By Alim Naqvi,
Scepticism is bound to raise its head as the well-oiled machinery is firing on all its cylinders. There won’t be another such opportunity to act at will.
‘Jashn-e-Rekhta’ has raised a valid question. The vital one is if it was long drawn and well planned attempt to bereft Urdu of its beautiful script. Jashn-e-Rekhta was held at New Delhi on March 14-15 to “celebrate Urdu”.
(Courtesy: Rekhta Twitter)
A humble request to all the known and not so known Urdu ‘scholars’ to give a thought to above mentioned question. And question the founder of ‘Rekhta dot Com’ and Urdu ‘friend’ Sanjiv Saraf, as put by an Urdu journalist on March 16, that why the ‘Jashn-e-Rekhta’ is celebrated without Urdu script anywhere in sight?
The answer was so innocent to be believed, “It was a celebration of Urdu of course,” as if there was nothing missing!
A gentleman representing Asia Times, an Urdu portal, enquired Saraf the veracity of such love for Urdu where the language is disrobed from its apparel, the script. Saraf ignored the query and walked away quietly with a frowning glance. The gentleman at the crosswire of the glance has reported on the portal that his entire team could not trace any communication material which was written in Urdu script anywhere in the celebration area at the event venue. Yes, a small booklet containing a hundred Urdu couplets was albeit there at the reception.
Asia Times has clarified that it does not intend to ignore or unnecessarily question the hard work of Saraf in the service of the language. As anything good should be acknowledged, but any wrong must not be ignored just because it is committed by a non-Urdu speaking person.
We have amongst us such institutions who for a long time that are ‘promoting’ Urdu from a ‘Bhawan’ and are yet to coin a simple Urdu name. No doubt ‘Rekhta dot Com’ has more than a thousand poets and a 10,000 plus Ghazals besides many valuable and out of print books on it. This site has everything in Devnagri and Roman scripts also besides Urdu and that is its speciality; or else lakhs of pages containing Urdu literary treasure have been transferred on web by Rashid Ashraf from Karachi and Syed Manzar from Mumbai. That too without much tom-tom. All the Urdu-wallas, especially the Urdu lovers, must oppose any such nefarious attempt which leaves Urdu without its lovely script.
I am not against Saraf but every person attending the ‘Rekhta celebration’ must ask him the reason for keeping the Urdu script out of the function. Not only this, he should have been forced by the invitees to write the banners in beautiful Urdu script, instead of Roman. Would it have been possible for Sanjiv Saraf to ignore the request of delegates such as Intizar Husain, Shamsur Rehman Farooqui, Siddiqur Rehman Qidwai, Shamim Hanafi, Muzaffar Ali, Javed Akhtar, Rakhshanda Jalil, Amjad Islam Amjad, Anwar Shaoor, Mohammad Alvi, Nida Fazli and Wasim Barelvi for writing the banners in Urdu script?
Rakhshanda Jalil in her paper said, “It (the Jashn) is an opportunity to apprise ourselves where does Urdu belongs to in our day- to-day lives? Is Urdu language becoming a slave of ‘Ghazal singing’? It has become a fad to express one’s love for Urdu especially liking for ‘Ghalib ji’. It seems the way to fame is through ‘Bollywood’ only. And the most important question is, why is Urdu being driven away from its script?”
Answering these questions may not be easy but reciting an Elegy of Urdu is not easy either. Some day-dreamers for a long time have started discussing obituary of traditional lives and values attached to Urdu.
It is to be seen if any invitee to ‘Jashn-e-Rekhta’ and lover of Urdu is courageous enough answers questions raised by Rakhshanda Jalil.
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(The author can be reached at [email protected] )