Investigating the Clash of Discourses on Linguistic Human Rights: Focus on the Private Schools in Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

This study investigates the clashing discourses of linguistic human rights in Pakistan’s multilingual Sindh province, where Sindhis are the majority, and English, Urdu, and Sindhi are used as official languages. The Sindhi language activists want Sindhi to be used as the medium of instruction for the first five formative years of education, while many Sindhi parents want their children to be taught in English. Such diverging demands have caused the clash of discourses on linguistic human rights in Sindh. Therefore, by conducting semi-structured interviews of 20 participants, this study investigates why Sindhi language activists and parents hold different views of what constitutes language human rights. Findings demonstrate that the Sindhi language activists’ conceptualization of linguistic human rights emphasizes cultural heritage, ethnic consciousness, and linguistic unity. In contrast, the Sindhi parents’ conceptualization of linguistic human rights focuses on upward social mobility, prestige, and linguistic domination.