GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court has said that it is a “misconception that Urdu is alien to India”, stating that “it is a language which was born in this land”. The observations came as the apex court rejected a petition challenging the use of Urdu on the nameboard of a municipal council in Maharashtra.
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The bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice K Vinod Chandran was hearing a petition by Varshatai Sanjay Bagade, a former councillor of Patur in Maharashtra's Akola district. Bagade had challenged the use of Urdu, along with Marathi, on the nameboard of the municipal council. She had argued that the work of the Municipal Council can only be conducted in Marathi, and the use of Urdu is impermissible, even on the signboard, according to reports.
Earlier, the council rejected her petition and she got no relief in the Bombay High Court either. She then approached the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court said "language is not religion" and does not even represent religion. "Language belongs to a community, to a region, to people; and not to a religion. Language is culture. Language is the yardstick to measure the civilisational march of a community and its people. So is the case of Urdu, which is the finest specimen of ganga-jamuni tahzeeb, or the Hindustani tahzeeb, which is the composite cultural ethos of the plains of northern and central India. But before language became a tool for learning, its earliest and primary purpose will always remain communication," the court said.
The court noted that the municipal council had retained Urdu on the nameboard because many local residents understood the language. All the municipal council wanted to do was to make an effective communication," the court said.
"The prejudice against Urdu stems from the misconception that Urdu is alien to India. This opinion, we are afraid, is incorrect as Urdu, like Marathi and Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan language. It is a language which was born in this land. Urdu developed and flourished in India due to the need for people belonging to different cultural milieus who wanted to exchange ideas and communicate amongst themselves. Over the centuries, it attained ever greater refinement and became the language of choice for many acclaimed poets," it said.
The court said that the language used by the masses is replete with Urdu even if one is not aware of it. "It would not be incorrect to say that one cannot have a day-to-day conversation in Hindi without using words of Urdu or words derived from Urdu. The word 'Hindi' itself comes from the Persian word 'Hindavi'," it said.
The court said that the fusion of Hindi and Urdu met a roadblock in the form of the puritans on both sides and Hindi became more Sanskritised and Urdu more Persian. "A schism exploited by the colonial powers in dividing the two languages on religion. Hindi was now understood to be the language of Hindus and Urdu of the Muslims, which is such a pitiable digression from reality; from unity in diversity; and the concept of universal brotherhood.
"Our misconceptions, perhaps even our prejudices against a language have to be courageously and truthfully tested against the reality, which is this great diversity of our nation: Our strength can never be our weakness. Let us make friends with Urdu and every language," it added.
