Language and Nation in Pakistan

Pakistan is a multilingual country with two official languages.Urdu,as one of the official languages,has only a small number of population taking it as the mother tongue,but it is widely used for the purpose of communication.This paper argues that Urdu as the national language is closely related to Islamic identity,basing on the discussion from three different points of view: Urdu as the national language,the relationship between Urdu and English,the debate between Urdu and Bengali.The paper points out that Urdu as the national language is the product of national consciousness and the language policy adopted by the ruling class.English as the official language of Pakistan results from the colonization and it is not replaced by Urdu because of the globalization of the English language.And the debate between Urdu and Bengali is a good illustration for a better understanding of the relationship between language and nation.It is concluded finally that Urdu is the product of national consciousness,meanwhile,as the symbol of Islamic identity,the knowledge and use of Urdu serve to unite its population in a shared national identity.The success of Urdu as the national language is a good illustration for a multilingual and multinational country to settle down the dispute resulted from the national unification and different religious beliefs.