Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a large culturally diverse country located at the crossroads of the strategically significant expanses of South Asia, Central Asia and Western Asia, and borders Afghanistan and Iran in the western corridor, India in the eastern corridor, and China in the far northeast (Page et al 6). This brief attempts to examine the country’s history and culture.
Although Urdu is the official national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, Punjabi is the principal indigenous language in the country by virtue of the fact that it is spoken by an estimated 60 million individuals (Page et al 18). There exist marked differences between how the Urdu language is written using Arabic and Hindi characters.
Although the language uses the right-to-left alphabet modified from the Persian alphabet, it is important to point out that some characters do not exist in Hindi, implying that people using the Hindi characters have to employ some consonants from Arabic for use in words borrowed from Arabic/Persian only.
For instance, the ‘Z’ sound is not available in Hindi, necessitating speakers to use ‘J’ instead. Equally, some characters do not exist in Arabic or Persian, and are therefore borrowed from Hindi. The rules for gender in most of the characters which have been borrowed from the Hindi language do not change between Urdu and Hindi; however the rules for gender shifts in most of the words borrowed from the Arabic language.
Moving on to the issue of tribes, the major ethnic groups in Pakistan include “…Punjabis (44.68% of the population), Pashtuns (15.42%), Sindhis (14.1%), Seraikis (8.38%), Muhajirs (7.57%), Balochis (3.57%) and others (6.08%)” (Page et al 18).
While the Punjabis are an indo-Aryan tribal grouping of North Indian origin, the Pashtuns belong to the Eastern Iranian peoples, and the Sindhis are native to the Sindh province of Pakistan.
The Seraikis have no central place of origin, but the Muhajirs are immigrants who preferred to stay in Pakistan and changed their residence after the partition of British India to Pakistan. The Balochis are native to Balochistan – the largest province of Pakistan by land mass.
In discussing the main characteristics of Pakistani culture, it is imperative to mention that every great nation enjoys its own distinct culture, and Pakistan is no different in large part due to its distinctive culture that is grounded on Islamic values and traditions, as well as a rich historical background.
Pakistani culture draws its value propositions, belief systems and traditions from Islam, by virtue of the fact that it is actually a component of the contemporary Islamic civilization.
It is of essence to note that Pakistani culture is a striking combination of Punjabi, Sindhi, Pathan, Baluchi, Barohi, Seraiki and Kashmiri cultures, and that the society follows a patriarch system where each nuclear/extended family is headed by the senior most male member, who is responsible for the upkeep of the family.
Pakistani culture is not only characterized by a rich variety of colorful dress codes, but also a great tradition of fairs and festivals, including the Horse and Cattle shows of Lahore, the Polo festival of Gilgit, as well as the annual urs of Hazrat Daata Ganj Bakhsh.
Lastly, it is important to note that not only are Pakistani people great lovers of sports and games, such as hockey, cricket, soccer and squash, but they also enjoy great distinction in production of handicrafts at an international level (Civil Service of Pakistan para. 1-9).
Works Cited
Civil Service of Pakistan. Characteristics of Pakistani Culture and Important Traditions and Customs. 2012. Web.
Page, Shirley, Kim Sappe, Crystal Johnson, Carol Morgan and Barbara Dezmon 2009. Pakistan: Heritage Resource Packet. Web.