Urdu is a secular language

Bangalore: 29^th December 2010, Karnataka Governor H R Bharadwaj recommended religious tolerance between Muslims and Hindus in country because it’ll become an initiative to promote the best relations between India and Pakistan. Urdu ties between two countries strongly.

 “The politicization of cultural values like saying Urdu belongs to only a particular community, is misleading,” Mr. Bharadwaj said. Urdu does not have religion or region it is co-existed with other languages like Kannada, Telugu, Kashmiri, Punjabi and Hindi in many states, he added.

India was known for promotion of values of Pluralism from times immemorial and will continue to promote Urdu as part of its constitutional duty, Mr. Bharadwaj added.

The main purpose of this two-day world conference is to bring Urdu intellectuals, writers and poets on one platform where they’ll share their ideas that how can to promote and protect Urdu language in India and abroad as well. More than 600 delegates including poets from all over the world are taking part of this conference.

It will also purposeful for the promotion and protection of Urdu literature and the problems will also be encountered in this conference.

Urdu poet—Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi

Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi (1916-2006) born as Ahmad Shah Awan. He was very famous Pakistani Urdu poet, literary critic, dramatist, and journalist. He was most prominent figure in Urdu literature. His Urdu afsana work is considered by some second only to Premchand in its masterful depiction of rural culture.

He graduated from the University of the Punjab, Lahore. He started his career as a Govt. clerk which he eventually left to pursue journalism. In his long career as writer and editor He had several literary Urdu journals including Phool, Tehzeeb-i-Niswan, Adab-i-Lateef, Naqoosh and Savera.

In 1962, Qasmi started his own journal Fanoon. The legendary friendship and support of Khadija Mastoor and Hajira Masroor and support to a host of the other writers from Ahmad faraz, Najib Ahmad, Saqi Farooqi and others was linked to Fanoon. Many other famous Urdu writers including Ata ul Haq Qasmi, Munnoo Bhai, Nazeer Naji and Amjad Islam Amjad proudly claim Qasmi’s patronage.

Qasmi received Pride of Performance in 1968 and Pakistan Academy Letters lifetime achievement award and country’s highest civil honor, Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 1980. His published collections of his best-known work include Urdu poetry volumes Jalal-o-Jamal, Shola-i-Gul and Kisht-i-Wafa. He died on the July 10, 2006.

The major genres of poetry found in Urdu

There are major genres of poetry found in Urdu

• Doha, is self-contained couplet in poetry. Doha is first common in Apabhramsha and was commonly used in Urdu and Hindi poetry. Some Dohas were most famous and those were of Rahim, Tulsidas, Sarahpa, Kabir, Surdas and Jamiluddin Aali.  
• Fard, It is infact a composition of a single Sher; Shero-Shayari is called Fard.
• Geet, it is popular composition or song.
• Ghazal, It is poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets. It is an expressive form of poetry which expresses the feelings of love and pain of loss and separation also. Urdu ghazals are one of the best ways of expressions.
• Hamd, is a poem in praise of Allah.
• Hijv, A poem written to condemn or to abuse a person.
• Kafi, is a classical form of Sufi poetry.
• Madah, in these poems written in praise of Kings and Patrons.
• Manqabat, It one more special kind of poems, in which written in praise of Ahle-E-Bait or Sahaba.
• Masnavi, A long epic poem describing the past events, and the famous masanavis are Shah-Nama of Firdosi, Masnavi-E-Roomi in Persian and Zehar-E-Ishq in Urdu.
• Na’t, it is written in the praise of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W). Who recite the Na’t are known as the Na’t Khuwan or Sana’a Khuwan.

Some of other genres of Urdu poetry are:

• Hazal
• Munajat
• Musaddas
• Marsia
• Mukhammas
• Nazm
• Noha
• Qasida
• Qat’a
• Qawwali
• Rubai
• Salam
• Sehra
• Shehr a'ashob
• Soz
• Wasokht

World Urdu Conference & Mushaira

Bangalore: World Urdu conference and Mushaira is held on 29, 30 Dec.  Urdu is most poetic language across the world. No doubt, present generation is far away from Urdu, but still they like Urdu poetry as a trend. In Bangalore World Urdu conference is held and many scholars, journalists, writers and other intellectuals from across the country will be addressing this dilemma. Intellectuals from other countries like UK, USA, Pakistan, Canada and Bangladesh are also expected to attend the conference.

All members who will be participated in conference, they put together a list of guiding principles that would be implemented to promote Urdu language. The conference is scheduled to begin at 10:30 am at The Capital Hotel, Raj Bhavan Road, Bangalore. The Mushaira is scheduled to begin at 8:30 pm on 30^th December in the Shivajinagar Stadium, Bangalore. Some of the prominent Indian poets who would participate in Mushaira are Janab Hassan Kamal and Janab Rahat Indori from Mumbai, Janab Anjum Barabankvi from Bhopal, Janab Sardar Ayagh and Janab Maher Mansoor from Bangalore and many others from different cities of India. Some of poets invited from abroad also.

Urdu conference will also clarify that Urdu is not linked to only Muslims. Urdu is one of the official languages of India. A number of papers will be presented in the conference with regard to vast aspects of the language Urdu.    

Urdu Shayari

One of the most dominant forms of poetry is Urdu Shayari. Urdu Shayari also known as Urdu Sher O Shayari, It is a varied field of poetry that has many different forms and colors. Every Shair of Urdu Shayari is usually rhymes. It tells all about beauties of life and also describes feelings of love in a beautiful way.

Urdu poetry can be traced to the ancient Arabic and Persian forms of poetry. These forms were very popular in kings and Emperors’ times. Urdu Shayari has ability of breathing life into words. The couplets in Urdu can make forget all tensions when one person read or write poetry, can easily forget their tensions and also by poetry love can easily express to another person.

Urdu poetry has long history behind it, and still from past it has more importance in human beings life. It is ancient tradition which is influenced by Persian and Arabic. It was much influenced by major Urdu poets of India and basically mixes with Urdu, Hindi and Hindustani. Major cities holding Urdu poetry expositions known as Mushairas. Many people attend these Mushairas to relief their souls and free from stress.

Urdu Poet—Ibn-e-Insha

Ibn-e-Insha (1927-1978) was a prominent Urdu poet, travelogue writer, columnist and humorist. He was known as one of the best humorists of Urdu. His poetry laced with language evocative of Amir Khusro in its use of words. His poetic style is an influence on generation of young poets.

The real name of Ibn-e-Insha was Sher Muhammad Khan. He was born in Phillaur tehsil of Jalandhar District, Punjab, India. He did B.A from Punjab University in 1946 and M.A from University of Karachi in 1953. He served UN for some time and this enable him to visit a lot of places including China, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, India, Afghanistan, Iran, France, Turkey, US, Indonesia and UK. He did work in various Govt. services some of them are Ministry of Culture, Radio Pakistan and National Book Centre of Pakistan.

Insha was more versatile poet and writer of his generation. His most famous ghazal of modern Classic is Insha Ji Uthoo. He did a lot of work in Urdu literature his major works are:

• Is Basti Key Ik Koochay Main (Poetry)

• Dil-e-Wehshi (Poetry)

• Chand Nagar (Poetry)

• Khumar e Gandum (Humor)

• Urdu Ki Aakhri Kitaab (Humor)

• Duniya Gol hay (Travelogue)

• Awara Gard Ki Diary (Travelogue)

• Nagri Nagri Phira Musafar (Travelogue)

• Ibn-e-Battuta Kay Ta’qub Main (Travelogue)

• Chaltay Ho Tou Cheen Ko Chaliye (Travelogue)

• Khat Insha Jee Kay (Collection of letters)

Insha spent most of his time in Karachi. He died on 11 January, 1978 in London and was buried in Karachi.

A tribute to ‘old men’ of letters

Karachi, recently assembled Urdu writers from all over the world to discuss ways to live longer, Mr. Right said.

Mr. Najmul Hassan Rizvi said, “It was a perfect setting for a conference that devoted a full day to the memory of Mir Taqi Mir, the oldest man of Urdu poetry who has been ruling the ghazal for almost three centuries.”

Mr. Right remarked, “Mir Sahib is a living tradition of Urdu ghazal.” And further Mr. Right said, “The event was a hat-trick for the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi that is striving to revive the cultural life of the city which was plagued by violence and strife in the recent past.”

Mr. Najmul Hassan Rizvi said, “Our younger generation has a lot of distractions. And those who have opted to become writers need due recognition. As a result, many of our ‘new’ writers are still called ‘young’ even after turning 50 or 60.”

“The situation can improve definitely if the standard of education in Urdu is raised and the language is given its due status as demanded by the participants of the conference through a resolution,” Mr. Right said. “I was really impressed by the old guards of Urdu literature who came to attend the event despite bad health.”

Urdu-The national language of Pakistan

Urdu is national language of Pakistan which has long history behind it. The language went by several names over the year: Hindvi, “language of India”; Hindustani, “of Hindustan”; Dehalvi, “of Delhi”; and Zuban-e-Urdu, “the language of the army camp”, or conceivably “of the market”, from which came the current name of Urdu. Sometimes Urdu contrasted with Hind, but the main differences between two languages are Standard Urdu is written in Nastaliq calligraphy style of the Perso-Arabic script and relies heavily on Persian and Arabic as a source for technical and literary language, while Standard Hindi is written in Devanagri and draws on Sanskrit.

Hindi is national language of India and Urdu is national language of Pakistan, but Urdu is also spoken in India and many other countries. There are 60 to 70 million self-identified native speakers of Urdu: 12 million in Pakistan in 2008, or 14% of the population; 52 million in India per the 2001 census, 6% of the population and thousands of people in United States, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and Bangladesh, where it is called Behari.

Urdu is spoken by different native speakers of Pakistan because, it is necessary for every Pakistani citizen to learn Urdu. People of different provinces of Pakistan can easily communicate via Urdu if they know it. So every citizen of Pakistan should try to learn Urdu and others also due to its historical recognition.  

Urdu Defence Association

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was one of the big Urdu supporter and the followers of Sir Syed tried their level best to save Urdu language. Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk was one of Sir Syed’s followers to save Urdu. Mohsin-ul-Mulk developed an organization known as Urdu Defence Association in 1900. He was the outstanding person who organized the Muslims in defense of Urdu.

The success of the Hindi movement led Sir Syed to further advocate Urdu as the language of all India Muslims and the symbol of Muslim heritage. His political and educational work developed Muslims’ interest in Urdu. Sir Syed’s colleague, Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk established Urdu Defence Association to the preparation of Urdu.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk did a lot of work to spread Urdu among the Muslims of India. Sir Syed perceived Urdu as the lingua franca of Muslims. Urdu was used as the second language to Persian, the official language of the Mughal court. Sir Syed promoted Urdu language through his own writing and also under Sir Syed, the scientific society translated western work into Urdu.