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IS URDU A RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE?

A provocative inquiry into the linguistic history of the


vernacular of India-Pakistan

By: Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 9, July 2009

INTRODUCTION
Wherever and whenever a new religion has taken roots in the
known human history, there has always been a language in use among
that group of people and similarly, a culture associated with that
group. When such a movement begins and a new religion starts, a new
system is formulated, and new laws are enunciated either by a person
who claims to be an apostle or a prophet, or by way of local social
forces and prevailing circumstances. Usually the leader(s) speak that
language which had been in use in that group of people. In some areas
and times such a language had been used for hundreds of years before
the advent of the new religion. So, all the documentation of new laws
and rules is done in that language. However, as the population base
following that religion expands and the followers of that religion
migrate to new lands, the rules and laws are transferred to the new
languages and new documentation is produced. Usually this change
takes place over a number of generations.
However, there are two exceptions to that general rule that we
have described above, which we will bring to our readers presently. Let
us first see some examples in history of the general rule. Christianity
began in Bethlehem, a city in Palestine. Jesus Christ was born, raised
and had lived among the Jews, a community of which he himself was a
member. It has been suggested by historical linguists that the
language spoken among those people at that time was Syriac. Some
others have opined that it was Aramaic. There is also an opinion that
since the language of all religious work in the Judaic society was done
in Hebrew, Jesus Christ may actually have spoken his sermons in that
language. But nothing is 100% certain in this respect. All such opinions
are based on the evidence discovered so far by archaeologists,
historical linguists and philologists.
Because of the fact that there is no known copy of the Book of
Jesus Christ (a part of The New Testament1) in existence that dates
1
The New Testament, as we know it, was actually written by the early followers of
Jesus Christ many years after the disappearance of Jesus. The document contains

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 1
back to the time of Christ, we are unable to make a statement with any
certainty on this. Both Christian as well as Jewish scholars have
ascertained that the language spoken by the prophet Moses and his
people was Hebrew. This is evident by the fact that there are
numerous Hebrew words found in the Old Testament2 that we read
today in the English language. An ancient copy of the five books of the
Pentateuch, which includes (according to the Islamic point-of-view)
parts of TAWRAAT (the Torah), Zuboor (the Psalms of David) and some
other religious documents, is the Vulgate. The Vulgate is written in
Latin. An even older copy of the Bible is the Septuagint. This is in the
Greek language. The Vulgate3 is dated to be of the 5th century A.D.,
while the Septuagint4 is considered to be of the 3rd century B.C.
Reuters news agency has just announced that another ancient
Bible known as the Codex Sinaiticus has been completely digitized in
its original Greek script after extensive work carried out in the UK,
Germany, Egypt and Russia5.
We know for certain that Latin was not the original languages of
the Bible. The Jewish and Christian scholarship had maintained that the
books of the New Testament Bible were written in Koine Greek.
However, there has been a minority group insisting that the New
Testament was written in Aramaic. This group has recently increased
its presence on the Internet. Friedman6 has identified five different
authors and therefore, five different periods during which the Old

sermons and sayings of Jesus Christ. According to the Muslim belief, Jesus Christ had
a Book which was revealed to him and it is known as Injeel in the Qur’an. But no such
book exists today, in actuality. Incidentally when The New Testament was translated
into Arabic, it came to be known as Injeel-e-Muqaddas. I am sure this was an after
thought by the Christian Arab translators under the influence of the holy Qur’an.
2
According to the Jewish and Christian scholars the writing of the Divine word or the
Bible begins with Moses. According to the Islamic belief, there are five Divine books
revealed to the five Great Apostles of God, namely: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and
Muhammad. The Books of Noah and Abraham are only identified by the word suhuf,
this is a plural for saheefa, meaning a written document. The other three books are
identified by names as Tawraat – the book of Moses, Injeel- the book of Jesus and al-
Qur’an the Book of Muhammad. The five books contained laws and were revealed to
the five respective Apostles whose job it was to establish the Divine Law on earth
among the human society. Each new revelation superseded the previous one, al-
Qur’an being the final one. Alongwith the three named books of Laws there is also a
fourth Book mentioned by name as Zuboor – the Book of Songs of David.
3
This is the oldest version of Latin Bible that contains the New Testament alongwith
the Old Testament.
4
The word means 72 and it points to the fact that so many scholars sat down and
collectively produced the work. It is the Koine Greek translation of the original
Hebrew Bible.
5
The news was announced on June 6, 2009. For details visit the website:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=14347129&ch=4226714&src=news
6
Friedman, R.E., Who Wrote The Bible, Harper One, New York, 1997

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 2
Testament was compiled. Similarly, John Robinson7 has made a
thorough study of the dates of writing of the 27 books of the New
Testament. A table of those dates and names of the books contained in
both the Old Testament and the New Testament can be found at the
website:http://www.carm.org/bible/biblewhen.htm
Today the center of Catholic religion is in the Italian city of
Vatican. The Pope lives there and all his religious directives are issued
from the Vatican in Latin. They are then translated into other
languages and sent out to various different countries. The question
arises, why Latin? Obviously, there is history behind that.
In the year 313 A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine I decreed
that Christianity would be accepted and established as the state
religion across the Roman Empire. When Jesus Christ preached his
message, Palestine was within the Roman Empire. At that time the
Roman authorities had opposed the movement in cahoots with the
Jewish establishment and the early Christians were persecuted.
However, after three centuries the politics had changed and the once
persecuted religion had become the state religion. Therefore, all
religious literature had to be translated into Greek (the then official
language as well as that of the elite in the Roman Empire), and then
later into Latin. Latin was the area language spoken in and around
Rome.
As the Christians spread across the globe during the two
thousand years, Christianity found its new followers in various new
geographical areas. Christian teachings including the original Bible
were rendered into the languages of those new areas. The Standard
English Bible is considered to be the King James’ Version8. However, in
the USA a new American version of the Bible has been produced in the
English language. The Catholic Church has kept its religious
documentation in Latin. In July 1971, I visited the city of Cologne
(Koeln). As I walked up to the raised ancient Cathedral of that city (the
one with twin steeples), I noticed that there was a service in progress.
To my surprise, that service was being conducted in Latin rather than
in German.
In juxtaposition to that evolution when we look at the
development of the religion of Islam, we notice that the Arabic
language had been well established in the Arabian Peninsula some five
hundred years before the birth of the Prophet (pbh). The literary Arabic
that was spoken in and around the province of Hijaz was the standard
language. The word “literary” is a kind of an oxymoron here because
that Arabic was purely spoken language – there was no writing. All
record was in poetical form and it was preserved in breasts of men that
would transfer from generation to generation by a very well
7
Robinson, John A. T., Redating The New Testament, Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2000
8
The Catholic Bible is different from the King James’ Version

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 3
established oral tradition – the system of rhyming words and an
extensive use of metaphors, allegories, onomatopoeia and linguistic
puns along with music would help the memorization and recital on a
large scale.
Qur’an is the first “book” in the Arabic language which was
preserved as a written document. Qur’an does mention the previous
prophets and apostles in reverential terms. Qur’an claims that all the
previous prophets preached and propagated the same religion, the
Truth from one god, Allah. But there were some differences in times,
their respective value systems and particularly the laws. Those
differences become significant from a political and social point-of-view
when the two civilizations come in contact with each other, especially
the attitude of Christians and Muslims towards each other. In recent
times two interesting books have come out. One is by a Christian
scholar9 who was at Oxford and the other is by a Muslim scholar10 who
is at Berkeley.
The ancient Arabic poetry of the period of Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic)
that has reached us shows that the Arabic language had acquired high
literary standards by that time. While the holy Qur’an accepted a part
of the current Arabic vocabulary, which we see in words such as WAQT,
DUA, NIKAH, KITAB and MEERATH; some other words have been
accepted in the Qur’an with new meanings, which we see in words
such as WAHY, SALAT, ZAKAT, EEMAN, and JANNAT.
The relationship of the Arabic language with the religion of Islam
is profound and has worked in two ways. All basic principles, laws,
rules on morals and ethics as well as the philosophy of the religion are
documented in Arabic in which the terminologies and expressions of
the 7th century Arab culture are hard to miss. Some of the idioms are
so clearly connected to the Arab life-style of that time. For example,
we know that the city-dwellers of Makka were traveling businessmen.
Many of the verses of the holy Qur’an revealed in Makka have the
idiom of selling and buying in them. Very much like a good bargain lets
the buyer/seller make a profit, prayers and worship guarantee good
rewards in the hereafter. For example see Q.2:207 and Q.31:6. In the
city of Madinah, on the other hand, the greater part of the population
was farmers. In the Madinan part of the revelation we find that
terminology. For example, see Q.2:223 in which one’s women have
been equated as one’s own tilth. Once a man has sowed the seeds in
his field, he takes care of the filed with his life and protects it with all
the power and passion. Once the field is ripe for harvesting, he does it
with love and care and also has full control over it. That is how a head
of the family should look after his family. The point is, Qur’an spoke to
the Arabs in their own terminologies and language with which they
9
Geoffrey Parrinder, Jesus in the Qur’an, OneWorld Publications, 1995
10
Hamid Algar, Jesus in the Qur’an: His Reality Expounded in the Qur’an, Islamic
Publications International, 1999

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 4
were comfortable and thus made the communication that much more
effective.
Under the influence of the religion, when Urdu came into being, it
accepted those Arabic words and idioms in its own vocabulary with
those respective meanings. For example, if some one has sacrificed
his/her religious values for some worldly and material gain, in Urdu we
say:
‫یہ تم نے اپنے حق میں گھاٹے کا سودا کیا ہے۔‬
While the above expression is a reflection of that buying/selling
idiom in the Qur’an, the poetry quoted below was composed by the
19th century Lucknow poet named Meer Anis. The poet is describing a
scene from the Battle of Karbala where the women in Imam Husayn’s
camp are praying for safety and security. The poet is describing the
prayer in the speech of Imam Husayn’s sister named Zaynab. The lines
are composed in the most eloquent Urdu of Lucknow of that time.
Zaynab uses the expression of “the glorious Bano’s tilth” for the family
of Imam Husayn. This, obviously, is a reflection of the Qur’anic verse
2:223 that we quoted above.

‫خیمے میں جا کے شہ نے یہ دیکھا حرم کا حال‬


‫چہرے تو فق ہیں اور ُکھلے ہیں سروں کے بال‬
‫زینب کی یہ دعا ہے کہ اے رب ذوا لجلل‬
‫بچ جائے اس فساد سے خیر ا لنساء کا لل‬
‫بانوئے نیک نام کی کھیتی ہری رہے‬
‫صندل سے مانگ بچوں سے گودی بھری رہے‬
David Matthew’s translation:
The King beheld the women’s piteous state;
Their hair hung loose, their faces pale and white.
Zainab made a prayer: ‘Oh God Most Great!
Save Fatima’s darling in this awful fight.
May Bano’s crop be green and fresh with sap;
And may she nurse new offspring in her lap11.

On the other side of the equation, the Arabic language went


through some serious changes under the influence of the newly
emerging religion. There are numerous examples of that. The prime
example is that all nouns in Arabic have a singular, a plural and a dual,
as well as both masculine and feminine genders. There is no plural for
the word Allah, neither is there a feminine. There was a goddess
named AL-LAAT in the pre-Islamic period. But that concept and that
word both have been completely dropped from the language. All those
11
Matthews, David; The Battle of Karbala, Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 1995, translation
of stanza no:43 from the Marsiyya of Meer Anis

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 5
words which the holy Qur’an has used for Islamic terminologies, were
actually in existence before Islam. They had their meanings and usage.
But the Qur’an changed that. For example the word EEMAAN ‫ ایمان‬has
been used extensively in the Qur’an. In the Qur’anic terminology it
means ‘faith.’ However, it has its lexical meaning. The word is derived
from the tri-literal root A-M-N which means ‘to be safe and secure.’
The fourth form derivative verbal noun from that root is EEMAAN which
means ‘to be at peace within one’s heart and to be fearless.’ All other
similar Qur’anic words have their pre-Islamic meanings and usage,
such as ‫ حد‬،‫ صداق‬،‫ٰ رکوع‬
،‫ٰ زکوٰۃ‬
،‫ صلوٰۃ‬etc.
In the beginning paragraph, we had pointed out two exceptions
to the general rule about the relationship between a religion and the
language of the progenitors/followers of that religion. The first of those
exceptions is the revival of the Hebrew language in the country of
Israel; and the second case is that of the evolution of Urdu in the Indo-
Pak subcontinent.
Israel was created as a separate country in the old land of
Palestine in 1948. The people of the Judaic faith and practice were
scattered all over the world. Once the new country was established,
those people began migrating to the new country. Those people came
with their respective languages. The problem was to create a new
nation-state out of those linguistically diverse people. The leaders of
the country decided that the best instrument for that process would be
a single language. They revived a language that had been dead for a
long time and gave it currency as the state language. The Jewish
Rabbis had always memorized some parts of the Torah and the
Haggadic literature which they would recite during religious services.
So, the old relationship between the Judaic religion and the Hebrew
language was revived and a double sentimentality for the language
was created among the Jewish population of the country of Israel.
Eventhough the Jews of Eastern Europe had created a language of their
own which is known as Yiddish, the Jews living in the new country
made Hebrew their national identity. Not only that, the local Jewish
population, though very small in number, who had been Arabic
speaking, they too accepted Hebrew as their new national language.

THE RELIGIOUS FOUNDATION OF URDU


The story of the development of the Urdu language in India is
also a very interesting one. Arabs had always been avid travellers and
sea-farers. They would travel by land towards the north into the
countries of the Byzantium. They would also sail on business trips from
the port of Aden and from other ports of the Persian Gulf to the Indus
delta and all the way up to China. The holy Qur’an has briefly touched
upon this in Sura Quraysh. Islam spread from Arabia proper to Iraq and

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 6
Iran very quickly. That old tradition of travel and sea-faring continued
all the same. Turko-Iranian and Afghani warriors began attacking other
countries in the name of spreading Islam to the four corners of the
earth. As communities of Muslims established themselves in the new
countries experts belonging to various arts and professions also began
arriving in the new areas. Another type of people who came to new
areas and settled were the holy men, the Sufis.
These three communities, the soldiers, the business people and
the proselytizers, all had one common need and a basic need --- the
need to be able to communicate with the local indigenous population.
Thus the coming together of two cultures gave rise to a new language
in northern areas of the Indian sub-continent.
While the desire existed on both sides of the cultural divide to be
able to communicate with the other side, the cultural clash between
the two was there all the same. And we will have to accept that the
cultural clash was based on the religious differences. A natural
consequence of that was that religious literature in Urdu began to be
produced from day-one of its very inception.
The authors of the book Cambridge History of Islam have
dedicated one whole chapter on Urdu in their book. Their rationale in
including that chapter is that the sole cause of the evolution of the new
language in India was the arrival of Muslims.
The new arriving Muslim settlers needed a language so that they
could communicate with the local population in India – a language that
would be equally understandable to both of them. This statement is
often repeated among the academic elite as a matter of fact. However,
if we consider the activities of the Sufi temples and shrines that began
sprouting up across the country from as early a period as the tenth
century, we can see very clearly that the process of the evolution of
the new language had yet another force working for it.
Let us quote a passage from: http://india_resource.tripod.com/sufi.html

For any civilization to blossom, there has to be a certain intellectual and cultural
space that is relatively free from dogma and hidebound traditions. In the earliest
examples of the Islamic courts, particularly during the reign of the Abbasids in
Baghdad, there was an informal separation of church and state and Arab civilization
was able to make important gains , drawing inputs from a variety of eclectic sources -
both indigenous and external (such as Indian and Mediterranean).
But once the paramountcy of the Qur’an and the Shari’at laws began to be more
strictly enforced - the Islamic courts needed some alternate current to prevent the
newly established Islamic societies from slipping into the dark ages as had occurred
in the Christian kingdoms of early medieval Europe. Sufism thus emerged as a
protestant and liberalizing current, that eventually became the primary vehicle for
intellectual advance and the dissemination of culture in societies governed by Islamic
sovereigns.

Sufi currents were essential in easing the transition from the earlier Hindu, Buddhist,
Judaic, Christian, Manichean, and Zoroastrian societies that had existed prior to the

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 7
victory of the Islamic conquerors. Sufism provided a way to reconcile some of the
religious doctrines of these earlier cultural and/or religious systems. Sufi scholars
went to great lengths in establishing a sense of continuity and evolution amongst the
various revealed faiths - such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In helping
to reconcile formally differing beliefs amongst Christians, Manicheans, Jews, and
Muslims, the Sufis were instrumental in limiting political tensions and in facilitating a
modicum of social peace and stability.

This type of work was not inimical to the political interests of the Islamic conquerors
and was generally tolerated, although often, Sufi scholars had to take great pains to
reassure the orthodox Ulema that their scholarly treatises were not inconsistent with
the worldview of Islam. Kalabadhi (10th C, Bukhara), author of the Taaruf, and
Persian scholar Hujwiri (11th C), author of the Kashf, attempted to situate their work
within the broad contours of Islamic tradition. Hujwiri suggested that there was a
place for high culture and spiritual development apart from the following of religious
rules. Although, equally, he emphasized that he was not challenging or rejecting
anything contained in the Qur’an.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- end quote

The Sufi shrines and temples thus established began attracting a


steady stream of faithful visitors. These visitors belonged to various
different linguistic, cultural and religious backgrounds. They freely
communicated with each other – a natural instinct among the Homo
Sapien, irrespective of colour and creed. The Sufis, on the other hand,
felt the need to translate Islamic teachings into the local languages.
Thus a mix of languages became current in such gatherings. These
Sufis, who were mainly Farsi-speaking, felt a two-fold need to
document their teachings in the new language. They realized that their
teachings had to be easily understood by the locals. They also realized
that their future generations would not remain Farsi-speaking. So, to
preserve the Islamic teachings for their own future generations they
began producing religious literature in the new language.
Mawlana Muhammad Husayn Azad has cited (in his AAB-E-
HAYAAT) the first Urdu translation of the holy Qur’an by Shah Abdul
Qadir and has given its date of publication as 1807 A.D. I have seen a
copy of this work. In the preface to this book the author has said: “We
are writing this TAFSEER in the Hindi language.” It is obvious from this
quote, since the entire work is printed in Urdu-Nasta’aleeq script that
even during the 19th century the new language was being called HINDI
rather than URDU. Of course, the word HINDI itself is a Farsi word
coined by the newcomer Muslims in India for the new language. The
word simply means “of Hind.”
However, the process of producing religious literature in
Hindi/Urdu had begun a long time before that date.
That brings us back to the original question: When did Urdu
begin as a language of the people of India?
Not surprisingly, scholars have differed on this. Here is a sample
of opinions.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 8
Nuqoosh, Lahore had published an article in its ADABI MAARKE
NUMBER. The heading of the article is:

‫ُاردو کیوں اور کہاں پیدا ہوئی‬ Urdu kiyon awr kahan payda hui

Muhammad Husayn Azad has asserted in his AAB-E-HAYAAT that


Urdu was built on the base of Braj Bhasha. That implies that the
process began on the shores of the Yamuna River in and around Agra.
Hafiz Mahmoud Shirani is of the opinion that Urdu’s beginning is rooted
in the bazaars of Punjab when in 1027 A.D. Mahmood Ghaznavi
descended on that area with his Afghan hordes. Professor Naseer-ud-
Deen Hashmi is of the opinion that Urdu began in South India. We will
elaborate upon this view presently. A fourth view is that Urdu began in
the province of Sind.
This last view is based on the fact that the Muslim Armies under
the command of Muhammad bin Qasim had landed at the port city of
Deebal12 at the Indus Delta in 712 A.D. According to the historian
Farishteh, Muhammad bin Qasim had arrived in Sind on his expedition
with a 6,000 strong Syrian army leaving Shiraz and passing through
Mekran via the land route.
The influence of the Arabic language, which was the language of
these early Muslim invaders, had lasting effect on the local language.
Today’s Sindhi language is written (right to left13) in a set of alphabets
which is a modified set of the 27 original Arabic letters.

AMIR KHUSRO, HIS TIMES AND HIS WORKS


If we go through the oral tradition as well as documentation, the
first traces of a language that could be seen as akin to modern Urdu is
found in Amir Kusro’s poetry. Amir Khusro had lived in Delhi during the
period 1253-1325 A.D. In actuality Khusro was a genius in fine arts. He
wrote Farsi Ghazal as well as other poetry in local dialects (both Avadhi
as well as Braj Bhasha) that were current in the area. He also produced
music. He is the progenitor of raga Ayman. He is also a contemporary
of the great saint of Delhi known as Nizam-ud-Deen Awliyya. Khusro
wrote songs of praise for Nizam-ud-Deen in the dialect of Braj Bhasha.
See the samples below.
The first poem is all in Braj Bhasha. It has been transcribed in
Devnagari as well as in Nasta’aleeq for line-to-line comparison. The
next row gives transliteration in English on the left and the translation
on the right.

12
Haig, Malcolm Robert : The Indus Delta Country: A Memoir, Chiefly on Its Ancient
Geography and History, first published from London in 1894. A copy of this book can
be viewed at the University of Michigan website:
13
As opposed to all other North Indian languages belonging to the Proto-Indo-
European family which are written from left to right

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 9
बहुत किठन है डगर पनघट की ‫بہت کٹھن ہے ڈگر پنگھٹ کی‬
कैसे मै भर लाऊं मधुवा से मटकी
‫کیسے میں بھر لئوں مدھوا سے مٹکی‬
पिनया भरण को जो मै गई थी
‫پنیا بھرن کو جو میں گئی تھی‬
दौड़ झपट मोरी मटकी फटकी

बहुत किठन है डगर पनघट की


‫دوڑ جھپٹ موری مٹکی پھٹکی‬
खुसरो िनजाम के बल बल जाईऐ ‫بہت کٹھن ہے ڈگر پنگھٹ کی‬
लाज रखो मोरे घूँघट पट की ‫خسرو نجام کے بل بل جائیے‬
मोरे अचछे िनजाम िपया जी
‫لج رکھو مورے گھونگھٹ پٹ کی‬
बहुत किठन है डगर पनघट की
‫مورے اچھے ِنجام پیا جی‬
‫بہت کٹھن ہے ڈگر پنگھٹ کی‬

bahut Ka.Thin hai Dagar pangha.T ki, The road to the Well is much too difficult,
kaisay main bhar laaun madhva say (I do not know) How to get my pot filled?
ma.Tki? When I went to fill the water-pot,
paniya bharan ko main jo gayi thi, In the furor, I broke my pot.
dau.R jhapa.T mori ma.Tki pha.Tki. Khusrau ! May you be the ransom time
bahut ka.Thin hai Dagar pangha.T ki. and again, Oh, Nijam.
Khusrau Nijaam ke bal bal jayyiye Would you please take care of my veil (or
laaj rakho moray ghoongha.T pa.T ki. self respect),

more achey Nijam Piya ji My dear Nijam,


bahut ka.Thin hai Dagar pangha.T ki. The road to the well is much too difficult.

The most interesting work of poetry that Khusro produced is the


one where he mixes so artfully his Farsi she’r with Braj, Avadhi and
Khari Boli poetry. Of course, poetry is a thing for recital more than
writing. See the following couplet by Khusro:

Khusro dariya prem ka ulti va ki dhaar ‫واکی‬ ‫خسرو دریا پریم کا ُالٹی‬ُ
‫دھآر‬

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 10
Jo utra so doob gaya, jo dooba so paar ‫سو‬ ‫جو ُاترا سو ڈوب گیا جو ڈوبا‬
‫پار‬
Trans: Khusro, the river of love flows backwards; anyone who enters it
is drowned, and the one who drowned came ashore.
Consider Khusro’s vocabulary here:
Dariya = Farsi word which actually means an ocean
Va ki = this is from Braj Bhasha, in Khari Boli it will become uski
Utra, dooba, doob gaya = the verb endings of long ‘a’ in these words
indicate that they are all from Khari Boli14
Khusro had called his language as Hindavi. In this couplet he is
expressing the very standard and profound Sufi thought. Anyone who
is out to seek his(her) Lord has to lose himself(herself) in that process.
It is only after one has totally lost his(her) self in that search that one
finds the Lord-Creator.
Nizam-ud-Deen Awliyya died in the same year as Khusro (1325).
Khusro’s poetry is profoundly influenced by the teachings of Nizam-ud-
Deen. This is what we have been arguing in this article that the
evolving language that we now know as Urdu has a long history of Sufi
influence in it.
Anyone who has read Khusro’s work would be rightly justified in
assuming that the Urdu’s sapling germinated in and around Delhi and
flourished there. It would also be logically correct to assume that since
Urdu is a language in the PIE15 group of languages and the PIE
languages have traditionally flourished in the northern part of the
subcontinent.
However, we shall see presently that Urdu’s young sapling did
not take roots in and around Delhi. In fact it took roots in the Deccan,
an area of Dravidian influences. It did in later years spread across
northern India, though.
There were many reasons for that which we will discuss
presently. According to Ahsan Marharvi in his book titled: Tareekh-e-
Nasr-e-Urdu, the main reason for that was the event of shifting the
capital of the Sultanate from Delhi to Daulatabad, a city in the Deccan,
south India16.

14
There are three basic vowels in the spoken word, a, i, u. All other vowels are
variations on these three. Urdu has borrowed its vowels from Khari Boli and they are
ten in number. Each verb has to end in one of the three basic vowel sounds. Braj
Bhasha verb endings are in ‘u,’ Khari Boli endings are in ‘a’ and those in Bundel
Khandi dialect are in ‘i.’ The reason that KHARI BOLI (standing or upright speech) is
called as such, is because in both the DEVNAGRI as well as in the NAST’ALEEQ script
the long vowel ‘a’ is depicted by a vertical line – an upright standing line. For greater
technical details on vowels, see: McGregor, Outline of Hindi Grammar, O.U.P., Delhi,
1972
15
Proto-Indo-European family of languages

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 11
At this point we present a summary of the history of the Muslim
rule in the Deccan.
Arabs used to sail from both the Arabian coasts in the Persian
Gulf, from Aden as well as the Egyptians from Alexandria to the
western coastal cities of India. Their main stop used to be at Kerala
due to the active growth of spices in that region. The Arabs were
merchandisers and it was good business to buy and sell spices. There
are reports that many Arabs had settled down in Kerala long before
Islam. It is reported that Kerala was the first outpost of Arab Muslim
early in the 7th century. One name that is found in the Malyalam
chronicles is that of Malik ibn Deenar. There is also a mosque in Kerala
dedicated to Malik. It is not certain what was the exact time of Malik17.
16
This was done by Muhammad Tughlaq. Muhammad Tughlaq’s reign begins in
Delhi the same year in which both Khusro and Nizam-ud-Deen Awliyya had passed
away. Marharvi’s book can be seen at the website: www.deedahwar.com
17
My research on the life and times of Malik bin Deenar is not completed yet. As
soon as I get that information I will supplement this text accordingly.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 12
Was he a companion of the Prophet? Some Malyalam chronicles date
his coming to the Malbar coast in the year 644 A.D That date,
obviously is 12 years after the passing away of the Prophet. Some
other reports suggest that one of the Malyalam kings actually became
Muslim and proceeded to Hajj. During that Hajj he is reported to have
met with the Prophet of Islam. That does not sound credible. However,
that first Muslim settlement in the south western part of India did not
seem to have an impact on the region either linguistically or culturally.

The first real contact of Muslims with the Indian subcontinent is


accepted to be the invasion of the province of Sind by Muhammad bin
Qasim. We said: ‘the first real contact’ because it is this beginning of
the Muslim culture in India which had left an indelible mark both
culturally as well as linguistically on the sub-continent. Then there is a
series of such invasions in the Peshawar area and beyond up to Delhi.
We discuss those a little later.
Some Muslim conquerors, who came to Delhi via Punjab, did not
stay there. Instead they moved on to the southern provinces of the
subcontinent and established themselves in that part of the
subcontinent. In the 14th century two sizable kingdoms were
established in the Deccan, one was the Bahmani Sultanate of Bijapur
and the other was the Qutub-Shahi Kingdom of Golcunda.
In 1347 the Turkish military ruler named Ala-ud-deen Bahman
Shah established the greater Bahmani Sultanate of Bijapur. This
Sultanate extended from the shores of Bay of Bengal in the East
(today’s Chenai or Madras)) all the way to the shores of Arabian Sea
(today’s Maharashtra and Bombay). Its northern limits began at the
foot of the Vindhyachal to the center of the triangle of the peninsula in
the south (including Karnatak). The capital of the Bahmani kingdom
was in Bidar, which in those times was known as Muhammadabad.
That Sultanate flourished for the good part of two hundred years. The
Sultanate began to weaken in the early parts of the 16th century and
finally it broke up into smaller parts. In 1490 Berar broke off and
became an independent state. The capital city of Bidar became an
independent kingdom in 1518.
About the same time Sultan Quli Qutub al-Mulk established the
Qutub Shahi kingdom at Golcunda. This is the same area where the
modern day city of Hyderabad is located. The ancient fort of Golcunda
is located some eleven kilometers outside of the city of Hyderabad.
This was the most powerful kingdom in the Deccan and it lasted for
171 years. The Mughal king Aurangzeb conquered it in 1687. The fifth
king of that kingdom known as Quli Qutub Shah is considered to be the
first Urdu poet who had his own Deevan18.

18
A documented collection of poetry

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 13
BAHMANI KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN IN INDIA

On the other side, Ahmad Nizam Shah had established the Nizam
Shahi kingdom at Ahmadnagar in 1494. The city of Ahmadnagar still
exists today with that name in the province of Maharashtra in India
which has a majority Muslim population. It was at Ahmadnagar that an
illustrious woman regent named Chand Bibi had ruled for ten
years(1580-90). During her reign as regent, the Mughal king Akbar had
attacked Bijapur which was successfully repulsed under the leadership
of Chand Bibi.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 14
After the break up of the greater Bahmani Kingdom, Ibrahim Adil
Shah established the Adil-Shahi Sultanate at Bijapur in 1527 which
lasted until 168619.
Fine arts, literature and architecture flourished during all the
Deccan kingdoms. As we pointed out, Quli Qutub Shah wrote poetry,
specifically Marsiyya for the martyrs of Karbala. He used the most
popular language of his time that was understood by the Telgu-
speaking indigenous people as well as by the Muslim settlers. He thus
introduced Islam and particularly a loving and passionate portrait of
the Prophet of Islam and his family to the local population. Chand Bibi,
in spite of being a woman regent, knew Arabic, Farsi, Turkish as well as
Telgu and Tamil languages and she had a great presence among her
subjects – most of whom were Dravidian Hindus. So we can see that
the society in Deccan was evolving on a very pluralistic platform –
pluralism that was rooted in the popular language.
Why was it that the Delhi kings could not do anything to
strengthen the development of the language during the 14th and 15th
centuries in spite of the fact that Khusro had started his work on the
language in Delhi as early as the 1300s? As opposed to that the kings
in the Deccan were able to popularize the language. The main reason
as we stated above, was the fact that the Delhi Sultans and conquerors
were much too busy in the palace intrigues, killings and lootings in the
area to establish their own rule. They were neither inclined to any work
on language nor did they have the time. It is quite clear from these
historical facts that the kings who established themselves in the
Deccan were made of a different human material and their preferences
in life were different than those of the Delhi kings. Not only did they
write poetry in the new vernacular that was developing in the area,
they chose a dialect that was easily understood by all classes of people
in the society and they also chose topics for their poetry which
appealed to every class and every section of the society.

THE BEGINNING OF THE SUFIS IN INDIA


Nearly a hundred years before the time of Khusro and Nizam-ud-
Deen, another Sufi of great piety and knowledge had come to India and
had settled in Rajasthan. Khwaja Mu’een-Ud-Deen Chishti was born in
1142 in Seestan, Iran. He had moved through (today’s) Afghanistan
and after a short stay first in Lahore and then in Delhi, he had moved
to Rajasthan and had settled down in Ajmer where he passed away in
1236 A.D. So after his death his place of burial in Ajmer became a
place of pilgrimage for Hindus and Muslims alike. That was because of
his teachings which were based on pluralism, tolerance and love for
19
Brief history of the Deccan kingdoms taken from McLeod, John; The History of
India, Greenwood Press, 2002, pp. 46-47

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 15
the universal human brotherhood. It is likely that by the mixing of the
Muslim immigrants and the indigenous Hindu population at that shrine
a mixed spoken language developed in that area. It is also likely that
that spoken language spread out into other neighbouring areas.
There are many other Sufi saints who came to India and had
settled in different parts of the country. Many of those are nameless
local saints whose gravesites are adorned by local people where they
go to show their devotion and gratitude for their fulfilled wishes and
vows20.

SOUTH INDIA AND AJMER IN RAJASTHAN

Within a century or so of Khwaja Muinuddin Hasan Sijzi21 establishing a


Khanqah22 at Ajmer, the cultural landscape of the subcontinent came to
be dominated by a large number of khanqahs tracing their lineage from
the great Shaikh and his successors. Centers of other Sufi silsilas23 did
20
See for example: Russell, Ralph, Islam in A Pakistan Village: Some Impressions,
article in his book – How Not to Write a History of Urdu Literature, O.U.P., 1999
21
This is the same person whom we have identified above as Mueen-ud-Deen Chishti
22
A Sufi temple
23
The word means ‘a chain,’ and it is used in Sufi terminology to indicate the four
lineages

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 16
emerge, but it was rare to see any of them acquiring a long-lasting a
status in its respective area as most of the Chishti khanqahs came to
command. This initial phenomenal success is often explained in terms of
the cosmopolitanism of the Chishtis and their ability to identify
themselves with the concerns of the masses, rather than with only those
of the elite or ruling classes. At the same time, one can notice a tendency
to reject the religious exclusivism and the narrow limits set out by the
jurists. These early Chishtis seldom practised adherence to a particular
school of law. Enough data exists from various Chishtis centers in
northern and southern India to enable a bold generalization on the issue
of religious plurality……24

At this point let us have a brief overview of the history of Muslim


raids and conquests in the Punjab and Delhi. In 997 AD Mahmoud
Ghaznavi had established himself as the ruler of Ghazni. Mahmoud
was a Perso-Turk from his father’s side as well as from his mother’s
side. His father was Subuktageen of Ghazni and his mother’s father
was Alaptageen. He attacked the Gandhara kingdom around Peshawar
in 1000 A.D. He then attacked Multan which was at that time under
the control of the Ismaili Fatimi rulers. That endeared him to the
Abbasi rulers in Baghdad. From then on he ravaged the North Indian
kingdoms every year, in the name of Islam, destroying temples and
looting their wealth all the way up to Gujrat. This continued until the
year of his death, that was 1030 A.D25.
Mahmoud Ghaznavi is the first Muslim conqueror who had
coined himself as Sultan. Mahmoud is a unique commander who is
rated alongside Alexander the Great, in that he was never defeated on
the battlefield by any enemy. His character is though, controversial in
history.
The first conqueror who actually established a Muslim kingdom in
Punjab and up to Delhi is Muhammad Ghawri. He too came from
Ghazni and defeated Prithivi Raj Chawhan whose kingdom had
extended from Delhi to Rajasthan. This was in 1173 A.D.
It was around this time or sometime soon after that Khwaja
Mu’een-Ud-Deen Chishti had arrived in India. That also explains why
the Khwaja proceeded all the way to Ajmer. He wanted to take his
message to the farthest end of the Muslim Sultanate.
Muhammad Ghawri had no children of his own. Although he
himself was an Afghan, his contingent was full of Turk soldiers. Ghawri
had treated his soldiers like his own sons. After him the kingdom of
Delhi passed to those soldiers. The most prominent among them were
Sultan Qutub-ud-Deen Aybak, Sultan Iltutmash and his daughter Razia
Sultan. According to John Mcleod26, Delhi, which had been an

24
Jafri, Syed Zaheer Husain, Religious Plurality in the Chishti Tradition, article in Malik
and Reifeld, p.221-222
25
Kulke, Herman and Rothermund, Dietmar; A History of India, Routledge, 2004,
pp.163-165
26
McLeod, John; The History of India, Greenwood Press, 2002, p. 35

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 17
economic and communications center in North India but it was a never
the capital of any state. It was Sultan Iltutmash who established Delhi
as the capital of his Sultanate first time in history of India. The city’s
glory and its importance as the capital of India has never waned since.
This dynasty of Turk Sultanate was threatened first by the Mongols.
However, Kulke and Rothermund have paid rich tribute to Iltutmash for
resisting the Mongol invasion and holding his ground. Not only that, but
actually for establishing the Delhi Sultanate in 1206 against those
odds, while the rest of Central and South Asia had succumbed to the
Mongol onslaught27. And then it was replaced by the Balbans. Another
Afghani Commander named Jalal-ud-Deen Khilji took over the Delhi
Sultanate in1290 A.D.
Jalal-ud-Deen was a very kind ruler. His nephew, Ala-ud-Deen
conspired against him and had him assassinated by trickery. He then
took over the Sultanate for himself. Ala-ud-Deen extended his kingdom
and he could be called the first Muslim king of India. Ala-ud-Deen’s rule
is marked with conquests, but also with extensive ravaging of Hindu
temples and the erecting of mosques in place of those destroyed Hindu
temples. The signs of that destruction and reconstruction can be found
all the way from Gujrat to Benaras. According to one report, Ala-ud-
Deen Khilji had attacked the fort of Chittawr in 1303 AD at the head of
a huge army, reportedly lusting for a Rajput princess named Padmani.
While the Rajput young men came out of the fort with a vow to fight till
death, when the princess saw how hopeless the cause was, she along
with other 700 women gave herself up to the flames of JAWHAR. This
was an old Rajput tradition that women would die rather than allow a
“dirty infidel28” to touch them.
The Khilji dynasty came to an end in 1316. In 1321 Giyas-ud-
Deen Tughlaq established the Tughlaq kingdom at Delhi. In 1325
Muhammad Tughlaq came to rule the Delhi Sultanate after Ghiyas-ud-
Deen. This is the same year when both Amir Khusro and Nizam-ud-
Deen Awliyya passed away in Delhi. Muhamamd Tughlaq was an
eccenetric. He took the unwise decision to move the capital of the
kingdom from Delhi to Dawlatabad in the Deccan. Hundreds of people
died during the move due to bad logistics. Muhamamd Tughlaq had
appointed Ala-ud-Din Bahman, another Turkic commander, as his
governor in the Bijapur district. It was this same governor29 who
declared his own rule at Bijapur and had established the greater
Bahmani Kingdom in 1347, as we have explained above30. Towards the
27
Kulke, Herman and Rothermund, Dietmar; A History of India, Routledge, 2004,
p.168
28
That is how early Muslim warriors and rulers came to be identified among the
indigenous Hindu population. There are references in the existing Hindi poetry to
such epithets.
29
Stein has mentioned his name as Zafar Khan, see Stein, Burton; A History of India,
Wiley-Blackwell, 1998, p. 151
30
McLeod, p. 46

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 18
1390s the Tughlaq kingdom was showing weaknesses and finally it
came to its end in 1398.
The main cause and the trigger event for that was the disastrous
invasion of North India by Timur the Lame31. His armies ravaged the
city of Delhi for three days, killing people indiscriminately and looting
property32. Order was restored by an Afghan commander named
Afghan Khizr Khan after ten years of chaotic rule at Delhi. This was the
beginning of the Syed Dynasty of the Lodhis at Delhi.
The Lodhi dynasty of Delhi began in 1414 AD which lasted for
over a century. Sikandar Lodhi, who ruled during 1489-1517, moved
the capital of the Sultanate from Delhi to Agra33, where it would remain
until the middle of the Mughal period.
Babur establishes the beginnings of the Mughal kingdom at Delhi
by defeating Ibraheem Lodhi in 1526.
As we can see from this brief overview, on the one side there
was all that invasion by foreign raiders, palace intrigue, killing and
looting going around Punjab and Delhi; on the other side Muslim Sufis
were coming to India and settling down in various parts of the country
spreading their message of love, tolerance, pluralism and of course,
Islamic values.
Both those forces working in parallel had influenced the
evolution of Urdu. The fighting soldiers and conquerors were imbued
with a militant philosophy of Islam and believed in forcing their way
into other people’s life-style to spread Islam in the world. This was the
force propagating an exclusivist-elitist thinking. The Sufis on the other
hand were motivated by the universal human brotherhood – also a
factor in Islamic philosophy and actually an inclusivist attitude. Their
message gave rise to a very strong current of pluralism, tolerance and
love in the society where Urdu was evolving. It was fortunate for the
new language to have not been associated with the early conquerors in
any big way. They all used the language nevertheless, but they were
not in a position to influence the language in its natural evolution. Urdu
was not blessed with any support from any king’s court until first, in
the Muslim kingdoms established during the 14th century in the
southern areas of India, the Deccan, and then in the 19th century at the
declining Mughal Court of Delhi. By that time the Sufis’ message and
influence had already made its mark on the language. This language
had evolved by way of people of different religious and cultural
backgrounds mixing together freely, albeit in a religious ambience
inside Sufi shrines.
However, the military adventures (or misadventures) of the
Ghaznavis and the Khlijis and their like did damage the cause of Urdu
31
In typical Eastern chronicles he is known as Timur Lung, the Anglicised name is
Tamerlane
32
McLeod, pp.38
33
Ibid. pp. 39

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 19
to a great extent. Eventhough these raiders and conquerors were
fighting in the name of Islam, a cause they much needed to arouse the
fervour of their own soldiers, they were far removed from the true
spirit of Islam. The comment made in the quotation below is only an
academic observation and a very recent one.

Furthermore, the main reason for religious wars appear to have been not
so much animosity between the religions themselves but rather the
obsession with, or the thirst for, power on the part of individuals and
human groups (realms, dynasties and nations) where religion has been
used in order to satisfy personal and collective ambition. With regard,
finally, to contemporary conflicts, information must be checked carefully
and critically, before it is simply ascribed to religious motivations.34

At the popular level that fine point was difficult to be understood.


The large majority of the Hindu population could not separate the
looting and plunder done by the Muslim soldiers under the command of
the Ghaznavis and the Khiljis from the evolution of the Urdu language,
which to them was purely a Muslim language. The Muslims of India
were seen and are still seen as the heirs of the Ghaznavis and the
Khiljis of the past centuries. That has undermined the work done on
pluralism by the Sufis. As a consequence it has been hurting the cause
of Urdu as a language of the masses. That is in addition to the ongoing
sectarian conflict between the two communities in India that has lasted
to this day.

PLURALISM IN URDU
In spite of that strong conflict, Urdu did grow and evolve in a
very pluralistic culture. As Muslim settlements began appearing in
almost every part of the subcontinent a system of communication,
cultural exchange in the form of attending each other’s festivals,
weddings and other social events as well as business transactions did
give rise to understanding and sympathy at an extensive scale. The
Sufis played a very important part in that process. Of course, a
common language played yet a greater role in that process.
Let us bring some specific and concrete examples to support our
views here.
Consider the word JAWHAR as used in the paragraph above. How
did this terminology become current among the Rajput rulers of
Rajhastan? The tradition of the women burning themselves to death
rather than surrendering their selves to a Muslim invader must be
inherently Rajput35. But where did the name JAWHAR KI JWALA come

34
Troll, Christian W., Plurality of Religion and Plurality in Religion, in Malik and
Reifeld, Religious Pluralism In South Asia and Europe, O.U.P., New Delhi, 2005, p.83
35
Please note that the concept of SATI, or the widow burning herself on the funeral
pyre of her dead husband is totally different from this.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 20
from? The word JWALA is of Sanskrit origin. But JAWHAR36 is an Arabic
word which is variably translated as ‘the essence,’ ‘mettle,’ ‘jewel’ and
the such like. This was the time when the Rajputs had been fighting
the Muslim invaders. How could they accept the hated invader’s
language to define one of their own traditions?
Our contention is that such language became current and was
accepted in the vernacular only because of the influence of the Sufi
saints who had settled in the area. By the time Ala-ud-Deen Khilji
attacked the fort of Chittawr, three generations had passed after the
settlement of the Chishti Dargah at Ajmer. Chittawr is located in the
province of Mewar (a part of larger Rajhastan) some 150 miles south
from Ajmer.
Another Rajput princess named Mira Bai was born in 1498 AD in
a town named Kurkhi which is located some 12 miles south of Ajmer.
By that time three centuries had passed since the settlement of the
Ajmer shrine. It is very likely that the stream of devotees visiting the
shrine had multiplied; not only that but new shanty towns must have
come about around the general area of the shrine. These visitors
belonged to various different classes of people and they used a mixed
vernacular. That spoken language had even filtered inside the Rajput
palaces.
Mira Bai was married to another prince in the area. She was
widowed young. Soon after the death of her husband, she declared
herself to be a devotee of Lord Krishna. She wrote poetry and sang
those songs of devotion openly. She became a JOGAN37 and wandered
around singing her songs of devotion. It is not unlikely that she had
visited the shrine at Ajmer and spent time there. Let us look at some of
her poetry:

पितया मै कैसे िलखूं ‫پتیاں میں کیسے لکھوں؟‬


िलखयोरी न जाए ‫لکھیو ری نہ جائے‬
कलम धरत मेरो कर कमपत है ‫مرو کر کمپت ہے‬
ِ ‫کلم دھرت‬
नैन रहे झड़ लाए ‫نین رہے جھڑ لئے‬
Patiya.N mai.N kayse likhu.N
Likhyo ri na ja’e
Kalam dharat mero kar kampat hai
Nayn rahe jha.R la’e

36
I am grateful to our learned friend, C.M.Naim, for pointing out that the word
JAWHAR could be a variant of JIV-HARAN which means suicide. It is very plausible that
the RAjput women would jump in fire anticipating the killing of their own men in
battle field, and that would be another form of the tradition of SATI.
37
Hindi/Urdu word for a woman saint who wanders from place to place

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 21
Trans: how may I write a letter,
I cannot,
When I pick up the pen, my hand trembles,
And my eyes begin shedding tears.

The interesting word here is ‘kalam,’ another purely Arabic


word38. The influence of the local dialect is very apparent. The soft
guttural Arabic sound has been replaced by the Sanskritic ‘K.’ In the
larger part of India, this word is extensively used and it is pronounced
as depicted here. This is not an isolated instance. Mira’s poetry is
replete with words such as ‘mahal’ (Arabic for palace), ‘awaaz’ (Farsi
for voices), and ‘taraaja’ (a distortion of the Arabic Taraazu with the ‘z’
sound replaced by the Sanskrit ‘j’). We will quote some more examples
of Meera Bai’s poetry presently.
How were the proud Rajputs accepting the language of their
avowed enemies? Not only that, how was this language seeping
through indoors to the women folk?
We have to accept that this new vernacular had been taking
shape naturally without any force or pressure from the conquerors.
Keeping this model in view, I am going to make yet another
claim. It is very likely, actually strongly likely that such groups of mixed
people had come about in many other parts of India and in all those
groups a mixed spoken language like that of Meera Bai’s was
developing. Now we have lost the actual hard evidence to that in
history, but the circumstantial evidence is there. All such groups with
their own newly developed dialects were instrumental in the shaping of
a new vernacular in Northern India which we now know as Urdu.
As we quoted above, every province of North India is claiming to
be the original home of Urdu. I do not consider this to be a clash of
opinions and views. This only goes to show the intra-country
universality of the language.

38
The word in Arabic means ‘to cut,’ ‘to trim,’ or ‘to prune.’ In the olden days pens
were made out of reed. The reed would be cut into a manageable size then its end
would be trimmed into a flat and thin point which would be trimmed to make a nib-
like end for writing. The English word ‘pen’ is derived from the Latin ‘penna’ which
means ‘a feather.’ That is because in Europe writing was done with a quill, which was
made by trimming the hollow shaft at the end of a bird’s feather. The original P.I.E.
speakers must have had a word for ‘pen’ which is now lost. It is interesting that the
Indian languages have also lost that word and they are extensively using the Arabic
‘qalam’ for it.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 22
THE 20TH CENTURY LANGUAGE POLITICS IN INDIA
The Indian nationalist leader named M.K.Gandhi had returned to
India in 1916 from South Africa after he had campaigned in that
country very successfully for the rights of the people of Indian descent.
The Congress party had already been formed and the Indian
Independence Movement was visible. A part of that movement was the
new poetry that had emerged in India.
Before we go into that topic let us follow the time line a little
further. Before the arrival of M.K. Gandhi on the Indian political scene,
the Congress Party had a very pluralistic and secular outlook and the
party’s structure was also based on the pluralism that was a part of the
Indian social milieu. The party was actually formed in 1885 on the
suggestion of a British civil servant named Allan Octavian Hume. The
main purpose and aim of the party was to create a forum for dialogue
between the British Government and the educated Indian elite. In the
early days there were such people at the helm of the party as Dada
Bhai Naoroji (a Parsi) and a secularist. M.A. Jinnah had admired Naoroji
from his student days in London when Naoroji had stood in elections
for a seat in the British Parliament and had won it. There was though a
very strong lobby of Hindu nationalists in the Party from the earliest
days. When the party took its political character those colours became
very apparent. Muslim leaders such as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who had
a keen eye for such movements, had seen it earlier on and had looked
at the Congress Party with suspicion. Jinnah himself was a secularist
and he was hailed as the ‘apostle of Hindu-Muslim unity’ by a
colleague. He therefore joined the Congress Party in 1896, right after
his return from England and becoming a barrister. Sir Syed passed
away in 1899 when Jinnah was a young practicing lawyer in Bombay
and also active in politics. However, during his lifetime Sir Syed had
made the momentous announcement urging the Muslims of India to
accept and declare Urdu as their national language. All indications
were that Urdu had become the lingua franca of the larger Indian
population and it was freely accepted by Indians of all classes and
interest groups. In 1906, when the Muslim League was formed, Jinnah
refused to join it saying that it was much too religion-oriented.
However, there were factions showing up in the ranks of the Congress
Party. There were some among the leadership cadres who were
looking to a very strong Hindu-nationalist stamp on the party. The
name of Bal Gangadhar Tilak was at the top of that list39. It was Tilak
who had used the term swaraj for the future of India. Such a strong
nationalistic slogan was a red flag for both the secularists as well as
the Muslim leadership. However, soon the secularists were able to
force extremists such as Tilak out of the party. But the respite turned
39
It is interesting to note here that Tilak was charged with the crime of sedition by
the British Government. It was the young Jinnah who had defended Tilak in his trial.
Jinnah had pleaded the case brilliantly but Tilak had lost and he was sent to prison

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 23
out to be only temporary. Gandhi’s leadership fed a very strong dose
of Hindu nationalism in the party. While conservative and people
strongly oriented towards religion such as Vallabh Bhai Patel and
Pandit Ballabh Pant rose under Gandhi’s tutelage, more enlightened
people such as Nehru with his secular-socialistic agenda had to take a
back seat when it came to the language politics.
Most prominent leaders published their autobiographies several
years before the actual partition of India in 1947. Nehru wrote his MERI
KAHAANI, which was all in beautiful Urdu. Dr. Rajendra Prasad
published his biography which was printed in Devnagari script but the
language is uncannily Urdu. Moreover, the involvement of a Muslim
cleric in his early education was highlighted. Here is an excerpt.

Gandhi wrote his biography in English which was later translated


into Hindi and published only in Devnagari script.
Jinnah had gone into a self-imposed exile to London when the
negotiations at the 1916 Lucknow Pact failed between the Congress
Party and the Muslim League. It was not until 1934 that he was
persuaded back to India by the Muslim League leadership to take
charge of the Party, which he did and led it into the formation of
Pakistan.
Jinnah was a Sindhi by virtue of the place of his birth and a
Gujrati by way of his community association; ethnically he was a
converted Rajput. However, he had become totally anglicized while
living in England. He spoke absolutely immaculate English. But when
Pakistan was created he declared Urdu as the national language of the
country. This was a very perceptive and far-reaching decision. He knew
that the Muslims of Pakistan who came from different provinces and
therefore from diverse cultural backgrounds could only be united into
one nation-state by way of a common language.
The country of Israel would repeat the same technique a year
later to create a unified nation in 1948. While the experiment was very
successful in Israel, it did not work in Pakistan and the country of
Bangla Desh was formed only 25 years later on the language issue out
of the Eastern Wing of Pakistan. It was a great achievement for Jinnah
to have been able to persuade the Bengalis in the first place to accept
Urdu as the national language of the one country. The fact that the
country lasted for 25 years indicates that the people allowed one
whole generation to pass before they took the decision to separate.
The experiment could have worked had there not been a 1,000 mile
gap between the two wings of the country. Of course, ineptness of the
successive governments and the military dictatorship of General Ayub
Khan only aggravated the problem.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 24
THE BOLLYWOOD FILM INDUSTRY HELPS PROMOTE PLURALISM WITH
URDU
The Indian film industry began with three separate and
independent establishments.
(1) Prabhat (1929) in Poona.
(2) B.N. Sircar's New Theatres Ltd in Calcutta (established in 1930).
(3) Himanshu Rai's Bombay Talkies (1934) in Bombay.

These were all business ventures relying on the demands of the


times. No government support was involved in any of the above
ventures.
Then the industry was so fortunate to find a genius such as
Himanshu Rai. He was a very educated man.
Rai was born into a wealthy Bengali family which owned a private
theatre. He took a Law degree from the University of Calcutta and
studied with Tagore at Shantiniketan in Switzerland. He trained as a
lawyer in London in the early 1920s and also began acting in plays
there, amongst them Niranjan Pal's The Goddess.
Himanshu Rai had the vision, along with the intellect for fine art,
to explore the most modern technology for his venture. And he used
it.
Rai collaborated with Germany's famous studio UFA and made
Shiraz (1928) and A Throw of Dice (1929) there. The films were known
for presenting 'Indian exotica' to the West.
Rai also had the good sense to consider some of the classical
literature for his works. He adapted Edwin Arnold's poem, The Light of
Asia, for a film on the biography of Gautam Buddha. Rai went into
partnership with the German producer Peter Ostermayer whose
brother Franz Osten directed the film, The Light of Asia (1925) starring
Rai as Gautam Buddha. The film, co-produced by the Great Eastern
Film Corporation in Delhi, was presented in the press as the 'first
specifically Indian Film' by Osten and was fairly successful in Central
Europe.
Rai encountered both good luck as well as bad luck during his
career. It was his good luck that he met with Devika Rani in London.
Devika was not only one of the most beautiful women of her time in
India, she was an excellent actress and intellectually very mature.
According to one legend, Devika Rani would just see (years later) Dilip
Kumar (real name Yusuf Khan, a young man originally from the Hindko
tribe of the NWFP, whose family had been in fruit merchandizing in
Peshawar and Bombay for a couple of generations) and pick him out as
a prospect.
Rai later married Devika Rani and they both starred in many
successful films.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 25
After the break out of the Second World War the British interned
all prominent people of German and Italian descent living in India. Rai's
ventures suffered a set back due to that.
Bombay Talkies settled down to a schedule of about three films a
year. Their films were of a high technical standard and had a glossy
look to them reminiscent of the films of MGM. Devika Rani would be lit
up in a manner not unlike Greta Garbo!
Because of his charm, his business acumen, and his abilities, Rai
attracted good financing too to his venture.
The real fame came when Rai decided to tackle a very
controversial issue in the Indian society. This was a film named Achhut
Kanya(the untouchable maiden), the story of a love affair between a
Harijan girl and a Brahman boy. Years later, Bimal Roy would make
yet another film on the same lines named: SUJATA (with Sunil Dutt and
Nootan in lead roles).
The second phase of the development of the industry comes in
the 1940's. This was the influence of music and lyrics in films. The
tradition of Urdu Ghazal was well established among the middle
classes. Urdu poets flocked to Bombay in search of their fortunes and
found it there. Because of the old Awadh kingdom, Lucknow had been
a center of fine arts in India. Both poets and musicians were to be
found in great numbers in Lucknow. Some of them found their way to
Bombay and gave a new impetus to the industry.
Musicians like Naushad and poets such as Shakeel Badayuni,
Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhyanavi, even Majaz and Josh, ended up
in Bombay and made their mark in the industry. Minorities also
prospered in Bombay. Suhrab Modi (a Parsi) made some memorable
films such as PUKAR. Nadira (a woman from a Jewish family, who
recently passed away in Bombay) prospered first under Mahboob Khan
(AAN) and then with other producers.

THE INFLUENCE OF MUSIC AND POETRY


India is famous for its classical music which was patronized by
Kings, Rajas and Nawabs in various parts of the subcontinent.
However, the music that became popular in the films was of a lighter
tenor and it appealed to the masses.
Hand in hand with that popular brand of music, poetry played its
own part. Urdu poets (as well as writers of prose) assembled in
Bombay seeking their fortunes. As we said, even such great poets as
Josh Malihabadi and Majaaz found their way to Bombay. However, the
commercial life of Bombay was hard to endure for such people and
they returned to their bases after a short stay. There were though,
some names which became permanent fixtures of the Bombay film
scene. For example, Majrooh Sultanpuri came from Sultanpoor in the
early 1940’s and spent all his working life in Bombay. He became a
very successful song-writer as well as being a great poet of Nazm and

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 26
Ghazal. Majrooh was born Asrar-ul-Hasan Khan in 1919 in Sultanpoor,
a city in Uttar Pradesh. He qualified as a Muslim physician (HAKEEM) in
1938 but then took to poetry very soon after.
Majrooh was a socialist and he could have actually become as
great an INQILABI poet as was Josh. But his fortunes were waiting for
him elsewhere. Consider these lines:

‫ن دار پہ رکھتے چلو سروں کے چراغ‬


ِ ‫ستو‬
‫جہاں تلک یہ ستم کی سیاہ رات چلے‬
Sutoon-e-daar pa rakhte chalo saroN ke chiraagh
Jahan talak yeh sitam ki siyah raat chale
Trans: Let us keep lighting lamps of (our) severed heads on the
gallows,
As long as this dark night of oppression would continue.

However, he kept his socialist thinking and his socialistic poetry


quite separate from his work in films. He hit the jackpot with his
memorable song
‫غم دئے مستقل۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔‬
"Ghum diye mushtaqil..." for the film ShahJahan.

The song was composed by music director Naushad, and sung by


K. L. Saigal. The song acted as the springboard for Majrooh to the
forefront of film lyricists, where he would remain until his death in
2000. His contributions to films and to the world of Urdu poetry were
recognized and rewarded with many awards. Majrooh became the
pioneer in writing lyrics for a scene which had already been set in the
film and the musical tune for it has already been composed. So the
lyricist had to fit the poetry with the tune so that it could be sung
properly and he had to choose words and phrases which could relate to
the situation in the story and the screenplay.
Later on, that became the standard system of writing film poetry
in Bombay. Sometimes, the poet had to write silly words just to go with
the music and at other times words could not really fit the situation,
except for the best lyrics writers.
As opposed to that, one situation in the Bombay film scene lent
itself to reversing that mechanism completely. This is about a poet
named Sahir Ludhyanavi and his works. Sahir came from a feudal
family in the Punjab. However, he faced difficulties in his early life. He
was dispossessed of his properties by his other relatives and he had to
fight for his survival. He grew up into an angry young man, who was
bitter about the hypocrisy, injustice and oppression in the society. His
poetry reflected all that in so many words. Guru Dutt produced,

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 27
directed and played the leading role of a poet in his famous film
Pyaasa. This was based partially on Sahir’s own life story and entirely
on his poetry that had already been published. TIME has rated the film
Pyaasa among the 100 all time great films of the world.
We saw that the Indian film industry sprouted in the 1930s,
during the British Rule, and it took substantial shape in the 1940s.
By the decade of 1940 the Indian independence movement had
really hotted up. Every section of the society had been playing their
respective role in the movement. Urdu poetry played its role too. Poets
such as Josh Malihabadi rose to fame by writing and publishing anti-
British, anti-Imperialism and pro-independence revolutionary poetry.
The high point of that movement was that precious little poetry of that
genre is to be found that was composed and published in the
Devnagari script. All revolutionary poetry that was published in that
period was in Urdu. That is yet another indication that the Indian
population had accepted Urdu as its lingua franca. Urdu had become
the language of all classes of people in India.
Urdu gave the deep pluralistic character to the Indian film
industry that remains so even to this day in 2009. And that is in spite
of all the sectarianism that has taken over the Indian society in the last
65 years.
The first indication of that force of multiculturalism was seen in
the 1940s in films such as SHAHEED. The film had starred Dilip Kumar
in the leading role as a militant anti-British young Indian who is the son
of a Judge employed by the British authorities. The title song of the film
had the line:
‫وطن کی راہ میں وطن کے نوجواں شہید ہو۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔‬
Watan ki raah mai.N watan ke nawjawa.N shaheed ho….
Trans: O the young man of the land, give your life for your land…

While the sentiment of patriotism and sacrifice for one’s own


mother land is a universal one, the language used to express it here
was purely Muslim and Islamic. The words watan and Shaheed are
Arabic. Raah and Nawjawaan both are Farsi words. Particularly the
word Shaheed is a Qur’anic terminology in which the soldier who gives
his life fighting in Allah’s way is seen not as dying but going to live for
ever because he had witnessed (in his martyrdom) Allah’s truth. The
word Shaheed, which is usually translated as a martyr, actually means
an eyewitness to some significant event.
That phenomenon still exists in the film industry. Let us look at
another song that dates back to the 1950s. The name of the film was
Seema (meaning ‘limits’ in Hindi). That was the story of a misguided,
but highly intelligent and spirited young woman who had become a
juvenile delinquent and sent to an orphanage. The teacher in the
orphanage is out to tame the young woman into a useful member of

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 28
the society. In that process he leads the young woman to God. That
process is depicted by a song. The song has been reproduced below.

तू पयार का सागर है ‫تو پیار کا ساگر ہے‬


ितरी इक बूँद के पयासे हम
लौटा जो िदया तू ने ‫تری اک بوند کے پیاسے ہم‬
चले जाएंगे जहा से हम ‫لوٹا جو دیا تو نے‬
घाएल मन का पागल पंछी ‫چلے جاِئنگے جہاں سے ہم‬
उड़ने को बेकरार
पंख है कोमल आँख है धुंधली
‫گھائل من کا پاگل پنچھی‬
जाना है सागर पार ‫ُاڑنے کو بیقرار‬
अब तू ही इसे समझा ‫پنکھ ہیں کومل آنکھ ہے دھندھلی‬
राह भूले थे कहा से हम
तू पयार का सागर ........
‫جانا ہے ساگر پار‬
इधर झूम के गाये िजनदगी
उधर है मौत खड़ी ‫اب تو ہی اسے سمجھا‬
कोई कया जाने कहा है सीमा ‫راہ بھولے تھے کہاں سے ہم‬
उलझन आन पड़ी
कानो मे जरा कह दे ‫تو پیار کا ساگر ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔‬
की आएं कौन िदशा से हम ‫ادھر جھوم کے گائے زندگی‬
तू पयार का सागर है .......... ‫ُادھر ہے موت کھڑی‬
‫ئ کیا جانے کہاں ہے سیما‬
ِ ‫کو‬
‫ُالجھن آن پڑی‬
‫کانوں میں ذرا کہہ دے‬
‫کہ آیئں کون ِدشا سے ہم‬
‫تو پیار کا ساگر‬
‫ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔‬

As we can see, the song is written in the popular Hindustani


language that will pass for both Urdu and Hindi. The song could be
sung by a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu, or even by a godly theosophist
or theist without any qualms. The words highlight the dilemma of a
young lost soul seeking guidance. The highpoint of the lyrics is the
pluralistic tone and the very inclusive language of the song.
The only words that can be said to come from Hindi are DISHA
(direction) and SEEMA (limit). The rest of the lyrics would be easily
understood on the streets of Bombay, Lucknow, Karachi and Lahore
equally well.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 29
THE ANCIENT HISTORY: THE PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND
PEOPLES
Urdu is basically a language of India, and by extension, of
Pakistan – it is a member of the Proto-Indo-European (henceforth PIE)
family of languages.
There is no university in the west where research on the Proto-
Indo-European and its original speakers is not in progress. In some
institutions this work is being done under Historical Linguistics, in other
places under Social and Cultural Anthropology and in yet other places
in South Asian Cultural Studies departments.
There is still a strong lobby within India which believes and
propagates the idea that the languages of India are very local. But this
is now a minority view. Linguists, archeologists and historians have
brought forth overwhelming evidence to show that the North Indian
languages have developed over the centuries as a result of the ancient
people settling in India, who were the original speakers of PIE and had
come from far off areas of Eurasia in to the north.
In fact nearly two-thirds of the world population speaks a
language or another which is a member of the PIE group40.
Evidence points to the finding that the original speakers of PIE
lived during the last centuries of the latest Ice Age, or some ten
thousand years ago. They began dispersing from their original habitat
to other areas around 2,500-1,500 B.C41. Their original abode is though
still under discussion. There are three opinions. The first view is that
these people lived in the valley of the southern end of the Ural
Mountain range. The Ural Mountain chain begins below the North Pole
from the shores of the Arctic Ocean and runs North-South on the edge
of the Siberian Tundra. The Chain is divided in four separate units. The
valley at the foot of the southern most part, which is part of Northern
Russia, is fertile and full of tall timbers. The second view is that these
people lived in the valley of the Caucus Mountains. In the popular
American terminology White people are called Caucasians from that
association. A third view is that these people lived in the Pontic-
Caspian region. This area is defined as starting from the southern tip of
the Ural Mountain range running East-West, including the valley
between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea up to and including the
valley of the Caucus Mountain. Today the countries of Ukraine,
Georgia, Romania and Kazakhstan are included in this area. So are the
disputed provinces of South Osetia and Abkhazia, where the Russian
forces fought a brief battle with those of Georgia (7 August 2008). This

40
According to Anthony, some three billion people in the world speak languages of
the PIE group, see: Anthony, David P., The Horse, The Wheel and Language,
Princeton, 2007, p. 5
41
Toynbee, A., Mankind and Mother Earth, O.U.P., 1976

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 30
third view has gained more credence in the academic circles in the last
few years42.
As we mentioned above, the theory is that these people spread
out of their original abode some time around 2500 B.C. Since the area
of the Pontic-Caspian region is equally accessible to both Europe and
Asia, it was easy for them to reach both parts of the continent. One
group of such migrants found their way into Europe, another went up
to the Iran-Afghanistan plateau and a third ended up in the Indian sub-
continent. They took their language with them but under the local
influences of the new homelands the original mother-language went
through changes and new daughter-languages were born. In Europe
the Romance (Greek and Latin) languages as well as the Saxon
tongues were created. In Iran Avesta came into being, that gave rise to
Pahlavi and then Farsi as well as Pashto in Afghanistan. In India
Sanskrit took shape in which the collection of the Vedas was
documented. What facilitated the spread of the PIE-speakers to these
far off areas was the fact that those people had invented the wheel43,
had domesticated the horse and were able to build two-wheeler and
four-wheeler vehicles drawn by horses44.
The summary that we have presented to our readers in the
paragraph above took some two hundred years of hard work by
numerous anthropologists, linguists and archeologists as well as
forensic scientists to find out, research, analyse and document in so
many words. Numerous books have been written on this topic. The
latest and one of the better ones is David Anthony’s The Horse, The
Wheel and Language. This book came out in 2007 and because of
being a new publication; it has all the latest research as well as
methodologies documented in it. It is a goldmine of information for
research students and scholars. Another book is James P. Mallory’s In
Search of the Indo-Europeans. This book was published in 1989 but the
findings in the book are still valid after all these years. We have drawn
our material for this work from those two books in addition to many
others.
The studies on these lines were initiated as a result of the
findings of Sir William Jones(1746-94)45. Jones was sent to India as the
Chief Justice on the request of East India Company to Calcutta back in
the middle of the 18th century. Jones knew some 28 languages before
he came to India. In India he also learned Sanskrit. That opened a
completely new world to him. When he returned to England he

42
For details on this and other related points, see Mallory as well as Anthony
43
According to one estimate the invention of wheel took place some four thousand
years ago
44
The most up-to-date and thorough discussion on this subject will be found in: David
Anthony, The Horse, The Wheel and Language, Princeton University Press, 2007
45
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, p. 296

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 31
delivered a lecture on the Indian culture in 1786. In that lecture he
made his most celebrated comments which we quote here:

The Sanskrit language, whatever may be its antiquity, is of wonderful


structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin,
and more exquisitely defined than either, yet bearing to both of them a
stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of
grammar, than could have been produced by accident; so strong that
no philologer could examine all the three without believing them to
have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer
exists. There is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for
supposing that both the Gothic and Celtic, though blended with a
different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit; and the old
Persian might be added to the same family. (……..quoted in Mallory,
p.12)46

Since Jones was a very prominent person in the society and his
intellectual abilities were well recognized among the learned elite in
England, the work caught on. Work continued on these lines and such
lineage as Sanskrit—Agni, Latin—Ignis and English—Ignition were
quickly recognized. Within a period of fifty years extensive work
followed. In the middle of the 19th century August Schleicher, a German
linguist, brought out new ideas. Schleicher(1821-1868) was basically a
biologist47 so he presented his linguistic theories in those terms.
Schleicher was the first scholar to propose the theory of a tree-
structure for the languages belonging to one family
(Stammbaumtheorie48).
Before Jones’ and Schleicher’s works came to light all studies on
linguistics were limited to philology, lexicography, grammar and
etymology. Jones, Schleicher and other scholars’ work brought out the
universal application of the science of linguistics. It turned out that the
science of linguistics, on the one hand, was closely associated with
anthropology and therefore with history and archeology, on the other
hand it was also associated with sociology, psychology, economics and
political science.
More than 1,200 Proto-Indo-European roots have been identified
and documented with ample evidence to show their authenticity and
credibility49. Also, the cognate words associated with those roots in
various languages, mainly English, Latin and Sanskrit, have clearly
been identified50.
Anthony has listed five PIE roots which form the basis of the
theory of invention of the wheel, travel on two-wheeled and four-
46
James P. Mallory, In Search of the Indo Europeans, Thames and Hudson, London,
1989, p.12
47
According to Mallory
48
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Languages, p.292
49
See for example, The American Heritage Dictionary of the Indo-European Roots,
Houghton Mifflin, 2000
50
See, for example, Sanskrit Grammar, by Mueller

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 32
wheeled carriages drawn by horses and the consequent spread of the
language and the people. Cognates of those five PIE roots are found in
all languages of the world belonging to the PIE family from Eastern
Europe to Western Europe, Asia and other places51.
Those roots are as follows:
(1) k-w-e-l: The word ‘wheel’ is derived from this root
(2) w-e-g-h: This word was used for a wheeled vehicle. The English
and German words ‘WAGON’ is derived from this root52
(3) r-e-t: The word ‘rotate’ is derived from this root53
(4) r-e-i-d-h: the word ‘ride’ is derived from this root
(5) s-k-e-p: this was used for the long wooden pole which connects
the wheeled vehicle on its one end and its other end rests on
the shoulder of the animal pulling the vehicle. From this we
have the Latin word ‘scapula’ for the shoulder blade which is
used in English too.
Towards the beginning of the twentieth century research on
historical linguistics intensified and more and more western institutions
began sponsoring works in that science. More formal works began to
appear on those lines. Several methods have been proposed for
classifying the hundreds of languages spoken all across the world. We
quote below the major classes and methods of classification.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS


When Karl Marks analysed the world history he saw it as an
ongoing struggle between the working class and the capitalist class.
The workers were always exploited by the capitalist to make more
money thus making the capitalist richer and the worker poorer. This
was a view of history very different from what had hitherto been
thought natural. History would be written to tell who conquered which
country and when--- Which king ruled which people and for how long.
Marx’s work brought a completely new perspective in the science of
historiography.
The study of the historical evolution of language gave a yet
another totally new view to historiography. For example, quoting
Nicholas Ostler:

The language history of the world shows more of the true impacts of
past movements and changes of peoples, beyond the heraldic claims of
their largely self-appointed leaders. They reveal a subtle interweave of
cultural relations with power politics and economic expediency.
It also offers some broad hints for the future. It suggests rather
strongly that no language spread is ultimately secure: even the largest
languages in the twenty-first century will be subject either to the old
determinants of language succession or some new ones that that had

51
Anthony, pp. 59-82
52
The Urdu/Hindi word BAGGHI is also from the same root, in English it is “buggy”
53
The English word ‘chariot’ and Urdu/Hindi ‘rath’ both are from this root

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 33
arisen in the last five hundred years or the last fifty. Migrations,
population growth, changing techniques of education and
communication --- all shift the balance of language identities across the
world, while the focus of prestige and aspiration varies as the world’s
economies adjust to the rise of new centers of wealth. Future situations
may well be unprecedented, with potential for languages to achieve
truly global use, but they will still be human. And human beings seldom
stay united for long.54
THE TAXONOMY OF WORLD LANGUAGES
According to the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, there are
some 4,000 languages spoken in the world55. However, David Anthony
believes this figure is greater than 6,000. Some 23 different families of
languages have been identified.
In connection with Urdu, we are mainly concerned with three
language families. However, before we list those, let us first discuss
the classification of the world languages. There are three main
methods of classifying languages:
(1) The Genetic Method
(2) The Typological method, and
(3) The Areal method

We give below the definition of each of the above by quoting


Joseph Greenberg56.

Of these, the genetic is the only one which is at once non-arbitrary,


exhaustive and unique. By “non-arbitrary” is here meant that there is no
choice of criteria leading to different and equally legitimate results. This
is because genetic classification reflects historical events which must
have occurred or not occurred. If the classification is correct, it implies
events which did occur. By “exhaustiveness” of a classification is meant
that all languages are put into some class, and by “uniqueness” that no
language is put in more than one class57. Genetic classification, as has
been seen, is based on criteria of sound-meanings resemblances of
linguistic forms. Related languages are likely to be in the same
geographical region but usually are not in continuous distribution……..
…………………………………………..
Typological classifications are based on criteria of sound without
meaning, meaning without sound, or both. For example, using a phonetic
criterion only we might divide the languages of the world into two
typological classes, those with tonal systems and those lacking tonal
systems………
……………………………………….

54
Ostler, N., p.13
55
Cambridge Encyclopedia, p.85
56
Joseph Greenberg (1915-2001) was a New Yorker who worked on and taught
Linguistic typology and Language Classification at Stanford University.
57
Readers who are experts in database design techniques would have noticed the
strong resemblance to data normalization in this description by Greenberg. This is
the third normal form of data. It tells us how far ahead Greenberg was in his thinking.
The concept of data normalization was not introduced until the 1970s.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 34
Typological classifications are arbitrary, as has just been indicated,
exhaustive, and unique. They have no necessary historical implications.
…………………………
Areal classifications are based on effects of languages upon one another
whether they are related, or unrelated. Among the relevant data are
borrowings, involving both sound and meaning, and influences in sound
only or meaning only which are the result of historical contact.
……………………………
Areal classifications are therefore arbitrary within limits. They are neither
exhaustive nor unique.58

We shall see that the study and classification of the languages


belonging to the Proto-Indo-European family of languages, of which
Urdu and Hindi both are members, has been done by the genetic
method. A comprehensive tree-structure has been proposed which has
been largely accepted by the scholars of linguistics. Before we discuss
that, let us give the details of the other two families of the languages
which are relevant to the discussion on Urdu.
One of the oldest or perhaps the oldest language family of the
world is the Semitic family of languages. The term ‘Semitic’ signifies an
association with the Biblical name Sam, a son of the prophet Noah.
Even though the term has come to signify Jewish people and
everything else Jewish in modern times, both R.A. Nicholson59 of
Cambridge as well as Philip Hitti60 of Princeton have maintained that
the only people who could be called purely Semitic are the Arabs.
Nicholson lists the Semitic languages61 with their respective
dates as follows:
(1) Babylonian or Assyrian (3,000-500 B.C.)
(2) Hebrew (from 500 B.C.)
(3) South Arabic otherwise called Sabean or Himyarite (inscriptions
from 800 B.C.)
(4) Aramaic (inscriptions from 800 B.C.)
(5) Phoenician (inscriptions from 700 B.C.)
(6) Ethiopic (inscriptions from 350 A.D.)
(7) Arabic (from 500 A.D.)

58
Greenberg, J.H., Essays in Linguistics, Chicago University Press, 1957, pp. 65-69.
Please note that we have only quoted the salient points of the essay, for those who
are interested in the subject of classification of languages, we recommend that they
read the full essay.
59
Reynold Nicholson (1868-1945) was an English orientalist of great repute. He was
the professor of Arabic, Farsi and Islamic studies at Cambridge, England. He has
translated the poetry of Mawlana Rum and that of Allama Iqbal into English.
60
Philip Khuri Hitti (1886-1978) was a Maronite Christian Arab from Lebanon. He
taught at Columbia University and later held the Chair of Arab Studies at Princeton
until his retirement in 1954. Hitti is credited with introducing Arab Studies to the US
Academic circles.
61
Nicholson, R.A., A Literary History of the Arabs, Cambridge University Press, 1907
and 1979, p. xiv

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 35
The above list is important for our discussion because Urdu as
well as Hindi both are influenced by Arabic, the youngest of the Semitic
languages. Our contention is that Urdu and Hindi though identified in
modern times as two separate languages for political reasons are
actually the same except for the two scripts. Much discussion has
ensued in academic circles on this highly controversial and contentious
topic. See for example: (1) Amrit Rai, A House Divided, The Origin of
Urdu and Hindi, O.U.P., 1992 (2) Abdul Jamil Khan, Urdu/Hindi: An
Artificial Divide(Politics of Languge), Algora Publishing, 2006 (3)
Christopher King, One Language Two Scripts, O.U.P., 1999. The Indian
scholar of Allahabad named Giyan Chand Jain wrote a book in Urdu on
this topic – Ek Bhasha, Do Likhavat, Do Adab, Educational Publishing
House, Delhi, 2005. This last book caused a lot of controversy in India
and Pakistan. The well-known critic Shamsur-Rahman Faruqi wrote a
rebuttal of the main ideas presented in the book 62.
The third group of languages that is significant for us is the
Dravidian family of languages. These were the languages spoken in
India before the PIE speakers arrived in India as settler/conquerors
around 2,500 B.C. The Indus Valley civilization is identified with those
languages. In this group two languages are very important, namely
Tamil and Telgu. Tamil is one of the official languages of India. It is
spoken in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka and Singapore. There are some 70
million speakers of Tamil in the world. It has its own script. Telgu is
also a Dravidian language but unlike Tamil it has been overly
influenced by Sanskrit over the centuries. It is also one of the official
languages of India and it is spoken in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Karnatak
and on some islands in the Indian Ocean. Telgu also has its own script.
Indus Valley civilization is considered to be the third of the
three oldest human civilizations. It is significant for us in this
study because the first Muslims landed in this area back in 710
A.D. For that reason, that area is called Bab-ul-Islam in today’s
Pakistan. Some recent excavations in the area and further
research seem to shed more light on the Indus Valley Civilization.

No longer is the Indus the plain cousin of Egypt and Mesopotamia


during the 3rd millennium B.C.E. Archeologists now realize that the
Indus dwarfed its grand neighbours in land area and population,
62
The reason we have mentioned here both names is that we want to emphasize
that the Hindi which had remained strictly Hindi without much relationship to Urdu
has also been influenced by Arabic as we have shown in quoting the poetry of Meera
Bai whose language is Rajasthani Hindi. And now in the last sixty years the language
that is spoken in India and also used in the media has been deliberately overloaded
with made-up words from Sanskrit to make it as much different from Urdu as
possible. Similarly, in Pakistan, the language that is spoken and used in the media
has been over-loaded with Arabic. The famous episode of the late dictator Zia-ul-Haq
forcing people to say Allah-Hafiz instead of the more popular and fluent Khuda Hafiz
(as a parting greeting) is a typical example of that. However, as long as the
Bollywood film industry flourishes, the common language will flourish.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 36
surpassed them in many areas of engineering and technology, and was
an aggressive player during humanity’s first flirtation with globalization
5000 years ago. The old notion that the Indus people were an insular,
homogeneous, and egalitarian bunch is being replaced by a view of a
diverse and dynamic society that stretched from the Arabian Sea to the
foothills of the Himalayas and was eager to do business with peoples
from Afghanistan to Iraq. And the Indus people worried enough about
the privileges of their elite to build thick walls to protect them. “This
idea that Indus was dull and monolithic --- that is all nonsense,” says
Louis Flamm, an archeologist at the City University of New York who has
worked in Pakistan. 63

It is now an accepted view among the western scholars that the


PIE speakers came to India around 2500-1500 B.C. and pushed the
original inhabitants (aadi basi) down south and established themselves
in the Northern part of the country. These invaders are called Aryans
or Indo-Aryans.

The Aryan group of IE languages consists of Sanskrit and the other IE


dialects of India, Iranian and the Kafir languages of North-west India.
The original homeland of the Indians, or rather of the IE tribes who had
penetrated into India, can be traced to a region outside India, north-
west of India itself. From here, probably around the middle of the
second millennium BC, the fore-bearers of the Indians moved into
India, conquering the non-IE native peoples. These people had a
flourishing civilization, the so-called ‘Indus Valley Civilization,’ whose
most important archeological remains have been recovered by the
excavation of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.64

Very similar ideas are expressed by Nicholas Ostler, a more recent


writer.

Sanskrit first appears to us, as do most of its Indo-European


sister languages, as the speech of conquering warriors, well capable of
using horses and wheeled vehicles to establish domination over their
neighbours and turn them into serfs and subjects. The way of life is
familiar from heroic poetry of Indo-European peoples in every
direction: men who fought from chariots, speak forth rightly, and care
for their own personal honour more than life itself.65

However, our learned friend professor Gabriela Ilieva66 of New


York University maintains that this was a gradual settlement over a
time and there was no sustained warfare between the settlers and the
original inhabitants. In support of that view she presents the
statements in the Rig Veda which speak of the destruction of the areas
63
Unmasking the Indus, article in SCIENCE, 6 June 2008, Vol. 320, p. 1276
64
Lazzeroni, Romana; Sanskrit, article in Ramat and Ramat, The Indo European
Languages, Routledge, London, 1998, p. 98
65
Ostler, N.; Empires of the Word, Harper Collins, New York, 2005, p. 195
66
Gabriela Nik Ilieva has done her Ph.D. on the feminine voices recorded in the Rig
Veda. She is a historical linguist and teaches Hindi at NYU.(private conversation)

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 37
in the Indus Valley in the past tense. There is no statement saying that
“we destroyed such and such,” etc.

THE VEDAS AND OTHER ANCIENT INDIAN LITERATURE


The oldest Indo-Aryan linguistic samples are found in the four
Vedas, which form the basis of the various sects found within the
Hindu religion of India. The oldest of those is the Rig Veda which
consists of hymns dedicated to gods Indra67 and Agni68. The language
of this document is the Vedic Sanskrit. Its period has been estimated
as 1700-1100 B.C. It has strong resemblances to the oldest Iranian
religious document the Avesta which has been dated to be of 2000
B.C. Avesta is a sample of the Proto-Indo-Iranian language that derived
from the PIE as did the Vedic Sanskrit.
The next two of documents from the point-of-view of linguistic
history are Mahabharata and Ramayana, both written in a later version
of Sanskrit. Mahabharata’s date is estimated to be between the 8th and
the 4th century B.C. It is the longest epic in the known world literature
comprising of some 74,000 verses/stanzas. Ramayana’s date is
estimated to be between 400 and 200 B.C.
The PIE speakers who came to the Indian subcontinent
formulated an elaborate social system and a very formal religion that
was kept inside the temples and was administered to the common folk
by an elite class of priests who named themselves as the Brahmans.
The theory they created was that the human society consisted of four
classes, each in turn was produced from the four parts of the body of
god – the Brahmans were from the mouth of the god, therefore, they
claimed to be the speakers of god’s language and His commands, the
Chhatris or the warriors from His chest, the Vayshyas or the business
class from His stomach and the Shudras from His feet. Thus the fourth
one were the lowest in class distinction. The Brahmans called their
language or the Divine language Sanskrit meaning ‘perfect,’
‘complete,’ or ‘cultured.’ Being the custodians of the temples and of
the religion, only they could recite the devotional hymns to the gods.
And only they could speak the divine language Sanskrit. In fact they
were afraid that if they allowed the common folk to speak the divine
language it would be polluted. To protect the language from that
corruption, a priest by the name of Panini authored his much
celebrated Sanskrit Grammar called asht-adhyaye or ‘eight lessons.’
He claimed to have been inspired by the Lord Shiva in that authorship.
It is the oldest work on descriptive linguistics in the world, and is
amazingly modern in its approach. He lists consonants and vowels and
all parts of speech with their respective definitions. Panini describes his
various rules of grammar as modern day mathematicians give the
67
Master of the Garden of Paradise, a superior god in Hindu mythology
68
The god of Fire in Hindu mythology

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 38
derivation of a mathematical function. Panini’s time is estimated to be
around 400 B.C.

SANSKRIT AND PRAKRIT


The priests considered Vedic Sanskrit as sacred. This is shown by
the fact that Panini is obviously writing his grammar of the Sanskrit
language in Sanskrit, but he uses a different Sanskrit to describe the
rules. It is not Vedic Sanskrit which he uses to document Vedic
Sanskrit. It is a coded and abbreviated Sanskrit69.
This was the beginning of the post-Vedic classical Sanskrit.
It is not certain whether or not the Vedic Sanskrit was ever
spoken outside of the temples. Since the common folk were not
allowed to use Sanskrit in their every-day social communication70, yet
another spoken language came into being, which nevertheless, was a
PIE dialect. It was definitely influenced by Sanskrit. The Brahmans, out
of their pride and in extreme derision and contempt, called that spoken
language Prakrit meaning ‘natural’ (as opposed to Divine), ‘less
perfect’ or ‘corrupted.’
What the Brahman of that day did not understand was that
languages are not like gold and silver, in that they are not reduced in
value or stature by extensive use neither do they get spent like money.
If anything, languages are enhanced and expanded as their user base
expands. In their protective attitude and narrow-mindedness the
priests imprisoned Sanskrit inside the temple. That suffocated the
language. Sanskrit is one of the most perfect languages of the world if
not ‘the’ perfect one. But the Brahman’s protective attitude killed the
language of that suffocation.
If Sanskrit would have been used extensively in the past, then
with the Vedic literature in view, it would have been accepted as the
first religious language of the world. Arabic cannot be truly called a
religious language because a large part of its literature was already in
existence before Islam emerged in Arabia. This short note here, will
work as a preamble to our theory that Urdu is the world’s first religious
language.
With time, the Prakrit kept evolving. At some later time it was
called apabhransh or ‘badly corrupted’ and yet later it came to be
known as ‘shor seni71.’ We do not have sufficient data to be able to
69
For example, see for details: Bhate, Saroja and Kak, Subhash; Panini’s Grammar
and Computer Science, Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 72,
1993, pp. 79-94, also available at: http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/bhate.pdf
70
In fact, if a person of the common class tried to speak Sanskrit, the priests would
subject the offender to severe punishment
71
This is derived from ‘Surasena,’ which was the name of an ancient kingdom in
north India.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 39
pinpoint the exact timing of these changes in nomenclature. Linguists
have identified some eight different dialects of ancient India which are
collectively called Apabhransha dialects.
As further time passed and people of the PIE origins continued to
spread across the geographical area, Prakrit developed local
variations. But across the belt from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian
Sea shores between the Himalayan range on the north and the
Vindhyachal range on the south a common language was understood.
Eventhough the vocabulary developed its own peculiarities in each
locality; the grammar remained the same – even to this day. On the
two extremes, Bangla broke off into its own script and language in the
East, and Gujrati and Marathi into their own dialects and scripts in the
west.
Four of those branches of the original Prakrit have survived to
this day and those four actually form the basis of modern Urdu/Hindi.

KHARI BOLI AND BRAJ BHAASHA


Those branches are as follows:
(1) Braj Bhasha – this dialect developed around Mathura72 on the
western shores of the Yamuna river. The area of the influence of
this dialect spread up to Agra. During the period 800-1900 A.D.
this dialect was spoken by the largest population in the western
Uttar Pradesh. The poetry of Sur Das that he wrote in praise of
Lord Krishna has been written in this dialect.
(2) Avadhi – This, as the name suggests, was the language spoken
in the province of Avadh. It was also spoken in the area where
today’s city of Kanpur is located. The Ramayana73 of Tulsi Das in
which he chronicles the heroic exploits of Lord Rama is written in
this dialect. Both Braj and Avadhi show borrowings from and a
base in Sanskrit in their respective vocabulary.
(3) Bundel Khandi or Bundeli – as the name suggests this dialect
developed in the Bundel Khand area. The well known folk epic
Alha-Udal is written in this dialect. This is an epic chronicling the
heroic exploits of two brothers. It is sung in gatherings in villages
of Uttar Pradesh and mostly people have memorized the long
poem for those recitals. Bundeli seems to be influenced from
both Sanskrit as well as the ancient Dravidian dialects.
(4) Khari Boli – this dialect developed in the northern part of Delhi
including some parts of Uttar Pradesh. This was the language of
a minority in the beginning. During the 18th and the 19th
72
According to the epic Mahabharat, the city of Mathura was the capital of the
Surasena Kingdom of the ancient times. From this we have the name Shoraseni for
the second name of the Prakrit dialects that we have mentioned above.
73
This is a different Ramayana from the Sanskrit Ramayana that we mentioned
earlier

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 40
centuries its popularity increased under the influence of Arabic
and Farsi, and by the end of the 19th century it had become the
language of the majority in and around Delhi and some parts of
Uttar Pradesh. It took a long time for the Khari Boli to become an
accepted language for literary compositions. The first Khari Boli
work which was written in Nast’aleeq script is Fazl-e-Ali Fazli’s
Karbal Katha. This was written during the period 1730-175074
A.D. and it is the first Urdu (or in Hindi) prose text to be
produced. Other early Khari Boli works are Lallu Lal’s
PremSagar75 which was written in the early 1800’s and Insha
Allah Khan’s Rani Ketki ki Kahani. Both those works were
originally written in Dev Nagari Script.

THE BHAKTI MOVEMENT OF INDIA


As we explained above the early Brahmans had monopolized
both the religion in the temples as well as the language Sanskrit.
Obviously, this was not liked by the larger population. The embargo on
the language caused the creation of the Prakrit dialects. The
monopolization of religion caused the public to find other avenues to
form the basis of their prayers and worship. Two very influential
leaders emerged in this midst. Gawtam Buddha (Real name: Prince
Siddhartha) lived around 563-483 B.C. He was born a prince in the
kingdom of Kapilvastu (in today’s Tibet) but renounced his throne and
left the palace living and a wife and a child. He went into wanderings in
search of eternal peace. He taught reflection and introspection to his
followers. In effect he taught against the adoration of stone idols and
other physical objects. The second reformer was Mahavira who lived
around 599-527 B.C. He is the progenitor of the Jain religion in India.
The most essential tenet of Jainism is Ahimsa or non-violence.
The effect of the reforms of these two great sages was that god
had been taken out of the temple and brought to a more tangible level.
The general public felt that they had come closer to god by way of
these reforms. Even though the teachings of both these religions were
originally documented in classical Sanskrit, their movements
encouraged people to tell the divine stories which had so far been
limited to the Vedas, in their own popular languages. Consequently the
Prakrits were made popular as a side effect of those two reformers’
works. The Prakrits were not just means of social intercourse; instead
they had become languages of the religion too.
That helped the Bhakti movement which actually began in the
800s A.D. The word Bhakti means devotion. The movement made sure
that poets of all the dialects of the Prakrits began composing
74
Mukerji, Sujit, A Dictionary of Indian Literature, Orient Longman, 1999
75
This was translated into modern English in 1818 by Capt. Hollings of the British
Bengal regiment. This is available on: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/psa/psa00.htm

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 41
devotional songs in their own dialects. That basically made the Vedas
redundant because all those stories told in the four Vedas were now
being told in the popular dialects. In the Vedic scriptures God was
shown to be behaving much like the humans. The Bhakti movement
brought those Vedic concepts in a popular language that the majority
of the people spoke or could speak.
The beginning of the Muslim conquests is also the early 800s. So
we can see that the arrival and settlement of Muslims in India and
beginning of the Bhakti Movement are simultaneous phenomena.
Eventhough they appear to be unconnected, they both had profound
effect on each other.
We also saw that the beginning of the Prakrit dialects in northern
part of India was a natural consequence of the elitist view of a
privileged class about the language Sanskrit. The majority of the
population felt resentful because of the caste system perpetuated by
the Brahmans. Both the movement of Buddha as well as that of
Mahavira attracted large number of followers since the followers of
those two religions were all considered equal. In fact the majority of
Indians became Buddhists. After several centuries of prosperity
Buddhism began to decline in India and the old Hindu religion began
rising again. The Hindu priests declared Buddha as a Mahatma (great
soul) and an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. That facilitated a mixed set of
beliefs to be popularized. By the end of the 11th century Buddhism was
pushed to China and Afghanistan and Hinduism was re-established in
the Indian society. That meant the re-establishment of the old caste
system in the society once again.
When the Muslim Sufis came to India they preached the message
of human brotherhood. As a result of that a large number of the lower
class Hindus converted to Islam.
During the 1400s and 1500s the Bhakti Movement flourished
greatly. The clearest indication of that is the literature produced during
that period. However, the Bhakti movement bifurcated in two parallel
streams. One was the Nirgun and the other was the Sagun. Sagun
preached the bodily representation of god. The leader of this
movement was Sur Das. He sang the songs of praise of Lord Krishna. In
Sur Das’ poetry, the child Krishna is seen eating butter by stealth in
the kitchen and then telling his mother that he had not done it. The
youthful Krishna is seen frolicking with the Gopis (the cowgirls) of
Vrindaban, teasing them and then leaving them. So, basically, Sur Das
depicted the Divine figure doing everything a human being would do,
including amorous encounters with the opposite sex. Tulsi Das on the
other hand shows a chivalrous hero in the figure of Rama who is a just
and benevolent ruler. He is always ready to sacrifice for the good of his
subjects. Rama has a devoted brother in Laxman and an equally
devoted wife in Seeta. However, much as he loves both, when Seeta is
abducted by the Raxus(demon) Rawana and subsequently recovered,

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 42
Rama fails to protect Seeta against the onslaught of the courtiers who
question her chastity. She has to tread on fire to prove her purity. The
highpoint of both works is that woman is shown in a subservient
position. We will discuss this again when talking about Meera Bai.
Nirgun meant and preached that god had no physical body, age or
place. And man can find god in himself. This notion was much closer to
the basic ideas of Islam. The leader of that movement was Kabir Das.
Kabir had originated in Benares but had travelled the length and
breadth of northern India. His language therefore is a mix of all
dialects.
The Muslim Sufis injected the idea of mysticism in this flourishing
Bhakti movement of India. That notion seeped into both forms of the
Bhakti movement. In the Nirgun Bhakti movement Kabir Das’ poetry is
replete with those ideas. On the Sagun side, Meera Bai’s poetry is
filled with ideas of mysticism.
Let us look at some of that poetry.
Kabir lived during the time 1440-1518. Kabir’s poetry shows
more than once that the actual leitmotiv of the Bhakti movement was
to discredit the caste system of the Indian society.

Consider the following lines of Kabir:

साधू बाहण, साध छती, साधे जाित बिनया ‫سادھے‬،‫ سادھ چھتری‬،‫سادھو براہمن‬
साधन मा छतीस कौम है, टेढ़ी तोर पुछिनया
साधे नाओ, साधे धोबी, साध जात है बिरया ‫جاتی بنیا‬
साधन मा रैदास संत है , सपुच ऋिष सौ भंिगया ‫ ٹیڑھی تور‬،‫سادھن ماں چھتیس کوم ہیں‬
िहंद ू तुरक दुई दीन बने है कछु नही पहचिनया ‫ُپچھنیا‬
‫ سادھ جات‬،‫ سادھے دھوبی‬،‫سادھے نائو‬
‫ہے بریاں‬
‫سُپچ ِرشی‬،‫سادھن ماںرے داس سنت ہیں‬
‫سو بھنگیاں‬
‫ہندو ُتُرک دوئی دین بنے ہیں کچھو نہیں‬
‫پہچنیاں‬

Trans: Brahman is a Sadhu, Chhatri is a Sadhu, the grocer too is


a Sadhu/there are thiry-six tribes among the sadhus, your question is
crooked/the barber is a Sadhu, the washer-man is a Sadhu and
carpenter too is among them/ Ray Das the sage is also a Sadhu and
the well known ascetic who is known as a Bhangi/ Hindu and Muslim
have been made into two separate religions, but in effect there is no
difference(between them).

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 43
In these lines Kabir seems to be making naught of various
different religions let alone sects and castes within one religious
system. In effect he espouses the mystic view of man seeking his Lord
irrespective of religion, caste and creed. The word ‘sadhu’ has been
used as a generic term for a devotee of God. The number 36 was used
as an idiom to show a multitude and in today’s Urdu/Hindi this
expression is still used in that meaning.

Consider also the following lines also by Kabir:

इस घट अनदर बाग बगीचे इसी मे सजरन हारा ‫اس گھٹ انتر باگ بگیچے اسی میں‬
इस घट अनतर सात समनदर इसी मे नौ लख तारा
इस घट अनतर पारस मोती इसी मे पखरन हारा ‫سرجن ہارا‬
इस घट अनदर अनहद गरजे इसी मे उठत फुआरा ‫اس گھٹ انتر سات سمندر اسی میں نو‬
कहत कबीर सुनो भई साधू इसी मे साइं हमारा ‫لکھ تارا‬
‫اس گھٹ انتر پارس پوتی اسی میں‬
‫پرکھن ہارا‬
‫اس گھٹ انتر انحد گرجے اسی میں‬
‫ُاٹھت پھوہارا‬
‫کہت کبیر سنو بھئی سادھو اسی میں‬
‫ساِئیں ہمارا‬
Translation: In this body are gardens, also the gardener lives herein/
In this body are the seven seas, and in this very body there are nine
lak stars/In this body there are pearls and jewels and so is the
jeweler/In this soul is the thunder of the Almighty and from this also
flow fountains/ Kabir says: Listen O sage, in this soul lives our Lord.

These lines combine the message of pluralism as well as the


typical mystic notion of ‘Existence in One Union,’ or Wahdat-ul-
Wajood76.
Kabir lived in the 15th century. He was a Sufi poet in the long line
of many such poets who are considered to be the followers of the
Bhakti movement. The Bhakti movement ended around 1700.
However, the thinking that gave rise to the poetry in mysticism has
continued to this our day.

Consider the following lines by Iqbal:


‫زاہِد تنگ نظر نے مجھے کافر جانا‬
‫اور کافر یہ سمجھتا ہے مسلماں ہوں میں‬
76
The famous Muslim mystic Ibn Arabi (1165-1240 A.D.) is credited with this concept
– the only reality in this universe is God Almighty, everything else is temporal, so
when man dies he becomes one with his Lord.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 44
‫دیکھ اے چشِم عدو مجھ کو حقارت سے نہ دیکھ‬
‫جس پہ فطرت کو بھی ہے ناز وہ انساں ہوں میں‬

‫‪The narrow-minded priest considers me an infidel/And the infidel‬‬


‫‪thinks I am a Muslim/Listen my enemy! Do not look at me with‬‬
‫‪derision/I am that human, on whom Nature takes pride.‬‬

‫‪Also look at the following poem which says the same thing in‬‬
‫‪more definite terms.‬‬
‫سچ کہہ دوں اے برہمن گر تو برا نہ مانے‬
‫تیرے صنم کدوں کے ُبت ہو گئے‬
‫پرانے‬
‫اپنوں سے بیر رکھنا تو نے بتوں سے سیکھا‬
‫جنگ و جدل سکھایا واعظ کو بھی‬
‫خدا نے‬
‫تنگ آ کے آخر میں نے دیر و حرم کو چھوڑا‬
‫واعظ کا وعظ چھوڑا‪ ،‬چھوڑے ترے‬
‫فسانے‬
‫پتھر کی مورتوں میں سمجھا ہے تو خدا ہے‬
‫ک وطن کا ہر ذّرہ مجھ کو‬ ‫خا ِ‬
‫دیوتا ہے‬
‫آ غیریت کے پردے اک بار پھر ُاٹھا دیں‬
‫ش دوِئی‬
‫بچھڑوں کو پھر مل دیں نق ِ‬
‫مٹا دیں‬
‫سوِئی پڑی ہوِئی ہے مّدت سے دل کی بستی‬
‫آ اک نیا شوالہ اس دیس میں بنا د‬
‫یں‬
‫دنیا کے تیرتھوں سے ُاونچا ہو اپنا تیرتھ‬
‫ن آسماں سے اسکا کلس مل‬ ‫داما ِ‬
‫دیں‬
‫ہر صبح ُاٹھ کے گاِئیں منتر وہ میٹھے میٹھے‬

‫‪URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi‬‬ ‫‪45‬‬
‫سارے پجاریوں کو مے پیت کی‬
‫پل دیں‬
‫شکتی بھی شانتی بھی بھگتوں کے گیت میں ہے‬
‫دھرتی کے باسیوں کی مکتی بھی پریت‬
‫میں ہے‬

Meer Bai, on the other hand, comes in the Sagun tradition of the
Bhakti movement. As we have pointed it out above, Meera was
born in Rajasthan at a place which was very close to the Ajmer Shrine
of Khwaja Mo’een-ud-Deen Chishti. She was born in 1498. By that time
the shrine had been there for nearly three centuries. It is our
contention that in that time a strongly influenced linguistic-cultural
tradition must have evolved around the Shrine. That tradition, on the
one hand, was instrumental in the new language being evolved, and on
the other hand it was deeply influenced by the Muslim tradition. Our
emphasis here is on the linguistic tradition. For that we will present
some brief examples.
Two things are strikingly apparent in Meera’s poetry: (1) Use of
Arabic an Farsi words and idioms, and (2) A strong underpinning of
women’s lib. We shall leave the women’s lib aspect for the time since it
is not germane to our discussion here.

सुनी हूँ मै हरी आवन की आवाज ‫سنی ہوں میں ہری آون کی آواج‬
महल चढ़ चढ़ जोऊँ मेरी सजनी
‫)مھل )محل‬
-----------------------------------
‫چڑھ چڑھ جووں مری سجنی‬
माई री ! महािलया गोिबनदा िलया मोल ----------------------------
थे किहयया छाड़े महा का चोडडे ‫مائی ری۔ َمھالیاں گوِبندا لیا مول‬
िलया बजंता ढोल
थे किहयया मुन होधो महा ससतो
िलया री तराजा तोल ‫تھےک ِہائنیاں چھاڑے مہاں کاں چوڈ‬
तन वारा महा जीवन वारा
बरा अमोलक मोल ‫ڈے‬
‫لیا بجنتا ڈھول‬
‫تھے کہائنیاں منو ہو دھو مہاں سستا‬
‫لیا ری تراجا تول‬
‫تن واراں مہاں جیون واراں‬
‫براں َامولک مول‬

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 46
Notice the Farsi word AWAAZ (sound, voices) rendered as AWAAJ,
because there is no ‘Z’ sound in the Indo-Aryan languages. Also notice
the use of the Arabic words MAHAL (palace) and a deformed TARAJA
which is basically the Arabic TARAZOO.

URDU TAKES ROOTS IN THE DECCAN

Nearly a century after Khwaja Mueen-ud-Deen Chishti arrived in


India, another Sufi of great significance lived in India. Khwaja Banda
Nawaz Gesu Draz was born in Delhi in 1321 A.D. He grew up in Delhi.
By that time the period of Khusro and Nizam-ud-Deen was coming to
an end. However, the Sufi tradition had been well established in Delhi.
Gesu Daraz grew up in that environment and was initiated into the Sufi
Tareeqa by many of his teachers. When Muhammad Tughlaq decided
to move the seat of the government from Delhi to the Deccan, people
of all professions moved to that area. Gesu Daraz also moved to
Deccan in that period. He finally settled down in Karnatak and passed
away in 1422 A.D. His shrine in Gulbarga is a place of pilgrimage for
the devotees.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 47
Enterance-Gulbarga Shareef Dargah

HAZRAT GESU DARAZ AND HIS WORKS IN URDU


Historians have given various reasons for the decision by
Tughlaq to move the capital 700 miles down south from Delhi to
Devagiri which was renamed Daulatabad. Some have said that the
Tughlaq wanted greater control of the southern part of the kingdom.
Others have said that the Tughlaq had a very tolerant policy towards
his non-Muslim subjects and the ulema disagreed with him. He moved
away from Delhi to avoid the ulema’s wrath. Anyway, the capital had
to move back to Delhi after a two-year experiment for lack of
amenities in Daulatabad. As we observed earlier on, that whole
disastrous process caused a lot of damage to the development of the
new language. No work could be done in Delhi due to the upheaval and
neither was any work done in the south. However, Khwaja Banda
Nawaz Gesu Darz stayed on in the Deccan and he died there. The
Khwaja had produced voluminous work in Arabic, Farsi as well as in the
new language. His most well-known work is M’eraj-ul-Ashiqeen. Ram
Babu Saksena thinks that M’eraj-ul-Ashiqeen has no literary value. Ali

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 48
Jawad Zaidi has said that it is not certain who wrote M’eraj-ul-
Ashiqeen77. Unfortunately we have not been able to get hold of any
works by Gesu Daraz. With those doubts we cannot really rule that
M’eraj-ul-Ashiqeen is the first literary work in Urdu. Perhaps some new
student, scholar or teacher will do some more research on this topic
and ill this gap in the information.

Hazrath Khwaja Bandanawaz Gesudaraz(Rh)


Born on the 13th of July 1321 / 4th ::
Passed away on the 1st of November 1422 / 16th Dhu al-Qadah 825

However, Gesu Daraz did provide the platform on which the first
literary work in Urdu was produced. Gesu Daraz was a Sufi of the
Chishtiyya order. These Sufis were always involved in Ashoora
observances78. It is strongly likely that when Gesu Daraz moved to
Deccan, he introduced the Ashoora ritual and its accompanying rites to
the Muslims of the south. This was a way to introduce the Prophet of
Islam and his progeny with a lot of emotionalism. The general Muslim
population must have got involved in the practice.
As we noted earlier, the Muslim presence in Kerala has been
there all the same. But no development on the new language took
place in that area in spite of the 500 year long Muslim presence. Why
was that?
Our theory about this is simple. Kerala and the rest of that area
is a Malyalam speaking area. Malyalam is a Dravidian language. Even
though when Muslims came they brought there language which was
Arabic, with them, the new growing population of Muslims remained
77
Zaidi, p. 37-38
78
Rizvi, Saiyid Athar Abbas; A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna Ashari Shi’is in
India, Ma’rifat Publishing House, Canberra, 1986, p. 294-295

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 49
Malyalam-speaking. All Muslim chronicles in Kerala are documented in
Malyalam. They accepted the holy Qur’an in Arabic but documented
their own affairs in their local language.
As opposed to that, the Muslim conquerors who came to Delhi,
Punjab and other northern areas, were Farsi speaking, whether they
came from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran or even from Turkish regions.
Farsi is a language from the Indo-Iranian sub-branch of the Proto-Indo-
European family of languages. The northern parts of India were
speaking one or another dialect of the Prakrit, which we have identified
as a set of dialects in the Indo-Aryan sub-branch of the Proto-Indo-
European family of languages. That linguistic affinity helped ameliorate
a mixed local language that we now know as Urdu/Hindi.
So, how could a tradition of the new language grew and
flourished in the Deccan in Hyderabad area? After all, that area that we
know today as Hyderabad is within a Dravidian influenced area.
The answer to that question lies in the fact that the early rulers
of the Deccan helped create and popularize the new language.
The first Bahmani kingdom was established in 1347 during the
reign of Muhammad Tughlaq at Delhi by a Tajik-Persian commander.
Nearly a hundred years later when the Bahmani kingdom became
weak, more new Muslim kingdoms were established in those areas.
The most prominent of them all was the Qutub Shahi kingdom of
Golcunda which was established in 1518 A.D. The rulers of the Qutub
Shahi kingdom were from the Turkic tribe of Qara Quyunlu. There
were two common things between the Tajik-Persians and the Turkic
Qara Quyunlu. They were both Farsi-speaking and they were Shi’a
Muslims. Thus both became instrumental in establishing the Ashoora
observance in their kingdoms. This practice, as we noted, may have
continued from the time of Gesu Daraz. Quli Qutub Shah was one of
the rulers at Golcunda. His year of death is 161179. Quli Qutub Shah
wrote Marsiyya for Imam Husayn in a language which was a mix of
Farsi with local dialects(both from the south as well as from the north).
He thus popularized a new dialect for this poetry. The poetry had
appeal in the masses due to its passion and it had the royal patronage.
The city of Hyderabad is in the same vicinity. That is how a tradition of
Deccani Urdu took roots in that area which we know as such today.
This is the beginning of literary Urdu.
Marsiyya in this context includes every type of lamentation
poetry. The modern Urdu Marsiyya that we know today as it consist of
six-line stanzas took shape after nearly two hundred years of Quli
Qutub Shah’s time.
Marsiyya moved from Deccan to Delhi and then to Lucknow
where it was perfected by Meer Anees and Mirza Dabeer.

79
Zaidi, Ali Jawad; A History of Urdu Literature, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi 1993, p.39

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 50
GHAZAL AND OTHER GENRES IN URDU
The first poet of Urdu Ghazal is Vali Dakani, or more correctly,
Vali Gujrati. His year of death was considered to be 1747. However,
modern research has shown that Vali had died at a younger age in
170780.
Vali stands as the connection of Urdu that developed in the
Deccan with the north, specifically Delhi.
In the previous sections we have explored the origins and early
development of Urdu, both as a vernacular as well as a literary
language. We have shown the religious background of the language
and have noted the influence of the Sufis in India on the evolving
language. WE have also noted the development of Urdu Marsiyya in
the Dakani dialect which forms the first documented Urdu poetry.
Can all this make a case for Urdu as a religious language? We
will answer that and bring our discussion to a conclusion in the next
section.

CONCLUSION
We began this study with the question: IS URDU A RELIGIOUS
LANGUGAE? In that pursuit we explored the origin and early beginnings
of the languages of India and where they actually came from.
Let us first say a few words as to how and why did we formulate
that specific question.
As we saw in our travels through history, Urdu took shape in the
Indian sub-continent after the arrival of Muslims in this part of the
world. The very basic conclusion from that fact is that Urdu as a
language had been labeled from the day of its very inception81 as the
language of Muslims (of India). People, scholars and the laity both,
have been questioning that premise for the last two hundred years.
Because of that inherent nature of that debate, people on both
sides have argued their case with strong feelings – more feelings and
sentiments than rational argumentation based on historical and
scientific evidence.
In this study we have tried to present to our readers a more
rational view of that debate. The language issue, most of the time,
becomes emotional and heated debates result from any such
discussion. We have tried to stay above any emotionalism in this
study. Only our readers will decide as to how successful we have been
in that effort.

80
Sadiq, M.; A History of Urdu Literature, O.U.P., 1964, p.60
81
As we have discussed, the idea of ‘inception’ of a new language as if it was the
result of a big bang, is not appropriate. But the expression here wants to give an
impression of the earliest beginnings.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 51
The basic observations that we have made in this exploratory
article can be summarized as follows:

(1) Urdu is a language of India-Pakistan. It is a language of the Indo-


Aryan family, with borrowings from Farsi, Arabic and some other
languages. Its grammar is based on KhaRi Boli, a dialect which
came off the Prakrit of western Uttar Pradesh in north India.
(2) The basic reason that the new language came into being was a
religio-cultural clash between the settler-invaders and the local
population, back in the 800s and 900s.
(3) The influence of the early Muslim holy men, the Sufis, is very
apparent on the language.
(4) The language began as a spoken language and then over the
years the literary form of the language took shape.
(5) The early Urdu literature is predominantly religious in nature, or,
it documents religious ideas, practices and emotions.
(6) Politics had played a very significant role in the evolution of the
language, both the spoken word as well as the literary form.
(7) In spite of its very clear religious underpinnings, the language
does carry a very strong current of pluralism in it. Not only that,
the language was adopted by a very large non-Muslim
population in India. That helped the pluralistic and tolerant
nature of the Indian society.
(8) Because of the political changes in the society, the pluralistic
cause of the language suffered a number of set backs. One of
those setbacks was that the new language was perceived as a
religious language, or, at least a language belonging to a
particular religious group, in some quarters.

Let us see what the causes of that perception were. I am going to


use the term “perception” from now on for that sentiment, because it
is a controversial issue.
The very first indication of that perception came from a
statement that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had made in the late 19th
century.
Sir Syed was born in Delhi(1819) when the Mughal Sultanate had
already begun its slippery downfall. He saw how the British were
destroying each and every cultural and religious institution that had
been established by the Muslim civilization of India over a period of
800 years. He realized that there was no chance that the Indians would
be able to get rid of the British by force of arms – a very direct result of
1857 disaster. He appealed to his people to adopt the new language
Urdu as their national identity.
This statement was read in two major groups of the population of
India totally differently, while Sir Syed himself had meant it somewhat

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 52
differently than the two groups had perceived it, and the ruling British
used it to their own advantage.
Sir Syed’s initial intent in that statement was to show
inclusiveness of the Indian Muslims as Indian nationals. For the past
800 years Muslim’s language of the royal court as well as their national
language had been Farsi. Sir Syed was trying to persuade his
community to forsake that foreign language in favour of a local Indian
language which incidentally, had been accepted as the vernacular of
the educated middle class irrespective of their religion. At the same
time, he was trying to create some kind of solidarity within the larger
Muslim community of India via a common language – this was the
same sentiment under which the Quaid-e-Azam would choose Urdu as
the national language of Pakistan nearly fifty years later. In addition to
that, Sir Syed had made yet another statement which, though in his
mind was a reasonable statement, was taken negatively by the non-
Muslim majority of India. He had said that while Urdu was the language
of the Shurafa, Hindi was the language of the lowers classes, the
farmers and labourers. It was very true. The educated class of Indians
(irrespective of their religious preferences) spoke strictly Urdu while
the lower classes spoke the various dialects of Braj, Avadhi, Maithli,
Poorbi and many other such like. The anti-Urdu quarters rose up
against that statement and labeled it sectarian.
The Muslims of India felt gratified by their language being rated
so highly and honourably. The non-Muslim majority felt resentful at
that development and derided the statements made by Sir Syed. They
perceived the Muslim leadership as separatists on the language issue.
The British saw this as a golden opportunity to execute their
divide-and-rule policy in India. They initiated the project of Fort William
College at Calcutta82 which would publish books on Indian subjects
printed in both Devnagri as well as Nast’aleeq – thus giving rise to two
separate languages out of the common Indian vernacular and putting a
stamp of the government’s approval on it83.
These and other related forces worked together to create the
perception at the popular level that Urdu was a language exclusively of
the Muslims. When Pakistan was created in 1947 and Urdu was
declared as the national language of Pakistan, that perception
hardened on both sides of the border. After all, Pakistan was created
as an Islamic country.
82
Actually the Fort William College was established in Calcutta in 1800. The purpose
of the college was to train the East India Company officers in Indian languages and
Indian affairs in general. Sir Syed is reported to have made those statements in the
late 1800s. The college seems to have intensified its activities in the twin languages
after that.
83
This topic has been thoroughly treated by Dr. Abdul Jamil Khan; Urdu/Hindi: An
Artificial Divide(Politics of Languge), Algora Publishing, 2006. Dr. Jamil is actually a
medical doctor. He was involved in children’s speech therapy. His professional work
and studies led him into working on Indian languages and their evolution

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 53
All those things hurt the cause of Urdu in multiple ways:
(A) Since Pakistan was created as an Islamic country, and the
language of Islam is supposed to be Arabic, the Pakistani
authorities, teachers and scholars worked overtime to intensify
the relationship of Urdu with Arabic. Many scholars, mainly from
Punjab, seriously argued that Urdu had no relationship with other
Indian languages and that it was derived from Arabic (they
present the Nasta’aleeq84 script as the evidence to that). That
effort is still active in some quarters of Pakistan and more and
more Arabic words and terms are being pushed down into
Pakistani Urdu. At the same time, local Indian words are being
dropped from use. That is the main reason that no substantial
work has been done in Pakistan in the field of linguistics. Urdu is
being driven away from its roots. Teachers, students and
researchers in Pakistan have to realize that much as learning of
Farsi and Arabic is necessary to know good Urdu, without a basic
knowledge of Sanskrit and the Indian Prakrits no substantial
work can be done on Urdu. There is no effort at college level in
Pakistan to learn and teach Sanskrit or even the Prakrits.
(B) On the other side of the border, right after the partition, the
perception hardened that Urdu was a foreign language, a
language of the Muslims who had already separated in a new
country called Pakistan and therefore, they had taken their
language with them to the new country. A new effort took shape
to do away with Urdu completely. The main targets for that
process were the provinces of U.P., Bihar and Delhi. Urdu was
banished overnight from schools. Teaching of the Devnagri script
was made compulsory. The irony of the situation was that the
education minister of the central government was Mawlana Abul
Kalam Azad, a great proponent of the Urdu language. He
remained in that position until his death in 1958. Obviously the
policy was aggressively executed by other people such as
Vallabh Bhai Patel and Pandit Vallabh Pant. Of course, Gandhi ji’s
protective hand patronized that policy. In spite of the fact that
Azad himself had declared Gandhi as his mentor, he could not do
a thing to protect Urdu in India. The language was completely
obliterated at the high school level in those three states during
the same eleven years that Azad held the ministry of education.
My own schooling up to higher secondary level was done at
Jubilee College, Lucknow. Older teachers at the institution used
to tell me that there were two professorships in the college, one
for Urdu that was held by the famous Urdu poet Hamidullah
Afsar and the other for Hindi that was held by Shri Dhar Singh.
84
We have written elsewhere under a different context on this topic and have
shown that the actual script for the Indo-Aryan languages is the Devnagari not
Nasta’qleeq which is a borrowed script.

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 54
They were both seen like brothers and would arrive together
every morning riding the same Tonga. When I joined Jubilee
Collge in 1954 in 9th grade, Hamidullah Afsar had already retired,
the Urdu chair had been abolished and Shri Dhar Singh had
become the Principal of the college where he remained until I
graduated.

The only sane institution in India, that has preserved the


language to a certain extent is the Bombay film industry. That is why I
have included a section on that topic in this article. A sort of a revival
did take place in India in the 1980s for bringing back Urdu at a popular
level. However that anti-Urdu campaign of nearly four decades had
created such a gap in Urdu education and the politics had changed so
much that now Urdu graduates in India go unemployed – there are no
jobs where the Urdu graduates can fit in India. The other aspect of the
situation is that my nieces come from Delhi and they know all the Urdu
poetry but cannot read a word of Nast’aleeq. Boys and girls coming
from India are seen reciting, Nawha, Marsiyya and Qaseeda written
either in Devnagri or in Latin script.
Pakistan tells a totally different story. After three generations,
the young men and women of the country are now speaking fluent
Urdu. Even the Karachi Khojas and Memons are speaking Urdu without
any Gujrati accent. But it is a new kind of Urdu. At the popular level it
has been corrupted by bad grammar and inaccurate pronunciation
under the influence of local dialects and the high register of the
language has been overloaded with Arabic words and expressions.
Everyone speaks their own language and they insist on its correctness.
They feel it is their right to modify the language as they wish and feel.
The Urdu that is being used in Pakistani newspapers and TV channels
is really pathetic. The main reason for that is that anchors and chat-
show hosts are appointed in business interests under the influence of
nepotism. Most of them do not have proper education in the art and
science of communication neither in language skills.
The situation in India is somewhat more hopeful. It appears that
Urdu in India is hard to die. More substantial literature is being
published in India. Various institutions are reprinting the great classics
such as The Complete Works of Prem Chand.
I was listening to an Indian TV news report. This is how the report
went:
जैन कमयुिनटी को अलप संखयक कमयुिनटी करार दे िदया गया असेमबली
ने मंजूरी दे दी

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 55
‫جین کمیونٹی کو الپ سنکھیک کمیونٹی قرار دے دیا گیا۔ اسمبلی نے‬
‫منظوری دے دی۔‬
Jayn community ko alp-sankhyak community qaraar de diya
gaya assembly ne manzoori de di

In this whole item the only word that can be said to be purely
Hindi is the term ALP-SANKHYAK, which translates as ‘a minority.’ The
rest of the language is all Urdu, except the words “community” and
“assembly,” which are both English but have since long been fully
absorbed in Urdu. In fact, QARAR and MANZOOR both are Arabic words‫۔‬
Obviously, those who wanted to Hindi-ize the Indian language
had no other recourse but to fall back on Braj and Avadhi dialects
(more Braj and less Avadhi). For higher register words they had to go
back and search in Sanskrit (as the example above shows). That has
made the language difficult and less supple. And that is why we see
people using KITAB instead of POTHI or PUSTAK, WAQT instead of
SAMAY and such words as KAGHAZ, QALAM and GARM extensively. In
fact the Hindi speakers have forgotten certain words from the old
Indian languages and use the Arabic or Farsi words more extensively.
Much as when I hear a younger Hindi speaker call me on the telephone
I feel like my local grocer in Lucknow is calling me, that gives us a lot
of hope for the language. Is it linguistic chauvinism? May be – but that
is not of great concern, not to me.
Urdu in India has been accepted as an Indian exotica. Weddings
and other such parties are usually rounded up with an item of Ghazal
recitals. Pakistan’s case does concern me. Why?
To answer that question we have to go back to our original
question. Is Urdu a religious language? That is what a majority of
Pakistanis think. It is their country and their language – they own both.
They will twist and turn both every which way they want.
And that is how the early leaders in India had looked at the
language. Otherwise there was no reason for embarking on an
aggressive campaign to obliterate Urdu from schools at the
governmental level. The Congress leaders in the 1940s and 50s felt
insecure in that Urdu was a Muslim language and its cultural influence
was much too strong because of its religious character. It had to be
replaced with a Hindu language.
An episode, interesting though it is, I have not found any
documented evidence to its authenticity, is worth quoting here. A
central minister was traveling by train from Delhi to Calcutta. The
Howra Mail (the name of the train) used to stop for an hour at Lucknow
Chahar Baagh Station on its way from Delhi to Calcutta. The minister’s
daughter was a student at Lucknow University. When she heard that

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 56
her father was on the train, she came to the Railaway Station to meet
him. They met. And then she said: “Achcha Pita Ji, Khuda Hafiz,” and
left. The minister was incensed and turned to his aid saying: “That is
why I hate Urdu, it has the potential to change people’s faith.”
This story may or may not be true but it captures the sentiment
carried by the political elite of India in the 1950s.
A very simple fact of sociology is that languages do not have
religions. People do. Languages can be used to document religious
literature – some languages do it better than others. A language can be
influenced by a particular religion, and conversely, a language can
influence the face of a religion. We saw both those phenomena during
our study of the history of evolution of Urdu. In fact there are some
specific elements in the evolution of Urdu which are unique to that
language.

(1) Urdu is the only language of the world which came into being
due to a religio-cultural clash between two communities.
(2) The community who felt Urdu as their language, owned it.
(3) But the entire population of north India had wholeheartedly
accepted Urdu as their language until political forces came into
play.

Given those facts, even if we accept, beyond all reason, that


Urdu is a religious language and Muslims created it, which is definitely
not true; that does not give the Muslims of India-Pakistan a monopoly
right on the language. Language is like a mother. Anyone who loves a
language and adopts it as his/her own, the language becomes his or
her.
I will give two examples here. Look at Vladimir Nobokov. He
came from Russia. Went to Cambridge and became an excellent
English writer. Just one of his works ‘Lolita’ is sufficient to show that. It
stands at par in its quality of language with any modern classic of
fiction in England or in the US. Look at Edward Saeed. He came from
Palestine. Was educated at Princeton and spent all his life teaching
English at Columbia in New York.
Logically a language cannot belong to a single person because
language is a means of communication between two parties. Those
who want to limit Urdu belonging to a particular community or
religious, ethnic, political or geographical group are actually denying
the universality and pluralism of the language.
The reason we wrote all this is the fact that on both sides of the
border where Urdu is being used as a vernacular, strong feelings exist
that Urdu belongs to this community and it does not belong to that
community.
When we began writing this in the forum, everyone (at least
most of the ones who wrote) was of the opinion that it was a useless

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 57
debate, that it was already settled that Urdu was not a language
belonging to Muslims only.
Perhaps within a limited circle of intelligent and educated people
that is so. It is all right for a group of like minded people to come
together and have dinner, shake hands and part agreeing with each
other. But on this issue we have 170 million people on one side of the
border who believe that Urdu is a Muslim language so they want to
twist and turn it every which way they want; and on the other side of
the border there are several hundred million people who hate the
language only because it is perceived as a Muslim language.
Even if we all agree in this forum on this point, it does not solve
the problem of Urdu’s decline both as an instrument or preserving an
international literary database as well as communication vehicle.
We have got to work relentlessly on preserving the language by
insisting on the correct grammar and accurate idiom. We have to
condemn, on the one side, the unnecessary and unnatural move to
load the already developed language with the import of 800 year old
Prakrit words and idioms, and on the other side we must discourage
the Punjabi-ization of the language in Pakistan. We have to encourage
the import of new terms into Urdu to enhance its ability to document
technology and science. At the same time, we have to stop using
Arabicized terms for European names and terminologies fro which
correct sounds exist in Urdu. For example, why should we call Plato
Aflatoon with a soft Arabic ‘T’ and with an ‘F’ instead of the ‘P’ when
we have the correct sound for both ‘P’ and ‘T’ in Urdu?
Is it linguistic chauvinism? May be. But that kind of criticism and
labelling by liberals does not bother me, because I care much more
about linguistic accuracy and correctness than about political
correctness.
There are things which please the eye, such as a blossoming
rose, and there are things which don’t, such as a heap of stinking
dung. There are no two ways about it.
I will therefore, conclude this with a few lines of Iqbal:

‫اپنے بھی خفا مجھ سے ہیں بیگانے بھی ناخوش‬


‫میں زہِر ہلہل کو کبھی کہہ نہ سکا قند‬
‫مشکل ہے کہ اک بندہ حق بین و حق اندیش‬
‫خاشاک کے تودے کو کہےکو ِہ دماوند‬
Apne bhi khafa mujh se haiN begane bhi na khush
Mai.N zahr-e-halahal ko kabhi kah na saka qand
Mushkil hai k eek banda-e haq been-o-haq andesh
Khaashaak k etude to kahe koh-e-Damavand

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 58
Please do not hesitate to send your comment and critcism on this
article to the author.
E-mail address: mnaquvi@yahoo.com

URDU- The First and the Last Religious Language: by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi 59

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