Sindhi vs English

by Shakeel Nizamani, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

… Emphasis on learning English shows an attitude that borders servitude. As saying;  being more faithful to the king than king himself. The idea that science can only be taught in English; it is simply not true. In Canada, for example, English and French are medium of instruction. Chinese learn in Chinese, Japanese learn in their language, Germans are simply not dependent on English for their scientific education. Almost all European nations learn in their own languages, reason being simple; Europeans don’t have this servitude mentality which is emblem of our society, and probably they also have shortage of so-called intellectuals who could teach them such an attitude.

It is economic power and scientific knowledge coupled with good governance that count, not the language. Given massive American economic power, though declining, English gets Princely treatment, who know who is economic power of the tomorrow? Who knows what changes future may bring? Whether English will remain dominant in the world/ or even in America or would be taken over by another economic power with different language and different priorities; who knows? Though English is getting full help in its dominance by current/former slaves like us, who consider it a divine language and accept its superiority even on our own. Having such high number of submissive slaves make it likely that English will remain dominant for long time to come in still colonized countries.

Yes! we are still colonized, though, remotely controlled. I am not against the learning of English or any other language for that matter, but I have problem with servitude mentality that comes with it. Learning a language is scholarship, but developing and instilling a servitude mentality is not.

The common denominator among all advanced nations is good governance not the language, and certainly not English language. I hope we would not confuse good governance with democracy.

If English is so magical language that adopting it at massive scale will put us at pinnacle of progress, then I wonder why Jamaica is not list of wealthy countries; I wonder why Norwegians (non-English Speaking Country) are smarter than Albertan/Canadian in managing their oil wealth.

Sindh/Pakistan’ s problem are not in lack of English knowledge rather it is lack of good governance, and the people who are responsible for this mess are the very people who happened to be well-versed in English- our bureaucrats and leaders. These people are more loyal to their master than to the common people, and that is the very reason they mimic and serve their masters every possible way.

The argument about changing alphabet of Sindhi from Arabic to Roman holds no water at all, as Arabic alphabet has a backing of a religion. If history is anything to go by, religion is more lasting force than the ephemeral economic power.

By the way, I live in Canada, my son speaks Sindhi, Seriaki and English fluently and even on that account we are wrong that Sindhi Children in Canada/U.S.A don’t speak or learn Sindhi. It may apply to some, but it does not apply to all, as you would like to believe. Sindhi helped my son a lot in French class, especially in pronunciation. He is better, rather much better, at pronouncing the French words than those students who could only speak English.

I believe those parents who are blinded by short-term financial goals, and don’t teach their children their language are creating a black hole for these children.

It is not a language per se that could bring nations or people glory or gloom; it is simply the way, how they conduct their daily business individually and collectively.