EXPLORING THE LINGUISTIC IDENTITY CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED BY BAGRI LANGUAGE COMMUNITY IN SINDH, PAKISTAN

Abstract

This paper aims to explore through qualitative study the linguistic identity challenges faced by one of the most indigenous communities called Bagri living in Sindh and the Punjab, Pakistan. They also dwell in some provinces of India. They practice Hinduism and speak Bagri language. This language encounters plethora of imperceptible challenges in the multilingual country, Pakistan, which is the abode of more than seventy languages. Many of these languages are soon to be extinct and will pathetically be placed in the list of dead languages. These speakers of such languages are prone to encountering the challenges of the preserving the linguistic identity amidst the emerging trends of the modern world. The Bagri community is unfortunately discriminated by other dominating communities of Muslims and Hindus. Their constitutional position is referred as citizens of the scheduled caste and considered to be untouchables. It was difficult to collect the data from the people of this language community which is socially and educationally marginalized. The purposive sampling was done in the process of the selection of participants from the different age groups dwelling in the districts Matiari and Hyderabad. Semi structured interviews conducted produced enriching and in-depth data which was thematically analyzed by thematic analysis paradigm of Braun and Clarks (2006) The results, this study produced, emphasized that Bagri language is drastically drifting towards the disappearance or language shift in the active presence of the mainstream dominating languages which have official support and supervision through publications and promotions by the government in the province of Sindh.