Urdu Got Promoted Owing to Its Secular Character and Universal Base in India And Abroad
By
Firoz Bakht Ahmed
31 August
2020
The reason
that Urdu proliferated and got promoted was owing to its secular character and
a universal base in India and abroad. Today it happens to be one of the most
popular of all international languages
Badi Ashrafiat Hei Zabaan Mein. Nawabi Ka Maza
Deti Hai Urdu Faqiri Mein
(The Urdu
language is so aristocratic that it makes even a pauper feel like a king).”
Urdu, an
Indo-Aryan language, is renowned for its candour and timelessness. It goes
without saying that since time immemorial, Urdu had been the lingua franca of
Sindh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, undivided Bengal, Punjab, Doaba and so on,
besides being the language of the heart and soul, as emphasised by the Hindi
littérateur-cum-Education Minister of India, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, at the
inauguration of a two-day webinar titled, The role and responsibility of Urdu
writers in the age of electronic and social media.
Speaking
during the webinar organised by the National Council for Promotion of Urdu
Language (NCPUL), Pokhriyal emphasised that Urdu is a language of not only a
composite culture, syncretism and interfaith bonds but also of humaneness.
Thankfully, Urdu has kept up with the times and become a techno-savvy language with soft copies of hundreds of books being available on apps. However, as social and electronic media is the biggest platform for the dissemination of information these days, it is the responsibility of all connoisseurs and littérateurs to ensure that Urdu makes its presence felt there.
According
to eminent Urdu professor Zaman Azurdah, writers, poets and authors are the
eyes of the entire social, religious and political system and they have a huge
responsibility towards lovers of language and literature. Hence, they have to
be positive and shed all negativity. And as the most powerful source of
information is the social and electronic media, like the authors, poets and
journalists of other languages, Urdu writers, too, must toe the line of the
internet. Fortunately, many of them are already connecting globally via
smartphones and computers and taking the language to the masses.
Even before
the advent of Muslims in India, the country was connected historically,
culturally, politically and commercially via Arabic, Persian and Turkish
influences to the Middle East and other countries, including Iran, Sudan and
Turkey. After Muslims settled in India, the conglomeration of people of various
cultures speaking a variety of languages like Rekhta, Hindavi and ultimately,
Urdu, came into being.
This
intermingling was also known as lashkar (group). The purpose of all the Indian
and international languages is to achieve the fraternal spirit. Urdu is a
beautiful language born out of the conglomeration of Hindu, Muslim and even
English cultural backgrounds.
Dr Humra Parveen, Department of Mass Communication, AMU, says that Urdu happens to be the language of the conglomerate tradition and culture of India that, after being acquired by the Khanqahs, educational institutions and the official world, also became the language of commerce. During the times of Mohammed Shah and Quli Qutub Shah, it became the Government’s language. At that time, it was, in fact, the most popular language and owing to its poetic exuberance and ease of learning (which it is even today), Urdu replaced Persian.
The
cultural and artistic tone and tenor of Urdu has been depicted generously in
multifarious forms, including the Mushaira (poetic gathering), Marsiahkhwani
(elegy) Ghazal (poetry recitation), Qawwali (chorus), Dastangoi (storytelling),
Chahar Bait (poetry competition) and so on, besides other art forms like drama.
The reason
that Urdu proliferated and got promoted was owing to its secular character and
a universal base in India and abroad. Today it happens to be one of the most
popular of all international languages. Not only that, Urdu is the voice of the
sub-continent and has become an important link language for South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
In India
alone, as per Government records, Urdu is the mother tongue of more than 70
million people. However, an equal number of Urdu-knowing people are spread all
over the nation. In the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, Urdu is the first
language while in other States like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra
Pradesh, West Bengal, it has been recognised as the second language.
Nevertheless,
there are some other areas where people have recorded Urdu to be their mother
tongue, like Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. So far as
the linguistic link of Urdu is concerned, its family includes Sanskrit,
Persian, Arabic and Dravidian languages like Telugu and Kannada.
Owing to
its historicity, linguistic appeal, cultural multiplicity and literary taste,
it doesn’t have any religion or region. Connoisseurs of Urdu are found around
the world. Besides, another salient feature of Urdu has been its linkage to the
dialects. Writers, especially from Punjab, Kashmir, Maharashtra, Telangana and
Karnataka, have also glorified the language globally.
All
languages are beautiful and have their own charm and distinct persona, but
Urdu, in particular, is sweet and poetic and at the same time, very adaptable.
If a language can be developed through a combination of seven languages, what
can be more flexible and welcoming? Many foreigners ask to hear Urdu, and when
they do, their first reaction is: It is so soft and easy on the ears.
Phonologically,
Urdu sounds are the same as those of Hindi except for slight variations in
short vowel allophones. Urdu also retains a complete set of aspirated stops
(sounds pronounced with a sudden release with an audible breath), a characteristic
of Indo-Aryan, as well as retroflex stops.
It does not
retain the complete range of Perso-Arabic consonants, despite its heavy
borrowing from that tradition. From the grammatical point of view, there is not
much difference between Hindi and Urdu. One distinction is that Urdu uses more
Perso-Arabic prefixes and suffixes than Hindi.
Another
interesting aspect of Urdu is that it has incorporated in itself the idioms and
clichés of other Indian languages like Punjabi, Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi, Hindi,
Sanskrit, Gujarati, Pushto, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Kashmiri, Telugu and Kannada. In
fact, the inner spirit of Urdu is Sanskrit and it has been connected to it.
Same is the case with many foreign languages, like Arabic, Persian, Turkish,
English, Uzbek and Nepali that have gelled quite well with Urdu. It is assured
that if a language has viable connects with the other tongues, the result is a
very pleasant one, basically indicating an intermingling of and respect for
cultures. In this regard, it is
pertinent to mention that Urdu is a window to the cultural heritage of India.
It makes us introspect as it is a language of a composite culture and joins
broken hearts.
The NCPUL
has been promoting Urdu on a pan-India basis by conducting seminars, workshops
on calligraphy, graphic designing, e-books, Urdu media and other topics,
besides teaching of Urdu, Persian and Arabic to people from all cross-sections
of society and bringing out of Urdu magazines. Till such organisations are
there and the language uses technology to propagate itself on social and
electronic media, Urdu will live on in the hearts and minds of people.
----
Firoz
Bakht Ahmed is the Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University and
grandnephew of Bharat Ratna Maulana Azad
Original
Headline: The language of the heart
Source: The Daily Pioneer
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-culture/urdu-got-promoted-owing-its/d/122766
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