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Promotion of Urdu Sir, Urdu has been facing odds from the very beginning. And there is no doubt about it. In J&K Urdu is the official language of the state under Art 145 of J&K Constitutions. To adopt it as an official language is not a novel step in the state in post independence era. History provides us various facts regarding its official status as it was adopted for the first time as the official language by Abrahim Adil Shah in 16th century, a great ruler of Bijapur (Deccan) of Adil Shahi Kingdom. in Deccan, it got its recognition through poetry during the Bhamni Kingdom (1347-1529). After the downfall of Bhamni Kingdom, five independent States Adil Shahi, Qutub Shahi, Nizam Shahi, Barid Shahi and Imad Shahi dopted it. These States produced eminent scholars. In South, therefore, it was both a means of communication and official language for administration. In 1830 A.D it was adopted as a language of law courts and administration in the areas, presently known as Bihar, U.P, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. In 1837 British Government replaced Persian by Urdu and adopted it as a language of law courts and administration though in Roman script. This shows how popular and developed Urdu at that time was. A little after, Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898) and his comteporaries contributed greatly through Aligarh movement in the development of Urdu prose as the language of literary expression, courts and administration and also for scientific materials. Inspite of all that in the year 1949, Constituent Assembly recommended, voting for official language to be adopted. Hindi, which gained 78 votes against Urdu with 77 votes won by the narrowest margin of one vote only. Lastly, it was admitted in 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution as a regional language. Earlier, J&K State under Maharaja Hari Singh, adopted Urdu as an official language in 1888 which continued to be the official language of the state in post independence era. Last year Ministry of Education took a decision to make it as a compulsory subject both in government as well as in the private educational institutions. It was a novel step as this has been done for the first time in the history of State Education policy. But question arises whether we have succeeded in implementing this policy practically. The answer would be in negative. Most of the educational institutions are still without Urdu teachers. I would like to say that teaching of Urdu as a compulsory subject upto higher secondary level should be encouraged as it would develop an understanding between the minority and the majority linguistic groups. It is not just enough to make it as a compulsory subject but to develop its standard is the need of the day. Yours etc.... |
