By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: The Urdu literary awards of Madhya Pradesh Urdu Academy were presented in a glittering function at the Mulla Ramuzi Sanskriti Bhavan here on Thursday evening in the presence of overflowing gathering of Urdu lovers. The awards for 2010-11 were presented to Urdu litterateurs amidst thunderous applause.
Member of Parliament Kailash Joshi and ex-MP Kailash Narain Sarang were present at the program which was presided over by noted poet Padamshree Dr. Basheer Badr, who is chairman of the Urdu Academy.
The awardees were presented cheques, mementos and shawls. The Madhya Pradesh Urdu Academy had announced the national and State level awards for 2010-11 recently. The awards are conferred for commendable services provided to the Urdu language by litterateurs.
Speaking on the occasion Kailash Joshi lauded the activities of the Urdu Academy and stressed that promotion and propagation of Urdu language is the need of the hour. He said in the last more than 500 years different people and races have been coming to India and there was a need felt for a common language for one and all. Urdu language, thus, evolved by the amalgamation of various languages. It started to be spoken for last several hundred years by the common man and the elite and the magic of the language due to its richness and depth spread all over the country.
However, Joshi lamented that in the present era there seems to be some indifference towards this language and it is languishing. The rot which has set in due to negligence by the people should be arrested and the pristine glory of the Urdu language restored with the hope that the new generation would adopt it in a big way.
He moaned that the new generation is neither attracted towards Urdu nor to Hindi but feels pride in learning English language alone because the society has given more importance than it is due to it. Taking up the learning of English only and neglecting Urdu and Hindi which are their mother tongues is a great disservice to these Indian languages, he remarked.
Kailash Sarang, who was the guest of honour on the occasion, bemoaned that Urdu which was his language has been associated with Muslims alone. This notion should be done away with and through Urdu Academy efforts should be made that the people of all faiths and creeds take up learning of Urdu language without having bias towards it. He said the Madhya Pradesh Government had increased the budget of Urdu Academy so that Urdu language could spread its wings and more and more people motivate their children to study it. If need be initiatives could be taken to get the budget of the Urdu Academy increased, he added.
Maulana Ashfaque Mushhadi Nadwi, Madhya Pradesh Special Correspondent of Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, who was honoured with national level Hakim Qamr-ul-Hasan award for Urdu journalists, presented a paper on the occasion. The title of the paper was “Urdu Sahafat –Andeshe Aur Imkanat”. He said in the paper that today is spoken and read more in the country than before and its future is bright. To buttress his point he gave the examples of “Sehroza Dawat” and “Rashtriya Sahara” which can be seen in the country.
“Dawat” is an example of missionary spirit while “Rashtriya Sahara” is true picture of professionalism, Maulana Ashfaque asserted. The two streams which these two Urdu newspapers have carved out others can tread on these paths in Urdu journalism and strive to reach its zenith, he added.
Earlier, Ms Nusrat Mehdi, secretary MP Urdu Academy, welcomed the guests and threw light on the various activities of the academy to promote Urdu language and literature.
Mirza Jafar Baig, vice chairman of the Urdu Academy, while proposing vote of thanks said apart from honouring Urdu litterateurs and publishing their books, holding Mushairas (poetic meets), the Academy is doing basic work of conducting coaching classes of Urdu language. The Urdu coaching classes are being conducted in different cities of the state by the Academy wherein people of different religion and faiths are taking advantage of it and learning Urdu language, he added.
Others felicitated with the national-level awards included: Zafar Sehbai for the Meer Taqi Meer Award, Qaiser Siddiqui for the Hamid Saeed Khan award, Ishrat Wahid for Shadan Indori Award and Mushtaq Waleed for the Johar Qureshi award.
While those conferred State-level awards were: Shakeel Gwaliori for the Siraj Meer Khan Sehar award, Shan Fakhri for the Basit Bhopali award, Abdul Hai Anjum for the Mohamed Ali Taj award, Iqbal Girami for the Nawab Siddique Hasan Khan award, Farukh Anjum for the Sheri Bhopali award, Khalida Siddiqui for the Kaif Bhopali award, Om Prabhakar for the Sukhan award and Qazi Malik Naved for the Shifa Gwaliori award.
An All India Mushaira was held on the occasion after the awards presentation ceremony. The Mushaira was compeered by poet Mansoor Usmani of Moradabad. Mohammad Anees Ansari of Urdu Academy gave a brief account of the poets who participated in the Mushaira. ([email protected])