Urdu as is used in Pakistan in current times has departed greatly from the literary form used by the educated and commoners of the past.  Pakistan was built on firm grounds with Urdu to remain as the language of prestige and greatest articulacy.  In current times, however, Urdu is seen as a language too complicated to learn by younger generations and has stepped into the background.  People would rather prefer English as taught in their schools (by Musharraf’s government) or the Hindustani that they hear on Hindi films.

Bollywood has played a great part in the downfall of the Urdu language.  Indians have adapted Urdu for many of their songs, believing that Urdu is the superior language (in eloquence) of the subcontinent.  Even though less than 5% of their population (the Muslims of India) speak what they call Urdu; they still feel the need to develop their songs in the Muslim’s language.  It plays as a snare for the Pakistanis; they would watch them believing they use Urdu but eventually they would end up adapting a plethora of Hindi vocabulary in the midst.  Instead of reading and learning the language and concepts of the Quran, Urdu poetry of old, or the sciences they decide to spend 3 hours everyday to be influenced by a Hindi movie.  A detriment to their modesty, brain, religion, and tongue.

Many people who achieve the slightest amount of education in Pakistan feel the need to express themselves in English.   There are two reasons for this, the lack of knowledge in Urdu and an inferiority complex.  A famous Arab scholar once said, “the one who adapts and replaces his customs for another’s is indeed the defeated.”  And then there are those who follow blindly to become just another brick in the wall. 

What remains of Urdu is just the news, national anthem, and the Urdu poems of Ghalib and Iqbal that fill the hallways of secluded school hallways. Today, Urdu is reserved to religious men and institutions as well as political debates.  The common language of the everyday man, however, is moving slowly towards a mix of Hindi/Hindustani and English.  It is even worse for Pakistanis abroad whose children have no source to learn the language of their ancestors.  Many turn to Bollywood films thinking they would find it there; soon they end up speaking most of what is Hindustani.