RESERVATION URDU
(Provision of) reservation of seats in general and professional colleges for students belonging to other backward classes (OBCs) is under active consideration of the Government.
(Source: LSUQ No. 711 dated 30 November, 1995 by M.R. Saikia)
On Reservation on the Basis of Religion
There is no proposal for giving separate reservation on the basis of religion in public employment and educational institutions. However, those sections of the religious minority communities which are socially and educationally backward have been included in the Central List of Other Backward Classes for the purposes of providing reservation in direct recruitment in civil posts and services under the Government of India. The proposal to discuss this matter with the political parties is being examined.
(Source: LSUQ No. 1754 dried 7 December, 1995 by BC. Khanduri & A.B Vajpayee)
Quota for Christians Editorial, The Hindustan Times, 23 Nov. 1995
As if the cause itself was not controversial The Catholic Bishops Conference of India compounded its espousal by forcing on Tuesday the closure of hundreds of schools and colleges managed by the community to press for the extension of reservation benefits to Dalits converted to Christianity... The coercive tactic was employed, keeping in mind the electoral exigencies of the Congress, which could not afford the alienation of another minority community after the disenchantment of the Muslims. But in case the government does not give in to the patently preposterous demand, will the closure of the hospitals and medical centers run by the community by the next step? Though constituting only 2.34 per cent of the population, Christians manage over 20 per cent of the educational institutions in the country, with a degree of autonomy in administration and admission matters that sets them apart as a privileged community. But if this clout is used to press demands that will not stand scrutiny, it will amount to the misuse of the special rights on education that cannot but harm the interests of the community itself.
For once, Mother Teresa has extended her support a campaign that has sadly brought her down from the pedestal, she occupies in the eyes of the nation as an apostle of peace harmony and compassion. The day-long dharna she observed on Saturday in solidarity with the Bishops' Movement goes against the grain of all that she has stood for so long. The constitutional provision for reservation was put in place only for Scheduled Castes within the Hindu fold as society's atonement for the injustice meted out to the outcasts, The demand for extending quotas to Muslims and Christians can be countenanced only on the admission that their social structure also suffers from the same inequities that the caste system represents in Hinduism. But when egalitarianism is projected as the distinctive feature of these two minority faiths, she insidious injection of the caste cleavage flies in the face of logic. The clamour for the reservation cake is solely due to the need to ensure that its absence does not act as a disincentive to conversion or spur the reverse flow.
Religion preaches that the way to truth is service and science provides us the means to do so. - Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma,
President of India
Sunil Sethi on Urdu Poetry
Two tragedies in independent India (are) hard to) stomach. One is a canard and the other a profound loss. The canard is the widely-held impression that Urdu is the language of Muslims. A greater lie than this was never told. And the loss is the death of poetry among the people. In my opinion, the death of poetry is directly related to the death of Urdu. Let me explain how not just a language but a whole way of life came to be assassinated.
Urdu is a language connected to a region, not a religion. It is not a very old language; in fact it is nothing more than a derivative of a dialect spoken down the centuries in the bazaars of Delhi and in parts of Haryana and western UP that was spiced up with bits of Persian and Hindi. Indeed, the word "Urdu" derives from the Turkish word for "army encampment"; it is the same root from which the English word "horde" derives.
Born in army camps as the illicit offspring of & AB. Vajpayee) Persian, the foreign language of the court, and Sanskrit, the indigenous language of Hindu scripture, it was widely popular because of its power o communicate. Ornate poetry and prose were written in Urdu but at its heart it remained a simple, stirring street language, a form of Hindustani commonly spoken and understood by Hindus and Muslims alike. That was the reason for its runaway success in north India. More Indians know Kaifi Azmi's lyrics in Kaagaz ke phool by heart than they do Bachchan's Madhushala.
The trouble started after Partition when Pakistan, in confirmation of a two-nation theory, appropriated Urdu, albeit a highly Persianized form of it, as its official language.
And India's response was to unofficially murder it by shoveling a Sanskritised Hindi down everyone's throat. You can divide a piece of territory into two but how do you tear a language in half? Urdu, the uniter of people, became a weapon in the hands of politicians to divide them. One result is that while many Pakistanis do not fully understand the high-flown Urdu of their TV news bulletins, most Indians cannot understand Doordarshan's Hindi. But listeners on both sides know exactly what's what when the poet starts singing.
Urdu verse lends itself naturally to music, which is why Bombay's film industry has been its content refuge in an inconstant world.
There is the old argument about whether the world would be a; better place to live in if poets and not politicians ran it... The real reason we need poets is that by communicating directly with people, they can speak the truth.
(Source: The Pioneer, 3 December, 1995)
