Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 13 – “There is no
direct correlation between separatism and the striving to knowledge of a
language,” Ayrat Fayzrakhmanov says.
Separatism often arises when there is little or no chance to study a
nation’s language; and it may even be reduced if the central authorities give
in to demands on this score.
In a lengthy discussion of the state
of Tatar in Tatarstan, the activist and commentator says that the failure to
understand this relationship gets in the way of progress for both sides and
that the experiences of the Catalans, Basques, and Welsh in Europe can be
useful for Tatars who want to bring their language back from the brink (business-gazeta.ru/article/369357).
At present, there is only a single
school in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, where instruction is in Tatar,
leading many to view it as a rural language and to argue that the tongue can
best be preserved within the family. But
that is wrong, Fayzrakhmanov says, on two grounds.
On the one hand, Tatars especially
in the cities have been losing their native language since the 1940s; and
consequently, there are many Tatar families where even the grandparent general
doesn’t speak it. And on the other,
Tatar won’t survive even if it is the language of instruction in the schools
unless there is a social demand for its use.
But that is not the basis for giving
up hope, the activist says. The experience of regional languages in Europe
suggests that Tatara can come back just as Catalan, Basque and Welsh have.
“Many say these are bad examples because Catalonia is now demanding complete
independence and before this, the Land of the Basques was the main hot sport of
Spain.”
However, Tatars and Russians should recognize that
“Basque separatism developed when there was no discussion about schools in the
Basque language; and today when such schools exist and are developing well, we
already do not hear about basque separatism.”
That means that “language is not the chief marker of separatism.”
In
Catalonia, Fayzrakhmanov
continues, the creation of schools that were of high quality led to a situation
in the course of a single generation where “Catalan education became more
popular than schools with Spanish as the language of instruction.” There is no
reason the Tatars can’t do the same – but this will happen only if instruction
is in Tatar. Two or three hours a week of instruction in the language will not
do the trick.
“The
European schools with regional languages of instruction do not position
themselves as national schools.” They do so as centers of excellence in all
fields. And because children who know two or more languages tend to do better
in all fields than those who know only one, these schools and the languages in
which instruction is carried out have begun to win out.
Any other strategy, the activist says, will
mean that Tatar “will begin to lose its position in the republic, and ‘Tatar
patriotism’ about which Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov spoke not long
ago will finally be transformed into an urban exoticism” or some kind of
attraction for tourists.
According
to Fayzrakhmanov, “over the last 70 years, ‘the first world has passed from a
partial ban on or ignoring local langauges to the creation of a full-scale
system of education on regional languages.” The Tatars must promote the same
development in Russia – and they can use the concerns of Moscow to achieve
their ends.
He cites the research of Yekaterina
Artutyunova, a Moscow sociologist who specializes in ethnicity, who found that children
in republics where non-Russian languages are used are more likely to identify
with Russia than are Russians in Moscow and St. Petersburg who study only
Russian who identify regionally or in terms of their families in stead.
(Arutyunova’s latest article making
that point is “State-Civic and Ethnic Identity of Young People: The All-Russian
Context and Regional Specifics” (in Russian),” Rossiya reformiruyushchayasya: vyp. 15 (Moscow, 2017), pp. 259-272,
available online at isras.ru/publ.html?id=5044.)
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