When the British Considered Introducing Urdu in Sindh

During the "Bombay Presidency" in 1913, some Indian Muslims with the help of the British tried to impose Urdu on Sindhi Muslims.  The Sindhis found the idea of using  Urdu in Sindh not only unnecessary, but Muslim Sindhi leaders said they would be embarrassed to use Urdu instead of Sindhi:
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The Sindhi Muslims were backward in education especially the children of the feudal lords (the zamindars). To suggest measures to change this, a committee was appointed by the Bombay government. These were the days of the Urdu-Hindi controversy all over British India because of  which Urdu had become associated with Muslims. Thus, to the members of the Commission, the  teaching of Urdu was one way of satisfying the Muslims. Among these members Syed Shamsuddin Kadri was the only one who signed subject to his minute of dissent. The other five members, of whom there was no Sindhi Muslim, reached a consensus on the necessity of encouraging Urdu in Sind. The Committee, appointed in June 1913, submitted its report a year later. Among other things  it recommended that:
The Committee is in favour of the experiment already initiated by Government of having all teaching in Urdu schools given through the medium of Urdu, the vernacular of the district being taught to those who wish to study it. The  Committee thinks that this should apply to the whole presidency, the different Urdu standards being started simultaneously. 
The experiment alluded to in the report must have resulted in the printing of a large number of textbooks in Urdu because the report goes on to state:
The Committee is advised that adequate textbooks in Urdu exist, and that all the subjects
can be taught through this medium at once, except the geography of the province, for
which special translations may be required.
The Committee emphasized Urdu in other ways too: it provided grants to encourage the production of literature in Urdu and suggested that statistics about the number of Urdu schools should be provided annually to the government of India.

W H Sharp, the Director of Public Instruction who sent the report onwards to the Bombay authorities, noted that he was not convinced that it was either the desire of Muslims or in their interest to teach them only in Urdu. However, some of their representatives had urgently requested that texts should be prepared in Urdu and he had agreed to countenance the experiment.  The report was then circulated to the district officers of Sind who further asked prominent Muslims for their opinion. Among others the Wazir of Khairpur state, Mahomed Ibrahim Shaikh Ismail, commented as follows:

 … to adopt Urdu as the vernacular of the Mohamedan Community in the province, in my opinion, is not only unnecessary, but may be positively harmful. The conditions prevailing in this province are vastly different from those obtaining in the Presidency proper. The Sindhi language is as much the Vernacular of the Moslem Community as that of the Hindus of Sind; besides the Court language is also Sindhi. If Urdu is to be taught to them as compulsory language, instead of Sindhi, which is the language of the Province and the mother tongue of the Mohamedan Community, in the Primary and the Anglo Vernacular Schools, the Community will be forced to impart to their children education in two foreign languages, which to an ordinary scholar will appear a troublesome task to accomplish.

Khan Bahadur Allahando Shah of Nawabshah also said the same (Letter of K B Syed Allahando Shah to the Collector of Nawabshah, 11 February 1915. English translation of the Sindhi letter in the Collector's Letter to the Commissioner in Sind, 11 February 1915, No. 292). The district officers themselves also held similar views. At last the Commissioner sent the following views to the authorities in Bombay:
 "On one point there is entire unanimity of opinion, amongst officials and non-officials, namely on the necessity for the encouragement of Urdu in Sind; as Government are doubtless aware Urdu is not the mother tongue of the Sind Mahomedans; his vernacular is Sindhi and he would be much embarrassed if Urdu were forced upon him."

 The Commissioner also suggested that another committee—this time consisting mostly of Sindhi Muslims and Englishmen working in Sind—should be appointed 'to consider for Sind the whole question of Mahomedan education'

 This committee was appointed in 1915 and submitted its report a year later. Among other things it recommended that the teaching of Persian and to a lesser extent Arabic, be encouraged but it decided not to take up the vexed question of Urdu again.   As such Sindhi continued to be the medium of instruction at the school level as before.