Urdu in India: victim of Hindu nationalism & Muslim separatis;PART -8

By Syed Shahabuddin, The Milli Gazette

Published Online: May 13, 2011

Print Issue: 1-15 April 2011

Possibility of Joint Action In States With Minority Language

Urdu has pockets in the homeland of nearly all major languages like Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi and Punjabi. So has every major language in other state, outside it base. Urdu should strive jointly with them in any state for realizing the rights of all minority languages in the state. For itself Urdu should not demand any thing more than Hindi in the Hindi-minority states just as it should not accept any things less than another minority language status for itself in Hindi majority states.

Urdu As Means Of Livelihood
The third strategic mistake is to raise the slogan of making Urdu the vehicle for raising the economic status of Muslims and the means to earn livelihood. Urdu speaking community should realize that when the entire national or state economy has taken to Hindi or English, Urdu can never secure a substantial place in public or private employment or in accounting or in business transactions. Today, though sale deeds and other documents still use Urdu in the form of old terminologies, hardly any document is registered in UP or Bihar, if written in Urdu script. With falling demand, Urdu calligraphers or document writers are closing shop. Urdu can be preserved, only in the sector of self-employment where the small entrepreneur or his Munshi is free to write the accounts in Urdu. But even they have to be translated to English or Hindi for the outsiders and for filing the government forms.

In the process of raising the slogan of ‘second official language’ and ‘language of economy and employment’ Urdu has lost its constitutional place in education as the Mother Tongue. Today Urdu speaking youth cannot read Urdu or even correspond with their families. They do not know Urdu and the parents do not know Hindi! What is worse is that having fallen under the spell of Hindi, they cannot even pronounce Urdu words properly. This is why the Urdu speaking population cannot submit petitions to the Government in Urdu or demand a reply in Urdu. They cannot read the Acts, the rules & regulations and the notifications or advertisements, if, at all, issued in Urdu. They cannot follow Government orders and circulars and bid for tenders even if issued in Urdu. They cannot identify a roadsign or read a name plate of officers or the office board or the bus routes. The result is that all these so called facilities and concessions though provided, sometimes, are useless and meaningless.

 The position of Urdu in the legislature and judiciary is much worse and in the executive it has become out of bounds. A legislator may speak in Urdu but he cannot declare that he is speaking in Urdu or demand a type-script in Urdu. The judicial process from the lowest level to the High Courts in the Hindi-speaking states uses Hindi as the medium and it is purging Urdu from legal vocabulary.

The Urdu-speaking community sometimes feels proud of Urdu’s expansion horizontally across the seven seas. But it forgets that in its homeland its children are not learning Urdu except for a few who go to Madrasas.

What is, therefore, important is that the Urdu-speaking community should unburden itself of its past fixations and demand its rights as a linguistic minority, as endorsed in the Constitution and international law, to transmit its Mother Tongue to its children to a level of proficiency which can support a meaningful rapport with the family & access to its classic & contemporary literature. That is the way Urdu will survive.

However, there are some signs of revival. Many young people wish to learn Urdu, particularly high schools students. Urdu Movement should demand facilities for teaching Urdu as additional language in all schools, government or private. Urdu poets particularly Ghalib & Faiz are very popular. Urdu poetry should be published in Hindi script. Novels and collection of short stories in Urdu should be translated into other Indian languages. Urdu calligraphy is being promoted systematically. A Urdu University has been established but it is yet to introduce even undergraduate courses in all arts subjects because of shortage of text books. This shortage must be met by translation of standard books. Indira Gandhi Open University is offering several courses in Urdu. The Open School is admitting Urdu-knowing graduates of Madarsas. The Government is considering drafting a road map for the promotion of Urdu.

But the Urdu Movement must insist that the state first establish Urdu-medium government primary schools in all Urdu-speaking areas, and introduce Urdu in all secondary schools, government or private & facilitate mid-term transfer from Madarsas to mainstream schools and to universities. This is the way Urdu can reach the Generation Next, not by lapping up tributes to the glory of Urdu or crying over its neglect.