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Celebrating Urdu — Jashn-e-Rekhta to be held in Delhi from February 12 to 14

The festival will see names like Iftikhar Arif, Zehra Nigah, Tina Sani and Sabri Brothers gracing the event.

16 Dec, 2015

Continuing the tradition set last year by Rekhta Foundation, the Jashn-e-Rekhta festival is all set to kick off on February 12 to 14 next year in New Delhi.

Founded by Sanjiv Saraf, the foundation popular for curating an online portal for Urdu poetry and prose invited intellectuals from Pakistan like Zia Moheyeddin and Intizaar Hussain, among others, to New Delhi last year. This time poets Iftikhar Arif, Zehra Nigah and singers Tina Sani and the Sabri Brothers have been requested to attend the event.

Prominent names from India attending the Jashan include literary critics, poets and actors Gopi Chand Narang, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Javed Akhtar, Jeelani Bano, Mahesh Bhatt, Shabana Azmi, Tom Alter, Ashok Vajpeyi and Namvar Singh and others.

The upcoming festival will be opened by none other than the Sabri brothers with a special highlight of the event being the birth centenary celebration of legendary Urdu writers Ismat Chugtai and Rajinder Singh Bedi.

Last year the Jashn-e-Rekhta saw a lot of support from the younger lot hinting at Urdu's popularity — attendees enjoyed the richness of Urdu through Dastangoi, plays, mushaira, qawwali, ghazal singing, discussions, baitbaazi, calligraphy workshops, lectures, exhibitions, Urdu bazaar and readings.

The free event open to all will be held at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. A food court celebrating traditional Kashmiri, Deccani, Hyderabadi, Lucknowi and Purani Dilli cuisine will also be set up for the attendees.

Comments

obivankanobi Dec 16, 2015 03:10pm

Its rather unfortunate that very few people in the subcontinent know that Urdu is an Indian language. Despite that and many other cultural commonalities Pakistanis seem to make an extra effort to distance themselves from Indian 'influence' inorder to define an identity free from India and Hinduism. In the process ironically they have succumbed to Arabic influence and this creates a bigger identity crisis as Arabs dont accept Pakistanis as from the same stock.

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Taimoor Khan Dec 16, 2015 03:56pm

Good to see India is adopting Urdu. It can only make Pakistanis proud.

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Hitesh Dec 16, 2015 04:11pm

India has more Urdu speaking people than Pakistan

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Tarzan Dec 16, 2015 04:17pm

@Taimoor Khan India dont need to adopt Urdu, its already one of its recognised language since decades and spoken / used by millions.

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PR Dec 16, 2015 04:50pm

@Taimoor Khan My dear sir, it is the other way round. Urdu is an Indian language adopted by Pakistan as its national language!

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Salim Langra Dec 16, 2015 05:17pm

Everyone agrees that in terms of sheer beauty of flow of words, Urdu is the epitome of modern Indian (and I mean in a cultural sense- extending beyond present day India) linguist development. Language of the common man, easy to understand, efficient and music to the ears, no wonder the language of Bollywood continues to be more ‘Urdu’ than Khadi boli Hindi and so is the spoken language on the roads of Delhi, UP, Bihar. Unfortunately for India, post 1947 political environment meant the Urdu got clubbed to specific religion, which was not that of the majority of the land. Thus started the intentional and purposeful decline. That the language refuses to leave mainstream, speaks volumes of its popularity. A true Indian language in every sense. Proud of it.

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Salim Khan Dec 16, 2015 05:21pm

Urdu being the Indian language had its origin in UP, India, needs more such encouragement.

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Bhagwan(luminous one) Dec 16, 2015 05:47pm

Urdu is also one of the official languages of India along with other provincial languages such as Assamese, English, Sindhi, Hindi, Punjabi, Nepali, Bengali, Odia, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi.

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Bhagwan(luminous one) Dec 16, 2015 05:50pm

Near my house is a Urdu medium school like many others in India which are recognized by Government of India and also government grants are provided to it.

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heena Dec 16, 2015 06:06pm

Urdu was born in Lucknow

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ss Dec 16, 2015 06:16pm

In India, these thins are little more than tamashas where the semi literate and the barely educated descent in hordes only because it is fashionable to do so. Anybody who has visited the famour Jaipur Literary Festival will know what I am talking about. As for Urdu, the language is in steady decline in India. I no longer get my daily urdu newspaper in Bombay as the local distributor has decided there is just not sufficient readership to justify procuring it. Even muslim children no longer learn Urdu and very few of them can read written Urdu. Sad.

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Adnan Dec 16, 2015 06:17pm

@Taimoor Khan We are not adopting Urdu, Urdu is already Indian language. The history of Urdu dates back to 11th and 12th Century with Amir Khusrow in Delhi and surrounding area.

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Mustaq Dec 16, 2015 06:23pm

How awesome. Wish I could be in India then to attend the events.

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YM Dec 16, 2015 07:15pm

An ardent fan of the show. I saw it on ypu tube. How to get tickets...pls help.

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Linguist, Chicago Dec 16, 2015 07:21pm

Urdu an d Hindi are same language, it is the percentage of loan words from Persian/Arabic (mostly Persian) which dictates whether the language is called HIndi or Sanskrit. Day to day spoken language on the street in Northern India is Hindustani which is Hindi with about 10% Persian/Arabic loan words. Urdu contains about 30% loan words from Persian/Arabic ( In Pakistan more than 30%), Hindi tends to used Sanskritized vocabulary. Ancestor of Hindi/Urdu is Khadi Boli, spoken in Western UP. Most of the Sanskrit derived North Indian Languages including those spoken in Pakistan (Punjabi) resemble Hindi.

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Anwar Dec 16, 2015 09:45pm

Urdu and Hindi are two beautiful sister languages. They belong to the same Dhartee; the Indian sub-continent . Let us love both languages, and love the people who speak Urdu or Hindi. Dil maeN Roshnee ko jagah deiN, under a khud dur ho ja-ay ga

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Anand Jha Dec 16, 2015 10:10pm

Urdu is a language which touches very close to your heart and belongs to sweetest and soft spoken community. It's been proven that the language you use drives your personality and attitude. Claiming on a language, and adapting it are two different aspects- One can easily understand from your behavior which one of them you belong to. I love URDU.

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jodh s. arora, MD, FACC Dec 16, 2015 10:39pm

It took me two years to get history of urdu language. I spke with many Muslim friends about it but none could find a book or information. until a Sikh journalist, Mr. Noor sent me a brief note of 1000 words, he had this while in Lahore before partition. Now he lives in Baltimore- Marryland. Then I learnt that the language was born as DAKHNI in South India by the Muslims coming to India before Gauri and Gazna invaded India. Si it started by small kings in South India. Word Urdu mean CANTT or CHHAVNI of invaders. Urdu word is from Turki. Now I am looking for Biography of Ilahma e IQBAL. Can any one help? Thanks

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Jalaluddin S. Hussain Dec 16, 2015 11:40pm

As a Pakistani-Canadian, born in Gaya, Bihar, British India, I am overjoyed to know that a "Jashne-Rekhta" is being celebrated from February 12 to February 14, 2016, in New Delhi, India. My only problem is that Urdu is being written in India in the Devnagri script, which people like me, who have been taught Urdu in the Arabic script, will not be able to read. If the proceedings of the Jashne Rekhta is also reported in the Arabic script it would be great!

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Muzaffar Qureshi Dec 17, 2015 12:58am

Wonderful! Will celebrate from a distance.

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Muzaffar Qureshi Dec 17, 2015 01:18am

Urdu is a language which has been abondoned in Pakistan. Have you heard "GULABI URDU". This dialect is what children of Urdu speaking parents now speak. Even the diction of Urdu newscasters is questionable. Thanks to organisers of the event in India, that the language is still alive. Many thanks to Janab Gopichand Narang for his efforts towards that end.

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Angos Dec 17, 2015 03:08am

@Jalaluddin S. Hussain If Urdu is to survive and grow in India it's best it uses Devanagari. Otherwise many Indians are unable interact in their own language due to a foreign script. But yes, I guess the proceedings of this festival should be both in Devanagari and Persian script.

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Abbas Syed Dec 17, 2015 04:17am

@PR Yes that laid the foundation for the separation of Bengali speaking majority from Pakistan. Urdu is the language of Muslim minority of the Indian state of United Province of Agra and Awad, which without any reason declared language of the Muslims of India. In actuality except for the Muslims of Bihar, UP, CP, Rajasthan and urban Deccan, Muslims spoke native language of their states.

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YS Dec 17, 2015 04:21am

It is unfortunate that Urdu is dying in Pakistan. Urdu newspapers do not write Urdu anymore. What they write is English in Urdu script, and do not seem to have any qualms about killing their own language.

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schal Dec 17, 2015 05:12am

@Taimoor Khan Urdu is an Indian language spoken in Pakistan as well! Any one who appreciates Urdu has to visit Lucknow and attend the Literary festival there.

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Tanuj Dec 17, 2015 05:13am

@obivankanobi Bang on!!

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Tanuj Dec 17, 2015 05:14am

@Taimoor Khan If you don't know it already or being selectively ignorant about it.. Urdu was born in India

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sid Dec 17, 2015 06:34am

@Linguist, Chicago Urdu is a mix of farsi and Pali and not Sanskrit. There is no involvement of Arabic either. Urdu that is currently spoken in Pak may have Arabic touch for political reasons but Indian Urdu doesnt

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Omar Dec 17, 2015 06:41am

Urdu language is an indian language. Only reason it was chosen in Pakistan was that most of the initial government law makers initially after independence happened to be indian muslim refugees. It is a learned language in Pakistan and is the mother tongue of only 5 % of Pakistani's while the other 95% have had to learn it. In fact by choosing urdu, Pakistani are actually becoming more indianized since choosing urdu (a cousin of hindi) as their national language. Talk about oxymoron!

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Jitender Singh Nohwar Dec 17, 2015 09:56am

Urdu is born in Uttar Pradesh ( India ) so its an Indian language !!

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Nawab Ksifee Dec 17, 2015 10:43am

It is a great plateform for india pakistan litrery peace process.Atleast someone from india entered in thought process to break the iceberg.

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Suneelsm Dec 17, 2015 11:26am

The sweetest language in this word.

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Nighat Dec 17, 2015 01:07pm

@PR Not just Urdu but all existing languages of the Indian Subcontinent can have their origin only in India simply due to the fact that Pakistan or Bangla Desh did not exist in those times. Pakistan has not only as you term it 'adopted' the Urdu Language but also the millions of refugees who had to flee from India to Pakistan. Would you also term the Refugees as 'adopted'? These are People who originally spoke and cultivated the Urdu language in India.

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Aparna Dec 17, 2015 02:49pm

@YM : The festival is free for all.

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