URDU
C.P. Bhambri on Urdu Language: A Victim of Indian History
The partition of India had many negative consequences for the Pakistani and Indian society, and one of the victim of such "negativism" was Urdu, a purely Indian and Extremely creative language. Mohammad Ali Jinnah killed Urdu in East Bengal and weak and opportunistic secular parties neglected Urdu in North India. A few important points about the development of any language may be made to situate the neglect of Urdu Language in Independent India.
1. First, market acts as a push and pull factor for the growth or neglect of a language. Urdu cannot get encouragement from economic transactional market. But it can get great patronage from cultural market of India. The popular Indian Cinema depends a lot on story writers and poets and others who have great knowledge of Urdu. But if the pipeline of supply is blocked, there is no prospect of Masoom Raza Rahis and Naushads to emerge. And if the audience is not trained in the nuances of language, Qawwali and Ghazal will also die.
2. Hindu communal forces, on the one hand, and, weak, vacillating and opportunist secular forces, on the other, have created an atmosphere for the decline of Urdu, and this is irrespective of the reasons of the BJP and such secularists being quite different. Why is Urdu dependent on polities? In a multilingual country, languages have to be legitimized by public opinion and political parties.The DMK in Tamil Nadu spearheaded the movement for Tamil language. In Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party has taken up the cause of Telugu. Similarly, in Karnataka, all major political parties have championed the cause of Kannada. Same is the story about Hindi. Urdu received a very weak political support in Independent India.
3. In Northern India, Urdu has completely vanished due to anti-Urdu conspiracies, of the fascist Hindu and chauvinist Hindi forces. There is no arrangement of Urdu teaching at any level in northern Indian states. As a result, three post-independent generations of Muslims in India are devoid of knowledge of Urdu ... Then for the third Muslim generation, the problem of Urdu is no problem at all. It is ironical to note that under the category of modern Indian language in three-language formula, Sanskrit, instead of Urdu, is taught surprisingly, no voice of protest has been ever raised.
4. Gandhi and Nehru had a language policy in "Hindustani". Hindi and Urdu would have become indispensable twins.
5. Hindi and Urdu as natural twins were separated by the politics of religion and backward caste in, North India. Hindi was appropriated by High Caste Hindus and also the champions of Backward caste rural peasantry in UP and Bihar.
6. The weak secular parties, like the Congress in UP and Bihar, did not play any active role in promoting Urdu as a second language. In the 1980s and 1990s the JD accorded respectability to the Urdu Language. Even this was done in a very half-hearted manner.
7. Elite perception of education has changed and no public school has shown any interest in Urdu. Whatever little teaching of Urdu is undertaken; it is of very poor quality because the Indian Elite has abandoned Urdu.
8. Uptil 1989, during the Congress rule, the issue of Urdu did surface occasionally, but after 1989 when the Janata Dal came to power, the issue of Urdu was shelved forever. Before the 1989 general elections the ruling Congress Govt. during its last session in the UP Assembly had approved a bill to make Urdu the second official language of the state, but the Hindu upper caste lobby in the Congress, in consonance with the Nagri Pracharini Sabha, managed to obtain a "Stay" from the Allahabad High Court, and thereby stopped the implementation of this Bill. The case is still pending. Meanwhile neither any political nor any Urdu organisation has ever tried to have it revoked. (To sum up), conspiracy of factors has worked against Urdu because it was disowned or very weakly accepted by the political class.
A rich and creative language like Urdu has a bleak future unless elite academic institutions make provision for its teaching. The so-called exclusive Urdu medium schools can only be a non-starter as promoter of the language because of their overall poverty and under- development. The growth and development of Urdu in India depends solely upon voluntary Muslim organizations, for which they will have to undertake the difficult task of building political pressure. What needs to be done is to begin a fresh struggle for the rights and appropriate status of Urdu. Nevertheless, to achieve a desirable and positive result the so-called Urdu champions who are associated with government and semi-government organizations and who care for self-benefits, in short the Pro-establishment Muslims, should be kept at a distance.
(Paper at Seminar on A. Salam Foundation's Education on Muslims of India, New Delhi)
Government Statements On Three Language Formula
In order to make provision for teaching of minority languages or mother tongue, the Union Education Ministry in consultation with the States/UTs formulated the Three Language Formula in 1957-58. This formula was simplified at the Chief Minister's Conference, 1961. This simplifies Three Language Formula which was subsequently incorporated in the National Policy on Education, 1968 is a vital constituent of the nationally agreed schemes of safeguards for linguistic minorities.
The Three Language Formula, which applies to Secondary stage of school education provides the study of a Modern Indian Language (MIL), preferably one of the Southern languages, apart from Hindi and English in Hindi speaking States and study of the regional language apart from Hindi and English in non-Hindi speaking States. According to the 31st Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India (for the period July 1990 to June 1991), all the States with the exception of Tamil Nadu, J&K and Pondicherry have implemented the Three Language Formula.
Medium of Instruction
The National Curricular Framework for Elementary and Secondary Education, brought out by the NCERT in 1988 on the basis of the postulates of NPE, 1986 provides that mother tongue should be the medium of instruction. The framework also provides the following:
"In the case of learners whose mother tongue is also the language of the region, the medium of instruction at the elementary and secondary stage should be the regional language. In the case of those whose mother tongue is different from the regional language, the mother tongue may be used as medium during the first two years of primary education, and the regional language should be used subsequently.
No Review Envisaged
At present, there is no proposal to convene a meeting of Chief Ministers and Education Ministers for the purpose to review the working of the Three Language Formula. However, State Governments have been urged from time to time to adopt and vigorously implement the Three Language Formula. The role of Central Government in the matter of implementation of Three Language Formula is recommendatory. The implementation of the Three Language Formula is the sole responsibility of the State Governments.
On Birth Anniversary of Munshi Prem Chand
An amount of Rs.25,000/- was sanctioned in favour of Shri Prem Chand Memorial Building and Development Scheme Committee, Lamhi, Varanasi for holding a Seminar on 31st July, 1995 to celebrate the birth anniversary of Munshi Prem Chand.
Report of the States Reorganisation Commission, 1956 Summary of Recommendations on Safeguards for Linguistic Groups
Constitutional recognition should be given to the right of linguistic minorities to have instruction in their mother-tongues at the primary school stage subject to a sufficient number of students being available. The Central Government should acquire power to enforce this right on the lines of the provisions contained in Article 347 of the Constitution. (Paragraphs 757 to 776)
The Government of India should adopt, in consultation with the State Governments, a clear code to govern the use of different languages at different levels of State administrations and take steps, under Article 347, to ensure that this code is followed. (Paragraphs 778 to 785)
The domicile tests in force in certain States operate to the disadvantage of minority groups. The Government of India should, therefore, undertake legislation under Article 16(3) of the Constitution in order to simplify and liberalise the requirements as to residence. (Paragraphs 786 to 788).
In examinations regulating entry into the public services of the states, a candidate should have the option to elect as the medium, apart from the main language of the State, the Union language, namely, English or Hindi, or the language of a minority constituting about fifteen to twenty per cent or more of the population of the State (Paragraphs 789 to 790).
As far as possible, Public Service Commissions should be constituted to serve more than one State. (Paragraph 791).
Appointments to Public Service Commissions serving even single states be made by President as in the case of appointment to joint Public Service Commissions. (Paragraph 791).
The services of the Governors should be utilised for enforcing the safeguards for linguistic minorities. (Paragraphs 792 to 800).
National Urdu Development Council: Muslim Members
(Ms) Jilani Bano : Malikzada Manzoor Ahmad
Abdul Mughni : Nizamuddin S. Gorekar
Shahid Siddiqui : Abdul Fazal Sahar
Salma Siddiqui : Mustaba Husain
Mohd. Zaman Ajurda : Syed Manzoor Ahmad
Syed Azam Husain : (Ms.) Syeda Syedain
S.M.H, Rizvi : S.G.A .· Naqvi