The Ghost of Urdu

If I remember correctly, Indrajal Publications used to have ``Phantom`` (Vetaal) comics in the `60s, they would come out twice a month, and the blurbs were trilingual (English, Hindi & Urdu).

I don`t know if I have any left in trunks long unopened.

Also, as far as Urdu publications are concerned, go to any automobile ``press conference`` organised by inexpereinced manufacturers/PR outfits that have made the mistake of putting up advance notices on 5-star hotel lobby notice boards, and the rush of ``journalists`` from Urdu publications, especially near the bar/tikkas, would make the author proud!

Woh bhi kya din they jab khilona, Bisween Sadi, Huma, Huda, Shama, Banu, the Ibn Safi series and The Illustrated Weekly of India and The RD occupied a pride of place in our house.
I owe my knowledge of Urdu to my ammi who introduced me not only to the language but also its poetry. I still fondly remember the mushairas that I have attended with her. My mamu and she still continue with their night out to enjoy one.
My qalu used to challenge me to come up with an English equivalent for `ishq` while I was doing my masters in English literature! He used to enjoy my failed attempts! True, the intensity and `lachak` of Urdu remains unmatched.
I am glad my daughters go to a school which has Urdu as an optional language along with Hindi and Telugu, the State language.
Urdu might be a neglected language today but it will survive.
To end on a cheerful note, back when I was in school, ammi`s cousin got to know that her daughter had not only been expecting but had also delivered only when she received the snaps of the baby. When she complained, the daughter said, ``But ammi, mein ne tau aap ko khat may likha tha``.
The daughter did not know the Urdu script and had written in Hindi which the mother was unfamiliar with!

Interesting article.

I am a reborn Urdu officionado. My spoken Urdu is very slang, and my written Urdu has always been quite weak (this statement has actually become a status symbol in the upper-class English speaking crowd of Pakistan). This does not mean my English was strong. Just that I could never understand much Urdu, beyond Ishtiaq Ahmad`s Inspector Jamshed novels. I did not even graduate to Ibn-e-Safi`s Imran Series.

But through ghazal singers of South Asia, I have developed an interest in Urdu poetry again.

I have read quite a bit of English prose and poetry, some Punjabi poetry, and now some Urdu poetry. There is really no comparison. I think Shakespeare and Co. are quite over-rated in comparison with Ghalib and Bulleh Shah (my two favorite Urdu and Punjabi poets).

English is doing to Urdu, what Urdu seems to have done to other languages in Northern Sub-Continent. Urdu is getting a taste of its own medicine :-) Urdu is spoken by a minority of Pakistanis as their first language. Yet it has put languages like Punjabi and Pushto (spoken by more people in the whole area) out of business, as far as official and written languages go. There are still a few people who study Urdu literature in college, but hardly anyone gets degrees in Punjabi and Pushto, as far as I know.

Pakistan is thus a unique country, in that, it`s official language is the first language of only a small minority (six times as many Pakistanis probably speak some version of Punjabi as their first language, as compared to Urdu-speakers). It`s founder did not speak its official language. And its national anthem is in a language which no one speaks there, i.e. Persian.

I think there is one way that spoken Urdu/Hindi (what exactly the percentage difference in speaking these two?) may make a big comeback on the international scene. The language to know nowdays in the IT industry is obviously English. What is the second language to know? If you ask me, it is not French or German etc. It is Chinese. People with combined English and Chinese skills are worth their weight in gold, for businessmen. The next big market for IT could be South Asia. In which case, people with good English, Chinese and Urdu/Hindi skills may be worth their weight in Plutonium.

Just out of curiousity, is the primary difference in Urdu and Hindi, just on the written side? I can basically understand, all the Indian movies without any problem, other than words like Vishwas, and Patni, etc.

A living language must have the capacity for expressing all walks of human intellectual and practical engagements. Urdu lacks that capacity. Urdu is not the language of science and technology. It has ceased to be even the language of philosophy. Urdu`s strongest forte is poetry and other literary forms. Urdu poetry has its own problems; it is stagnant and lacks in dynamism and further development. Ghazal, although a powerful form of poetic expression, is a prisoner of its qafia and radeef. Its romanticism, metaphors and similies are old, jaded and overworked, and too familiar. The experiment in blank verse did not take off too well. Frequently, it is strained and prosaic. There are only a few modern poets who were able to inject new ideas and expressions in Urdu poetry; most others continue harping on the old themes,

Although I read mathematics and science in Urdu at high school; afterwards every thing was in English. For designing bridges, dams, and power plants, Urdu is no help. For comprehending general relativity and quantum mechanics, Urdu is nowhere on the horizon. English has successfully encroached into the literary domains also which were traditionally the preserves of Urdu language in Pakistan and India. Rushdie and other subcontinental English novelists are better known than any Urdu novelist.

When a language ceases to evolve, it dies. And Urdu is in its death throes. Bollywood cannot keep it alive for too long.

I dont think its gonna die off just yet... some ppl say there is some kind of renaissance, but i dont know... In Pakistan it is safe to say that Urdu is only still there in big numbers because of Punjab, as its only this province that educates its children in the national language, without even the option of a Punjabi education, so the 100 Million or so Punjabi people there communicate officially thru Urdu... though lately Punjabi ppl are beginning to protest this, especially when they look at other provinces....

For Urdu to survive a new vocabulary has to be created or older terms resurfaced with newer meanings, especially for technical vocabulary, for example can anyone tell me the Urdu or even Hindi (rich in ancient Sanskrit vocabulary) word for Browser, or Database, or Keyboard or even Internet??? If they are coined they have to be in general usage, which is the responsibility of society in general and govt in particular... however our society judges success and upward mobility by your ability to speak English not only professionally but in your personal life... English has heavily influenced all of our languages, and we have not been able to balance this influence well, having a lesser opinion of our own languages... even govt depts, such as PTV, ever listened to the news, seen how a few english words have creeped in, words for which there are perfect and used Urdu equivalents... when we were children (not that long ago) PIA in its better days used to have a magazine called Humsafar, most of the content would be in Urdu, there were many Urdu quizzes and riddles to solve, and i rememebr a section where they would introduce new words into the Urdu lexicon, with an explanation of these terms... i had the opportunity/misfortune of using their services again this year, when i seen Hamsafar now, most of its content is in English, with less Urdu articles, letters to the editor in English etc...

Whats worse is that though words like Keyboard, database etc. are being taken from English (no crime, as every language is influenced by others) but there is absolutley no attempt to make these words fit into Urdu or Hindi and they sound so out of place, a prime example of this speech is our very own Maharajah, HRH General Mushy... if you ever listen to any of the speeches he makes to the nation, you will wonder how on earth the average Pakistani can understand what he is saying, on the other hand if you listen to Vajpayee, he uses very few words from English and speaks a good level of Hindi, he really does sound like the PM of India...

English has a place in our lives, and so does Urdu, we need to try and find the correct balance, we will reach it eventually...

Romair

Other than script, Urdu and Hindi differ in higher vocabulary, Hindi drawing from Sanskrit and Urdu mainly from Farsi, Arabic, Turkish... thats the only major difference really, however as we are seeing, slowly Sanskrit, Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish will be replaced by English for the use of higher vocabulary...

freethiker #4:

I think you are a bit harsh on Urdu for the reasons whch have nothing to do with Urdu. The reason was elitism of poets in particular whose patronage did not come from masses but elite. Therefore, the poets produced literature for the mutually exclusive club of poets in mushairas and their sponsors. The Arab and Persian origins of Urdu symbols, metaphors, allegories etc were also pleasing to the patrons over desi metaphors.

The history of ghazal takes us to Arabic language with conservative culture and difficulty to express illicit affairs with straught tongue and honesty. To circumvent the societal disapproval of love affairs, they have to use excessive metaphors/ symbols in qaseedas and created symbols of saqi, sharab and shrab khana. Later on, some poets, in fact, started describing these symbols as realities. From there it came to Persoa and highly developd by Hafiz with no restriction of describing affairs between sexes but any topic. But patronage in India, pushed it back to romance-ridden poetry. Urdu had the power, as Faiz explored to create literature on any contemporary topic.

No language in subcontinent is science and technology language and Urdu is not unique on that regard. However, political history elevated Urdu`s status disproportioanately in extra-territorial sense. Now it is coming back to natural status of a language in subcontinent as the language of a culture whose mother tongue is Urdu. In the absense of same political history of the past, other languages are maturing and it seems to be coming at the expense of Urdu. The fact is that English is replacing Urdu and not native languages. Native language speakers were always speaking those languages, but now they are being heard for the first time in subcontinent history.

The only unique thing about Urdu is that its has shifting territorial geography while others are entrenched in their particular territorial areas. Urdu was trans-territorial language and now English is fast becoming trans-territoiral worldwide.

Urdu is still producing more literature than many of the competitive native languages; it is still widely spoken by urban middle classes of Pakistan but future looks bleak due to many areas of Urdu promotion in decline and losing to Englsih and native languages; music being one of them. In the age of return of the folk music with modern beat, Urdu has no chance because it never penetrated in the folk music of Pakistan. An official withdrawal of its status as national language is in the cards in very near future because in cutthroat multiparty competition for public support, this is a very juicy issue, waiting to be hijacked by one or another group. It will suffer a major blow once official advertisements in Urdu dailies come in competition with native language dailies. In media, the private chanels are not bound by any law to speak any language. A Pashtu, Sindhi or Panjabi speaking radio or TV stattion could take away big chunk of business from Urdu market of Radio Pakistan, PTV and other chanels.

Last thing to mention is resistance of Urdu to accept and absorb vocabulary of the territorial cultures whereas all native cultures have absorbed as many as 10-20 percent Urdu words in their vocabulary or lingua franca. Actually Panjabi can be written with as much as 80 percent Urdu and Persian words but Urdu does not do it except little use of Hindi lately with words like milan, gagan, agan in Hindi movie songs etc. I know of no Sindhi word common in Urdu language, originally borrowed from Sindhi although Sindh is the territory where Urdu is mostly florishing right now.

Sameer sahab,

I have been a fan of your knowledge,research and erudition since long. However, sometimes your take on Urdu surprises me. For example you wrote on 1st July2003 on another thread:

``The origin of ghazal writing comes from the red light districts of Persia and Arabia.``
You never responded to my query regarding the source of this theory.And here you mention:

``The history of ghazal takes us to Arabic language with conservative culture and difficulty to express illicit affairs with straught tongue and honesty. To circumvent the societal disapproval of love affairs, they have to use excessive metaphors/ symbols in qaseedas and created symbols of saqi, sharab and shrab khana. Later on, some poets, in fact, started describing these symbols as realities.``

Basically Qaseedas are paen to an influential individual, usually a Ruler, Nawab or King in anticipation of material gains and it does not involve saqi, sharab or sharab khana, instead it is full of razm,bazm, tareef and shuja`at etc. of the person involved which may or may not be factual. It was basically a form of flattery at the highest level. The metaphor/symbols you are talking about may have their origins in Brij Bhasha, the mother of modern day Urdu, which are full of cheR-chaR between Krishna and Radha and her friends.

I have a feeling you are being facetious and pulling a fast one ignorants like me. :)

Urdu is the language which developed over so many years through interaction of so many local languages. Now it`s not what it used to be 200 years ago. Every region has developed a different flavour of the Urdu language suiting its needs.
Urdu language is a constantly evolving language and its success lies in the very fact that it takes up words from other languages and makes them a part of itself. The need now is not to take Urdu as a holy cow and let it evolve its natural way. Let it come up with new ideas, new literature. The very cause of resisting a change may result in its decline.
So now whether its English or French language forcing its way into our societies, believe me in the future Urdu will be still a part of mine and your life, though maybe in a very different form.

I cannot see how Urdu can go away as a spoken language. In fact, Urdu/Hindi is one of the highest spoken languages in the world (as a first or second language). South Asia has behind technologically for centuries, yet Urdu and other languages have survived.

Urdu`s importance as a written language will continue to reduce, as the literacy rate increases. Much like what has happened to Punjabi and Pushto. No one really writes much in these languages any more. So, if there is something to replace Urdu, as a written language, and that becomes popular, and the literacy rate of Pakistan reaches a level, where everyone can understand it, then Urdu may die off as a written language.

However, if the literacy rate stays around the same, then it cannot die of - at least not in Pakistan. Because there is no other language that most of the Pakistanis can read and write in. Though one cannot tell from Chowk, but a very very small percentage in Pakistan can read or write English. The distribution of English newspapers is probably between 1 to 5% of the total population.

If the literacy rate gets really really high, then Urdu could develop a technological base of its own, and survive, much like French and other languages have survived (even though the world communicates in English). If the literacy rate reaches in between these two levels, where a lot of people can read English, but there occurs no technological base in Urdu, then Urdu could go away as a written language.

Maybe the above in happening in India, and that is why Urdu is dying. But in Pakistan, there are still far more prominent Urdu writers and poets than English writers and poets. Every Pakistani speaks and/or understands it either as a first language or as a second language.

Banjara Saheb #7:

Yes, I recall having posted similar opinion before and you wanted to discuss it further. Most of the sites refer to one excerpt from a book by K. C. Kanda about the history of ghazal and gere it is:

From http://www.msci.memphis.edu/~ramamurt/ghazal.html

(Excerpts from Masterpieces of Urdu Ghazal - From 17th to 20th Century, by K.C. Kanda)

[Ghazal originated in Iran in the 10th century A.D. It grew from the Persian qasida, which verse form had come to Iran from Arabia. The qasida was a panegyric written in praise of the emperor or his noblemen. The part of the qasida called tashbib got detached and developed in due course of time into the ghazal. Whereas the qasida sometimes ran into as many as 100 couplets or more in monorhyme, the ghazal seldom exceeded twelve, and settled down to an average of seven. Because of its comparative brevity and concentration, its thematic variety and rich suggestiveness, the ghazal soon eclipsed the qasida and became the most popular form of poetry in Iran.
The ghazal came to India with the advent and extension of the Muslim influence from the 12th century onwards. The Moghuls brought along with them Iranian culture and civilization, including Iranian poetry and literature. When Persian gave way to Urdu as the language of poetry and culture in India, the ghazal, the fruit of Indo-Iranian culture, found its opportunity to grow and develop. Although the ghazal is said to have begun with Amir Khusro (1253-1325) in Northern India, Deccan in the South was its real home in the early stages. It was nursed and trained in the courts of Golconda and Bijapur under the patronage of Muslim rulers. Mohd. Quli Qutab Shah, Wajhi, Hashmi, Nusrati and Wali may be counted among its pioneers. Of these, Wali Deccany (1667-1707) may be called the Chaucer of Urdu poetry. Wali`s visit to Delhi made in 1700 acquires a historic significance. This visit was instrumental in synthesizing the poetic streams of the South and the North. Wali`s poetry awakened the minds of the Persian-loving North to the beauty and richness of Urdu language, and introduced them to the true flavor of ghazal, thus encouraging its rapid growth and popularity.]

There, however, much better academic discussion exists on the web at

From http://www.urdustudies.com/

It is an annual journal from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. By the way, for Urdu lovers it is a great 8-9 volumes of journals to read from archives. Within this site, one can search for origin of ghazal and it reveals many articles. What I said previously or now is basically what I read over there by Pritchett, Hanaway and Khurshidul Islam.

It is very understanding by visualizing 5-10th century Arabia, where all romantic love before marriage was considered illicit and subject to persecution by the pillars of society - the tribal elders. The marriages were arranged between people of same tribe or political marriages with other tribes. One can not brag about his/ her love with directly naming the other person involved. Another added element to that was man-to-man love, particularly with younger boys.

The gender had to be fuzzy, masculine or neutral in describing the romantic love with a partner. However working/ dancing girls in qahba khanas provided a good metaphor to describe the beauty of female beloved without revealing the name of actual female in question. From there, it also added other symbols of that profession and so on. However, once it came ot Persia, it was a literary form of poetry (with particular metering and length) which was very useful in describing summarized form of feelings or headlines.

The Brij Bhasha was very useful in settling the gender difficulty with poet playing the role of female (Radha) and yearning for the teaser-hard-to-get lover (Krishna). However, this technique was not much used in classical Urdu poetry. It founded its real use in Sufi poetry and love with god. The classical Urdu poetry actually treats both lover and beloved as male or gender neutral. Many Poets did express craving for the union with beloved in female terms without using female gender.

Once romantic love no longer remained illicit in Iran, the ghazal writing declined and almost lost its position once it enjoyed during 10th century and Hafiz. But in subcontinent it continued because of persian-afghan-turkish elites` patronage with public taking little interest in it. When public takes any interest, first sign of it is singing and enveloping it into folk. Ghazal never reached that point. Even the ghazal metering system did not penetrate most north Indian folk singing poetry.

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re: status of Urdu in the subcontinent
Urdu has become a victim of politics. Before partition, Urdu was widely spoken in undivided India: both by muslims and hindus. Few spoke Hindi (only the north indian brahmins taught their children Hindi). Then came partition and Urdu was being projected as the language of muslims. So, Hindi was revived and has grown tremendously today, leaving Urdu far, far behind in India. Urdu survives in Pak but only a small percentage of people speak it. It survives due to official patronage.
In India, Urdu is spoken by muslims alone. Even among the muslims, it is a dying language. I read somewhere that even Ismat Chaughtai`s own daughter could not read and write Urdu! One need to watch the movie ``Mehfooz`` (or ``IN Culstody``) based on a novel by Anita Desai to understand the plight of Urdu in India.
Ultimately, Urdu will survive in some form in the movies. Those words ``mohabbat``, ``Isq`` etc have become a common bollywood vocabulary. Few realise that these are actually Urdu words and most songs in Bollywood are actually in Urdu (reason why Pakis can watch these film and understand them well). Bollywood has done more towards keeping this language alive than anything else.
Sridhar

the undoing of this one of the most gorgeous languages -- is its scripting -- rusmulkhat --

as some one has said -- ke aati hai Urdu zabaN atey atey -- it is one of the most difficult to learn -- one of the most difficult to write or to type or to adapt to computer -- for anybody

I don`t know about Pakistan but in India if Urdu has to be a language of the people it has to adopt the Devnagri script -- and the Devnagri script must be reformed to add guttral phonetics such Qaaf not Kaaf -- Ghain not Gain -- KHoobsoorut not khoobsurat -- or something like Zaad not Jaad -- Sheen not seen --

though a bund like -- ley gaya jalim chorakar soney kee janjeer bhi -- has its own rural charm -- the Hindi script has to change as well-- to accomodate the Uru phonetics --

and for heavens sake friends -- please dont communalize Urdu --

Urdu is NOT the exclusive jaidad of a language of -- Muslims --

it`s a language that Hindus, Sikhs, Christians AND Buddhist speak -- current Urdu has been enriched MORE or MOST by the Hindus and the Sikhs than by the Muslims.....

I have here in US a Tibetan Buddhist friend from Dhramshala who speaks chaste ``Upean`` Urdu...

so please no communal business with Urdu......

re:#13 by nasah
Actually, Hindi does have those guttaral phoenetics. Kaif is written with a usual Ka and a dot below. Z of Zameer is written with a Ja and a dot below and so on. Hindi has borrowed liberally from Urdu but these urdu words are discouraged by puritans. Examiners may not be happy if you use too many of those words in a hindi exam!
Sridhar

#14

though ppl my try to project Urdu as a `Muslim` language, history has shown otherwise, when i did my A level we were introduced to Urdu short stories most of which were written by Hindus and Sikhs, most of these stories were prepartition or not long after... there were numerous authors, like Munshi Prem Chand, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Krishan Chandr, Balwant Singh, Surinder Prakash, Upindranath Ashik etc. I also noticed how in that time, the language of the short stories, be it written by any one, easily chopped and changed between what is now described as Hindi and Urdu as and when required, in terms of the vocabulary used...

those stories have substance and and touch on many issues in ways that hardly anyone does now... i am sure they will survive, be it devanagri or nastaliq...

#13

regarding script, nastaliq is very easy to learn, its not hard at all... many of the authors used to write in both Hindi and Urdu in both scripts, but that was the education system of those people in those days... there are many primers available online even, to teach you how to read and write in nastaliq...

yes it is a difficult one to work with technically but no where near as hard as Mandarin or Cantonese, and there are many web sites (www.bbcUrdu.com) and technical programs written in Urdu, the fact that Arabs did not learn English has helped all languages using Arabic script derivatives also, the Arabs (or Microsoft) have developed standards for right to left scripting etc so this is standard, just as all Indic scripts are also standard now, if u have XP/W2000 and have the Microsoft visual keyboard, you can write Word/Excel/PowerPoint files in devanagri and nastaliq in the same document if u want...

i learnt devanagri script first from a friend after which it got rusty then from watching the indian drama serials that used to come on Zee, they used to have credits in both english and devanagri, i started to pick out the odd characters and then some more and could make out easy names like Raja Ram etc, later i just bought a book to learn devanagri properly, it was refreshing, i could read a book in hindi, another new world opens up we already understand hindi/urdu by learning the script it gives you acces to so much more of it... though i`m back to being rusty with devanagri for now...

anyone can learn the other script, its just finding the time...