Pakistan Heritage Exchange

The British Council, in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, organized a two-day cultural forum titled Pakistan Heritage Exchange at Alhamra, Lahore. As part of this initiative, the Gurmani Centre for Languages and Literature collaborated on a panel session titled Speaking in Many Tongues: Region, Nation and Identity in Pakistan. The session examined the historical, political, and epistemic dimensions of language in Pakistan, with particular attention to the relationship between linguistic diversity, nation-state formation, and identity.

Moderated by Dr. Ali Usman Qasmi, Director, Gurmani Centre for Languages and Literature, the session featured Ashok Kumar (Adjunct Faculty, Gurmani Centre), Haris Khaleeq (Secretary General, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan), Dr. Tayyaba Tamim (Dean, School of Education), and Zubair Torwali (linguist and activist working on Dardic languages). The discussion foregrounded language not merely as a communicative tool but as a deeply political and historical construct shaped by power, governance, and cultural hierarchies.

Dr. Qasmi opened the session by situating language as a central marker of identity and a critical site of political contestation. Drawing on postcolonial and decolonial perspectives, it was argued that from the inception of Pakistan, the state developed a unitary obsession that resisted provincial autonomy and minority rights. This imagination sought to consolidate the nation by imposing a singular language, culture, and religious identity upon a region historically characterized by linguistic and cultural plurality. Tracing the genealogy of Urdu, it was noted that its role as a language of lower courts under colonial rule was reflected, and how it was subsequently re-signified as a national language, illustrating the continuity of colonial administrative logics within postcolonial state practices.

The panel also examined the nation-state as a project of identity formation, emphasizing how Urdu came to function as a symbolic marker of national belonging despite the presence of at least seventy-seven recognized linguistic communities in Pakistan. Participants highlighted how colonial modes of governance, which ranked and regulated languages, continued to shape postcolonial language policy, resulting in the systematic marginalization of regional and indigenous languages. The discussion also addressed how democratic processes in West Pakistan were frequently undermined by strategic and instrumental uses of language that served elite political interests rather than linguistic justice or cultural inclusion.

Zubair Torwali’s intervention focused on the politics of translation and literary production as essential to language vitality. He described translation as a political act that enables languages to enter wider circuits of knowledge, education, and cultural legitimacy. Drawing attention to processes of internal colonization, he discussed the erasure of indigenous minority languages, particularly Dardic languages, and cautioned against totalizing tendencies within even resistance movements, such as the homogenization of diverse linguistic communities under umbrella labels like “Kohistani,” which obscure internal differences and histories.

Ashok Kumar addressed the material and pedagogical dimensions of language politics, particularly issues related to script, vowel representation, and phonetic variation. He highlighted the challenges posed by interprovincial phonetic differences in language instruction and emphasized that linguistic survival and growth depend not only on cultural recognition but also on meaningful integration with economic structures and opportunities. Without such linkages, languages risk being confined to symbolic or folkloric domains.

Dr. Tayyaba Tamim examined language as a medium that can both enable and constrain social participation. She argued that language policies and educational practices often operate as mechanisms of exclusion, where certain languages are positioned to facilitate power while others are rendered invisible or inaudible. Drawing attention to nationalist rhetoric, she noted a recurring contradiction: while linguistic pride is frequently asserted in political discourse, vernacular languages are often excluded from formal education, revealing the instrumental and selective deployment of language in the service of power.

The session concluded with a critical reflection on multilingual disparity, script-based conflicts, and the persistent failure of state and institutional frameworks to engage meaningfully with linguistic diversity. The discussion underscored the need for rethinking language policy, pedagogy, and cultural production in Pakistan through theoretical frameworks that foreground plurality, resist homogenization, and address the colonial and postcolonial conditions under which linguistic hierarchies continue to be reproduced.