Few days ahead of this year’s Diwali, the Urdu name of Lady Shri Ram college’s Diwali Mela, ‘Noor’, triggered a controversy. Many right-wing supporters accused the mela organisers of ‘Islamising’ a Hindu festival celebration.
A couple of years back a similar row erupted over a company giving an Urdu name – Jashn-e-Riwaaz – to its ad campaign during the festival. The popular clothing brand Fabindia drew the ire of netizens who charged the company of tarnishing the Hindu festival Diwali by giving it an Urdu name. They slammed the brand for unnecessarily uplifting secularism and Muslim ideologies in a Hindu festival.
The ‘Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan’ sloganeers’ annoyance over the use of Urdu words on a Hindu festival or event is ridiculous. It seems bigots neither know the history of the language nor they know that all the three words of their ‘slogan’ – Hindi, Hindu and Hindustan – are also Urdu words.
Born and brought up in the historical city of Delhi, Urdu has imbibed words from Khari Boli, Saraiki, Braj, Sanskrit, Awadhi and other local languages and dialects as well as from foreign languages like Persian, Turkish, Arabic and Pashto. It has enriched from generation to generation, mainly through accumulated wisdom, techniques and cultural traditions.
The ganga-jamuni tehzeeb is the soul and essence of this language and is well recorded as numerous Urdu couplets have captured the essence of Diwali and other Hindu festivals very well.
It is also a reality that almost 70 per cent of words we use in our conversation are Urdu words. Qismat, zindagi, intezaar, badtameez, dard, hukm, vaqt, akhbaar, kitaab, kaghaz, qlam, koshish, giraftaar, adaalat, muqadma, qanoon, taarikh, avaaz, aurat, kursi, taala, ummeedvaar, nateeja, dosti, dil, tijori, fikr, daftar, mulaqaat, naashta, paani, sair, ilaaj, azaadi, bahadur, mushkil, havaa, davaa, paani, doodh, ras, tan-khvaah, and gunah etc., are just some of the numerous Urdu words used daily by people of all the religions in this country. If we discontinue using these Urdu words, then our conversation will certainly sound jarring.
Many of us will be surprised to know that more than 50 per cent of Urdu words like ujaala, dhadkan, dukh, neend, baadal, andaa, khirki, agla, din, raat, meetha, kal, padson, mann, saavan and paas etc., are Sanskrit origin words.
Many Urdu words use Sanskrit prefix ‘an’ for negation – anjaan (unknown), anaari (unskillful), anpadh (illiterate), ankahi (unspoken), ansuni (unheard), andekhi (unseen), anhoni (strange) and an-ban (quarrel) etc.
The Urdu word sunsaan (lonely) is derived from Sanskrit ‘shunya’ (empty) and ‘asthan’ (place). Another Urdu word niraala (strange) has come from Sanskrit’s niralay (out of place).
In the Urdu word saaf-suthra, saaf is Arabic while suthra is Sanskrit. Similarly, in subh savera (early morning), subh is Arabic meaning morning while savera is derived from Sanskrit word ‘vela’ meaning time. Sanwla (dark skinned) is from Sanskrit word shyamala (black) while gora (fair) is from gaur (white). Ginti (counting) is from ganana (counting), while amma is from amba, meaning mother.
It is also important to mention that not only Muslims but also a galaxy of non-Muslims – like Munshi Nawal Kishore, Ratan Nath Sarshar, Ram Babu Saxena, Braj Narayan Chakbast, Ram Prasad Bismil, Raghupati Sahay (Firaq Gorakhpuri), Rajinder Singh Bedi, Munshi Premchand, and Krishan Chander etc., – are counted among greats of Urdu literature.
At a time when Urdu has been gaining popularity in many western and European countries and is being taught in various universities in the USA, UK, Japan and China etc., it is a sad commentary that the language is facing hatred in in its country of origin.
This pain of linking it to one community and religion is reflected in the following verse:
Kyun mujh ko banaate ho ta’assub ka nishaana
Main ne to kabhi ḳhud ko musalmaan nahi maana
Dekha tha kabhi main ne bhi ḳhushiyon ka zamaana
Apne hi vatan mein huun magar aaj akeli
Urdu hai mera naam main Khusro ki paheli
(ta’assub = prejudice)
I am sure that the lovers of Urdu – from all the religions – are there in a large number and their love for Urdu in a time of hate is a big boost to this shireen (sweet) language. I conclude this write-up with a nazm on Urdu written by me:
