Teri Aakhain Khuda Mehfooz Rakahay,
Teri aakhon mein hairani bahot hai
(May God keep your eyes safe, because they are full of wonder and surprise)
-Sheen Kaf Nizam
Recently, the Iqbal award conferred by Madhya Pradesh government for Urdu writing was presented at Bhopal to Shiv Kumar Nizam, who writes under nam de plume of Sheen Kaf Nizam. This has become a topic of controversy.Somebody observed "If selecting a non-Muslim was a criterion for the BJP government then Balraj Komal would have been a great choice". Some body else reported (Chandrabhan) Khayal as saying
"Unfortunately Hindu writers are given so much respect amongst Urdu-speakers but most Hindus believe that Urdu is a Muslim language, kuchh halaat hi is mulk ke aise ban gaye hain, kya kiya jaye"
On the other hand, according to wiki "Because of Urdu's extreme similarity to Hindi, speakers of the two languages can usually understand one another, if both sides refrain from using specialized vocabulary. Indeed, linguists sometimes count them as being part of the same language diasystem. However, Urdu and Hindi are socio-politically different, and people who self-describe as being speakers of Hindi would question their being counted as native speakers of Urdu, and vice-versa." Top three nations with speakers of Urdu language are:
India (48.1 million [1997])
Pakistan (10.7 million [1993])
Bangladesh (650,000)
Meanwhile a hot discussion about Sahir Ludhyanvi , and through him about Urdu, is on. Check it out
I am a poet. I feel that Urdu is a very elegant and refined language and I would really like to learn it.
ReplyDelete