СТАТЬИ

 
 
В статье анализируется роль английского языка в языковой политике стран азиатского континента в системе мировых глобализационных процессов с позиции принятой в современной социолингвистической литературе точки зрения о связи языкового аспекта глобализации с распространением английского языка. Авторами отмечается историческая составляющая популярности английского языка в современном мире в целом и в частности в анализируемых странах, включающая несколько факторов, прежде всего, влияние Британской империи, а в дальнейшем – укреплении позиций США на международной арене, а также приводятся оценочные данные по количеству владеющих им как первым, так и вторым в повседневной жизни. В качестве объектов исследования предлагаются такие страны Южной Азии и Среднего Востока, как Афганистан, Иран и Пакистан. Ситуация с английским языком представлена в них на фоне функционирования государственного и национальных языков. Авторами сделана попытка показать как общие моменты его функционирования, в том числе и через призму действующих там законодательных актов, прежде всего конституций, так и особенности его использования в каждой из этих стран, в том числе под влиянием проводимой их руководством языковой политики. Отмечается также возрастание интереса во властных структурах к русскому языку в Иране и китайскому в Пакистане как к языкам, способным в будущем составить серьезную конкуренцию английскому языку и, возможно, сломать его монополию.

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The issues related to world globalization processes and their reflection at the level of individual countries have been the subject of discussion by the world community since the beginning of the XX century. Thus, the definition of globalization as global integration in the spheres of economy, politics, culture and religion testifies to the unification of intrastate systems and their functioning as an entity. The aspect of globalization in modern sociolinguistic scientific literature is associated with the spread of English as a world language, as a universal second language [Alpatov, 2004, p. 23 – 27]. The English language in the diversity of its variants and dialects plays an enormous role in the contemporary world. It is the official language of international organizations, above all the UN; it largely covers such areas as business, science, world media, cinema, television, tourism, information technology.
English is ranked either second or third after Chinese and Spanish in terms of the number of people that consider it as their native language. They constitute 400 – 500 million people. At the same time, this figure increases significantly – up to 1.3 – 1.4 billion people when considering those for whom English is the second language actively used in everyday life. The wide spread of the English language was facilitated in the past by such circumstances as the expansion of the British Empire’s influence, and in the XX century - strengthening of the US position in the international arena.
The purpose of the article is to present the situation with the English language against the background of the functioning of state and national languages in a number of countries of South Asia and the Middle East and to show the peculiarities of its functioning in these countries, including under the influence of the language policy pursued by their leadership, one of the priority areas of which there should be scientific analysis and practical settlement of complicated national-linguistic relationship. The objects of the research are Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan are among the large multinational states of the Asian continent, with the population of about 40 mln, 85 mln and 208 mln people, respectively. In addition to the religious commonality (these countries are Islamic republics); they are united by the common historical development and cultural traditions. At the same time, there are a number of political, historical, geographical, ethnic and other factors that determine the specifics of their development paths. These features are also manifested in the language field - in the existing language situations and the language policy pursued.
It is known that at least 24 languages ​​are the means of communication for the population of Pakistan. At the same time, it is believed that four peoples - Punjabis, Sindhis, Pashtuns and Baluchis belonging to two language groups of the Indo-European family of languages ​​- Indo-Aryan and Iranian make up the absolute majority of the population of Pakistan - about 97%. A considerable part of Pakistanis know not only their native languages; many of them also speak both English and Urdu (mostly, literate urban population), and in this regard, they are both bilingual and multilingual. At the same time, according to the constitution, it is Urdu that is the state language of Pakistan [Foreign Orient, 1986, p. 312].
Since the establishment of the state of Pakistan in 1947 and up to the present, the country has adopted three constitutions - in 1956, 1962 and 1973. Each of them contained an article on language, above all, on state language. It is Urdu that the ruling circles tried to make the state language already during the preparation and adoption of the first constitution. It should be noted that, despite the relatively small number of the speakers of Urdu - no more than 8% of the country's population, there were no violent protests from the foreign-speaking population of the country against the issue of granting it the status of the state language. This can be explained by several reasons. Firstly, it is to a great extent socially and ethnically neutral for the majority of Pakistan's population in comparison with the languages ​​of other ethnic groups living in the country. Secondly, Urdu has fairly high prestige in the country, since it is believed to embody Muslim culture, to be close to the languages ​​of other Muslim countries, above all Arabic and Persian, as evidenced by a great number of Arabic and Persian words in Urdu. Moreover, the country's leadership and its religious leaders, guided by the two above-mentioned factors, when choosing a language for the role of the state one, proceeded from the fact that the internal state unity should be based on a common single language for the whole of Pakistan, and they carried on appropriate propaganda among its population [Nikolsky, 1986, p. 124,127]. It should be noted that back in 1948, the founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah, addressing the students of the University of Dhaka, emphasized that the Urdu language is the bearer of Muslim culture, an important cementing link of the new state, and therefore, in his opinion, it is this language that should become the state language of Pakistan, and anyone who tries to mislead the people on this issue can be considered an enemy of the country [Quaid-i-Azam, 1962, p. 36].
At the same time, for the language policy in Pakistan, while the first two constitutions were in force, of significant importance was the issue of the status of the Bengali language which lost edge only in 1971 with the secession of East Bengal and the establishment of the independent state of Bangladesh. The constitution of 1973 declared Urdu the only state language of the country [Gankovsky, Moskalenko, 1975 P. 114]. Under this Constitution, Urdu became the language of interethnic communication; the administration was required to use it both in the central apparatus and provincial institutions, as well as in legal proceedings, in the army and the police. It was used in the media, on radio and television; it was gradually holding strong positions in the cinema, as well as in the field of education, and not only as a language of instruction, but also as a compulsory subject in secondary and higher educational institutions, especially in those of humanities. Urdu remained the language of fiction and drama [Serenko, 2015, p. 303 – 309; Foreign Orient, 1986, p. 312 – 313].
However, until now, one of the main current issues regarding Urdu and of concern for the authorities and society has been the issue of granting it the status of the only official language in the country, which is associated with the high status of the English language and its role in the life of Pakistani society. There constantly arise conflicts between Urdu and English. Thus, according to media reports, in 2015, in this regard, the president, prime minister, federal and provincial ministers and civil servants were required to speak to the public, both domestically and abroad, exclusively Urdu [Haider, 2015]. In 2016, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif demanded that the work of all government ministries and departments should be in Urdu, and the country's Supreme Court appealed to the federal and provincial governments that the legal proceedings should also be in Urdu as soon as possible - within 30 days, in spite of the lack of practice by both judges and lawyers in conducting trials in Urdu and insufficiently developed judicial terminology [Pakistani Prime-minister, 2016; Urdu implementations, 2016].
At the same time, in Pakistani society there is a point of view, different from the official one, on the problems of the country's language development. Thus, famous Pakistani writer, literary critic and publicist, Monsour Ejaz, who lives in the United States, believes that nothing is more harmful for national unity than creating highly favorable conditions for only one language. In his opinion, absolutely groundless is the statement that linguistic diversity threatens national unity, and if the language policy remains unchanged and the dominance of Urdu and English is preserved, the cultural gap and economic poverty will remain in Pakistani society [Urdu and English, 2018]. Ali Raj, an employee of the “Herald” magazine, notes with skepticism that after almost 44 years (as of 2017) after the adoption of the latest constitution, the process of introducing the Urdu language into the life of the country is far from complete, and in many areas it hasn't even started yet [Raj, 2017].
The issue of granting Urdu the status of the only official language in the country is associated, as noted above, with the use of English in Pakistan, which, under the country's constitutions, is granted a high legal status of the official language, which largely corresponds to its real role in Pakistani society and represents an example of a real approach when reflecting in the legislative acts the socio-functional stratification of the languages ​​used in the country. It is given by the law the second most important place among the languages functioning in Pakistan. It is quite obvious that such a decision is rooted in the historical past and is closely related to it. All three constitutions record the fact of the recognition of the English language as an official language, differing only in the length of the time period for which such a language policy is intended. Thus, the 1956 constitution provided for its use over a twenty-year period; the 1962 constitution established no time limits; and the 1973 constitution again limited the period of its functioning as an official language in the country to fifteen years [Constitutions of the Near and Middle East States, 1956, p. 373; Gankovsky, Moskalenko, 1975, p. 63, 114]. It should be noted that even today, despite the expiration of the above indicated time period, the English language still remains in many spheres of public life in Pakistan. It is used in administrative management, in domestic and foreign policy activities, in the economy, in the social sphere, in higher and partly in secondary education, in science, in mass media; it is a means of everyday communication among the upper strata of Pakistani society that consider knowledge of the English language as a prerequisite for their social mobility and a successful career [Foreign Orient, 1986, p. 312 – 313]. There is an opinion that initially it was English rather than Urdu that was the language of the elites, which was rooted in the days of the British Empire. It remained the language of senior government officials, the upper strata of Pakistani society and in the field of higher education [Lieven, 2012, p. 63; Vasilyeva, 2020, № 2, p. 352, 354 – 356]. The policy regarding the use of Urdu and English in educational institutions often ran to the absurd. The issue of the language of instruction was resolved by their administration; or different subjects within the same educational institution were taught in different languages, usually Urdu and English.
Despite the fact that the 15-year time frame of the functioning of English as the official language in Pakistan under the latest constitution has already expired three times, its position in Pakistani society remains stable. It seems that this objective trend will remain in the future; moreover, it is in the mainstream of world globalization processes. Nowadays among Pakistanis there are still many supporters and advocates of the English language. Thus, for instance, in the leading Pakistani newspaper "The Nation", there was published an article titled "Urdu ignored. Pakistanis forget their native language” which says that “today English is present in practically everything - textbooks, exam materials or interviews. Even in everyday communication, English is used instead of Urdu. If a Pakistani is asked a question in Urdu, he will not be able to answer it correctly, and a question in English will be answered immediately”. The author of the article draws attention to the fact that the Urdu language is being forgotten, and this poses a problem that should be tackled. It is not for nothing that there is a catchphrase in Pakistani society that if you have one good suit and can speak English fluently, you will definitely not starve [Husain, 2017].
As one of the notable phenomena in the language sphere in modern Pakistan, there is noted the emergence and widespread use of Urdish, a hybrid use or mixing of English and Urdu; for example, all nouns in a sentence can be English and only functional words and verbs can be “native”. For the first time this linguistic phenomenon was recorded in 1989, and, as noted by L.A. Vasilyeva, a famous expert in Pakistan studies, at present it covers almost all segments of the population and all areas of life, which causes concern in academic circles [Vasilyeva, 2020, № 4, p. 147 – 148]. At the same time, of significance is the introduction of Urdish as a unique means of education within the framework of the “Pakistani Movement “Knowledge”, which was launched in 2015 and is supported by the government of the country [Vasilyeva, 2020, № 4, p. 148]. The emergence and establishment of Urdish in Pakistani society testifies, on the one hand, to the fact that with the support of the country's authorities, Urdu does not yield its position, and, on the other hand, English does not take a back seat and continues to be the most important factor of Pakistani society existence.
Of interest is also information appearing in the media that the Chinese language may gradually supplant English in Pakistan. This was announced at a high level by Minister of Reform, Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal at the World Economic Forum back in 2017. In his opinion, at present, Chinese is the second most popular language in the country after English. This is due to the implementation of interregional cooperation with China's participation in a number of projects, including “Belt and Road Initiative”. In addition, as the minister said, Pakistan is apparently ranked first in the number of foreign students studying in China [Chinese is gradually replacing, 2017].
With regard to Iran, on its territory there live representatives of more than 40 large and small peoples, tribes and ethnic groups speaking mainly Iranian (Persian, Kurdish, Baluch, Gilan, Mazedaran, etc.), Turkic (Azerbaijani and Turkmen, dialects of Turkic-speaking nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes) and Semitic ​​(dialects of Arabic and Assyrian) languages. A special place is occupied by the languages ​​of ethno-confessional minorities - Armenians and Jews that use the Eastern Armenian dialect of the Armenian language and Hebrew Persian, respectively, within their communities. In everyday life the non-Persian population of Iran is forced to use Persian, along with their native language. Many Iranians are bilingual, and in some parts of the country they speak three languages [Kameneva, 2017, p. 85 – 86].
In Iran, the issue of the state language was resolved from a different perspective than in Pakistan. To date, the country has adopted two constitutions. The first of them which was adopted in 1906 and marked the transformation of Iran into a constitutional monarchy did not legally record the status of any of the languages functioning​​ on its territory. However, for many decades, up to the Islamic revolution of 1979, the language policy of the Iranian leadership was characterized by the forcible imposition of the Persian language among the non-Persian population of Iran and its de facto approval as the only national official language throughout the country [Kameneva, 2017, p. 88]. It was the new constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, adopted in 1979, that declared the Persian language de jure "the only official and state language for all peoples inhabiting the country" and legalized its high social status [The Constitution of the Islamic, 1979].
In fact, unlike Pakistan, in Iran the Persian language had no alternative in the matter of promoting one or another language for the role of the state one. None of the national languages, even of such large national groups as Azerbaijanis and Kurds, could compete with it. Several factors contributed to this. Unlike Urdu, Persian and its dialects are means of communication for about half of Iran's population. For a long time, the language policy was aimed at its cultivation and propaganda. Moreover, Persian is a language with deep cultural and historical traditions. At the same time, none of the national languages ​​in Iran had such a long literary tradition as Bengali in Pakistan. In addition, the number of speakers of each of these languages ​​did not exceed the number of speakers of Persian. A great role was also played by the policy of great-power Iranian nationalism, pursued in the Shah's Iran. It was aimed at creating a single Iranian nation, one of the main features of which there was considered the Persian language.
In modern Iran, the Persian language, like Urdu in Pakistan, serves various spheres of the country's public life. It is used in administrative and legal proceedings, at schools and higher education institutions, in vocational training; numerous newspapers and magazines are published in Persian; radio and television programs are broadcast in Persian as well. There is a plethora of fiction in the Persian language. The Iranian leadership pays great attention to the development and improvement of the Persian language. It considers it an important feature of the Iranian nation, a symbol of the ancient Iranian culture, an instrument for the consolidation and integration of the country’s peoples. Persian is also used as a consolidating factor with the Iranian diaspora abroad. It is also viewed as an important component of the international aspect of the cultural and linguistic policy pursued by the Iranian leadership.
With a certain similarity in the communicative functions of Urdu in Pakistan and Persian in Iran, there are significant differences in the breadth of coverage ​​of the existing spheres of communication by these languages, which is associated with the official use of English in Pakistan that is granted a high legal status under the country's constitutions.
In Iran, despite the fact that the status of none of the Western European languages ​​was recorded in the constitution of 1906, from the beginning of the XX century until the Islamic Revolution of 1979, at first mainly French, and then English played an essential role in the life of Iranian society. The language reorientation from French to English began after the end of World War II and was actively conducted over the next several decades until the Islamic Revolution. Periodicals were published in English, radio and television programs were broadcast in English as well. Western European languages, primarily English, were taught at schools and higher educational institutions; fiction, textbooks, bilingual dictionaries were published in them. English began to play a primary role in the expansion of the terminological system of the Persian language. At the same time, its mastery was not of mass character, which was associated in Iran with the rather strong positions of the unique national Iranian culture and national traditions, as well as with the existence of constant opposition in the Iranian public consciousness to Western influence. The increasing impact of the English language on Iranian society was due, on the one hand, to the growing political and economic influence of the United States, as well as the strengthening of economic, trade and other ties with English-speaking countries.
However, the Islamic revolution which had a pronounced anti-Western character failed to significantly damage the positions of English and other European languages ​​in Iran. In the first years after the Islamic revolution, their authority was deliberately underestimated as a result of the language policy pursued by the leadership, which was aimed both at limiting their use in the life of Iranian society and at combating the penetration of Anglicisms and borrowings from other European languages ​​into the vocabulary of the Persian language. This trend could be observed in the prohibition of teaching Western European languages at primary schools, in reducing the number of academic hours of these foreign languages in secondary schools from six to four per week, disbanding all foreign schools in the country, renaming streets and squares named in the Western style, closing most periodicals in European languages, ceasing radio and television broadcasts in English, prohibiting the use of European words in public institutions, as well as some other acts [Keyhan, 1979, 1980].
However, Iran's trade and economic relations and business contacts with Western partners and the continuing education of Iranian students abroad after the Islamic revolution forced the country's leadership to show certain tolerance for the influence of the West on Iranian society. Thus, in the higher educational institutions of the country, there was preserved the study of English and French. There were special courses for learning English and German ​​for students going to study abroad and for applicants to higher educational institutions.
The late 1990s and the following decades were a period of enhanced role of the English language in the social life of the Islamic Republic of Iran, of its growing prestige and the level of its proficiency, especially among young people that constitute significant part of the country's population.
Gradually, the position of English and other Western European languages ​​in comparison with the pre-revolutionary period was largely restored in most areas; they occupied a certain niche in the system of languages functioning in Iran. They are still studied at schools and higher educational institutions, as well as at special language courses; fiction and scientific literature are published in English; the news channel Press TV is in English; three newspapers – “Tehran Times”, “Iran Daily” and “Financial Tribune” are published in English; the Internet is in English as well. Large news agencies such as IRNA and ISNA conduct their activities in English, along with Persian. There are radio broadcasts in the main Western European languages ​​for external audiences. At the same time, in the second decade of the XXI century, the problems of disseminating and functioning of the English language in Iran acquired political overtone; and discussions on this issue reached the public level exacerbating the relationship between the spiritual leader, an ardent anti-Westerner, and then-President Rouhani, who advocates the thesis of the need to study in the country above all English and Western European languages in general. As the continuation of this discussion, one can consider Iran's decision in May 2017 not to support Document 2030 on Education (it was developed and adopted by UNESCO in 2015) in connection with the start of its phased implementation, as well as a ban on learning English in public and private primary schools of the country, which was the result of the protests of late December 2017 - early January 2018 that, as it is believed in certain circles, were masterminded by the West [Discussion, 2016; Iran won’t submit, 2017; English at school, 2018].
It is possible that the rise to power of new President Ebrahim Raisi and the new Cabinet of Ministers - may make changes in the life of Iranian society. These bodies, along with the previously elected parliament - the Majlis of the Islamic Council, represent a conservative trend in modern Iranian political discourse capable of exerting certain influence on various spheres of the country's life, including the field of culture and cultural policy. It is the English language that may become the object of discrimination in the cultural and language sphere.
It is worth noting that both the sentiments in Pakistan regarding the possibility of replacing English with Chinese and the ideas in the official spheres of Iran and Russia to replace English with Russian seem to be unrealistic. This, for example, was discussed during the visit in 2018 of Minister of Education of Iran Seyed Mohammad Bathaee to Russia at the negotiations with the Ministry of Education and Science. The goal of cooperation between the ministries of the two countries in the language sphere, as it was stated, was to break the monopoly of the English language. This is obviously not possible. This is due not only to the difficulty of mastering the Russian language, but, above all, to the fact that it is English that is an important component of world globalization processes, of which both Iran and Russia form part [Iran intends, 2018].
With regard to Afghanistan, its population speaks more than 30 languages ​​and dialects belonging to various language families - Indo-European (Iranian and Indian groups), Turkic-Mongolian, Semitic-Hamitic and Dardic. Two languages ​​have always been of national importance: Pashto, the language of the largest population in this country, and Dari, the language that has long literary traditions that dominated the official sphere of the region from the Middle Ages. It is these languages that have always competed with each other for the dominant position in Afghan society. This process actively continues at the present time. This fact is reflected in most constitutions of Afghanistan, the number of which over the period of its independence since 1919 has reached seven.
With regard to Western European languages, primarily English, and to a lesser extent German and French, their position and role in the life of Afghan society received little coverage in scientific literature and were not recorded in any way in legislative acts. Certainly, they were not removed from the sphere of use, since the country had contacts with the outside world, sent young people to study abroad, primarily to English-speaking countries; foreign specialists worked in Afghanistan. However, for example, in comparison with Iran during the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty, the situation with the spread of Western European languages ​​in Afghanistan was a pale image of the situation in Iran.
In terms of teaching European languages ​​in Afghan schools, one can assume that these were isolated cases, since in Afghanistan as a whole, the education system in different historical periods has been to a greater or lesser extent under strong pressure of the religious factor: madrasahs have largely prevailed over secular schools, as in the madrasahs the religious curriculum excludes the teaching of any Western language. According to eyewitnesses, during the reign of Zahir Shah, there were also separate foreign schools, where in the education process there were used European languages, the most common ​​in the country. Of the periodicals published in the country, only one daily newspaper has been published in English since 1978. This is “The Kabul Times” newspaper, which was later renamed “The Kabul New Times.” Since the mid-1950s, the information agency "Bakhtar" has sent out its newsletters to foreign missions in English, later becoming the basis for establishing the English-language newspaper “The Kabul Times”. As for radio broadcasting, from 1941 there began the first radio broadcasts to foreign audiences in English and German, along with Pashto and Dari [Afghanistan, 2000, p. 224 – 227].
In this context, of interest are the data of the sample statistical surveys of people who speak English as the first and as the second language. Thus, in 2006, the first group was 0%, and the second - 8%; in 2013 the total number of those who claimed to belong to both groups was 5%, and in 2018 - 6%. At the same time, the number of participants in the experiment was gradually increasing from year to year; by 2018 it had increased considerably. All these data are certainly evaluative; nevertheless, they seem to reflect reality [The Asian Foundation. Afghanistan 2006].
The English language in Afghanistan is not a subject of political conflicts and bargaining in the highest echelons of power, as, for example, in Iran. Nevertheless, in the media there appeared information that the Taliban prohibited its use in the territory of Afghanistan under their control [The Taliban banned, 2001].
Currently, in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, English is used as a means of communication exclusively in the informal sphere. It is Dari and Pashto that dominate the official sphere. It is a known fact that the country's parliament deprived the Minister of Trade of confidence because he spoke neither Dari nor Pashto. In modern Afghanistan, it is prestigious to be fluent in English. In public schools in large cities, English is taught from the fourth grade, but the level of both the educational process organization and the knowledge gained is low. Moreover, there are a lot of English language courses. Private schools and higher education institutions, the number of which in the country is great, achieve significantly better results. The capital of the country is home to the Kabul American University, where teaching is in English and its diplomas are recognized abroad. One can state that despite the specific character of the language situation in the country with two state languages ​​Dari and Pashto and the language policy aimed at strengthening their position in the country, slowly integrating into the world globalization processes, the leadership of Afghanistan pays attention to the English language as one of their important components.
Nowadays we have to admit that much that has been said concerning the position of the English language in Afghanistan apparently has become part of the country's history. It is clear that the Taliban movement’s coming to power will radically change the situation in the Islamic republic and bring significant changes to the modern Afghan society towards its archaization, which will also be reflected in the cultural and language sphere.