The Urdu Controversy

 There is a recent rise in the character assassination of Urdu language by the extreme right wing fundamentalists fueling intolerance, mostly by BJP and its blind supporters to score cheap political goals by juxtaposing the language with the Muslim community. Media, social or otherwise has its role in fanning this fire. Most of those who are indulged in this nefarious activities do not know "L" of any language. What more to expect from our Whatsapp University graduates ? Hope sanity prevails, but we live in insane times.

Though English and Urdu are different, both bear stark similarities. Both are flexible, don't have a script of their own (English uses Roman and Urdu uses Arabic script). Both lack any stringent grammatical rules (for that matter American English hardly follow any grammar). In fact many passing deregatory terms for Urdu language aren't aware of the fact that the script of the language is Arabic. It should be also be noted that Punjabi is written in Gurumukhi in Indian part of Punjab, whereas the same language spoken in Pakistani Punjab uses Arabic as the script. Sanskrit in Odisha is taught in Odia Script. I read and wrote my school exam in Sanskrit using Devanagari script whereas my counterparts in Odia media wrote Sanskrit using Odia script. So what so big about a script ?

Urdu is a nice blend of Hindi, Persian and Arabic, a smooth blend like blended Scotch Whiskey. The flexibility of both Urdu and English has contributed to their richness, robustness and longevity. Such languages are destined to flourish as long as they adapt to be the survivor of the fittest.

Interestingly, both Urdu and Sanskrit are ornamental languages which are not widely spoken in mass. Though Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, they mostly speak Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Hindustani - a much diluted version of Urdu mixed with Hindi. Bengali not Urdu is the official language of the Muslim majority Bangladesh.

The knowledge and competence in any language, including Sanskrit and Urdu has hardly anything to do with religion. Nothing prevents folks from other religions to learn it. Many Westerners Christians are excellent scholars of Sanskrit with in depth knowledge of the subject. Many deep researched books on the history of Odisha and India are written by Westerners. In my college days the technical textbooks written by Westerners, mostly by American authors addressed my real doubts while books by Indian Authors rarely did so.

A language is not the monopoly of any faith. Gulzar, an outstanding and accomplished Urdu Poet whose lyrics are huge Bollywood hits is a Sikh. It's unwise to give a communal angle to a language. If we will continue to do so we will still stay struck in our vainglorious days of 5000 BC.