From Badshah To Fakir

decline of Urdu

 


Razi Ahmad asks: “Who will the government depute on election duty in Jammu and Kashmir after the present generation of officials from Punjab who know Urdu retire or die?”
The septuagenarian Gandhian, who is also secretary of the Gandhi
Sangrahalaya, Patna showed newspaper reports that said the Centre had deputed 2,500 officials from Punjab, most of them Sikhs or Hindus. Punjab still has a good number of non-Muslims who know Urdu.
Many writers, including Khushwant Singh, Kuldip Nayar and Amrita Pritam who have their roots in Punjab are known for their command over Urdu. Singh’s rendition of Mohammad Iqbal’s epics Shiqwa and Jawab-e-shiqwa earned him accolades in India and abroad.
Mr Ahmad is worried about the slow death of the language “in the land in which it was born”. “Hindus and Sikhs of Punjab who know Urdu belong to the pre-Partition generation. The new generation, particularly non-Muslims, is hardly interested in Urdu.” It is the official language of Jammu and Kashmir. Electoral rolls and other election-related papers in the state are in Urdu, written in the Persian script. Officials who do not know the language find it hard to conduct polls there.
Mr Ahmad says: “Urdu is the language of national integration. It is dying when it is needed most. The mellifluous language is also referred to as Hindustani and has the potential to bridge the divide between Hindus and Muslims. But nobody cares to keep this language alive.” The language was born out of the interesting linguistic intercourse between the natives and Muslim conquerors from Central Asia who settled in the country in the 12th and 13th centuries.
The Deccan, Delhi, Lucknow and Punjab emerged as its early centres. Later, it spread in undivided India. Sikhs in Punjab, Muslims in Bengal and Hindus elsewhere nurtured the language. Now it is confined to Muslims of northern India and parts of south India. Urdu has produced great Hindu poets and novelists like Firaq Gorakhpuri alias Raghupati Sahay, Nawab Rai alias Munshi Premchand, Jagannath Azad and Gopichand Narang. “Hindus, in fact,
have contributed more to the development of the language,” says Mr Ahmad.
Urdu is the cultural legacy of India and the adopted national language of Pakistan. The language has produced many poets. Both Hindi and Urdu academia stake claim to these poets. Quli Qutub Shah (1565-1611) is generally acknowledged to be the first notable Urdu poet.
After the Deccan, Delhi emerged as a significant centre with Mirza Mohammad Rafi Sauda, Khwaja Mir Dard, Mir Taqi Mir Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib and Nawab Mirza Khan Dagh producing immortal poetry.
Urdu reached the peak of its glory during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Lucknow became the third important centre with the advent of Ghulam Hamdani Mushafi, Inshallah Khan Insha, Khwaja Haidar Ali Atish, Imam Baksh and Mirza Salamat Ali Dabir. The literary capitals had their individual identities both in style and theme.
Mohammad Iqbal (1877-1938) and Altaf Hussain Hali (1837-1914) dominated the period prior to the emergence of the Progressive Writers Movement in the 1930s. Hali was a poet of the newer socio-cultural concerns and advocated “natural poetry” that had an ameliorative purpose. His Musaddas is an important example. Allama Iqbal, with his remarkable religio-philosophical vision, produced exceptional poems. Iqbal remained the most influential poet
to achieve artistic excellence. His poetry often acquired the status of universal truth. The 1930s produced a gateway to a new world. Some young Indians – Sajjad Zaheer, Mulk Raj Anand and Mohammad Deen Taseer – then studying in London and musing over the role of literature in a fast-changing world, came up with a manifesto for what came to be known as the Progressive
Writers Movement.
The movement focussed on poverty, social backwardness, decadent morality, political exploitation; it dreamt of an ideal society and a just political system. Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-84) was the finest of poets to have subscribed to the progressive ideology. He struck a fine balance between art an ideas.
NM Rashed and Miraji are the two most prominent poets of modernism that followed the progressive movement. What led to the decline of Urdu? How did it get confined to Muslims? When did non-Muslims begin treating it as a language of Muslims alone? Why are great Urdu literateurs like Firaq and Nawab Rai no longer born among Hindus?
These questions haunt activists, writers and scholars who love the
language. Experts are almost unanimous on the view that the British Raj used Urdu to aggravate the divide between Hindus and Muslims to counter the Freedom Movement and perpetuate colonial rule.
The language registered a sharp decline after Independence and the Partition. This was primarily because of the stepmotherly treatment meted out to Urdu by successive governments at the Centre and in the states.
Rizwan Ahmad, secretary of the Bihar Urdu Academy, said Zakir Hussain had submitted a memorandum to the then President Rajendra Prasad in 1952 carrying signatures of 25 lakh people.
It demanded the acceptance of Urdu as the second official language in eight states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. But Mr Hussain did nothing for
Urdu when he became President. The same thing happened with a connoisseur of Urdu like former Prime Minister IK Gujral.
The Centre set up a commission headed by him to study ways to promote Urdu.
The Gujral Commission gave its report to the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who never got it approved by her Cabinet. The report was put in cold storage. The Morarji Desai-led Cabinet, however, approved the Gujral Commission report in 1978, thanks to the efforts of Jyotirmoy Basu of the CPI-M and Piloo Modi. But it was not followed up properly. Mr Gujral did nothing as a follow-up to his own report when he became Prime Minister.
Urdu is the second official language of Bihar. But the Urdu Academy,created to promote Urdu, is dying for lack of oxygen. It gets an annual grant of Rs 20 lakh against an establishment cost of Rs 28 lakh. Rizwan Ahmad said employees had not received their salaries for the past 16 months.
“It is no longer the language of rozi-roti (livelihood),” said the Urdu
writer and former Chairman of the University Service Commission, Professor Wahab Ashrafi. Students were more interested to learn Hindi and English.
“They feel the knowledge of Urdu will not ensure jobs. The Central and the state governments have no place for those who know Urdu.”
Mr Ahmad quoted a line from Firaq, “Wah ri gaglat tujhe apna samajh baithe thhe hum”, to lament how the language he took as his own by mistake was being forced to desert our land.
Firaq wrote: “Kuchh ishare thhe jinhen duniya samajh baithe thhe hum/Us nigah-e-ashiana ko kya samajh baithe thhe hum/Raftaa raftaa gair apni hi nazar mein ho gaye/Vaah ri gaflat tujhe apna samajh baithe thhe hum.”
The poet regrets how he misunderstood someone to be his sweetheart and was dying for her without first finding out whether she reciprocated his love.
His world had revolved round the seductive glances of someone who did not love him. Gradually, he realised his folly and felt let down. The romantic poet had composed the verse to moan the failure of his love life. Mr Ahmad expressed the sadness of Urdu-loving people over the gradual demise of a language evolved to spread the message of love and unity

Nalin Verma
The author is The Statesman’s Patna-based Special Representative.

 

 

Comment..

 

Comments...

This article has brought out an interesting perspective. The fact that Urdu, ‘the language of the battalion (urd)’, created by the Mughals, who themselves did not have their own sufficiently developed language, is on the
brink of extinction, in India, is newsworthy is a news by itself. This language was developed for a purpose, which was achieved or rather over-achieved and now that it is unable to sustain itself, should not be a surprise.

Urdu uses Magadhi grammar (a derivative of Panini’s Sanskrit Grammar) and Awadhi constructs. Fundamentally, there is no difference between Hindi and Urdu. However, the subtle differences are:

1.Written script: Urdu uses Persian and Hindi uses Dev Nagari (a derivative of Pali) 2.Vocabulary: Urdu has many more Persian and Arabic words than in Hindi, and Hindi has many more Sanskrit words than Urdu. But the core vocabulary, of both the languages, (approximately 80%) is the same.
3.Construct: The two languages differ only when Urdu tends to mimic Persian, and similarly when Hindi uses extensive, Sanskrit style joins (sandhi), which is alien to Persian.

In light of the above, I think the major issue is the script. In India, the chances of survival of Persian script are minimal. As it is, there are more than a dozen scripts in use across the country. And in course of time, it is imperative that few of the scripts will die out, Persian being the first one.

But the good news is that Urdu can easily adapt Dev Nagari script and survive. Dev Nagari or Hindi script is phonetic and extensible. It can very
easily represent Urdu in written form. In my opinion, a merger of Hindi and
Urdu will establish a fantastic means of communication for India as a whole.
Hindi is a relatively new language, which needs to mature further. And, Urdu
can provide such maturity.

I can’t read Persian, though all my grand parents did, but when I speak in Hindi it sounds Urdu to a Pakistani and Hindi to an Indian. I have been complimented for my high standard of Urdu by many Pakistanis and I often attend Urdu recitals. So, to me there is hardly any difference in Hindi and Urdu.

Hence, instead of lamenting the death of Urdu, one should be looking at unification of Hindi and Urdu under Dev Nagari script.

Anant Sahay



I view this article as a nice representation of the plight of Urdu as a language in present India. But, definitely the facts are missing. Nalin has not bothered to dig into the root cause of the decline. Far many facts have to be cited to explain the transformation of the mighty "Badshah" into a pauper "Fakir". The ultimate journey of Urdu in India is not as superficial as Nalin thinks, it is entirely based of actual facts.

As soon as I read this article, I remembered another article posted on bihartimes.com a while go titled, "Madrasas should go back to Middle Ages". It will really nice of the bihartimes.com team to post that article once again right beside the present one. Sure, Urdu is a very rich language and a bridge between cultures, but when culture itself is dying who cares for the language? After all, Madrasas are supposed to impart quality Urdu literacy to young minds, but if they are not performing their duty worthy of their status and stratum, why should any government (local, state or central) should promote them? No country in the entire universe will fund and promote institutions which produce hatred and fundamentalism among their own people.

The slow death of the Urdu language in the land in which it was born is partially because of the fact that the knowledge of Urdu does not impart anything valuable to any human being -- no matter he or she is a Hindu or Muslim or Jewish. You cannot make a living out of your profound knowledge of Urdu language. You cannot teach the fundamentals of Chemical Engineering in Urdu. You cannot give the full description, anatomy and function, of brain in Urdu. The same is more or less true for Hindi, too. Therefore, it is the tendency of Indian parent (or may be of every Pakistani parent, too) to first teach their kid English and then his mother tongue (a dialect). Since, most of the North Indian dialects are very close to Hindi -- it keeps Hindi alive in India. Also, Hindi is by and large the most popular mode of instruction in almost every primary and secondary school in north India. Therefore, by the time every north Indian kid reaches the tenth standard he has already required the sufficient knowledge of Hindi. The same concept applies to the survival of Urdu in Pakistan. Since south India does not have Hindi as the mode of instruction in primary and high schools, Hindi is choking there. In fact, on my recent visit to Hyderabad, I came to know that more people know Urdu there than Hindi. After tenth standard negligible fraction of people care for Urdu or Hindi. Moreover, all the Hindu scriptures are either in Hindi or Sanskrit. This renders the knowledge of Urdu unnecessary for Hindus, who constitute three quarters of India's population. However, if Urdu is introduced as an essential language in every Indian school, it will definitely educate many more people in Urdu. But, why should India do anything like that? Why should Urdu be promoted in India? Why should any true India care for Urdu?

By no way I am undermining the importance and value of Urdu. By no way I am underestimating the contribution of Urdu to human society. Urdu is certainly a mellifluous language and it has the right potential to bridge the divide between Hindus and Muslims. Urdu is the cultural legacy of India. Bur, Urdu is not the adopted language of Pakistan. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. It was sorely on the basis of the Urdu language that people's republic of Pakistan was created at first place in 1947. This marks the beginning of the slow and long process of confinement of Urdu to Muslims. Thanks to Pakistan's Quaid-I-Azam Mr. Jinnah. The single event of partition was bound to give the sharp decline in the status of Urdu as a language in India. This unfortunate event compels every Hindu to treat Urdu as a language of Muslims alone. The stepmotherly treatment meted out to Urdu by successive Indian governments at the center and in the states could be well and easily understood by what is happening and what has happened across the Indo-Pak border since October, 1948. Hey, come on, be reasonable, how do you expect the Indian government at the center to nurture and flourish the Urdu in India while Indian and Pakistani soldiers are shelling across the border?

Did anybody on this earth ever bother to ask the apathy of Pakistan's government towards the pathetic status of Hindi language in Pakistan?

Isn't is that Hindi language also has the potential to bridge the gap between Hindus and Muslims? With all due respect to the Urdu as a language, Islam as a divine religion, and Pakistan as a sovereign nation, I understand deep in my heart that Urdu, Pakistan and Islam are not synonyms of each other. They are entirely three different word and worlds.

But, being a conscious Indian, I can no longer neglect or disregard what is going across the borders, simply by the virtue of being a human being. This also explains another fundamental question -- "I am an Indian, why should I worry about Pakistan"? Nalin quotes Mr Ahmad says: “Urdu is the language of national integration.” Yes, it is. So is Hindi. And, any one of them can work equally fine. Nalin quotes Mr Ahmad says: “Urdu is dying when it is needed most.

” When was it needed less? Why is it needed more now? Nalin quotes Mr Ahmad says: “Urdu is also referred to as Hindustani.” Since when? No, Urdu is not referred to as Hindustani. Urdu was never referred to as Hindustani. Hindi is the language of Hindustan. It has always been Hindi which is referred to as Hindustani. The language of Hindustan is Hindi.

Nalin quotes Mr Ahmad says: “But nobody cares to keep Urdu language alive.” Why should anybody, given the fact that what kind of people Madrasas produce in India or elsewhere and what Chemistry is going on at India's western border?

The present view clarifies the state-of-art plight of Urdu language in India, and the lack of any sincere effort on the part of any state or Indian government towards the solid development of Urdu is India. Whom will you blame for this negligence or decline? "The very saviors of Urdu language" is my best shot.

Take care,
Pradeep
Bettiah, India
pradeeprai@indiatimes.com


The article was very interesting and having a clear view of conidtion of Urdu in India. As today we don't see many Indian writers , writing in Urdu, except few very fine examples of Khushwant Singh and Kuldip Nayer. Like in past many Indian, infact Hindu writers gained much popularity in circles of each part of India before partition, but today we hear very very few of them. Inspite Urdu being a very rich language , bridge between cultures. To learn a language only for a profession is not a very good idea. Like here in Pakistan too, Persian gives you little to earn money but people learn it and love to read books in Persian.

I hope that goverment pays attention to this issue, being not related with only cultural heritage but also being language of deep thoughts and historical importance.

Saroona Haroon
Lahore, Pakistan


I always read your articles with interest, which are outstanding for their objectivity, impartial and honest views. I applaud you for being an excellent journalist and different from the crowd of journalist with shallow thinking. Your thoughts have deep insights and addresses the real problem without any bias.
Keep up the good work.

Dr. Qaiser Jamal
9403 Nashville Av.
Morton Grove, IL 60053
USA
qaiserjamal@hotmail.com

 


I have been reading your all the article on Bihar Times since beginning. I found these all interesting. After reading your latest article on the plight of Urdu " From Badshah to Fakir", I thought I must thank you for your for the same. I have read your various article on diffrent topics. It was a pleasant surprise to read your concern on plight of Urdu. It is a lovely language it should be innoculated before it dies. To make this article more meaningfull there should be some kind of concluding appeal and steps to save this dying lagguage. It is a reliving fact that this language is still alive in our film industry (dilouges & songs).
Any way thanks for your making atleast an issue of this govt-neglected language.
Hope to read some more article in the similar vain. Keep on writing.
With Warm Perosal Regards,
Mustaque
( I am from Siwan, working here in Riyadh as a computer Professional
for last three years)
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Mustaque Alam
IT Department
Al Hokair & Co.
Mobile: 052830708
Phone: 4350000 Ext.354
Email malam@alhokair.com.sa