Hindi Beyond Borders : Pakistan teaching Hindi to China

Due to curiosity to know more about India and also to tap the growing business opportunities more  and more people from China and Islamic countries including UAE are turning to Pakistan to learn Hindi

RK Sinha
That Pakistan’s special bonding with China is both old and well-known, what really evokes curiosity is that for the last many years large number of Chinese are taking lessons in Hindi in Pakistan. Not only the Chinese, many officials of Islamic countries, including Arab Emirates, too are learning Hindi in Pakistan.
That Pakistan is emerging as a seat of Hindi learning and teaching was a big revelation for me. While on my recent trip to London, I met a Chinese lady in a restaurant. She asked me in smattering Hindi, Aap Bharat se aate hein. I said, Ji, mein bharat se hoon. Naturally, Hindi made us friends there and then. Then she told me that she did her  post-graduation in Hindi language from Pakistan. When I prodded her to reveal more about her days as a scholar of Hindi in Pakistan, she told me that Islamabad based National University of Modern Languages (NUML) conducts classes for all those keen to learn Hindi. Many foreigners and Pakistani youngsters are studying there.

Later, I learnt that the University was established in 1973. It became the first university in Pakistan to provide certificates, diplomas, language courses, Masters and PhD degrees in Hindi. And after NUML, Punjab University, Lahore, too had started various courses in Hindi in 1983 for all those keen to learn Hindi. The University of Karachi also once had a Hindi Department, but it was later closed. Given the fact that Karachi is the bedrock of lakhs of people who trace their roots to Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Bihar, the decision of Karachi University to shut their Hindi department is surprising. Moreover, large numbers of Pakistani Hindus are settled in this port city. They are also learning Hindi in order to know more about Hinduism. Hindus in Sindh learn Hindi from the dwindling population, which learnt Hindi.
Anyway, it goes without saying that Hindi was the huge casualty of Two-Nation Theory of All India Muslim League. It was almost wiped out from the present day Pakistan post 1947 but for the NUML and Punjab University laudable initiative. It was a different matter that Hindi was taught from school to university level in pre-Partition days in all the schools and Colleges from Punjab to Sindh. Great Hindi writers like Bhisham Sahni, Narendra Mohan, Pratap Sehgal, Shailndra, etc were all born in the then West Punjab.
Like other languages of Pakistan, Hindi too suffered body blow due to the one nation-one language policy of monolith Pakistan. Urdu, which was not the language of any part of newly created Pakistan, got special treatment there. MA Jinnah declared it as the national language of Pakistan during his only visit to Dhaka in March 1948. That unilateral decision in respect of Urdu had created unrest among Bangla speaking East Pakistan. They felt betrayed as their language got a raw deal. And that created huge chasm between West and East Pakistan. That led to creation of Bangladesh. Anyway, Urdu has been a controversial language in Pakistan despite its official status.
Later, Sindhis, Baloch and Pashtuns have also resisted the one-size-fits-all Urdu formula. Yet, Urdu has emerged as the functional lingua franca of Pakistan. But that policy proved death knell for other languages in Pakistan.
Yet, due to deep cultural bonds with India and curiosity to acquire knowledge of regional language for establishing better communication drive many young Pakistanis have begun studying Hindi.
While it is perfectly all right if Chinese or Arabs are learning Hindi from Hindi teachers of Pakistan, the faculty in both Punjab University and NUML have Indian connections. Most of them who teach there are those ladies who migrated to Pakistan after marriage. These ladies had their education in various Indian Universities like Patna University, Meerut University and Punjab University.
Meanwhile, I am observing closely that now Pakistanis use several Hindi words like Vishwa (World), Niti (Policy), Sambandh (Relations), Ashirvaad (Blessing), Charcha (Debate), Pati-Patni (Husband-Wife), Nirashaa (Disappointment), Shanti (Peace), etc. which were not part of their conversation earlier. Arguably that is also the influence of Hindi films and Indian TV serials. Both are rage in Pakistan. Irrespective of region, Pakistanis do watch Hindi movies and serials. Once, a Pakistani gentleman had told me that Pakistanis learnt Hindi in a big way from serials like Ramayana and Mahabharat. As that was not enough, these two serials had created a kind of quench among them to learn more about Indian culture and epics. Sadly after the Partition, the young Pakistanis did not know about  great epics like Mahabharat and Ramayana at all. They were grown-up listening to anti-Hindu and anit-Indian stories. Things, however, started changing once social media invaded our lives. Now the free flow of information has opened unlimited scope for anybody to learn anything and everything. As a result of Hindi films and Indian soap opera viewership in Pakistan, Hindi has had a notable cultural influence.
For some Pakistanis, knowing Hindi provides an opportunity to follow Hindi media and develop an understanding of neighbouring India, while for others it is an individual interest.

During the World Hindi Conference in Bhopal last year, some of the noted Hindi scholars told me that while two universities are teaching Hindi from Certificate course to Phd level, Pakistan lacks trained professionals to teach Hindi as a result the language is not getting adequately promoted there. The teachers at both these places have Indian connections. Those ladies who had their education in India, migrated to Pakistan post marriage. They teach Hindi there. Meanwhile, in the Centre for South Asian Studies at Lahore, Hindi has now become a mandatory paper for those doing their M Phil in regional languages.
Naturally, due to deep cultural bonds with India and curiosity to acquire knowledge of regional language for establishing better communication, continues to drive many in Pakistan to study Hindi. Arguably those who teach Hindi in Pakistan are the true Hindi sevaks.
(The writer is a Rajya Sabha MP)