The Ramayana, Gita, Hanuman Chalisa and Mahabharata, are the epic Indian mythological texts which are a given in almost every Hindu household.
What if these texts are revealed their Persian and Urdu avatar to the writers and littérateurs?
Come Saturday, and the Karimi library hall, housed in the 140-year-old educational institute Anjumani-I-Islam in CST will offer a digital presentation of these books that date back to the post 1857 period.
As said by Zahir Kazi, president of the Anjumani-I-Islam, the idea was to inform to those interested in these books what the library is all about and conveys a message that books of all hues of different religions are there in the library.
“Anjumani-I-Islam believes in inclusiveness. We have been having a tradition of inclusiveness for over 140 years, with all the founding fathers being part of the freedom struggle,” said Kazi.
Good number books have seen translated by Hindu scholars and a few have also been done by Muslim writers.
According to Shamim Tariq, director of the Karimi library, “It is an attempt to show the multi-lingual heritage of India and to clean the misconception that Urdu is confined to Muslims only”.
Urdu Markaz director Zubair Azmi said the organization is working towards promoting Urdu language and culture, because the language does not belong only to the Muslim community.
Azmi further said: “It is good that these books are coming out. People should know the Ganga-Jamuna tehzeeb of Indian culture. Many a time, when these texts were written, people writing them would have ablutions to observe respect towards them.”
(with inputs from dna)