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Two artists, a Christian and a Muslim, were drawing a couplet in Urdu on a wall when they were attacked by members claiming to belong to the Hindu right and told to stop. This was an unprecedented episode of cultural policing in the capital of India, a place which reverberates with a history of brilliant poets during the Mughal era, who wrote in Persian and Urdu, and who were part of the common Indo-Islamic culture that thrived in these parts.

Given below is a brilliant poem by Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee in response to this episode :

NO URDU IN DILLI, MIAN

For Akhlaq Ahmad and Swen Simon

You can’t write Urdu
On Dilli’s walls, Mian1
There’s a saffron lock
On your zuban2, Mian
Horsemen of all faith
Plundered Dilli’s rūḥ3,
They only blame it on
Your ancestors, Mian
From Bīdel to Ghalib
Run rosaries in Urdu,
They embalm history
With rare attar4, Mian
You outlaw a tongue
By policing the wall?
The gardens, the air,
Breathe Urdu, Mian
In the heart of Dilli
Graves speak Urdu,
Even parrots, dusk,
And my jigar5, Mian
Menaings
1 Respectful address of a Muslim
2 Tongue
3 Soul
4 Fragrance made of rose petals
5 Liver, Shakespeare’s “seat of passion”
source: http://www.rattle.com/no-urdu-in-dilli-mian-by-manash-firaq-bhattacharjee/

 

In an interesting article written by Paromita Vora for Mid day she discusses the language of Urdu and its perception in India today.

Responding to the same episode that took place in delhi she says ” This anatagonism was in response to the common, but lately, toxic, divided thinking which sees Urdu as a Muslim language, while Hindi is Hindu and, by extension, national or Indian,”

Our attempt at Urduwallahs has always been to break this stereotype. Languages do not have any religious connotations.

You can read the entire article here : http://www.mid-day.com/articles/paromita-vohra-the-tip-of-your-tongue/17282150

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