Flowery lingua

Jamila Begum’s day is incomplete unless she reads the Urdu newspaper in the morning. She fell in love with Gulzar’s and Mir Taqi Mir’s poetry as a child. Having studied in an Urdu medium school, this passion has only grown stronger.

Even now, when she teaches mathematics at the Islamia Middle School near Turkman Gate in Old Delhi, Jamila has continued to hone her skills in the language. “Though my main subject is mathematics, I teach Urdu to junior classes purely because of my love for the subject,” she says.

On the lookout for a chance to teach senior classes, Jam-ila says this will give her “the opportunity to read a lot of Urdu literature for which I don’t find time now”. It is her sheer love for the subject that keeps Jamila in touch with Urdu. “It’s not just a subject in which one has to clear an exam at the end of the year. One must get pleasure out of it,” she adds.

The same reason drew Ali Taqi from Seattle to Delhi. “On one of my visits to India, I went to an Urdu teacher near Jama Masjid but couldn’t understand the language at that time because the tutor had problems communicating in English. That was the time when I decided to set up an institution where English-speaking people could learn- the language,” says Taqi.

Taqi is not a one-off case. There are several international students who visit Delhi, primarily to learn Urdu. “Recently, a girl flew in from the US to learn Urdu at St Stephen’s College. She didn’t know any Indian language but her love for Urdu brought her to India for six months,” says Dr Shamim Ahmed, a lecturer at St Stephen’s, which offers Urdu as one of four BA subjects.

The increasing number of local and international students desirous of learning the language calls for many more Urdu teachers.

It’s a misconception that only those who have studied in Urdu medium can become Urdu teachers. Considering the similarities in Urdu and Hindi, it’s not difficult for any Hindi-speaking person to pick up the zubaan in a short time.

“If you have read Hindi, it will not be difficult for you to pick up Urdu. Our lingua franca is Hindustani and Urdu is similar to it. The difference lies only in its script and some words,” says Dr Ahmed.

Though Urdu is becoming popular among youngsters, it faces a serious bias in most schools. “Urdu is taught in some schools as a first language and as second or third language in other schools. In some schools, students wish to learn the language but principals don’t encourage them as finding an Urdu teacher is not easy,” says Dr Mohammad Nauman Khan, professor, languages, NCERT.

This is the reason that few teachers are available at the school level, and qualified faculty members teach either in private institutes or in madrasas.

Jamila also worked in a Delhi madrasa after her MA (Urdu) at a paltry salary before she joined the school. Even Ahmed spent 12 years as a school teacher (though he is a gold medallist in MA Urdu from the University of Delhi) before he got his long-awaited break in St Stephen’s. Non-Urdu speakers can learn Urdu from a private institute or the Urdu Academy before getting into academics. “We are running nine centres in Delhi alone and admit only those who haven’t studied Urdu at any level,” says Marghoob Haider Abidi, secretary, Urdu Academy.

Author: Vimal Chander Joshi

Date: 19th May, 2010

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