[🇵🇰] Jinnah And Urdu-Bengali Controversy: A Historical Fallacy

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[🇵🇰] Jinnah And Urdu-Bengali Controversy: A Historical Fallacy
Old School
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Source : https://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/jinnah-and-urdu-bengali-controversy/
Jinnah And Urdu-Bengali Controversy
By Yasser Latif Hamdani

This is a quick blog to correct a historical fallacy. A false impression persists – thanks to people like Amar Jaleel and the like who in the right royal Urdu press fashion have a hard time sticking to the facts- that Jinnah- who according to Jaleel was drugged or cornered into making the speech in question- somehow told Bengalis to outlaw Bengali language when he declared Urdu to be the state language of Pakistan. This is historically inaccurate. This blog is not to discuss whether Jinnah’s declaration was politically suave or naïve but to set the record straight about what it was that Jinnah said which laid foundations for the Urdu-Bengali discord in Pakistan and led to Pakistan ultimately declaring both Urdu and Bengali the “national languages” of Pakistan. Ironically Jinnah did not even use the term “national language”, drawing the very valid distinction between a state language or lingua franca and a national language.

The two speeches that are at the center of controversy were made on 21st and 24th of March, 1948 at a public meeting and then at Dacca University convention. In both speeches Jinnah took a consistent stand:

  1. The people of Bengal were free to choose Bengali as the official language of the Bengal province. This he said very clearly and unambiguously on both occasions and the premier of Bengal – Khawaja Nazimuddin also reaffirmed this.
  2. Urdu alone would be the state language and the lingua franca of the Pakistan state.
  3. Bengali – like other provincial languages- could be the official language of the East Bengal province but not the Pakistan state and the Pakistan center (Jinnah’s words).
(See Pages 150 and 158 of “Jinnah Speeches And Statements 1947-1948” Millennium edition Oxford University Press- he said “Realizing, however, that the statement that your Prime Minister made on the language controversy, left no room for agitation, in so far as it conceded the right of the people of this province to choose Bengali as their official language if they so wished, they changed their tactics. They started demanding that Bengali should be the state language of the Pakistan centre, and since they could not overlook the obvious claims of Urdu as the official language of a Muslim state, they proceeded to demand that both Bengali and Urdu should be the state languages of Pakistan. Make no mistake about it. There can only be one state language if the component parts of this state are to march forward in unison, and in my opinion, that can only be Urdu”)

It may be remembered that in this – wrong or right- Jinnah’s policy was identical to India’s policy of constitutionally elevating Hindi and English. Jinnah did not go even that far and described in the proper constitutional manner Urdu as the state language not a national one. Urdu was to be – in the real sense of the word- a lingua franca for the diverse people of Pakistan.

The problem with Amar Jaleel – who recently appeared on Vussatullah’s show on Dawn News Urdu Service- is that in his zeal for an otherwise good cause, he liberally twists the facts. For example in the show in question he declared amongst other things – as obiter dicta – that Gandhi had fasted in his last days to have wheat exported to Pakistan. Frankly I don’t know where he got this from. In reality however Pakistan connection in Gandhi’s fast was purported to be vis a vis Indian government’s refusal to give Pakistan its share of the treasury. However what was hilarious was his claim that Jinnah was cornered by people to make this statement.

Amar Jaleel’s cause is righteous. All Pakistani languages must be equally respected and given an equal status in the republic as languages of the people of Pakistan. However should he murder history and discredit himself by repeating this lie or does he believe that the longer it goes unnoticed, it might one day be taken up as the truth?

I have always felt that the writers of the Urdu press are given to exaggeration and embellishment, even if they are not right-wingers and pro-Jamaat-e-Islami fanatics but even self styled champions of leftists, liberals and ethno-nationalists. In this respect at least one hopes that Dawn News Urdu Service will bring some balance to the force.
 
Ironically, Jinnah did not even use the term “national language,” drawing the very valid distinction between a state language or lingua franca and a national language. It is a historical fallacy that Bengalis are tagging the issue of Urdu vs Bengali as a mother tongue, which is very absurd. Other critics even go further to imply that the so-called language movement and the event of 21 February 1952 was nothing but a part of a longstanding pro-Moscow/Delhi leftists' plot to dismember Pakistan. The subsequent claims by Bengali officials that it was a step towards independence also sustain this criticism.
 
Old School said:
It is the Bengalis and our liberals who claim that the Urdu/Bengali controversy was also part of that 'mistreatment.' They overlook that Bengali was awarded as the co-state language with Urdu in 1956.
Click to expand...
I believe the cyclone in 1971 also contributed to the Bangladeshi unrest in the 1971 crisis.

Otherwise language was not the reason for independence lol.
 
Old School said:
A national myth has been constructed in Bengal over this controversy. No one ever read in Bengal what exactly Jinnah had said. I suggest that one must read this article first.
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Sure Bangla could have been used in East Pakistan.

But seriously to declare independence just because of language. lol.
 
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Muji.Iqbal said:
Sure Bangla could have been used in East Pakistan.

But seriously to declare independence just because of language. lol.
Click to expand...
Indepence was declared by Ziaur Rahman ( on behalf of sheikh Mujibur Rahman) after military crackdown in the middle of the night!

I don't think it's related to Language! If India can have Hindi as lingua franca , Pakistan also could have Urdu as lingua franca!

Also Urdu was first Language of Muhajirs who were not more than 8 % that time!
 
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Vikings said:
.

Indepence was declared by Ziaur Rahman ( on behalf of sheikh Mujibur Rahman) after military crackdown in the middle of the night!

I don't think it's related to Language! If India can have Hindi as lingua franca , Pakistan also could have Urdu as lingua franca!

Also Urdu was first Language of Muhajirs who were not more than 8 % that time!
Click to expand...
Please read how Bengalis see the language movement. it doesn’t matter how you see it. It matters how mainstream Bengalis see it now :
slguardian.org

Language movement and emergence of Bangladesh

Language Movement began in 1948 and reached its climax in the killing of 21 February 1952 leading to establishment of Bangladesh in 1971. Ekushey February or Language Movement Day or...
slguardian.org slguardian.org
Contribution of Language Movement to Independence of Bangladesh (daily-sun.com)
Language Movement precursor to the Liberation War - The Business Post (businesspostbd.com)
Language Movement (1952).pdf (daffodilvarsity.edu.bd)
The Language Movement and independence - Bangladesh Post
The language movement that led to freedom (getbengal.com)
The Great Language Movement Of Bangladesh: Some Reflections| Countercurrents
Language and freedom (newagebd.net)

"And the movement increasingly assumed a liberationist, emancipatory character, at least cutting the first turf for our national liberation movement of 1971—fundamentally a people's war against Pakistani neocolonialism—driven as it was by its three distinctly pronounced principles: equality, justice, and human dignity. But the very anticolonial ethos of our Language Movement was also evident right from the beginning, as the movement confronted and combatted what I wish to call linguistic colonialism." Our Language Movement: Moments, Momentum, Milieu | The Daily Star

And there are millions of pieces of evidence if you look.
 
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Above, I posted some evidence of their narratives that the language movement increasingly assumed a liberationist, emancipatory character, at least cutting the first turf for the national liberation movement of 1971. There are millions of pieces of evidence if you look. Now, please listen to this summary by Canada-based Bengali intellectual Dr. Taj Hashmi's narrative on this myth :
 
Vikings said:
.

Indepence was declared by Ziaur Rahman ( on behalf of sheikh Mujibur Rahman) after military crackdown in the middle of the night!

I don't think it's related to Language! If India can have Hindi as lingua franca , Pakistan also could have Urdu as lingua franca!

Also Urdu was first Language of Muhajirs who were not more than 8 % that time!
Click to expand...

True but Muhajirs adopted it from the Ghaznavids, whom in turn developed it in the Punjab.
 
Old School said:
It is the Bengalis and our liberals who claim that the Urdu/Bengali controversy was also part of that 'mistreatment.' They overlook that Bengali was awarded as the co-state language with Urdu in 1956.
Click to expand...

I wrote about such neo-liberals on the previous forum. Plenty of them are on PDF trolling away spreading urban myths.
 
I’ve talked to bungali people and they hold a strong grudge against us and I try to calm them down and say that look it was not our people who did this but our stupid jharrnails under a CIA spell who did all the bad things. All our people were appalled at what our jharrnail did in east Pakistan and we are ashamed of it today. They know the truth but now it’s too late to make apologies.
 
Lulldapull said:
I’ve talked to bungali people and they hold a strong grudge against us and I try to calm them down and say that look it was not our people who did this but our stupid jharrnails under a CIA spell who did all the bad things. All our people were appalled at what our jharrnail did in east Pakistan and we are ashamed of it today. They know the truth but now it’s too late to make apologies.
Click to expand...

Don't ever apologize on my behalf. We did nothing to them. If building their infrastructure and giving their students access to our institutions counts as "oppression" they should have refused this.

Instead not only did they make use of what we did for them, but they thanked us by attacking our people. Raping women, killing elderly, raping even our soldiers and shooting at them unprovoked.

Then when Operation Searchlight was launched to root out these muhkti Bahini terrorists, they cry victim-hood. Luckily the truth is coming out now.

If you wish to ask them for an apology for us, i'm great with that.
 
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Old School said:
It is the Bengalis and our liberals who claim that the Urdu/Bengali controversy was also part of that 'mistreatment.' They overlook that Bengali was awarded as the co-state language with Urdu in 1956.
Click to expand...

These are also the same neo-liberals propagating Bangladesh being a "better country" than Pakistan without providing a single shred of evidence.

Here in Karachi where i'm currently at, I was followed by a poor Bengali man selling me stuff. Bengalis live illegally in Pakistan while no Pakistani or any foreigner would dream living in that 💩: Why Is Bangladesh So Dirty? (11 Reasons Why)



Bang4.jpg


dhaka-bangladesh.png
 
ThunderCat said:
Don't ever apologize on my behalf. We did nothing to them. If building their infrastructure and giving their students access to our institutions counts as "oppression" they should have refused this.

Instead not only did they make use of what we did for them, but they thanked us by attacking our people. Raping women, killing elderly, raping even our soldiers and shooting at them unprovoked.

Then when operation searchlight was launched to root out these muhkti Bahini terrorists, they cry victim-hood. Luckily the truth is coming out now.

If you wish to ask them for an apology for us, i'm great with that.
Click to expand...
You know, there’s some truth in what you say. I’ve talked to some of our folks who ran for their lives escaping to Myanmar…..they say what you say…..k bhai hum nay jo kara we did as a response to only what was being done to us. They slaughtered our people first, long before search light operation…..no shitt, yous right about dat…..but don’t ignore the fact dat dey won dat election hands down, and we denied dem their right. Sometimes I wonder who makes our policy for us?
 
Lulldapull said:
You know, there’s some truth in what you say. I’ve talked to some of our folks who ran for their lives escaping to Myanmar…..they say what you say…..k bhai hum nay jo kara we did as a response to only what was being done to us. They slaughtered our people first, long before search light operation…..no shitt, yous right about dat…..but don’t ignore the fact dat dey won dat election hands down, and we denied dem their right. Sometimes I wonder who makes our policy for us?
Click to expand...

Not "some truth", it is the truth. There are books written about this, including from ethnic Bengalis how the Bangladeshi genocide is a sham. It was in fact Bengalis who started attacking and killing West Pakistanis.

Operation Searchlight was a reaction. West Pakistanis built their infrastructure and allowed many of them to study in West Pakistan. It was them who were imposing their demands on West Pakistan.

Watch this documentary Separation of East Pakistan: The Untold Story (2021)
 
Muji.Iqbal said:
But to say Bangladesh is a better country than Pakistan, is a bit stupid.
Click to expand...
I was posted to Bengal twice in my long career and met thousands of them in Pakistan and overseas. In Pakistan, an uneducated person freely admits that he/she is as uneducated as you know. In Bengal, ignorant people are brainwashed to believe that they are educated and act like such. That is a big difference in attitude. I find those Bengalis living in Pakistan to be more positive than those in Bengal.
 
Old School said:
I was posted to Bengal twice in my long career and met thousands of them in Pakistan and overseas. In Pakistan, an uneducated person freely admits that he/she is as uneducated as you know. In Bengal, ignorant people are brainwashed to believe that they are educated and act like such. That is a big difference in attitude. I find those Bengalis living in Pakistan to be more positive than those in Bengal.
Click to expand...

I am not surprised, seeing all the Bangla trolls that infested the previous PDF forum, mostly to seek validation from Pakistanis. One of them even claimed Bengal was the most technologically advanced place on Earth before the British came and looted or something of that sort.

I notice whenever comparing themselves to Pakistan, these Bharati and Bangla trolls suddenly turn into economist wannabes and post a bunch of nonsensical numbers to confuse people.

Whenever Pakistanis refused to give them validation, they'd start trolling and insulting Pakistanis. Most of them would not respond to my arguments and only repeat themselves.

I am hoping for this forum to adopt policies against this type of trolling. No Pakistani forum should never have to become a therapy hub for frustrated Banglas or Bahratis or anyone else trying to cope with the reality of their countries.

I know a Pakistani young woman who was a tenant in my house who worked as a flight attendant on Saudia airlines. She had several layovers. She told me Bangladesh was the dirtiest and most uncivilized country she ever went to.

The one country she loathes. She had a strong dislike for Bangladeshis as well. Her Bangladeshi colleagues were very rude to her and she found the locals at her Dhaka layover very uncivilized.
 
ThunderCat said:
I am not surprised, seeing all the Bangla trolls that infested the previous PDF forum, mostly to seek validation from Pakistanis. One of them even claimed Bengal was the most technologically advanced place on Earth before the British came and looted or something of that sort.

I notice whenever comparing themselves to Pakistan, these Bharati and Bangla trolls suddenly turn into economist wannabes and post a bunch of nonsensical numbers to confuse people.

Whenever Pakistanis refused to give them validation, they'd start trolling and insulting Pakistanis. Most of them would not respond to my arguments and only repeat themselves.

I am hoping for this forum to adopt policies against this type of trolling. No Pakistani forum should never have to become a therapy hub for frustrated Banglas or Bahratis or anyone else trying to cope with the reality of their countries.
Click to expand...
You know, the old PDF owner(s) was only interested in jacking up the web traffic to get a higher market valuation, and it did reach a very high valuation for such a forum at some stage. So, they welcomed high toxicity, especially from the Indians, and even never hesitated to delete pro-Pakistani posts en masse to appease them. There are also some serious issues which I can not say here in public.
 
Old School said:
You know, the old PDF owner(s) was only interested in jacking up the web traffic to get a higher market valuation, and it did reach a very high valuation for such a forum at some stage. So, they welcomed high toxicity, especially from the Indians, and even never hesitated to delete pro-Pakistani posts en masse to appease them. There are also some serious issues which I can not say here in public.
Click to expand...
Pakistan is a much better country than Bangladesh. lol.
 
My high school friend Taimur’s dad was an SSG platoon leader deployed to Chittagong in 1971 war. Man……some of the stories he told me were out of this world! How they fought off thousands of insurgents attacking their small company. Totally cut off from resupply or rations…..They killed hundreds of them with their bare hands. Strict order to conserve ammo. Khanay peenay ko kakkh nahi. The insurgency started many months before the war did. You guys got no idea what they had to do to survive and escape! They got out of the base after the fall of Dhaka…..made their way down to Burma. Trudged thru dense mangrove jungles at night so they couldn’t be spotted. Commandeered a boat and fled to Burma. Surrender was never an option, not for an SSG man. It was like a WW2 movie what he told us off n on. My God. PIA evacuated them from Rangoon after a few months from the Pakistan embassy over there. Had they been discovered during their escape they’d a gotten lynched in a heartbeat. Our SSG is good. They train their men well for survival and combat.
 
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Old School said:
Please read how Bengalis see the language movement. it doesn’t matter how you see it. It matters how mainstream Bengalis see it now :
slguardian.org

Language movement and emergence of Bangladesh

Language Movement began in 1948 and reached its climax in the killing of 21 February 1952 leading to establishment of Bangladesh in 1971. Ekushey February or Language Movement Day or...
slguardian.org slguardian.org
Contribution of Language Movement to Independence of Bangladesh (daily-sun.com)
Language Movement precursor to the Liberation War - The Business Post (businesspostbd.com)
Language Movement (1952).pdf (daffodilvarsity.edu.bd)
The Language Movement and independence - Bangladesh Post
The language movement that led to freedom (getbengal.com)
The Great Language Movement Of Bangladesh: Some Reflections| Countercurrents
Language and freedom (newagebd.net)

"And the movement increasingly assumed a liberationist, emancipatory character, at least cutting the first turf for our national liberation movement of 1971—fundamentally a people's war against Pakistani neocolonialism—driven as it was by its three distinctly pronounced principles: equality, justice, and human dignity. But the very anticolonial ethos of our Language Movement was also evident right from the beginning, as the movement confronted and combatted what I wish to call linguistic colonialism." Our Language Movement: Moments, Momentum, Milieu | The Daily Star

And there are millions of pieces of evidence if you look.
Click to expand...
@Old School bhai , thanks for the post! I will read all your source slowly ! Currently kinda busy with my life , so really hard to concentrate!
 
Lulldapull said:
I want da 4 million bungali/ rohingya outta Karachi!......Bungali don't even talk to us here overseas and bring up 1971 wid us all da time! In saaron nu deport karnay da waqat aya ae!.....Just push them into India........We got about 30-40 million illegals in our country. Half of Karachi full of illegal migrants, funneled into our country by our corrupt/ harami Sindh gubment. Just like what is going on in da US, UK, Kannayda, Australia and NZ today.......
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We could use their human resources in the construction, labour, and military purposes.
 
Muji.Iqbal said:
We could use their human resources in the construction, labour, and military purposes.
Click to expand...
oh bhai ye kuchh nahi karday.......they live in their ghetto's, do their own dramay......we can't mix wid dem cuz of racial/ cultural issues no?.......Yous know right?......our society very segregated along racial/ cultural/ educational/ westernization lines.
 
Lulldapull said:
oh bhai ye kuchh nahi karday.......they live in their ghetto's, do their own dramay......we can't mix wid dem cuz of racial/ cultural issues no?.......Yous know right?......our society very segregated along racial/ cultural/ educational/ westernization lines.
Click to expand...
Even if they are lazy good for nothing. We can use their human resources for labour and construction.
 
Lulldapull said:
They don't even allow our people even visa to go do business in their country, cuz theys under indian influence no? Saanu utthay jana block hae ga for business/ regular tourist/ migration no? but 30 million muzlim bungali in India as refugee and 4 million in Karachi no? Subhaanallah!
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I see your point. However a large population drives the economy. Even scholar Mawdudi recognized this fact in Economics.
 
ThunderCat said:
I am sure there are illegals here. I myself saw what appeared to be a poor Bangla man trying to sell us stuff.

It makes poor patriotic Bangladeshis look pathetic. But 40 million foreigners seems like an exaggeration.
Click to expand...
Bengalis here are around 3 million. As far as I know, the federal government's political discourse on the Bengalis differs significantly from that of other immigrants. They might be granted citizenship at a certain stage. Here is an excerpt that also reflects the mainstream political view on Bengali immigrants in Pakistan :

"If seen from a historical and ideological point of view, the government cannot equate Bengalis living in Pakistan with Afghans, Iranians or Indians because they were Pakistanis till 1971 and their contribution to the Pakistan Movement cannot be denied. It is suggested that, instead of harassing the Bengali population and putting them at the mercy of the special branch of police or the home department for the issuance of alien registration cards or citizenship certificates, they should be properly treated (Ahmar, Moonis 2002, ‘Are Bengalis aliens in Pakistan?’ http://www.dawn.com/2002/11/19/letted.htm. "
 
Old School said:
Bengalis here are around 3 million. As far as I know, the federal government's political discourse on the Bengalis differs significantly from that of other immigrants. They might be granted citizenship at a certain stage. Here is an excerpt that also reflects the mainstream political view on Bengali immigrants in Pakistan :

"If seen from a historical and ideological point of view, the government cannot equate Bengalis living in Pakistan with Afghans, Iranians or Indians because they were Pakistanis till 1971 and their contribution to the Pakistan Movement cannot be denied. It is suggested that, instead of harassing the Bengali population and putting them at the mercy of the special branch of police or the home department for the issuance of alien registration cards or citizenship certificates, they should be properly treated (Ahmar, Moonis 2002, ‘Are Bengalis aliens in Pakistan?’ http://www.dawn.com/2002/11/19/letted.htm. "
Click to expand...

Even those who immigrated before 1971 can be seen as illegals if they were registered as East Pakistanis.
 
ThunderCat said:
Even those who immigrated before 1971 can be seen as illegals if they were registered as East Pakistanis.
Click to expand...
Before 1971, they were officially considered Pakistani, and they are still. They did not need anything like the muhajir, who, even from India, was still officially an enemy state at that time. There was no registration policy or regime in those days, as you see now. The issue before 1971 is legally settled. Now, the remaining issue is post-1971. Think about those who claim to have come from Indian Punjab but look more like Gujratis.
 
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