A History of Language–Teaching and Learning

Among the Muslims of South Asia

This paper looks at the reasons for teaching a certain language as well as learning it. Learning is the demand for a language by the public while teaching policies and practices represent the supply side.

In South Asia the languages learned formally by the Muslim elite were Arabic and Persian upto the advent of the British. While Arabic was associated with Islam, Persian was part of elitist ashraf culture. Urdu was learned informally but it came to be taught formally by the British in the nineteenth century. As Persian was no longer used in the domains of power --- administration, judiciary, education etc --- the demand for learning it decreased. As English became the language of power, the demand for learning English increased. In short languages are learned for empowerment.

Those who teach languages and prescribe which text books should be taught generally want certain ideas or values to be supported. These ideas or values empower a certain group or class in society. Thus language-teaching preserves the power of a certain group or world view. The language-teaching and learning policies of Pakistan will be examined with reference to these insights.

Books

1. King, Robert D. 1997. Nehru and the Language Politics of India New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

2. Fishman, Joshua A; Ferguson, Charles A; Gupta, Jyotirindra Das (eds). 1968. Language Problems in Developing Nations New York: John Wiley and Sons.

3. O’Barv, William M and O’Barv, Jean (eds). 1976. Language and Politics. The Hague: Mouton.

4. Jyotirindra, Das Gupta. 1970. Language Conflict and National Development Berkeley: University of California Press.

5. Rahman, Tariq. 1996. Language and Politics in Pakistan Karachi: Oxford University Press (Oxford Paperbacks reprint 1998 and 2000)

6. ___________. 1999. Language, Education and Culture Karachi: Oxford University Press (Oxford Paperbacks reprint 2000) .

7. King, Christopher. 1994. One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India Bombay: Oxford University Press.

8. Rai, Amrit. 1984. A House Divided: The Origin and Development of Hindi/Hindavi Delhi: Oxford University Press.

9. Phadnis, Urmila. 1889. Ethnicity and Nation Building in South Asia New Delhi and London: Sage Publications.

10. Viswanthan, Gauri. 1989. Marks of Conquest New York: Columbia.

11. Amin, Tahir. 1988. Ethno-National Movements of Pakistan Islamabad: Institute of Policy Studies.

12. De Silva, K.M (ed). 2001. Conflict and Violence in South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka Kandy, Sri Landa: International Centre for Ethnic Studies.