Quetta city has a majority of Baloch and Pashto speakers but Hazara Town and Mariabad areas are dominated by the Hazaras who are distinguished by their Mongol facial features and are easily recognisable even in a crowd. The largest population of the Hazara community in Pakistan resides in Quetta.

The Hazaras speak the Dari language, which is also called Hazargi, but in Quetta, members of this community prefer to call their language Azrah. Generally, Hazaragi is considered a dialect of Persian but the Hazaras disagree with this and consider it a separate language. Like other languages, Hazara youth also fluently use Urdu and English words in their language.

Ataul Haq Zeerak, who is working on education in mother tongues in Quetta, believes that it is important to teach children in their mother tongue; otherwise, a child can learn nothing and the language also doesn’t thrive.

“Keeping people deprived of their mother tongue leads to death of a specific culture and the end of the diversity in society.”

He says the government did a great injustice by declaring Hazaragi a part of Persian, resulting in Hazaragi not being taught anywhere in the province, and even at the University of Balochistan, Hazara students are forced to choose Persian.

The number of Hazaragi speakers and their origins 

There are many traditions regarding the history and origin of the Hazara community but the common belief (myth) is that these people came to Afghanistan in the 13th century with Genghis Khan’s army, but there is no historical evidence for this. Some experts suggest that the Hazaras were settled in this area even before Genghis Khan.

According to the Minority Rights Group, before the 19th century, the Hazaras were the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, comprising nearly two-thirds of the total population. However, during the rule of Afghan King Amir Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901), a campaign of genocide was carried out against them, resulting in the killing, forced migration or enslavement of more than half of the Hazara population.

An estimate suggests that now, Hazara people make up around 9pc of Afghanistan’s population, with the majority residing in the central Afghan provinces (Hazarajat), including Bamyan, Daikundi, as well as Ghazni, Uruzgan, Wardak, Parwan, Baghlan, Samangan, and surrounding districts.

As a result of the atrocities of Amir Abdur Rahman, many Hazaras were forced to migrate to British India and Iran, and most of them settled in Quetta. Over the last four decades, due to the war and Taliban rule, their population outside Afghanistan has increased.

An estimate suggests that outside Afghanistan, in Australia, Europe, and Pakistan (Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta), the Hazara population is around 2.2m, with nearly 550,000 of them residing in Quetta.

Resentment against Hazaragi being called Persian dialect 

Qadir Nail, a former member of the provincial assembly from Hazara Town, says that during the tenure of Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch (2015-2016), when steps were announced for promotion of mother tongues, Hazaragi was called a part of Persian, which was great injustice meted out to it.

“Without our consultation, a Persian syllabus was prepared for the school education and implemented in the schools in the Hazara Town and Mariabad areas. This was not only unacceptable to the community but the teachers were also unable to teach it. The policy to promote mother languages did not benefit the Hazaragi language.”

Ali Torani is the president of Kiblagh Azargi, Hazaragi Academy in Hazara Town. He strongly opposes calling Hazaragi a dialect of Persian, arguing that Hazaragi has its own identity. He asserts that according to linguists, a language that has a single different letter of the alphabet from another language deserves to be called a separate language.

“There is no concept of the letters 'ṭ' and 'ḍ' in Persian, which are commonly used in Hazargi. Similarly, Hazaragi has 24 letters in its alphabet while Persian has 26.”

He adds that the Hazara people were ethnically Turk and half of vocabulary of their language is Turkish, 40pc Persian and 10pc Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, etc.

Hazaragi magazine Munji and 30 writers in 20 years 

Members of the Kiblagh Azargi in Hazara Town are organising an event on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, which includes Hazaragi poetry, tableaux and speeches.

Ali Torani mentions that until the beginning of this century, the Hazara community faced many difficulties in writing and publishing in their language. There was no newspaper or magazine of Hazaragi and Urdu or any other newspapers did not publish Hazaragi writings.

“Our people were forced to use the Urdu language for their writings. Then, along with six colleagues, I established an organisation called Asplon-e-Azardagi and launched a four-page literary monthly magazine, Munji (Message).

He says the Hazaragi Academy does not receive any annual grant from the government and that everything they are doing is self-funded. Over the last 20 years, Munji magazine and Hazaragi Academy has produced 30 writers who write poetry, short stories and prose.

“During this period, we have published about 20 Hazaragi books. Among these is a major work, a book on proverbs by Hussain Ali Yousafi Shaheed, which has also been translated into Urdu, English, and Persian.”

Ali Torani says that Urdu script has been used for Hazaragi books and magazines. However, in 2019, the academy developed the Hazaragi script, but even the community’s own writers oppose it. However, he is hopeful that these people will eventually adopt the new script.

Hopeful language activists fight back

Qadir Nail says that there are many difficulties in promoting the language but there has been some success. He played a role in passage of a resolution as an MPA in the Balochistan Assembly to include Hazaragi on PTV Bolan. As a result, now a one-hour programme is telecast weekly on TV in Hazargi.

Media experts are of the view that in the digital age, it is difficult to preserve a language when there are very few writers online and very little content available for it.

However, Mohammad Hussain Chagar, the editor of the online Hazaragi channel ‘Noorban TV’ believes that in the new world, where less-spoken languages face threats, digital media has also created opportunities for their promotion and making content has become extremely easy.

He says that films are being made in Hazaragi and the 19-minute film ‘Buz Chini’ has been widely watched and appreciated. Now, besides 3D animation, work on Hazaragi proverbs is being done in digital media.

“Hazaragi poetry is being written, dramas are being produced, and people are speaking in their language. When so much is happening, why should we say our language is endangered?” he asks.

Video & Photography: Nadeem Jan