Urdu, one of the most beautiful languages of the Indian sub-continent, should not be associated with any narrow religious or regional identity, says AKHLAQ A. ‘AHAN’
There are many views among scholars about the genesis and development of the Urdu language. Some suggest it is derived from Khariboli, a dialect spoken in and around Delhi and adjoining areas including Western Uttar Pradesh, parts of Uttarakhand and Haryana. Some believe it is an offshoot of Brij Bhasha or the dialect prevalent in the Brij area (the Agra and Mathura region). A leading scholar of Urdu, Mahmood Sherani, argued that Urdu was born in Punjab and wrote a book in 1928, Punjab Mein Urdu, in support of his hypothesis. This view of Punjab being the place of Urdu’s origin was earlier propounded by linguists like George A. Grierson (1851-1941) in the Linguistic Survey of India (1916) and Sher Ali Sarkhush in Tazkira-e-Ejaz-e-Sukhan (1923). One assumption is that it was a camp language (lashkari zaban), born of interaction among people of different groups while employed in the Mughal Army.
Similarly, the Deccan and Sindh too are proffered as places of the origin of Urdu. Nonetheless, among all these hypotheses, the most credible amongst the linguistic historians is the theory that Urdu has its origin in Shauraseni Prakrit, a middle Indo-Aryan language, concomitant to Sanskrit, and was spoken in early medieval northern India, mostly between the third and 10th centuries. Later, due to various reasons, it spread to different parts of the country, incorporated local idioms and became akin to a lingua franca of the sub-continent.
Since Urdu serves as a link among different groups of people across India and even among expatriates living around the globe, it should not be associated with any narrow religious or regional identity. From filmdom to poetry gatherings or mushairas, music to mythology, patriotic literature to religious texts of almost all Indian religious groups, from translations of the Gita, Ramayana and Mahabharata to the Quran, the Guru Granth Sahib and Sufi Bhakti literature, the songs and slogans of the freedom fighters of 1857 to the revolutionary nationalists including Bhagat Singh, Pt. Chakbast, Lala Lajpat Rai, Ram Prasad Bismil, Iqbal, Josh Malihabadi, Faiz and Majaz, it is unmistakably clear that Urdu has
been possibly the most cosmopolitan in character and content.
Urdu is one of the most beautiful languages of India and unique to the Indian sub-continent, and deeply and inseparably entwined with many local dialects like Khariboli, Dakhini, Awadhi and the like as well as the Hindi language. The popular slogan, ‘Inquilab Zindabad’, was coined by Urdu poet Hasrat Mohani in 1921, which great revolutionary freedom fighters such as Bhagat Singh voiced with pride. Similarly, the famous couplet of Bismil Azimabadi, “Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamarey dil mein hai”, was disseminated by Ramprasad Bismil among the revolutionaries.
During the post-globalisation era, when a variety of websites, social media forums and groups, and online portals became an inseparable part of contemporary life, Urdu too attuned itself well to the new possibilities and challenges. Besides, it also gained many new philanthropists and patrons for virtual programmes and events such as Urdu Ghar, Ghalib Institute, Rekhta and, similarly, different online forums like London Urdu Voice, Jawaid Danish, World Urdu Forum, Halqa-e-Ahbab-e-Zauq, the Indo-Asia Foundation and Amroha Foundation around the globe also provided platforms for Urdu enthusiasts to connect.
Recent years have witnessed a waning tendency to indulge and celebrate the composite culture of India as exemplified by Urdu language and literature. It is time this beautiful shared heritage along with all its wit, beauty, romance, and passion for love and humanity is revived. Let Urdu not be ghettoised in the name of identities, religions, regions, and so on.
The writer is a poet, author and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
