The Fall of Urdu and the Triumph of English in Pakistan: A Political Economic Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate both how the use of language in higher education in Pakistan has evolved and why the medium of instruction remains a contested terrain. We focus on the struggle between advocates for the use of Urdu and the use of English in higher education. By examining the repeated failed attempts by high political authorities to replace English with Urdu, we demonstrate the usefulness of evolutionary theories of path-dependent institutional change while placing language struggles in the context of national and class stratification.