-lingual.

• Reality #1: English is globally very useful.

• Reality #2a: Anglophone content is king in science and technology. Most, if not all, of global scientific and technical standards are developed first in English.

• Reality #2b: It's easier to continue with the status quo and benefit from highly developed English resources because it does take significant efforts to translate everything.

• Reality 3a: Anglophones have won the culture victory over large parts of the world. Anglophone media, news, social media, tensions, and worries dominate global airways via English-speaking elites in large parts of the non-native-anglophone world. As an aside, TikTok is the first real threat to this control.

• Reality 3b: Anglophone media is typically both more advanced and more easily accessible than local media.

• Reality #4: Multi-ethnic and multi-lingual societies will find it difficult to arrive at a consensus: which language to elevate over others? Because choosing a single lingua franca is indeed an elevation, no matter how you sweeten the deal in other ways.

In various contexts, English is not the only threat to liguistic diversity and cultural sovereignty. It's just the most common threat. Further, there is something qualitatively different about picking English over a local language as the lingua franca or the Medium of Instruction (MoI), compared to picking another local language that would presumably be related to other area languages or be easier to learn.

Context and pre-reading

However, if you are reading this, you should have already read Part 1 - Pakistan should get rid of English already: Why. That talks about the negative impacts of choosing to go with English for your lingua franca and MoI needs.

Case Studies

All this said, let's explore some case studies where countries (and one province) decided to do something different to protect their future and/or their heritage.

Detailed case studies for these examples will (may?) follow in a separate article. For now, I'll share a high-level summary for each case, organized across political and script(ural) decisions.

Political Case Studies

This section discusses language policies of various countries.

Country	Dates	Main lang.	Native %	Details	Others
Iran	1946 / 1979	Farsi	54%	Farsi is language of government; sole medium of education	Azeri (18%); Kurdish 10%; others 18%
Türkiye	1923	Turkish	85%	Turkish is language of government; sole medium of education; was sanitized of Perso-Arabic vocabulary	Kurdish 12%; Others 3%
China	1950s	Mandarin CH	71%	Mandarin is sole official language; ethnic languages can be mediums of instruction together with Mandarin or alone.	Yue CH 6%; Wu CH 6%; others 17%
Israel	1949	Hebrew	53%	Hebrew was revived post 1949, Yiddish was banned / discouraged. Arabic has a 'special status' and was a co-official language until 2018. English is widely used. Russian is widely spoken.	Arabic 20%; Russian 20%
Quebec*	1974	French	78%	English was main language of business until 1970s, despite francophone majority. Quebec had a major separatist movement. French was made sole official language. Anglophone services exist but are reducing with time. New immigrants must study in French.	English 10%; Others 15%.
India	1912-1947	English, Hindi	10%; 57%	65% of high school students study in non-English medium schools. Higher education is almost entirely in English. Recently non-English medium teaching is gaining in popularity. Read this Feb 2022 article.	Bengali 9%; Marathi 8%; Telugu 8%; 22 scheduled languages in total

Note, people can have multiple native languages so the stats may not add up to 100%. Also, Quebec is not a country.

Political Takeaways

Range of policy options are available:

1. Use one langauge as lingua franca, sole official language, and medium of instruction.
2. Use one langauge as lingua franca, sole official language, but allow multiple mediums of instruction.
3. Revitalize a moribund language for use as lingua franca, one of two or sole official language(s), and the only medium of instruction.
4. Legally restrict the usage of an external language and step by step reduce services in it.

India deserves its own article. Since their policy has historically been similar to ours, I won't discuss it further for now. They are doing some very interesting things with local language instruction, though. Worth a deeper dive.

Script / Digitalization Case Studies

This section discusses challenges with adapting various scripts to the modern (English-dominated) world.

Country	Context	Decisions
Iran	Nastaliq users like Urdu	Modify nastaliq font for easier digitalisation
Turkey	Previously Nastaliq users	Switched to a latin alphabet in 1920s. Nastaliq in use only in historical areas.
China	Widespread illiteracy in 1950s, significant learning curve for Chinese	Simplified traditional chinese characters, often using hand-writing based simplifications. Developed latin-based input method to support early learning and digitalisation.
Korea	Usage of Chinese characters (Hanja) as part of language, despite development of Korean specific alphabet in 1500s. Japanese was official language during Japanese occupation.	The RoK continues to use a mixed alphabet with limited Hanja while the DPRK has banned the use of Hanja.
Viet Nam	Vietnam, like other East Asian counties, has a long history of using Chinese characters to write Vietnamese, in addition to other scripts. Latinized alphabet developed by Portuguese missionaries and made a part of compulsory education by the French colonial regime.	Vietnamese emperors heavily promoted this alphabet, which prompted average Vietnamese to accept it. Chinese characters are still in use in traditional ceremonies and heritage areas

Script Takeaways

There is a range of policy options are available to modify your script to make it usable for the modern world. Of course, you can always just let your language die, too, but we're assuming that is not an option. Options:

1. Change the script completely (à la Turkish or Vietnamese)
2. Simplify for easier digitalization and improved literacy outcomes (à la Chinese, Farsi, and Korean in the DPRK)
3. Use both a traditional and a modern script system (à la Korean in the ROK)

Pick one. Just think it through and pick one.

Analysis

We do have cause for optimism. Like I said earlier, it has never been this easy to be a digital, connected, savvy, up to date Urdu user. But this is not enough. If we want our languages to be truly alive, we need to do even better.

And as the case studies above show, there are several options open to us. Each has pros and cons. In my view, though, the best way to go about it is, we should learn from Iran and China.

Script (Iran): They've done the hard work. Let's use their digital fonts, adapt them to Urdu (add the ڑ etc.), and standardize and make it easy for everyone. I'm not a fan of latinization. I don't think cutting ourselves off from our past heritage is a good idea. However, if it needs to happen for our heritage to have any meaning, then let's do it already.

Politics (China): Transition all education at primary levels to local languages, introduce Urdu in latter stage of primary school, transition all secondary and (eventually) tertiary education to bilingual or Urdu-medium instruction.

This may not be the perfect way to go about it. Here's an alternate:

Asif et. al quote Colman for an idealized policy:

I mention this alternative because I want to add: There's lots of smart people thinking about this. Let's not reinvent the wheel. Let's work together for a shared, vibrant, and diverse linguistic future.

Next steps: Governmental Level

For our local languages to have a shot at remaining alive, we need governments to step up.

Proof of concept

We are not exactly blessed with great governance. That said, this is the sort of project a motivated (and well-funded) cadre could make significant progress in, before it needs to scale up to meet the needs of 220m Pakistanis. In this step, this group of public servants need develop the proof of concept.

This can be briefly summed up as

پیسہ پھینک، تماشہ دیکھ

Throw money, but smartly

1. Throw money on digitisation. Pay researchers to adapt nastaliq fonts to all major digital platforms: PC, Mac/Unix, Android, and Iphone. Fund databases like Makhzan et al. to the teeth. Ask researchers what they need. Pay up.
2. Throw money on translation for basic primary education in our languages (start with a few and continue till until impossible).
3. Throw money at modernizing textbooks for local language based instruction. Make beautiful textbooks.

Yes, money will be thrown with abandon at this stage. However, this is an incredible investment in our future prosperity. Can you imagine a Pakistan where every child gets to study in his or her native language? Where every single person is literate? Imagine the productivity gains. Imagine the flowering of our culture and civilisation. It's worth the investment.

Use existing research

1. Read smart people like Asif et. al. Engage critically. Do what they say.

Scale up

Now, make it happen. Now it needs to be political, not just a committed cadre of local language well-wishers and culturally sensitive visionaries.

1. Develop consensus around implementation. This needs a political decision. This will need compromises and winning people over. Script modernization or latinization. Start off with Urdu in secondary or in primary. Do it. Make decisions. We have time, but the longer this goes on, the more painful the eventual transition will be.
2. Get rid of foreign education boards. Learn what we need. Adapt to our context. Save on foreign exchange. Avoid foreign propaganda. Make the rich and poor go to one single system of education. (The rich will ensure that this one system is up to snuff).
3. Throw money on translation. Every major book in English, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, etc., needs to be translated to Urdu and to regional languages. Make it easy for Pakistanis to engage with global ideas in their own langauge. Baghdad didn't rise by forcing everyone in Baghdad to learn Greek but rather translated all modern language into Arabic and Persian. Top translators then were paid like top athletes today. Pay up.

Note. When I say throw money - I mean throw money smartly. Don't hire fancy consultants to do current and future state analysis. Read up on researchers, find what you think makes sense, and execute best practices. That's it.

Next steps: Personal Level

It may be a while until our committed cadre gets together and our government gets its act together. In such a case, we need to do what the Quran says - learn from the example of the Bani Israel. In this case, a (mostly) positive example.

Hebrew only started being revived in the 1880s. Early Zionists and other Jewish activists were the visionaries that saw a world where Hebrew once again lived. Our local languages, especially Urdu, is far better off than Hebrew was in the 1940s - a mornibund literary / liturgical language used or spoken by rabbis and the devoted. But today, Hebrew is a major language of science, technology, and culture. Imagine - Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (say what you will about the contents, it was a huge worldwide hit) was first written in Hebrew! What's the last worldwide hit we had in any of our own languages? Israel has 9m people. That's barely half of Karachi. So, what can we do?

Keep it alive

Here's what we need to do on a personal level.

1. Read, write, speak, listen, and live in Urdu. Online and offline. Start using the urdu keyboard to type messages! It's honestly really easy. Voice input is also excellent now.
2. Support one another. Don't mock people's accents in English or Urdu or any of our languages. Help each other learn. We can do this.
3. Make your native language both beautiful and fun for (your) children. Buy or borrow visually appealing books. Demonstrate and model your committment and love for your heritage and native language. Make it fun. Read them exciting stories in your language. Sing cool poems. Play language based games!
4. Learn at least 1 additional regional language. Connect with your compatriots. Learn enough to communicate and to joke around. Love one another and each other's culture, history, and language.
5. Do not denigrate or diminish another language to elevate one. No parochialism please! All of our languages in Pakistan are beautiful keepers of our shared heritage. For example, Urdu is not the height of civilisation, nor is it a tool to rank patriotism.

Push for change

Make this a priority. Think about it. Do you want your kids to know the magic of Sachal Sarmast? Do you want your future generations to fall in love with Iqbal? Do you want to share the sheer joy you feel when you hear Bulleh Shah performed?

Make it happen. Do your part in ensuring your language, culture, history, heritage, values, and civilisation live to thrive one day.

Conclusion

All these examples have one thing in common. All of these decisions were undertaken at a time of great upheaval and change. While we have had a lot of such opportunities, to date, we have wasted every single one. Hell, we even lost half our country partly because of poorly thought out language policies and implementation (among other 'issues'). We are at yet another nazuk mor.

We can see a future where our heritage lives on not just in museums but in daily life, until the end of times. But we can also see a future where our languages gradually disappear into the ether, alive only in fever dreams of poets and romantics.

Right now, we have a fractured education system, broken in so many different ways. And of course, amidst all this chaos, our population is expected to increase to 340m by 2050. What we need is a national level conversation, or rather, a national level decision. The status quo can not stand.

یا آر یا پار

Let's go.

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Future/other articles in this series:

1. Get rid of English already: Why

Identifying the pernicous effects of English on our languages, our culture, our sovereignty, and our economy; and introducing the brave new world of digital Urdu

2. Get rid of English already: How (this article)

Using case studies from far and near to understand lessons and chart possible courses for Pakistan

3. Get rid of English already: Why are we still waiting

Review of (some) other people's work on this so far. A lot of people have been saying this. Why hasn't it worked?

PS

This conversation has often used Urdu as the default. That's because it is our national language and the language I feel is best placed to play that true lingua franca role. However, much of the same analysis is valid for regional languages, which deserve state support as MoIs in their own right.