Saturday, April 19, 2025

Urdu: Not A Dilettante's Pastime

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 19 April 2025 Recently, Supreme Court bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K. Vinod Chandran, while dismissing a petition on Urdu signage, emphasised that language reflects people and communities, not religion. This verdict has made all the lovers of Urdu pleased as punch. Muslim shopkeepers in Maharashtra are chuffed that signboards written in Urdu can be displayed without fear. A person like me whose day begins with an Urdu broadsheet and a cuppa heaves a sigh of relief that remaining Urdu dailies in Maharashtra will not fold up anytime soon. But this also makes me sad that a beautiful language like Urdu, which was born and raised on the subcontinent, is having to face such a dismal fate just because some Hindutvavaadi morons are out to oust it from India. My Urdu-knowing friend, poet and a retired banker Mr Mahesh Bajaj, 'Anjum' Lakhnavi aptly says, "Urdu Ki Haalat Yah Hai Ki Har Koi Ise Apni Girlfriend Banana Chahta Hai, Par Biwi Koi Nahin" (The plight of Urdu is that everyone wants to have it as his girlfriend, but no one wants to have it as a wife). So very true. Today, Urdu has become a dilettante's pastime. Those who like it, don't actually love it. Cheap and incorrect WhatsApp poetry may have kindled people's interest in Urdu, but it hasn't made much inroads into its overall development and systematic learning. No one seems to be interested in learning the Rasmul-Khat (script) of it which is called Nastaliq, based on a Persio-Arabic script. While teaching Urdu script to poor Muslim kids, Hindus often ask me, "Humein Bhi Urdu Seekhni Hai Lekin Hindi Lipi Mein" (We also want to learn Urdu but in Devanagari script). How can it be possible? You want to eat the cake and have it too! This is not acceptable. The problem with a majority of people is that they erroneously think, Urdu script is a Muslim script! Yes, they call it a Muslim script. Since today's Hindus, with half-baked knowledge, think that Persian and Arabic are written from right to left and used only by the Muslims, Urdu with the similar script is also a Muslim language. These oafs don't know that a language is not religion. In the West Asia or Gaza Strip, Muslims and Jewish speak fluent Arabic, Hebrew and other common tongues but they're forever embattled. It's worthwhile to state that Arabic is mainly spoken by the Palestinian Muslims and Jews of Israel speak Hebrew. But they all know the languages of each other like their mother tongues. We shall have to pluck out all our reservations regarding the script of Urdu. Learn the language in its entirety. Hindus may dislike Muslims and vice versa, but don't hate any language. If you cannot learn Urdu script, which is indeed a trifle complicated, at least try to learn it properly. But in these times, when people cannot speak even one language decently, writing or speaking in Urdu is a distant dream. Even Hindi has been desecrated so awfully that one wonders whether it's a language or a patois? ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/urdu-dilettante-pastime/d/135226 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism

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