Why is it that the youngsters in this country are brought up to be expected to learn Urdu? To learn Urdu? Yeah. Your parents? Well, yeah. And you don’t like it? No, I don’t like it. Why? There is a pressure. Yes, I know. The reason is that you do not belong here as far as your race is concerned. Racially, you are a different entity. And you have been given the status of a Britisher just out of courtesy of these people. Just a minute.
So, your social system is different. Your religious concepts are different. And the whole way of life is different. So, just by giving you the national status of this country, rest of the things won’t change automatically. Now, if that is true and it is true, then if you do not safeguard your own social values, your own social system and the way of life, then what would happen would be that you would ultimately land into a situation which is called split personality. You would be neither the British because ultimately, whatever you may do, they would not accept you as one of them.
Because your color, your style, everything would be telltale. And however kind they may be, still the difference would remain there. There would be a barrier. And if you are not truly Pakistani and halfway in neither here nor there, then the Pakistanis would also not accept you as one of them. And if you are a Muslim, the same thing would apply there. Being a Muslim, you would not know the social values of Islam and things. Now, people most often do not know that the language plays a very important role in safeguarding one’s social values and religious values as well.
If you know English only while living here, then you simply cannot fully understand and absorb the oriental values which are your background in reality. There will be a complete insulation between you and your social system. So I have observed those intelligent people, whether they are living in America or other Western countries, who teach their children Urdu or Pashto or Punjabi. Urdu is not a must. Whatever language is spoken in their houses, if they teach that language to their children, there are very few social problems for those children when they grow up.
If they do not teach them in the childhood and try to impose that language later on, already the damage has been done and they find them in a situation where they don’t want to compromise with their older values. And such questions as is asked by you, they are asked by everybody else as well. You might have the language, but I really don’t know my culture of Pakistan or anything, because I don’t know its history, I don’t know its identity. All I know is that I belong to Islam.
That is exactly what I am pointing out. That’s enough for cultural background, but it isn’t enough… No, no, that is exactly what I am pointing out. The main reason why is that you don’t know Urdu much, as you should have known. While you were a child, your parents should have looked to this problem then. Already they are too late. But see, the thing is, I might be too late to learn Urdu, but I speak sort of like in between at home, where I speak a bit of Urdu and a bit of English mixed in, because I don’t know some of the words and everything. There is no harm if you speak mixed languages. There is no harm.
The language is not the master of people. Language is a servant to the people. And if you are learning some language for its noble purpose, in the process of learning, you may find yourself facing some difficulties or in awkward situations occasionally. But that doesn’t make any difference at all. You should be courageous and noble enough to face such things. Why should I, when I have been brought up in this country, to be brought up and be faced with Western society?
Ask your parents, not me. But I am asking you, why is this pressure? This is a situation where your parents are responsible, not myself. If they have not been looking to their duties earlier in time when they should have, why should you ask this question to me? Because ultimately I will have to ask them. You see, I have asked my father this and he has given me the reply that it is to help you to read Promised Messiah’s books, because you don’t get most out of it from reading in English or anything. No, but that is the general reply which the parents offer to their children. But that is not enough. That is not fully convincing.
The fact is that many an Englishman who becomes an Ahmadi, many an American who becomes an Ahmadi or a German has the same problem. But there is a difference which I am pointing out. Their social background is German or American or English. And there is no problem for them. Their identity, their internal order, psyche, etc., they are all safe and intact. But a person who does not truly belong to a people and who has been given out of sympathy that status, he would positively face a situation of internal split one time or another. And to save this, it is always better for him to fully realize where he belongs.
Now the question is, why you came? Why he came? Because of financial problems, financial difficulties. And living in those poor countries with this knowledge which your parents, I mean generally speaking, most Ahmadi parents have, the financial standard they would attain would be much lower than here. And the facilities available for the upbringing of children, materialistically speaking in the schools and teachings and everything, they are much higher here. So they naturally are attracted towards such countries where they can gain more for their future materially.
At the same time, they should be worried about the future of their children as far as their spiritual, social, cultural attachments and backgrounds are concerned. So for that, the ideal thing is to teach the children their own language right from the beginning and create an atmosphere of the orient in the houses. In such cases, the children are never faced with such problems as you are facing today. You see, if you learn the language, why don’t you just learn the history?
I mean, Pakistan is a great country, but you don’t know about the history about it. No, no, that’s not the thing. I understand what you mean. If you learn the history in English, if you learn certain values, teachings in English, you will not yet absorb that thing which I am pointing out. You simply don’t understand because you have not gone through that experience. A child who knows his language and reads the literature in that language from the childhood and reads the religious as well as non-religious literature, he absorbs that thing completely in a different way than any person knowing these things in a different language.
For instance, the people who have been brought up here, whose schooling has been done in England, who have gone through the children’s books as are taught here, if they are taught the same things in Urdu, they would not develop the English attitude. You teach them all these things in Urdu, they would still lack, totally lack that English attitude which is created because of the early schooling in English. They are two different things altogether. That atmosphere cannot be created.
But the language, if it’s truly taught at the right age, that is responsible for the creation of that atmosphere and that inclination of the mind, which is an inward phenomena, which makes you truly either Oriental or the Occidental. So that, having been lacking in your case, you have developed in a situation of puzzlement. You don’t know where you truly belong. And when such efforts are made by your parents, you try to resist those efforts. You say, I’m not convinced.
The thing that I feel that is my culture is Islam. That’s the only thing that I share that is universal. But what is the culture of Islam? It’s… You don’t know? No. Yes? It’s where we share an identity of being… You know, this is just, you are trying to justify yourself against your father’s wish. That’s all. You don’t know your culture, you don’t know those values and you just want to wriggle out of this problem of reading Urdu and paying attention. That’s all. But what use is it to me? That is what your father has done already, done to you. This is what I was saying.
If you grow up in that situation, then you don’t understand why this. Already you have adopted a system, a way, which will not be of any benefit to you in future. That I assure you. Don’t learn Urdu if you may not, if you don’t want to. But you will not be an Englishman, that I must tell you now. You will always be rejected and relegated to a second place situation, citizenship here in the country, even if you enjoy the full benefits of the law. So, it’s up to you to decide for your future.
