Determining Linguistic and Cultural Diminution: An Analysis of Urbanization and Migration in Pakistan

Abstract

Urbanization is a worldwide phenomenon in which people move to cities for multiple reasons. Before partition in 1947, the trend of urbanization in Pakistan was not so popular. However, after independence, this trend increased manifold. As urbanization increased, the migrants also started losing their precious native languages and other things related to culture. The present study also focuses on how the in-migration from rural to urban areas in Pakistan has caused a decline in the native language and culture of the migrants belonging to Murree. The sample of 142 people across the gender was selected from Murree, Pakistan. The participants had shifted to urban areas in the past and permanently settled in the city culture where Urdu, the national language was mostly dominant. The detailed open-ended ethnographic interviews of the participants revealed that the whole Pahari culture and Pahari language is under threat as a consequence of this urbanization.