Marginalization of Balti language through schooling in Pakistan: A call to revitalize the language with its script

• In Event: Education in the maintenance of heritage language and culture

Abstract

This paper is a segment of the doctoral study (in progress) on ‘schooling and the development of cultural identity’. The objective of this paper is to present the threats faced by the Balti language and suggest options of its revival and revitalization.
Balti is a west Tibetan language belonging to the Tibeto Berman Language family. ‘Baltistan’ refers to the geographical region surrounded by the Karakoram and Himalayan mountains in the northern part of Pakistan bordering with India and China. Balti is the mother tongue of the 93% of the local population of Baltistan, Laddakh, Kargil and Turtuk. “Balti speakers refer to both themselves and their language as Balti [bVlti]” (Backstrom and Radloff, 1992, p.5). Hence the culture of Baltistan is known as Balti culture and all the cultural identifiers and social sites are distinguished with the prefix of Balti.
With a single language all Baltis on both sides of the (Indo-Pak and Pak-China) borders, share the same unique cultural traditions inherited and transmitted through language. The whole intellectual wealth and heritage resides in language. The poetry, the folk lore, the stories and all about the history and ways of local life are in form of verbal traditions.
School is the second institution of socialization and enculturation. This part of the study explored how schooling give way or silence the local language which is the mother tongue of more than 90% of students. The study used critical ethnographic approach. Critical Discourse Analysis model of Fairclough (2009) was also used for data analysis. Through observations of school events, classroom and daily routines, interviews from teachers, focus group discussion with students and analysis of artifacts such as official wall displays and notice board, data was gathered.
Data reveals that the local language Balti which is the first language or mother tongue of the students and teachers is not allowed in classroom for instructional purposes. The medium of instruction starts in second language Urdu and then in English the third language. Balti is also disallowed in classroom and school official/professional discussion/ discourses. The school ceremonies and co-curricular activities do not have any item on or in Balti language except religious poetry or national songs. Religious poetry and national songs are the only modes of expression in Balti to nurture and strengthen the religious and national identities only. Baltistan is yet not a constitutional part of Pakistan however the Pakistani national identity is inculcated through schooling and the national language Urdu.
As language is the carrier of most of the intangible culture, by silencing and discouraging language one can play the identity politics to forge the ‘other’ identities at the cost of one’s indigenous cultural identity. This trend of silencing the first languages (mother tongue) has deep implications on the quality of learning, the self-image of children, their cultural identity, their world view and the conservation of human cultural heritage in diversity of languages and the centuries evolved literature in these languages.
On the basis of the findings, the study suggests comprehensive revival and revitalization of endangered languages. According to a UNESCO report Balti is one the endangered languages. Its original Tibetan script Agay/Yige is abandoned in Baltistan for centuries and the persio-Arabic script is used that has deformed the originality of Balti language. There have been private efforts of revival of Agay/ Yige however absence of support from government and at times clear signals of discouragement has been the major obstacle in revitalization of Balti Agay. This study is significant in unveiling the hidden curriculum in schools marginalizing Balti language and this is the case with all other regional languages. Education instead of becoming a support to nurture and celebrate cultural diversities has become a tool of silencing local voices to superimpose the so called national identity.

Author

• Hussain Zakir, Assistant Professor at Karakoram International University Gilgit-Baltistan