Writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar participated in the first day of the Literature Festival held in Jaipur on Wednesday. During this, a session was organized at the meeting venue on the topic ‘India in Urdu, Urdu in India’. During this, while giving his views on the controversy over language, he described Urdu as a secular language.
He said that languages have nothing to do with religion. Whereas division took place because of this language. The language must be understood. The amount of time that parents waste in teaching their children about religion can be used to teach them the language. During this, he also gave the example of Delhi High Court. The court had said that the use of Urdu words should be reduced, but I say that there was no need for it.
‘Language is of region, not of religion’
He said that language is of region and not of religion, neither Urdu nor Sanskrit. According to him, in the linguistic dispute, one language became very popular and that language was Hindustani, which the entire country spoke and used by mixing the dialect of its region. There is a feeling of belonging in Hindustani, but due to controversies and show-off it is now going away.
He said that there cannot be mutual comparison between Urdu and Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a language thousands of years old, whereas Urdu is yesterday’s child. Whereas the most lively language is Tamil. Javed Akhtar said that Pakistan was divided because of Urdu language. Those people living in India today who consider Urdu as their language, have to live in tension.
‘Need to increase the dictionary of Hindi language’
According to him, we need to increase the dictionary of Hindi language. Every year many words are added to the English dictionary and the people there celebrate. Whereas the Hindi dictionary gets reduced at times and we celebrate. It should not happen. According to him, the language should be such that everyone can understand it easily. Hindustani language is such in India, which everyone uses in their own way.
Organization of 5 day literature fest
The 5-day Jaipur Literature Festival started this afternoon. The festival was inaugurated by Rajasthan CM Bhajanlal Sharma and Deputy CM Diya Kumari. Today, on the first day, apart from Javed Akhtar, there were sessions with many famous personalities including Booker Award winner Kiran Desai, Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murthy and former film actress Zeenat Aman.
