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Language Matters: Studies

in the Languages of Africa
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Urdu Education in South

Africa
a
Ahmed Aziz
a
Department of Arabic, Urdu & Persian ,
University of Durban-Westville
Published online: 31 May 2008.

To cite this article: Ahmed Aziz (1996) Urdu Education in South Africa,
Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa, 27:1, 244-252, DOI:
10.1080/10228199608566112

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10228199608566112

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 Urdu Education in South Africa
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Ahmed Aziz
Department of Arabic, Urdu & Persian
University of Durban-Westville

ABSTRACT

The importance of Urdu as a world language and its position in South Africa are
briefly sketched and a rationale for teaching Urdu in South African schools is
set out.

INTRODUCTION

Urdu, with 85 million speakers, together with Hindi, is the most

important spoken language in the Indian subcontinent after
English. It is the official language of Pakistan; it is also spoken as
a mother-tongue or second language by millions in India,
Bangladesh and by the Urdu diaspora in the eastern and the

244
 western parts of the world. Urdu was introduced to South Africa
in 1860 with the arrival of the indentured labourers to work in the
canefields of Natal. Today Urdu is the home language or
community language of a large number of Muslims in the country,
and has emerged as an adhesive cultural force in the multilingual
Muslim community.

The first batch of Indian Muslims arrived in South Africa as

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indentured labourers in 1860 aboard SS Truro and the influx

continued until 1911. The second category of emigrants from
India comprised traders. The third category consisted of the
martial races, the Patans and the Punjabis. Teachers, preachers and
missionaries constituted the fourth category. They all came here
to attain economic prosperity.

They spoke different mother-tongues - Urdu, Gujarati, Pushto,

Punjabi, Tamil, Telegu and Malayalam - but tacitly agreed upon
Urdu as a medium of communication and instruction at the
communal level and in socio-cultural domains.

Sufi Sahib (a Muslim mystic, teacher and missionary) played a

vital role in the early history of Urdu in South Africa. He used it
for education and as pastoral strategy to maintain Muslim culture.
He used Urdu not only as a socio-cultural lingua franca but also as
a symbol of Indian Muslim identity. Furthermore, Urdu was used
by Sufi Sahib as a unifying force and as a means of shaping the
hitherto heterogeneous Muslims into a relatively homogeneous
community. He clearly marked the boundaries of Urdu so that its
autonomy and vitality are maintained for all times to come.

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 URDU SHIFT AND MAINTENANCE

An Indian Muslim child in South Africa has shifted away gradually

from Urdu to English. Thus his first language is English and he
feels most comfortable using it because of his exposure to this
language during most of his waking hours. It is the language
which he is exposed to at school where it is taught as a subject and
also as a medium of instruction across the curriculum.
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Urdu was introduced in the erstwhile Indian schools as a second

language from standard 2 (Grade 4 level) in 1984. In 1994 there
were 79 schools with 2 110 learners studying Urdu. However,
politically active forces opposed the integration of Urdu and other
eastern languages in the secular school curriculum, whether as
core or peripheral part. The opposing forces further pointed out
that the University of Durban-Westville was also created on an
ethnic basis, and therefore they actively discouraged students from
taking up the so-called "ethnic courses" (such as Urdu and Hindi).

A battery of test was set by Aziz (1988) indicated that Urdu has the
capacity to continue its existence despite counter forces operating
against it in South Africa - causing the spontaneous and
institutionalized shift from Urdu to English. The shift is linked
with the rise of English internationally as well as world language
and local with the rise of English as one of the eleven officially
languages and the main language of trade, industry and technology.

However, it may be hypothesized that when language shift or

extinction is imminent an underlying or intuitive protest against
this extinction will manifest in the guardians of the language. The
general body of Urdu users intuitively find the revival and

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 maintenance of Urdu an important issue in the new South Africa.
The following natural forces in the Urdu speech community are to
maintain the language and culture:

a) Vernacular Education
b) Religion
c) Culture
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Relevant data were collected by Aziz (1988) for each one of these
factors. The summary of results is given below:

a) Vernacular Education:
The empirical data confirmed the assumption that the most
powerful means of retaining languages was education. The data
showed that the vernacular education system has been the single
factor that maintained the "staying power" of Urdu in this
country for close on 150 years. The data also indicated that the
most immediate manifestation of language loyalty is the
education at home and beyond the family, the persistence of a
language needs the support of a school system.

b) Religion:
Urdu (in the religious domain) survives between two counter
forces and between conflicting norms and ideologies of
language. This tug-of-war between the opposing forces appears
to favour the persistence of Urdu because the stronger the
opposion to Urdu the stronger the reaction to retard its erosion.

c) Culture:
Culture is the totality of life. It would have been an ideal thing
to obtain data from "all" possible domains of Urdu culture.

247
 However, this was not possible. As a result, only data
pertaining to the literary-aesthetic (sublime) culture were
obtained and analysed. The sublime culture included mushā'ira
(poetic contest), novel, drama, film and songs. The data
indicated that all of these factors have played and continue to
play a substantial role in the survival, revival and retention of
the Urdu language in South Africa.
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PHILOSOPHICAL POINTS OF DEPARTURE

Urdu has much to contribute to the cultural value systems of the

world. It stands thirteenth on the list of 169 languages considered
by the international community to be "critical" (Crystal 1987:287),
in the sense that knowledge of them could promote important
scientific and economic exchange between South Africa, the Indo-
Pak sub-continent and the Urdu diaspora.

In the apartheid era political, economic, cultural and other forms

of sanctions were applied by the international community. With
the lifting of apartheid South Africa is entering a new era where all
forms of sanctions are being gradually lifted. When an open
society comes into full operation in South Africa syllabuses for
Urdu and other Eastern languages will be needed. If it is to serve
society nationally and internationally, Urdu should form part of the
core curriculum, and not to be a token or peripheral part of the
curriculum. In the new South Africa factors such as diplomatic,
trading, commercial, industrial, scientific and technological
relations with the East will increase the necessity for the
knowledge of Eastern languages inter alia Urdu.

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 RATIONALE FOR STUDYING URDU

Anthropologico-Humanistic Reason
Diversity of language is a fact of human existence; seven-eights of
the world's population are not native English-speakers. Even if
they have learned English as a second language they still cherish
their mother-tongue as an essential means of communication.
Therefore, people who have failed to acquire minimal proficiency
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in at least one other languages, (Urdu in this instance) have missed

an experience that is essential to understanding the world they live
in. Being unilingual, they cannot fully grasp the nature, function
and social importance of languages. In their ignorance they tend
to assume that all languages convey the same meaning in much the
same way as their mother tongue. This fundamental error leads to
gross misunderstanding regarding the actions, customs and beliefs
of other peoples, an ignorance the new democratic South Africa
can ill afford. Many of the great monuments of human thought
have been expressed in Urdu. Urdu can thus play an important role
in the full development of an individual's latent potential as a
civilized human being.

True Democracy and Urdu Education

True democracy raises every individual to the heights of his/her
fullest capacity for service and accomplishment. In keeping with
this spirit of true democracy, the new South Africa needs to train
Urdu teachers, professional Urdu translators and interpreters,
diplomats to serve in the Indo-Pak subcontinent, and businessmen
and industrialists to carry out trading activities there. Urdu
education will also build the character of individuals as members
of the new South African nation, instil patriotism in them, provoke

249
 them to think critically and inculcate in them leadership qualities
so that they may make meaningful contribution towards the
upliftment of the young South African nation.

Cultural Reason
Like the study of any other language, the study of Urdu enables
South African Indian learners to understand themselves in the
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context of their cultural heritage, to maintain and preserve this

heritage and to communicate appropriately in their communite and
the wider international community.

Utilitarian Reason
A knowledge of Urdu is a great benefit in various professions. A
South African businessman may suddenly realise that his six years
of secondary school Urdu was the deciding factor in his being
selected to manage a new branch factory or mill in India or
Pakistan. A scientist may draw information from Urdu scientific
journals and thus gain knowledge that is not easily accessible
elsewhere.

Learners however may not always find a direct application for the
knowledge and skills they have acquired in learning Urdu, just as
they might never use the skills gained in the chemistry laboratory,
or apply the insights resulting from the study of algebra or
geometry. Hardly ever does education produce a set of skills or a
body of knowledge that is applied directly in toto to some real-life
situations. Yet, in some way, broadly educated people have a
knack of understanding new situations and communicating ideas
to others, which they would never have had without the benefit of

250
 education. Large investments being made in the democratic
education system by the newly elected government, based upon
the belief that what is learnt in school will transfer to situations that
learners will face in life in the new democratic South Africa. I
would venture to say that investment in Urdu education would
bring substantial returns in the long run.
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CONCLUSION

In the light of the preceding argument it is important that teachers

and curriculum designers bear in mind the following broad aims of
imparting Urdu:

► the development of students' receptive and productive skills

of Urdu
► the maintainance and/or improvement of the status of Urdu
as a language of cross-cultural communication on a nation
and international level
► encourage through Urdu the creation and/or strengthening of
links with the Indo-Pak subcontinent and other countries
where Urdu speakers have settled and are using their
language
► foster broader tolerance and mutual understanding through
Urdu
► to inculcate the value of Urdu as cultural and historical
resources and a resource for cognitive, affective and psycho­
motor development
► to contribute to local and world cultures
► to promote important scientific and technological research or
security interests of a national or economic kind.

251
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aziz, A.K. 1988. An investigation into the factors governing the persistence of
Urdu as a minority language in South Africa. Unpublished Master's thesis.
Pretoria: University of South Africa.

Aziz, A.K. 1995. Discussion paper on Urdu Education prepared and submitted
to the Dept of National Education and Culture.
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Cluver, A. D. de V. 1993. A dictionary ofLanguage Planning Terms. Pretoria:

UNISA.

Crystal, D. 1987. Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Crystal, D. 1992. An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages.

New York: Penguin Books.

Grittner, F. M. 1977. Teaching Foreign Languages. New York: Harper &

Row.

Zaidi, S. 1989. Studies in Urdu Linguistics. Delhi: Bahri Publications.

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