New Delhi   

Tracing the journey of Urdu over centuries

NEW DELHI: Come next week and Jamia Millia Islamia will narrate the story of the rich Urdu language and its journey over centuries.

The Outreach Programme of Jamia has organised a public screening of a film titled “Urdu Hai Jiska Naam” at the Ansari Auditorium on the campus this coming Tuesday.

Directed by Subhash Kapoor, the film has been researched and scripted by Sohail Hashmi, who is a founder-member of SAHMAT and also the elder brother of theatre actor-playwright late Safdar Hashmi.

The story of Urdu begins many centuries before the arrival of the language itself. It starts with the break away from Sanskrit with Gautam Buddha and Mahavir Jain using the Pali and Prakrit, leading to the birth of Gujarati, Sindhi, Punjabi, Maithli and Bangla in the 11th Century.

“The arrival of the Sufis, the Central Asian Armies and a large number of traders in the next 100 years brought in new technologies, new crafts, new languages and scripts and all these began to combine with their South Asian counterparts to create new vocabularies of music, attire, architecture and creative expression. All this took place at the shrines of the Sufis, in the army camps, baazars and sarais,” says Rakhshanda Jalil, coordinator of the Outreach Programme.

“The shifting of the Capital from Delhi to Devgiri led to the spread of Hindavi or Dehlvi or Zaban-e-Delhi to the Deccan where it gradually developed into Dakini under the patronage of the Qutub Shahi and Adil Shahi rulers and reached back to Delhi as Rekhta around 1705. From the beginning of the 18th Century, Rekhta grew into Urdu that became the language of the royal “farmaan” and the “ishtihaar” of the rebels of 1857. Through the great Urdu poets, it came to be established as the literary language of the North,” she adds.

Over the next 100 years, Urdu led the progressive movement in India. It was the language born of the coming together of diverse cultures that rose up in protest against the senselessness of war and division of India. The ghazals in the movie have been composed by Aneesh Pradhan and classical singer Shubha Mudgal has also lent her voice to them.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

A visual treat
Celebrating Janmashtami with the star kid
Tracing the journey of Urdu over centuries
Metro squads book 17,000 offenders
‘Ban plastics completely’
Solar rickshaws for Chandni Chowk
Photo exhibition on AIDS inaugurated
Palestinian freedom fighter remembered
MAMC unveils re-development plan
Bronze medal winners congratulated
Barsi Bhandara organised
Open more CNG stations in Delhi, says Mukhi
Two arrested for selling pirated books
Three murder accused held
Two alleged cheats arrested
Last-minute change in DUSU election schedule
Three arrested in murder case
Litigants pay a price for lawyers’ strike in district courts
No question of bypolls from Narasapur: EC
Supreme Court decision on ‘Nayagan’
U.S. Inc. lobbies for India at NSG
A case for stronger inter-state police ties
In the capital today

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu