Land of the Pure 

A Difficult Birth

Land of the Pure was the name given to Pakistan, when British India was divided to make two separate countries in 1947. In some areas of India the majority of the people were

Muslims. Under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, they succeeded in creating their own Muslim state. But the price was high. More than half a million people were killed, as millions of Sikhs and Hindus moved to the Indian side of the new border and millions of Muslims moved to the Pakistani side.

The newcomers to Pakistan, called mohajirs, had little in common with other Pakistanis, except their religion. They spoke different languages and had different customs. At first they were welcomed by the local people. But as the years have passed, ethnic tensions have developed between the mohajirs and various other groups in Pakistan. In the mid-1990s the then Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, sent the army in to take over the city of Karachi, where the local government was being run by the mohajirs.

Borrowing language

The national language of Pakistan is Urdu and there are many regional languages, but English is used extensively in government, multinational companies, the media and in elite social circles. English is also the medium of instruction in higher education and in private schools. Many people want to learn English and go to expensive private language centres all over the country.

During the British Raj, the colonisers borrowed many Urdu words that have entered the English language: jodhpurs (riding trousers) and bazaar are two examples. Urdu in turn, has borrowed many English words, such as cup, car, time, shop and appointment, but they are often pronounced very differently.

Flying Kites for Spring

Every spring the skies of Pakistan are splashed with bright, rainbow colours. These are the paper kites of Basant, one of the most popular folk festivals. It is celebrated to mark the beginning of spring, usually on a weekend in March. People wear bright, yellow clothes and cook traditional dishes like biryani (a richly-flavoured rice cooked with meat), qorma (a kind of curry) and kheer (a rice pudding). In the walled city of Lahore, many people hold open houses for their families, neighbours and friends to visit them. Everywhere you can see people on their roof tops, flying beautiful handmade kites and having kite-fights, trying to bring down each other's kites.

“In the English-speaking World”