Cogito, Ergo Sum

Urdu is one of the most important elements of the culture of the Muslims of Indian subcontinent. That is why Quaid-e-Azam declared Urdu as the national language of Pakistan. As, unfortunately, in last 62 years, we failed to emerge as a living society, we became a victim of severe inferiority complex. It compels us to copy others blindly, just to try to raise our self esteem. Our electronic Urdu media is doing the same these days. Instead of speaking Urdu, the people in Urdu media are using Hindustani, just to copy Indian media. Hindustani is an inferior language and not a standard language, contrary to Hindi and Urdu. It is used for low level everyday communication. The following table shows that how Hindustani is replacing Urdu in our media: I wish that we should come out of this inferiority complex, and should start living as a nation which has confidence in herself. One thing is important to clarify here. By no means I am against evolution of Urdu, through positive interaction...

Since long, Asghar Khan is blamed for writing a letter to the officers of defence services of Pakistan, and inviting army to impose martial law in Pakistan. Here is the text available in Kausar Niazi's book "Last Days of Premier Bhutto". On reading this letter one concludes that Asghar Khan never invited Pak Army to impose martial law in the country; on the contrary he only asked army officers to perform their duties according to the constitution and the law of the land. (The text of the letter is not complete; I am reproducing it as per I found it in Kausar Niazi's book): "I am addressing this message to the Chief of Staff and the Officers Defence Services of Pakistan. It is your duty to defend the territorial integrity of Pakistan and to obey all lawful commands of superior officers placed over you. To differentiate between a ‘lawful’ and an ‘unlawful’ command is the duty of every officer. Every one of you must ask your self whether what the army is doing to...

Here are some of the lines of the first National Anthem of Pakistan, written by a Lahore based Hindu poet Jagannath Azad. Quaid-e-Azam asked him on 9 Aug 1947 to write the National Anthem of Paksitan. This National Anthem was approved by Quaid-e-Azam and was played on Radio Paksitan. It remained our National Anthem for 18 months.   اےسر زمینِ پاک ذرےتیرے ہیں آج ستاروںسے تابناک روشن ہے کہکشاں سے کہیں آج تیری خاک

"Amar Shonar Bangla" is a marvellous song written by Tagore in 1906, when the British government divided Bengal in two parts, as per their policy of "divide and rule". Its first ten lines were adopted as the national anthem of Bangladesh. It is one of the most beautiful songs written in the love of one's fatherland. This beautiful song is presented here, along with its Urdu translation. English translation (by Syed Ali Ahsan) and transliteration are also given۔ English Transliteration English Translation Urdu translation (منثور اردو ترجمہ) Amar shonar Bangla, Ami tomae bhalobashi. My Bengal of Gold, I love you. میرے سنہرےبنگال میں تیرے پیارمیں ڈوبا ہواہوں Chirodin tomar akash, Tomar batash, Amar prane bajae bãshi. Forever your skies, Your air set my heart in tune As if it were a flute. تیراآکاش، تیری ہوائیں جب بھی میرے دل کو چھوتی ہیں تو یہ بانسری کی طرح نغمےالاپنے لگتاہے O ma, Phagune tor amer bone Ghrane pagol kôre, Mori h...

In Pakistan two inflows of history merge with each other. One is religious, having origin from Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. It gives a universal spiritual message for whole humanity. We own it very deeply. The other one is that of the history and culture of our land. We live in Muslim India, which we named Pakistan. This land has a history, along with its culture and traditions, other than that of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. There is no reason to not own this culture and tradition, as far as it does not contradict with our religious teachings. Some (perhaps all) foolish policymakers of Pakistan want to remove our bonds with our secular history. They believe it is good for Pakistan. But weakening of our links with our secular history cannot serve us in achieving our religious goals. This summary of the story of a praiseworthy son of the land, Rama, is translated in Urdu as an effort to revive our links with our secular history. دسرتھ اجودھیا کا راجا تھا۔ بد قسمتی سے راجا ب...