By Imran Inamdar, Twocircles.net
Solapur: The Department of Urdu, SSA Arts and Commerce College, Solapur organised a two-day national seminar on ‘Information technology ke daur mein Urdu ka Suratehal’ (The state of Urdu in the age of Information Technology) in collaboration with University of Grants Commission.
The two-day seminar, held on September 24 and 25, discussed the challenges that the language faced in the modern age, and how the language could be brought more in tune with the current levels of other languages.
The seminar was inaugurated by Noor Maldar Vice. Chancellor of Solapur University in the presence of Viqar Sheikh, Dr. Gaus Sheikh, Principal of SSA Arts College M.A Dalal, Faiz Inamdar and Ayyub Nallamandu.
During his inaugural speech Dr. Noor said that in this age of technology, competition has increased substantially. “We need to be fully prepared with adequate research work. This is the only way we can keep Urdu updated,” he said.
Dr. Major Afsar Farooqui, Head, Urdu Department, Ismail Yusuf college, Mumbai was the chief guest at the event. In his keynote address, he said contrary to what a lot of people said, the modern age has given new avenues to Urdu. “We now have E-books ,online magazines along with the regular Urdu books, newspapers and magazine. They are all easily available online. Urdu is in a promising situation right now and its future is also bright,” he said.
The seminar was concluded in five sessions wherein nearly 36 research scholars revealed their studies and guided the assembly.
Speaking with the Twocircles.net, convener of the seminar Shafi Chobdar commented that in this era of information technology where English is dominating, Urdu language lovers must do all that is possible to maintain its importance and dignity. He says that this seminar was a small effort to engross Urdu in this IT domain and provide opportunities to all the scholars and students to unveil their research work.
Principal of the college M.A Dalal said, “This was an attempt to highlight the importance of preserving our mother tongue. Scholars from four states attended the seminar and expressed their ideas on the topic. We believe that this awareness campaign should be carried out by other institutions of India too.”