A linguist, who studies Urdu and Urdu Poetry, N.D. Mulla is a Retired English lecturer from Malladihalli P.U College. His introduction to the world of literature was made through Urdu. The following is an interview with him wherein he shares his thoughts of the language that he is very fond of.

 

Can you give an introduction to the History of Urdu in India?

Englishmen came here during Akbar’s time but they gained prominence during Lord Clive’s time in the 18th century. In the latter part of the 18th century, even Englishmen, for their official communication used Persian. During British time, Urdu gained popularity. There are instances where Englishmen wrote poetry in Urdu.  Leading people of Hindi literature did not like Urdu growing but since Urdu had official government patronage, it flourished. To be very very clear, Urdu is nothing but Hindi with heavily studded words of Arabic and Persian. For example, रात (raat), a common word for night. In Persian, it was called شب (shab)and in Arabic, it was called ليل (layl) so when you use shab in Hindi, it becomes Urdu. 

Hindi is written in Devnagri script and Urdu is written in Persian script. The script was Persian because, from the 12th century onwards, the official language of communication was Persian. Arabic was never the official language, Persian was always the official language of communication between various courts. For example, when the Delhi Sultanate wished to write a letter to the state, they would write in Persian. Persian script gained prominence. Even during Tipu Sultan’s time in our own state, till the third war of Mysore in 1789, communication between Tipu Sultan and other kingdoms and between the Delhi Sultans and Hyderabad Nawabs and Maratha rulers was all officially written in Persian only.

Those days, Urdu was the language of the commoner; it was spoken by Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, everybody. It was the official language of communication and the official language of instruction in schools. There were some places, even in Karnataka, where there was no language but Urdu. Urdu flourished because it had official patronage.

Hindi speaking people were mostly non-Muslims and envied the growth of Urdu. Urdu was never hated before. Common Hindu started thinking Urdu is a Muslim’s language. Tensions between any two linguistic classes is common. For example, Tamil and Kannada speaking people, French and English speaking people.  I personally think Urdu was disliked because it was written in a foreign script. If Urdu was written in Devanagari, perhaps it would not have been hated. 

 

It is said that Urdu lacks modernization. Would this not make the language more difficult for new learners?

Some of the Urdu zealots have made it difficult. Otherwise, Urdu as a spoken language is very easy to understand. Whatever is there in Hindi, it is there in Urdu. If they deliberately make it harder to understand- some poets have made it. If you make it deliberately difficult to understand to show your skills, it will be a difficult language. It was considered to be very important and was very prevalent to write difficult Urdu in poetry. I don’t understand why the trend came, it’s there in all literature. So, that’s how two things happened. Urdu is a foreign language, and next, it is a Muslims language. It should be hated as a religious tenet. People of Hindi literature thought they had to differentiate Hindi literature from Urdu and they started making that difficult. Otherwise, if you go to UP, or Delhi for example, the language that is spoken is very, very common and anybody can understand that. 

 Unnecessarily it has been made difficult. I personally feel that- a long time back, a famous Urdu writer Ismat Chugtai proposed that we must forgo the Persian script and take Devnagri as a script to express the Urdu language. But the bigots, or whatever you can call them, the over-enthusiastic Urdu people did not accept that proposal. On the other hand, there was a movement against her as what she was proposing was wrong.

 

Since she was mentioned, in Rajasthan, 2016, Ismat Chugtai was removed from the school syllabus. What is your opinion on this?

These are some ill-founded thoughts. You have to love the country you live in, you should be a patriot. Everything that is there in the country should be loved. When you do such things, hatred towards Muslims increases and when hatred increases towards everything related to Muslims.

I don’t know for what reason Urdu was unnecessarily blamed for being Muslim’s language. Otherwise, Brij Narayan Chakbast, Krishn Chandra, Prem Chand all are, in recent times, Firaq Gorakhpuri were all non-Muslims. Gopi Chand Narang, in the 20th century, was also a non-muslim. They all wrote in Urdu. They were poets and writers in Urdu but they are non-Muslims. But general hatred towards Muslims has caused hatred towards Urdu also. I feel personally that to make Urdu as a language popular, it should be written in Roman script. Not in Devnagri because there are some letters in Urdu that Devnagri will not satisfy. Or there has to be a modification in the Devanagari script because of some of the pronunciations that are there… Devnagri would not satisfy the pronunciations of the Urdu language.

 

Urdu was previously known as only the language of the elites, so what do you mean when you say Urdu was a common man’s language?

English with a rich vocabulary was spoken by the elite. Urdu which is spoken in Lucknow and in courtrooms were different from Khariboli, the common Urdu. They used to feel pride, it was always like that. For example, the way Shashi Tharoor speaks is an elite language and everybody tries to copy it. A common man speaks like I am speaking to you. Unfortunately, the elite used to speak Urdu with heavy Persian and Arabic vocabulary. Although the main language and grammar were the same, 60% of vocabulary was common man’s vocabulary but they used to learn with Arabic and Persian vocabulary. They made it difficult. If it was easy, it would be Hindustani, a common man’s language. But they make it difficult.

If you read today’s poet Bashir Badr, he is so easy to understand. At the same time, it is beautiful and the flow is so good. But when Faiz writes his poetry, he makes it very difficult to understand. Similarly, Iqbal, a prominent Urdu poet, has written very heavy Urdu poetry but also some simple Urdu poetry for children. 

 

na aate hameñ is meñ takrār kyā thī

magar va.ada karte hue aar kyā thī

tumhāre payāmī ne sab raaz kholā

ḳhatā is meñ bande kī sarkār kyā thī

 

translation:

If you had not come I would have had no occasion for contention

But what reluctance in making the promise was?

Your messenger disclosed every secret

O, Lord! What fault of Man was in this?

 

Where he says like this at one point of time, where Sare Jahan se acha, it is so simple but he has also written very difficult poetry

.

isī kashmakash meñ guzrīñ mirī zindagī kī rāteñ

kabhī soz-o-sāz-e-'rūmī' kabhī pech-o-tāb-e-'rāzī'

 

Nehru loved the Urdu language, not only was it the language of the elite, but it was also the language of the commoner in its common form. Nehru once said why we should adopt Roman script for Urdu, which was a wonderful idea and the hatred would not have been there. The language would have flourished.

The other very good thing about Urdu is that it is short handwriting. In any language, you will have to write a full letter. But in Urdu or Persian, you write half letters and join it. It saves space and can be written fast. Urdu is like how earlier secretaries used to write- in shorthand.

 

After partition, there was a linguistic rearrangement of states and no state officially recognised Urdu as their only state language, has this had any effect on the status of Urdu?

Everywhere Kannada is promoted as the state language here. If you are not taught in Kannada, you are not an educated man. In every recruitment, in every part of state communication, learning Kannada is a must. The same is with the state languages of other states. Urdu is going to be bulldozed by English because Urdu schools are not in good order. It is the Government’s policy not to teach in Urdu. Unfortunately, even though Urdu is spoken everywhere, it is not recognised as the state language of any state.

Mughals ruled earlier, 400-500 other Muslim rulers ruled the country. The purpose of the rule was just to rule- to have control of the government and the territory, not the religion. In the early 13th century, we had the Khiljis, then Mohammed Shah Gohri came and from there onwards, Muslims were ruling but they never attempted to convert. The population of India was about 45 crores then. If they had started converting, 10,000 a year, the entire population would have been Islamic. But they never ever attempted to convert or change the culture of this country. Their purpose was to rule, the political and territorial hegemony. The aim of Mohammed Ghazni - he came 17 times I think - was to loot India. He never came to rule or convert others. Then, Mohammed Gohri came to establish a rule and thereafter till 1857, it was a Muslim rule. Then there was Delhi Sultanate, then Mughals ruled and for about 600 or 800 years it was, is continuous Muslim rule. Their purpose was not to convert so they never made an attempt to convert.

 

Pakistan has Urdu as its national language, but according to the 2017 census, more people speak Punjabi, Pashto or Sindhu than Urdu. What do you have to say about the status of Urdu there?  

Most of the people speak Sindhi or Punjabi there. Because the Government wanted a common language, they imposed it. Patronage of the government makes a lot of difference. Today, patronage of Hindi is there from the government therefore Hindi is flourishing. Although in the South, do you think a Marathi or Kannadiga or Tamilian, of all people, will love Hindi? Do you think Konkani speaking or Malayalam speaking will love Hindi? None of the southern languages- and Bengalis, Assamese, Oriyans will not love Hindi. But still Hindi flourishes because it has the patronage of the government. So any language, for that matter, that has the patronage of the government will flourish.

 

If the government starts funding Urdu medium schools, would it change the status of Urdu?

There was a time just 50 years ago in Bombay-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka, there were no schools that did not have Urdu. Urdu was the medium of instruction. Urdu was the language of the courts. Urdu was the official language of the government. So, in 50 years time, it has declined to this level. So, if the government encourages any language for that matter, it will flourish. A child will be best taught when they learn it in their mother tongue. So I believe all children must be taught in their mother tongue with heavily studded words of English. Technical words of English should be used in local languages to teach science, geography, mathematics so that the child understands them.

 

In India, we have something called the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language, which implies that Urdu requires promotion while most other lesser popular languages don't. What do you think that means?

In Independent India, Urdu, for various political reasons, was sidelined. There was a protest for which nobody was prepared. Everyone thought it was a foreign language. If Urdu is not the language of India, it is not the language of any other country. Unfortunately, a label was attached to Urdu that it is a Muslim language. For that reason, they tried to curb Urdu everywhere. For that reason, a board was formed- Urdu Academy. The purpose was to say ‘No, we are not hating Urdu, we are trying to promote it’. It does not work but nevertheless, it is there. Something is better than nothing.

 

What do you have to say about Urdu in pop culture- When they use Urdu, it is to fill some aesthetic purpose or to fill a stereotype?

Today, whatever language is there in the Hindi cinema, 90% of it is Urdu but they don’t say it is Urdu. They call it Hindi. There is a hair breadth’s difference between Urdu and Hindi. Both are the same but different scripts. It is one language- Hindustani, a common man’s language. I believe both Hindi and Urdu should be written in Roman script. If you write in Roman script, the differences will go away. Hindi people will not agree to it because they are very, very emotional about Hindi. In South India, for example, Tamizhians are dead against Hindi. Ultimately, my prediction is that English will take over all the languages at one point in time, particularly southern languages. Today English is the way Urdu once was. Because of the advent of too many private schools that teach you through the English medium, slowly English will become so prominent that other languages will cease to exist, at least in the south. In entire North India except for Assam, Bengal and Odisha, the common language and script is of Hindi only. Again, this is just my opinion.

 

What do you think about the claim that contemporary Urdu literature is mostly used by university teachers for personal advancement while the majority of readers ignore and prefer translation?

Urdu is slowly becoming a spoken language. In most of the northern states, Urdu is sometimes written in Devanagari and they call it Hindi. There was a time when Hindi actors and actresses used to learn Urdu for dialogue delivery but now they are learning Hindi script. It must be explained to a commoner that simple Urdu and simple Hindi is nothing but Hindustani. The language will become very popular if this concept is understood. However, Hindi writers are writing in heavily Sanskritised Hindi and Muslim writers are writing it in heavily Persianised Urdu. Therefore the languages have become difficult. Common Hindi and common Urdu are the same except for the difference in the script. It is easier said than done but there should be no rivalry between Hindi speaking and Urdu speaking people.

 

Finally, what do you think of having a national language in India?

National language- the concept itself is a dream. Hindi will always be written in Devnagri script, till such time that English totally overtakes. Even in rural areas, parents prefer sending their children to English medium schools. If this continues, all our languages will also eventually decline.