Baluchistan is Pakistan’s largest province by area, which covers about 44% of the total area of the state. The provincial languages of Balochistan are few, of which the main ones are Balochi and Brahvi languages. Unfortunately, unlike other provinces, the people of Balochistan are deprived of education in their first language. Their national history and heroes are also not mentioned in the school curriculum.
As a result of the challenge, many school children in Balochistan are unable to write in their national language while due to the concisive study of second languages (Urdu and English), their oral expression is largely impacted. In all the sentences they speak, most of the words relate to Urdu or English. It may not be a problem in the first period, but if we foresee it, it is a real threat to the extinction of our languages.
Besides languages, very few children our age know enough about their national culture and their heroes. One of the reasons is that there is “no place” for our heroes and our cultural heritage in the school curriculum. Unfortunately, instead of introducing the Balochi culture in the textbooks, we observed that the Balochi was referred to as “wild and fierce”. Although, historically, the Baloch belong to the ancient civilization of Mehrgadh which is thousands of years old. And those who label Baloch as such, are themselves uneventful and “uncivilized”.
According to pedagogues and psychologists, children can adopt anything from a very young age, from two to eleven years old. Unfortunately, this age goes into the study of a foreign language and foreign culture largely affecting the promotion and study of their own.
Punjabi, Sindhi and Pashto languages are taught in Punjab, Sind and Khayber Pakhtunkhwaa, but why not Balochi or Brahvi included in Balochistan? Why is Balochistan the only region to suffer such a discriminatory attitude?
Balochistan is already divided into several parts including a large part in Iran, another part in Afghanistan, parts of Sindh, KPK and Punjab, now language and national cultural deprivation further add to the miseries facing the nation in grief.
