Hyderabad, February 23: One must not lose faith in humanity. After all there is but one race. That’s what Ajit Sat Bhambra strongly believes. He is on a mission impossible, as it were, to bring humanity together.
A tough task he has set himself — to promote democracy and tolerance and break down barriers between groups of people. All this he is trying to do through his portal, urdutahzeeb.net.
Secular values
A London-based NRI, Mr. Bhambra has been holding seminars across the globe to promote composite culture. A day-long seminar, the tenth in the series, was held the other day in Hyderabad where speakers held forth on the theme of unity in diversity.
The portal launched in 2005 has become a platform for secular values. It is devoted to democratic outlook and tries to combat fundamentalism and terrorism in all its manifestations. It is quite popular with 30,000 hits a day. “I couldn’t come up with a better name than Urdutahzeeb for the portal as Urdu is not just a language but a culture, he says.
Having done his graduation in Urdu, Mr. Bhambra is quite fluent in the language. “There is reflection of civilisation in every word and phrase of Urdu”, he says. But he is sad at the bad times the language is facing in India and wants to revive it. “Urdu should be linked with jobs”, he suggests.
Beginning
Mr. Bhambra got the idea of promoting composite culture when he migrated to the UK in 1970. He was surprised to find government-run race relation boards aimed at bringing adjustments between the host country and the migrants. “Such endeavours would succeed only when there is people to people effort”, he says.
Have the seminars brought the deserved results? “Yes. People now think that the only option for them and their countries is to preserve composite culture”, says Mr. Bhambra who edits the magazine, Asian Affairs.
He has been a victim of violence when his Punjabi magazine, Sandesh, was torched in UK for taking a stand against Sikh terrorism. That scar is still there, but Mr. Bhambra says one should have tehzeeb to forgive one’s foes.
-Agencies