Muslims and Urdu Language: From Crisis to Conspiracy

By Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam 8 July 2023 Languages have always been a medium of communication. Unlike other living things, humans evolved a language to be able to communicate with each other. Each language evolved over time and today there are plethora of languages spoken, written by humans to express themselves. The basic utility of any language is to be able to communicate with the fellow beings. This communication is the greatest miracle of the humankind. Humans have invented the language and now with the advent of computer language humans are successful to even develop the Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is going to be the future of humanity as it will dominate the mankind. However, the language can be a uniting factor as well as a divisive one. Every language has its proponents as well as opponents as there is always a competition among languages. If there are multiplicity of languages in a given country then the divide and tussle among them becomes more prominent. India has its own share of linguistic tussles. The communalism prevalent in India added more fuel to the linguistic divide. After partition, Urdu was decried as a language of Muslims. As Pakistan, adopted Urdu as its official language and India embraced Hindi, the division became sharper. It is a truth that in the bastions of Urdu where it was born, nurtured, evolved and spread, Urdu has been uprooted. Earlier some Urdu protagonists and scholars, who have economic ties with the language declared that the language has backing of poets like Mirza Ghalib, Allama Mohammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, so it cannot be killed. But I think now they may have changed their views. Urdu besides being a treasure trove of fiction, non fiction literature and poetry is one of the important languages after Arabic and Persian in which the contemporary Islamic literature has been produced. Most of the important poetry collections, religious, and historical texts from both Arabic and Persona have been translated into Urdu, enriching it immensely. One who is well versed in Urdu can become an Islamic scholar as all the primary sources of Islam are available in Urdu. Hence, many conspiracy theorists claim that Urdu is being systematically discriminated and destroyed in India. There can be some truth in it, but the fact remains that millions of funds are allocated for the preservation and encouragement of Urdu by the government, although now the funds are being curtailed. The reasons for this curtailment are described again in a communal colour decrying discrimination against Muslims. However, the real causes are never deliberated. How are the funds utilized? Who benefits from them? Why only few bodies are allocated funds by the recognized government institutions? Why few government appointed blue eyed persons are appointed to head these institutions working for the cause of Urdu, but then ultimately they work for their own cause more than for Urdu. If there is a threat to their position, they decry that Urdu (read Islam) is under threat in India. It is such a sorry state of affairs. A language that cannot offer career prospects, economic stability is bound to suffer immensely. Government certainly has a role in encouraging a certain language, but when there are no takers for Urdu among students and people, Urdu will continue to retrograde to the margins. Teachers are not able to instil love of Urdu among children, even in schools where Urdu is taught as a mandatory language. Once the mandatory obligation is over, students leave Urdu. Only the madrasas serve Urdu holistically. Urdu is taught at college and university level with the career prospects of students confined to teaching, research, journalism and for most of them it leads to economic instability and bleak future. However, the vested interests whose economic interests are associated with Urdu time and again describe Urdu as an identity of Muslims, forgetting the fact that few million Muslims among one billion and more speak or write Urdu, but they are adamant in rendering Urdu synonymous with Muslim identity. If Urdu was synonymous with identity then Muslims would be very cautious to safeguard and protect it. But the reality is that Indian Muslims are quite callous towards it. The callousness is quite well depicted by the fact that Muslims are not able to sustain even a single Urdu newspaper or periodical. The Urdu journalists are struggling to survive and no serious reader likes to form opinions based on Urdu newspapers, that mostly constitute as Yellow journalism. The publications in Urdu have little circulation. Besides religious literature, Urdu novels and poetry struggles to sell. The Urdu poets and writers mostly gift away their books as presents and complimentary copies. It is quite a sad state of affairs because there are no takers for Urdu. Indian Muslims who claim to be more than 200 million in number fail to even buy few hundred copies of Urdu publications. Most of the independent Urdu publishers and newspapers are closing down due to the lack of revenue. On this account there is no smell of conspiracy but it depicts the lackadaisical approach of the Indian Muslim community towards Urdu. The situation can be improved towards betterment, if Muslims are ready to remove the label of Urdu being a Muslim language, because it is not. Language cannot be religious, even Arabic cannot be tagged as an Muslim language, despite the Quran being revealed in it. Also, Muslim identity in India is not confined to Urdu only because only in Northern India, Urdu as a language is prevalent, whereas Muslims are present all over India and speak variegated languages. Further a movement towards reading and writing Urdu needs to be inculcated among people that will lead to continuity of Urdu. Local initiatives of providing jobs to those well versed in Urdu need to be undertaken. Madrasas can play a vital role in offering morning and evening classes of Urdu in their areas of influence. It will certainly help in promotion of Urdu as well as interfaith dialogue. People should also patronize the Urdu newspapers, journals and publication houses by purchasing their titles. If these steps are not undertaken then the conspiracy theories will galore and vested interests continue to hijack the cause of Urdu, while Urdu will get annihilated with each passing day. ------ M.H.A. Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir. 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