Ibn'ul Waqt: A note on language.

Any discussion on Ibn'ul Waqt would lend itself quite naturally to comments on imperialism. 

I found the following passage from the first chapter profoundly moving 'The English had destroyed our munificence and wealth, business and trade, art and craft, and spoiled our customs and traditions, dress and manners, our ways of life, religion and science, our honour and nobility. Only one thing was spared: our language.' It goes on to state that their language is too being spoiled because the English fail to speak it properly and the Indians have started to emulate their way of speaking. The passage struck me because it speaks of how deeply imperialism cut into the lives of these people, not just on an abstract level (in terms of things like honour, for example) but on deeply personal levels too, the most personal being language. Language is perhaps the most personal simply because it is tied to communication. Not just communication in the public sphere but also the way you speak to your friends, family and even to yourself.

Nazir Ahmad's works are seen by many as a plea to reform. True, the intentions of this particular text are ambivalent, the writer himself may not even be sure of what he is trying to say. However, perhaps the fact that he was telling the story was enough. In his use of language he is fiercely stubborn. The language is Urdu, before it was spoiled by the British, and this alone proves how many different things a novel (or indeed any vehicle of expression) may represent.

It is then perhaps true that the last refuge for the Muslim was language (the writer of Ibn'ul Waqt included.) However, to just state this undermines how important (and how powerful) language is. Equipped with a common language, a people will not feel their ‘foreignness’ but, once it is taken away from them and they have to learn a new one (or relearn an old, familiar one in an ‘incorrect’ manner) it could end them.