By: Beberg Baloch
Nations and peoples are recognized by their culture and language. Yet, the legacy of historical colonialism—alongside a lingering contemporary hangover where proper de-colonization never truly commenced—continues to threaten this identity. Today, neo-imperial structures and the hegemony of dominant languages and narratives within digital fiefdoms are generating meta-cultures. In this shifting landscape, linguistic and cultural heritages face the very real threat of extinction.
The peoples of the Global South remain at the forefront of this profound challenge. With the rapid advancement of machine learning and the boom of artificial intelligence, integrating regional languages into the digital sphere remains a daunting task, particularly for those currently missing from the digital domain. A recent article in The Guardian noted that 44 percent of the world’s languages are at risk of going extinct. This is a matter of urgent global concern, especially in the Global South where, despite arguments to the contrary, the tech industry for the majority of nations remains in its initial stages.
China serves as an example of where the protection and integration of a native language with the needs of futuristic, machine-learning-oriented industries has taken a “great leap forward.” There is no denying the fact that China itself still requires a lot of progress in advancing its own regional minority languages and aligning them with the future. However, their foundational success is striking.
During the first day of my first visit to China, I was deeply inspired by how they did not need to maintain a dependence on a global lingua franca (English) to achieve their social, administrative, and political goals. It was amazing to observe how the English keypad on their phones was able to quickly generate Mandarin words and sentences as they typed. Crucially, this was not limited to tech experts; the general youth did not write Mandarin using English alphabets just to mimic the sounds—a habit that so many of us fall into.
In former British colonies like Pakistan, the situation is starkly different. Here, English and Urdu generally serve as the two primary mediums of education, while technological advancement stands at an initial stage. Consequently, regional languages like Balochi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Brahui, and many others—which are spoken by the majority of the population across different federating units—have long been institutionally neglected.
Languages carry the knowledge and heritage of our ancestors, signifying the identity of a nation within a multi-national setting like Pakistan. However, the hegemonic binary of the English and Urdu mediums actively stifles the existential rights of these regional tongues.
For instance, Balochi is spoken by the vast majority of people in Balochistan. Yet, the medium of instruction in schools and the educational curriculum remains trapped within the aforementioned binary. This is a deeply problematic issue that has been raised for a long time. Implementing the introduction of regional languages into educational institutions and enacting proper reforms in government bodies would vastly enhance the chances of these languages surviving. Furthermore, it would allow them to be properly integrated with modern technology and AI.
Now that the whole picture has been painted, one might argue that while China has advanced Mandarin, it still has a long way to go regarding its regional languages. However, the context is entirely reversed: the population speaking Mandarin in China constitutes a massive majority, whereas in Pakistan, the majority of the population speaks their respective regional languages rather than the institutional languages. Despite this difference, the lesson remains clear: if there is a political will to protect the heritage, culture, and knowledge of a people, these challenges can be overcome through properly directed policies.
