Let's Not Spoil the Jashn-e-Riwaaj

By Raza Elahi

Popular clothing brand Fabindia recently drew the ire of netizens who charged the company of tarnishing the Hindu festival of Diwali by giving it a Urdu name - Jashn-e-Riwaaz. Many slammed the brand for unnecessarily uplifting secularism and Muslim ideologies in a Hindu festival.

First of all Jashn-e-Riwaaz (by the way, the correct pronunciation is Jashn-e-Riwaaj) means celebrations of rituals or festive celebrations and it has no specific connection to Diwali. The company had tweeted the promo of its latest clothing collection, titled ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’, which was aimed as a big launch, to tie in with the current festive season. So, it is a false and malicious propaganda by 'Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan' sloganeers that the company is trying to deconstruct the Hindu festival.

Secondly, why this hatred for Urdu - which is a language born in this country and is part of our “ganga-jamuni" culture? Perhaps, these super hate-spreaders don't even know the all three words of their 'slogan' - Hindi, Hindu and Hindustan - are Urdu words. They also, perhaps, don't know that almost 70 per cent of words they speak daily are Urdu words.

Today, a recap of history is required to make people understand that Urdu is neither a foreign language nor a 'Muslim only' language. Till mid-19th century Urdu language was also known as Hindi (don’t confuse with today’s Hindi written in Devnagri). In fact, Ghalib, who also wrote extensively in Persian, called his Urdu work as “Hindi.”

Though Urdu and Hindi became two languages in early 19th century, yet Urdu was never seen as a language of Muslims only in initial days of their separation. Renowned historian Irfan Habib had said in a lecture that as per a survey done in 1879, “the circulation of Urdu newspapers were eight times than those of Hindi papers in India. Everyone... Hindu, Muslim or Punjabi were well-versed in Urdu. This proves the fact that religion had got nothing to do with it then.”

Its multi-cultural ethos are well recorded with a galaxy of non-Muslims counted among both classical and modern poets, novelists and writers etc.

A product of Indo-Persian blend, Urdu has been in the past known by many names like zabaan-e-dehli, hindavi, dihlavi, zabaan-e-urdu, gujri, dakhani, hindi, hindostanee and rekhta etc; and over the years it has incorporated words from sanskrit, braj, khari boli, awadhi, maithali, gujrati, saraiki and other local dialects. More than 50 per cent of Urdu words have come from Sanskrit like sunsaan from shunye asthaan, saaf -suthra from saaf (arabic) and suthra (sanskrit) etc.

During Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) and Mughal Empire (1526 to 1857), the court language was Persian (and or on some instances Turkish) but the common man’s language was a mixed language known as zabaan-e-dehli (dihlavi) or hindavi. This language of the street, however, did not get any patronage from the rulers of Delhi. It evolved only through people to people contacts at battlefield, caravansarais, shrines of sufis, workshops and marketplaces. Besides words from local dialects and languages, this language also included Persian, Turkish, Arabic and Pashto words.

In early 14th century Amir Khusro (1253–1325) began writing his poetry in this mixed language instead of his earlier expertise in Persian to connect more and more to common people. During the same period, Alauddin Khilji had spread the Delhi Sultanate to Gujarat. Khilji’s Turk commanders shifted with their staff and their families to Gujarat and zabaan-e-dehli or hindavi got intermixed with Gujrati and became Gujri or Gojri.

After Khiljis, Tughlaks ruled Delhi. The second of the Tughlak kings, Mohammad bin Tughlak moved his Capital and the entire population of the city in 1327 from Delhi to Deogri (Daulatabad). A few years later he shifted the Capital back to Delhi, but many Delhiwallas stayed back and their language began to mix with Marathi.

Towards the end of 14th century, a well-known sufi saint Khawaja Banda Nawaz Gesu Daraz left Delhi for Daulatabad in the wake of constant attacks by Mongols on Delhi. He later settled in Gulburga (Karnataka) at invitation of the Bahmani Sultan Tajuddin. When Gesu Daraz was moving out of Delhi, a large number of his followers and their families accompanied him. Some stayed back in Daulatabad, giving another dose of zabaan-e-dehli or hindavi to the already existing language mixed with Marathi, while other moved with the saint to Gulbarga spreading it to the north Karnataka.

The zabaan-e-dehli’s journeys through Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka incorporated words from languages/dialects of these regions into it and over a period of times got transformed into a fully developed language known as dakhani.

In 1518, the Bahmani kingdom broke up into five smaller sultanates of Bidar, Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bijapur and Golcanda and the latter two even started using dakhani as court language in place of Persian.

All the major poetic forms – ghazal, masnavi and qaseeda – evolved in dakhani in this region only. Some of the early exponents of ghazals were Quli Qutub Shah (1580-1611) and Wali Mohammad Wali (1667-1707). And when Wali visited Delhi in 1700, all the renowned poets of the city like Abru Shah Mubarak, Khan Arzoo and Zuhuruddin Hatim were writing in Persian at that time. Wali’s poetry in dakhani took the world of literature in Delhi by storm and soon all the master poets started trying their hand in this language.

So, the language that had first set out in 1304 from Delhi returned to the city as an established language, which further got evolved and was later known as rekhta (meaning mixed).

So, the perception that Urdu originated around the late 18th century in Muslim army camps and cantonment bazaars; it means lashkar (army); and it is the language of the Muslims only is not true.

The word ‘Urdu’ was primarily referred to the city of Shahjahanabad as Urdu-e-Mu’alla-e-Shahjahanabad (the exalted court/city of Shahjahanabad) and the language of the people in and around the city was referred as Zabaan-e-Urdu-e-Mu’alla-e-Shahjahanabad. Over the period of time Zabaan-e-Urdu-e-Mu’alla-e-Shahjahanabad became shortened as Zabaan-e-Urdu which later became Urdu (zabaan). And thus, the name Urdu came into the existence for the purpose of the language spoken in and around Shahjahanabad / Delhi.

Furthermore, Urdu language gave the country some of the most popular slogans of the independence movement during the freedom struggle like inquilab, zindabaad; sarfroshi ki tamanna aaj mere dil main hai....and sare jahan se achcha..... etc; and patriotic songs like kar chale hum fida... and aye mere vatan ke logon... etc.

I believe this much history and background of Urdu language is enough to silence the hate-mongers.

So, let's not spoil the Jashn-e-Riwaaj (festive celebrations). Better read the Urdu poetry on Diwali and also on other festivals. Here goes a couplet of Nazeer Akbarabadi:

Hai dussuhre main bhi yu.n go farhat-o-zinat

Par diwali bhi ajab pakiza-tar tyauhar hai

(farhat-o-zinat = pleasure & grace pakiza-tar = purer)

(elahi.raza82@gmail.com)

Dasht-e-Tanhaii