New Delhi, January 20: There can be no dispute that Urdu is an easy and sweet language. But many people are under the wrong impression that it is the language of a particular religion or community. Sometimes, because of this ignorance, Urdu is dragged into vote-bank politics. This causes great damage to the language. The fact is, Urdu was born in India and after the immigration of people from foreign lands, it became the official language of the Mughal court. A large number of Urdu words are still used at our police stations and courts. Urdu words like “abodana”, “zila”, “daftar” and “haqeeqat” have been assimilated as everyday words into various Indian languages.
With the advent of British rule, however, Urdu lost its status as official language. This hindered the spread and development of the language. The flow, sweetness and interplay of ideas, so characteristic of Urdu literature, now remain confined to a smaller number of people. One reason for this is the decline in the use of Urdu in official work. Another reason is that it has been erroneously identified with a particular community. Many big newspapers in Urdu were brought out by Hindus rather than Muslims. Prominent Urdu writers include Premchand, Kishan Chander, Firaq, Mulla and Gulzar. Similarly, Hindi has had Jayasi, Khusro and Abdur-Rahim Khankhana. Urdu has a vast body of literature that is delectable as well as philosophical. Such writers as Manto also raised issues that concern the common man.
What Urdu is lacking is material on modern knowledge — science, information technology and engineering. The institutes that have been teaching Urdu have hardly paid attention to the teaching of these subjects. As Urdu education gradually lost its employment potential, the number of students learning the language also declined. One hindrance to the development of Urdu is the script. When I was human resource development minister in the Vajpayee government, and by virtue of that the chairman of the Urdu Council, I had many of the great works of Urdu literature transliterated into Devanagari. The results were visibly positive.
Moreover, many centres of computer education in Urdu were opened across the country. As part of the drive to modernize madrassas, a scheme to provide them with science and mathematics teachers by the government was also launched. Regrettably, instead of treating languages as forces that bind people and adopting a creative cultural attitude, we have been pushing them into the morass of divisive politics. A healthy attitude towards Urdu is the need of the hour. The language needs to be rescued from the manipulations of politics and nurtured as a repository of culture, literature and science.
The radiance of Urdu should be used to enhance the beauty of India’s multicoloured linguistic horizon. It should not become a victim of narrow-mindedness and made to suffer alienation. With this in mind, as HRD minister, I had organized an exhibition of Urdu books. It is good to know that the Urdu Language Promotion Council has organized an Urdu book fair in Mumbai. Such fairs should also be organized in cities like Delhi and Lucknow.
–TOI