Baloch National Movement (BNM) UK zone held a conference on the ‘Importance of Mother Languages’ on the eve of International Mother Languages’ Day. The speakers were: Baloch intellectual Dr Naseer Dashti, Baloch writer Dr Naguman, The foreign secretary of BNM Mr Hammal Haider Baloch, Baloch litterateur Waleed Garboni, Baloch poet Mr Hassan Hamdam, Leader of Baloch Raji Zrumbish Mr Abdullah Baloch, Leader of World Sindhi Congress Dr Hidayat Bhutto, BNM’s deputy organizer for diaspora committee Mr Hassan Dost Baloch, Mansoor Baloch of Baloch Republican Party and Naseem Baloch of BNM UK.
Addressing the conference Hammal Haidar said, “ We want to let Baloch litterateurs know that BNM totally supports them in the development and promotion of mother languages. We have felt that quite often Baloch political parties are criticized for not focusing enough on the promotion of mother languages, but we time and again emphasized on the fact that Baloch poets, intellectuals and litterateurs should build a consensus on how to make mother languages standard. Once that goal is achieved then all political parties especially BNM will give its everything to put that standard language in practice.”
Talking about the historical perspective of Mother Languages of Baloch people, Dr Naseer dashti said that Balochi and Brahui languages find its roots in Indo-Iranian and Indo-Kurdish languages, whereas, both the languages are widely spoken in Balochistan. The areas where Brahui language is spoken, people simultaneously speak Balochi. He further said that languages can only be promoted if they are taught to the children in educational insitutions.
While talking at the conference, Dr Naguman Baloch said, “There are approximately seven thousand languages spoken by eight billion people of the world and out of eight million, four million people speak the languages which are considered powerful i.e, English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi and French. Remaining four billion people speak thousands of languages including our mother language. Baloch intellectuals criticize political parties and political parties criticize the intellectuals for not working on the development of our language and doing so they find themselves free of responsibilities. For independence Balochs picked up guns and fought, in a similar fashion, they must fight for the language and pick up pens.”
“We are witnessing that to divide the Baloch nation, an artificial debate is being promoted in Balochistan among Balochi and Brahui speaking populations, it must be countered by a broad policy which all Baloch political parties should work on,” said Hassan Dost.
Dr Hidayat Bhutto while shining light on the background of International Mother Languages’ day, said that this day haunts Pakistani army till today due to the massacre they carried out against Bengali people who resisted the foreign language and embraced death for their mother language. He further said that Pakistan is shutting down schools in Sindh and trying to promote non-native languages in the region but he considered that only protection to sindhi language could be the emancipation of Sindh herself.
The conference continued as the speakers read poetry in their mother languages, and also talked about the importance of preserving the languages, as Balochistan is facing harsh period by the hands of Pakistan and if they do not struggle for the independence, their nation along with their languages will disappear from the face of the earth.
At the end of the conference, President of BNM UK Zone, Hakeem Baloch thanked all the speakers and participants including Mansoor Baloch of BRP, he also announced that such conferences will continue to hold in future to preach the cause of national struggle and the preservence of mother languages.