Grave concern was expressed about the fate of the Urdu language by leading political parties in the parliament recently. Mulayam Singh, Gopinath Munde, Salman Khurshid and Sharad Yadav, besides many others, spoke in its favour. But Urdu’s uplift, as a language of the freedom struggle, courtesy and tehzeeb, is not possible unless it is introduced in schools as part of a trilingual formula. The plight of the language will continue unless Urdu medium schools are taken care of by the community itself.
Languages suffer when they are politicised. This is because politics creates hurdles, and destroys the shape, tone and taste of languages. If Urdu newspapers want to show leadership, they can follow the example set by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s Al-Hilal and Al-Balagh, newspapers that hailed nationalism above all concerns.
Himayat Ali Shair, the world-renowned Urdu poet, said: “Urdu language has no future. It is dying and bound to end. Even in Pakistan, where Urdu is the national language, it is dying.
People are following the trend of Urdu mixed with English, giving it a new touch but destroying the tone, tenure, texture and taste of the language. In India, Urdu will survive because of Hindi.”
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