Offical Language URDU : both language and the common man made to suffer
Daya Sagar Sharma
January 31, 2010
Urdu is so graceful a language but it has not earned appreciations for its use particularly in revenue departments and police "thanas". Even those who as family tradition take Urdu as principal language in school do express un easiness in while reading the official copies of land records and police station reports are made available to them. Even Urdu knowing persons have to seek assistance particularly of some Patwaries or Munshies to read the contents of the copies of documents collected on application from concerned police or revenue departments. Recently I had an opportunity to test my above statement. I had 4 documents before me , 3 revenue { nakal jamabandi 1994, nakaljamabandi 1989, nakal intkal 2002 } and 1 police FIR. I can not read Urdu . I sought the assistance of 3 persons { a doctor who studied Urdu till 10th, an Engineer who studied in urdu medium upto High School and a senior politician who had graduated in around 1958 } for reading the text. Believe me , it is not an over statement of mine, I spent over one to two hours with each of them but still could not get the complete text . Even the digits were not easily confirming. Not the vocabulary but it was the manner in which the matter was written that created problems. Many shall not disagree with my experience.
To a common man the most required affairs concerning government departments are revenue, courts and police affairs. It is the manner in which the papers are hand written in Urdu by government officials that makes even those having studied upto post graduate level helplessly appear "illiterate" before a Munshies, a Patwaries or a judicial clerk. What to talk of a common labourer or farmer. This has been resulting and is resulting in delayed settlement of public issues, corruption practicies and prolonged litigations. This issue has been left untouched so far as regards needed reforms. I am of the opinion that this is most important task that should be before a reformist Government like that of Omar Abdullah. It is a honest reality that this question has not been raised over the years since it pertained to Urdu language and most of the people are under the impression that URDU is a religious language of Muslims { Islam } where as this is not a fact. Urdu is an Indian sub continent language . Rather injustice has been done to this rich language by giving it communal shade.
More people need be attracted to read / accept Urdu and reforms need be done at the level of official machinery for its more acceptable and legible use. Under the circumstances conditions like passing high school certificate or proficiency in Urdu are not justified unless it is made a compulsory language upto high school level. Let the start be made with directions to use only type writer / Computer for preparing in URDU copies / certificates that are to be issued to public by judicial/ revenue / police departments.
In a press statement JK People´s Democratic Party youth Wing President Bashir Assad has alleged (21 November ) that Omar Abdullah lead government aimed at keeping away the Kashmiri youth from the state services and the selection of 86 Naib Tehsildars by the Services Selection Board has been made in gross violation of recruitment rules. Bashir Assad contested that as per Jammu and Kashmir Subordinate (Revenue) Service Recruitment Rules a graduate with Urdu in Matric as one of the subject can only be appointed as Naib Tehsildar. { adding that some candidate from the Kashmir division have challenged the list and the Hon´ble High Court has passed an interim order directing to reserve 6 posts of Naib Tehsildars for petitioners.} PDP leader has accused the SSB for being indifferent not only towards the candidates of Kashmir division but also towards URDU { official language of J&K }.The other question raised is that how can a person who does not know even the basics of Urdu be selected when all the revenue records were necessarily to be formulated in Urdu. More damaging is the allegation that the percentage of the Kashmiri Muslims is decreasing in government services due to discriminatory approach of the coalition Government. Even if the allegations do not stand to test, turmoil hit JK can not afford such like confusions.
I would not discuss the technicalities of recruitment rules and process here but would draw attention towards four important messages that emerge to me from the above news item.:: 1. 2. . 3.< Politicians are bent upon drawing political advantage in Kashmir Valley even at the cost of unemployed empty stomachs and peace in the state of JK. 4.That how can a person who does not know Urdu can work in revenue department when all the base { particularly land records } revenue records are necessarily to be formulated in Urdu as Urdu { official language of J&K}.
And surely these messages need be taken notice by any one like Omar Abdullah Sahib who would aim at making J&K a model state. Here I shall particularly draw attention to the 4rth message made in the foregoing par .< that how can a person who does not know Urdu can work in revenue department when all the base { particularly land records } revenue records are necessarily to be formulated in Urdu as Urdu is the official language of the state > . To this I will add that in Jammu and Kashmir the police "thana" records too are also maintained in Urdu. The faith of the common man in law , administration and justice has much to do with the success of projects aimed at by any government . Illiteracy and lack of education too lead to exploitation of the masses by anti social, anti national and corrupt elements in the administration.
The main differences between Hindi and Urdu are that Standard Urdu is conventionally written in Perso-Arabic script and draws vocabulary more heavily from Persian and Arabic while Standard Hindi is conventionally written in Devanāgarī and draws vocabulary more from Sanskrit . Even some linguists consider Urdu and Hindi to be two standardized forms of the same language. Due to "religious nationalism" after the partition of British India and cultivated communal tensions many have been asserting to pull apart Hindi and Urdu like two alien subjects.
Urdu was drafted around the 1600´s .The word ´Urdu´ comes from the Turkish / Mangol word ´ordu´ meaning ´camp´ or ´army´. To some extent it was conceived as a communication tool between the soldiers{ mostly of Persian < majority>, Arab, or Turkish } descent in Ancient India and Eastern Persia. The language of earlier dominant governments was Farsi that later changed to Urdu to accommodate the other races. Earlier Urdu vocabulary contained nearly 70% Farsi , some mix of Arabic and Turkish and in current times, however, many Urdu speakers have also adopted English and Hindi terms following the effects of globalization .Urdu was also written in the Kaithi script { Kaithi was a major independent writing system that was used throughout northern India, in the region encompassing the modern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The script was also used in Mauritius, Trinidad, and other areas that were populated by north Indian Diaspora communities. Kaithi was used for writing Bhojpuri, Magahi, Urdu, and several other regional languages allied with Hindi. }.Until 1880 proceedings/ court transactions in register of Urdu were written officially in the Persian script. In 1880, Sir Ashley Eden, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal abolished the use of the Persian alphabet in the law courts of Bengal and Bihar and ordered the exclusive use of Kaithi, a popular script used for both Urdu and Hindi. It was perhaps more for political contests that Kaithi's association with Urdu and Hindi was ultimately eliminated by the political contest and the Persian script was definitively linked to Urdu.
A great aspiration ,Omar Abdullah dreams to make Jammu and Kashmir a model state. Some have taken his aspirations very casually . Some have disposed off Omar´s expressions as simple political rhetoric. Some have remarked that Jammu and Kashmir is already "Model Number 1 " in the matter of CORRUPTION on the funds of the STATE as well as the SOCIO Administrative insecurity of the common man. But commenting just for the sake of criticism is not even in the interest of the commentator .{ Any good expression must be taken in good sense} .To test the intentions suggestions must be made to make the good better. Hope Omar Abdullah aims at making Jammu and Kashmir model for others in the matter of State Honesty as well as the SOCIO Administrative security of the common man. No fun in talking of corruptions in government departments, mal administration, unemployment, deteriorated service standards in departments of health and education , role of money and muscle power in elections, falling standards of commitment towards the national cause, flow of borrowed funds from international institutions and the state tax revenue in drains simply to build statistics on budgeted expenditure. Rather thinking minds should suggest medications and tools to Political leadership to Model J&K. There could be many field where suggestions could be made to Omar Abdullah to work with. The immediate things that matters most today is security to a common man as regards physicals and employment as well as fighting the elements who are bent upon damaging socio communal fabric of J&K. One tool could be to defeat forces like the one that could even use sentiments connected with a language like Urdu to exploit the simplicity of common people on communal lines. More people need be attracted to read / accept Urdu and reforms need be done at the level of official machinery for its more acceptable and legible use. Under the circumstances conditions like passing high school certificate or proficiency in Urdu are not justified unless it is made a compulsory language upto high school level. Let the start be made with directions to use only type writer / Computer for preparing in URDU copies / certificates that are to be issued to public by judicial/ revenue / police departments. (*Daya Sagar Author is a social activist and a leading scribe on Kashmir affairs dayasagr45@Yahoo.com)
To a common man the most required affairs concerning government departments are revenue, courts and police affairs. It is the manner in which the papers are hand written in Urdu by government officials that makes even those having studied upto post graduate level helplessly appear "illiterate" before a Munshies, a Patwaries or a judicial clerk. What to talk of a common labourer or farmer. This has been resulting and is resulting in delayed settlement of public issues, corruption practicies and prolonged litigations. This issue has been left untouched so far as regards needed reforms. I am of the opinion that this is most important task that should be before a reformist Government like that of Omar Abdullah. It is a honest reality that this question has not been raised over the years since it pertained to Urdu language and most of the people are under the impression that URDU is a religious language of Muslims { Islam } where as this is not a fact. Urdu is an Indian sub continent language . Rather injustice has been done to this rich language by giving it communal shade.
More people need be attracted to read / accept Urdu and reforms need be done at the level of official machinery for its more acceptable and legible use. Under the circumstances conditions like passing high school certificate or proficiency in Urdu are not justified unless it is made a compulsory language upto high school level. Let the start be made with directions to use only type writer / Computer for preparing in URDU copies / certificates that are to be issued to public by judicial/ revenue / police departments.
In a press statement JK People´s Democratic Party youth Wing President Bashir Assad has alleged (21 November ) that Omar Abdullah lead government aimed at keeping away the Kashmiri youth from the state services and the selection of 86 Naib Tehsildars by the Services Selection Board has been made in gross violation of recruitment rules. Bashir Assad contested that as per Jammu and Kashmir Subordinate (Revenue) Service Recruitment Rules a graduate with Urdu in Matric as one of the subject can only be appointed as Naib Tehsildar. { adding that some candidate from the Kashmir division have challenged the list and the Hon´ble High Court has passed an interim order directing to reserve 6 posts of Naib Tehsildars for petitioners.} PDP leader has accused the SSB for being indifferent not only towards the candidates of Kashmir division but also towards URDU { official language of J&K }.The other question raised is that how can a person who does not know even the basics of Urdu be selected when all the revenue records were necessarily to be formulated in Urdu. More damaging is the allegation that the percentage of the Kashmiri Muslims is decreasing in government services due to discriminatory approach of the coalition Government. Even if the allegations do not stand to test, turmoil hit JK can not afford such like confusions.
I would not discuss the technicalities of recruitment rules and process here but would draw attention towards four important messages that emerge to me from the above news item.:: 1. 2. . 3.< Politicians are bent upon drawing political advantage in Kashmir Valley even at the cost of unemployed empty stomachs and peace in the state of JK. 4.That how can a person who does not know Urdu can work in revenue department when all the base { particularly land records } revenue records are necessarily to be formulated in Urdu as Urdu { official language of J&K}.
And surely these messages need be taken notice by any one like Omar Abdullah Sahib who would aim at making J&K a model state. Here I shall particularly draw attention to the 4rth message made in the foregoing par .< that how can a person who does not know Urdu can work in revenue department when all the base { particularly land records } revenue records are necessarily to be formulated in Urdu as Urdu is the official language of the state > . To this I will add that in Jammu and Kashmir the police "thana" records too are also maintained in Urdu. The faith of the common man in law , administration and justice has much to do with the success of projects aimed at by any government . Illiteracy and lack of education too lead to exploitation of the masses by anti social, anti national and corrupt elements in the administration.
The main differences between Hindi and Urdu are that Standard Urdu is conventionally written in Perso-Arabic script and draws vocabulary more heavily from Persian and Arabic while Standard Hindi is conventionally written in Devanāgarī and draws vocabulary more from Sanskrit . Even some linguists consider Urdu and Hindi to be two standardized forms of the same language. Due to "religious nationalism" after the partition of British India and cultivated communal tensions many have been asserting to pull apart Hindi and Urdu like two alien subjects.
Urdu was drafted around the 1600´s .The word ´Urdu´ comes from the Turkish / Mangol word ´ordu´ meaning ´camp´ or ´army´. To some extent it was conceived as a communication tool between the soldiers{ mostly of Persian < majority>, Arab, or Turkish } descent in Ancient India and Eastern Persia. The language of earlier dominant governments was Farsi that later changed to Urdu to accommodate the other races. Earlier Urdu vocabulary contained nearly 70% Farsi , some mix of Arabic and Turkish and in current times, however, many Urdu speakers have also adopted English and Hindi terms following the effects of globalization .Urdu was also written in the Kaithi script { Kaithi was a major independent writing system that was used throughout northern India, in the region encompassing the modern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The script was also used in Mauritius, Trinidad, and other areas that were populated by north Indian Diaspora communities. Kaithi was used for writing Bhojpuri, Magahi, Urdu, and several other regional languages allied with Hindi. }.Until 1880 proceedings/ court transactions in register of Urdu were written officially in the Persian script. In 1880, Sir Ashley Eden, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal abolished the use of the Persian alphabet in the law courts of Bengal and Bihar and ordered the exclusive use of Kaithi, a popular script used for both Urdu and Hindi. It was perhaps more for political contests that Kaithi's association with Urdu and Hindi was ultimately eliminated by the political contest and the Persian script was definitively linked to Urdu.
A great aspiration ,Omar Abdullah dreams to make Jammu and Kashmir a model state. Some have taken his aspirations very casually . Some have disposed off Omar´s expressions as simple political rhetoric. Some have remarked that Jammu and Kashmir is already "Model Number 1 " in the matter of CORRUPTION on the funds of the STATE as well as the SOCIO Administrative insecurity of the common man. But commenting just for the sake of criticism is not even in the interest of the commentator .{ Any good expression must be taken in good sense} .To test the intentions suggestions must be made to make the good better. Hope Omar Abdullah aims at making Jammu and Kashmir model for others in the matter of State Honesty as well as the SOCIO Administrative security of the common man. No fun in talking of corruptions in government departments, mal administration, unemployment, deteriorated service standards in departments of health and education , role of money and muscle power in elections, falling standards of commitment towards the national cause, flow of borrowed funds from international institutions and the state tax revenue in drains simply to build statistics on budgeted expenditure. Rather thinking minds should suggest medications and tools to Political leadership to Model J&K. There could be many field where suggestions could be made to Omar Abdullah to work with. The immediate things that matters most today is security to a common man as regards physicals and employment as well as fighting the elements who are bent upon damaging socio communal fabric of J&K. One tool could be to defeat forces like the one that could even use sentiments connected with a language like Urdu to exploit the simplicity of common people on communal lines. More people need be attracted to read / accept Urdu and reforms need be done at the level of official machinery for its more acceptable and legible use. Under the circumstances conditions like passing high school certificate or proficiency in Urdu are not justified unless it is made a compulsory language upto high school level. Let the start be made with directions to use only type writer / Computer for preparing in URDU copies / certificates that are to be issued to public by judicial/ revenue / police departments. (*Daya Sagar Author is a social activist and a leading scribe on Kashmir affairs dayasagr45@Yahoo.com)
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