– Md. Sami Ahmad
Urdu is the second official language of Bihar but its presence is being erased from official places and programmes and the jobs for Urdu graduates are being diminished. So much so, that many believe that it’s almost getting a ‘Yogi treatment’ in Bihar. Recently, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath was criticised for his anti-Urdu diatribe saying that one who reads Urdu becomes ‘Kathmulla’.
While the National Education Policy (NEP) recommends basic teaching in the mother language but in Bihar schools Urdu-speaking students are deprived of this. The state has an estimated two and a half crore people whose mother tongue is Urdu.
Hoping against hope, a team of Urdu Council Hind (UCH) met Bihar governor Arif Mohammad Khan to hand over a memorandum over the ill-treatment of Urdu and Urdu speakers in Bihar. The team included UCH chief Aslam Jawedan, AIMIM MLA Akhatrul Iman, retired bureaucrats Imtiaz Ahmad Karimi, Khurshid Akbar, Engineer Aftab Ahmad and Maulana Abul Kalam Qasmi, ex-principal of noted Madrasa Shamsul Hoda, Patna.
Although the ill-treatment of Urdu by Nitish Kumar’s Bihar government is not new, a fresh government order has rekindled this issue. According to sources, the Bihar government had decided to appoint Assistant Urdu Translators in 1064 police stations, and after a long delay, the selection was made of eligible candidates. Now, suddenly these posts of Assistant Urdu Translators have been withdrawn.
The aim of appointing Assistant Urdu Translators was that applications in Urdu could be translated into Hindi. With the withdrawal of posts, any application given in Urdu would not be entertained in police stations. Similarly, it was also aimed that the Hindu circular would be translated into Urdu so that Urdu-speaking section would find that easy to understand.
Though there is no official word on this withdrawal of Urdu translators’ posts from the police stations, it is being said that those who got selected would be posted in different offices of the districts.
RJD MLC Qari Sohaib said the government is hatching a death for the Urdu language in Bihar. He alleged that this is not the first time that the Nitish Kumar government has butchered the Urdu language. He said that Urdu was the most beautiful language of this country but it is being targeted by communal forces.
Akhtarul Iman, MLA and state president of AIMIM, alleged that the Bihar government is strangulating Urdu. Akhtar is vice president of UCH. He alleged that Urdu as a subject is not being taught in different colleges of Bhagalpur University. He says that apart from the Bihar government’s apathy towards Urdu, two Central Universities at Gaya and Motihari have not started the Urdu course.
He also alleged that Urdu is being pushed out of government schools in the state also. He claimed that Urdu books are not available in government schools and almost 80,000 posts of Urdu teachers are vacant.
He emphasised the poor economic condition of Urdu newspapers where government advertisements are not provided in Urdu. Thus, the Urdu-speaking people fail to get the government information in their own language. Akhtar alleges that Urdu newspaper editors are forced to carry advertisements in Hindi. Even the advertisements of Urdu language-related programmes are published in Hindi.
Syed Ahmad Quadri, an Urdu activist and senior journalist, said Urdu is facing many issues in Bihar. He said, “Bihar Urdu Academy is not functioning properly for the last six years. Urdu Advisory Council is not constituted. Many other Urdu institutions are facing the same apathy. Twelve thousand Urdu TET examinees are still waiting for the result. At the district and block office level, Urdu is not visible while it should be there as the second official language.”
Earlier, the signages of government offices and programmes used to be in Urdu also but nowadays Urdu is ousted from every government office. AIMIM MLA Akhtar alleged that even where CM Nitish Kumar does inauguration, etc. the boards are not made in Urdu. He questions, “When the CM Nitish himself throttles Urdu, who else can save it?”
He reminds that the Urdu language played a vital role in India’s freedom struggle and claimed that it was a Hindustani language, and not a Muslim language. He says that Urdu-speaking section also pays tax to the government and it is their right to demand the implementation of it as a second official language.
