The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Glossary of Urdu legal terms soon

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Tuesday, Jul 17, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Glossary of Urdu legal terms soon

J.S. Ifthekhar

Hussain’s labour of love is ready and awaiting publication

Syed Mushtaq Hussain

Hyderabad: What is the exact translation of Value Added Tax in Urdu? How do you describe bona vacantia, amicus curiae, quo warranto or for that matter injuria non excusat injuria.

No need to throw up your hands in despair. There are equivalents for all these terms in Urdu. In fact one can get the correct expressions for all those difficult to pronounce Latin words and phrases. Thanks to the efforts made by Syed Mushtaq Hussain it is now possible to find all administrative and legal terms in Urdu. His labour of love is at last ready and is awaiting publication.

The Glossary of Administrative and Legal Terms compiled by Mr. Hussain is a ready reference book for the terminology used by various Government departments.

With Urdu being declared second official language in 14 districts, this work gains all the more importance. Mr. Hussain, who retired as special officer of Urdu from Board of Intermediate Education, has taken seven long years to compile this glossary. Running into 922 typed pages, it provides translation of more than 70,000 terms from English to Urdu in alphabetical order.

The unique thing about this glossary is that it offers the correct Urdu words for the terms currently in use in various departments – Revenue, Irrigation, Registration, banking, Weights and Measures etc. It also contains a good amount of legal and business terms. “The glossary will be of immense help to students, translators, Urdu media and those doing official correspondence,” says Mr. Hussain.

The absence of a good dictionary of administrative terms in Urdu is said to be a major reason for its tardy pace of implementation as second official language.

During the erstwhile Nizam State, such a glossary was prepared by the Dar-ul-Tarjuma department of Osmania University. But it is all but lost.

A similar work was also undertaken by the Bureau for promotion of Urdu, Delhi. Mr. Hussain has made use of these works and added new words to come up with a comprehensive glossary to answer the present day needs.

Apart from time, he has spent substantial money from his pocket to prepare the glossary. But this pensioner doesn’t have the wherewithal to publish it. He hopes the Government or some organisation would bail him out.

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