By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
10 August 2023
The news is that the UP Secondary Education Board has removed Premchand’s famous story ‘Ibrat’ from the syllabus of class ten. Not only that, under the new National Education Policy (2020), many changes have been introduced to the Urdu syllabus for the class X students.
Renowned critic Dr Gopichand Narang’s ‘Urdu Hamari Zubaan’, Pandit Ratannath ‘Sarshar,’ Pandit Anand Narayan Mulla and Kanhaiyalal Kapoor have also been shown the exit. This appears to be a sinister, and conspiratorial move. An attempt to eliminate Urdu from schools, colleges and universities is afoot. By removing the Urdu poetry and write ups written by non-Muslims seems to be the government’s loud and clear message to show that Urdu is exclusively a ‘Muslim’ language and only Muslims read and write in it! That a cornucopia of Hindus also enriched this magnificent language is unacceptable, nay, an embarrassment (!), to the current dispensation.
So, it’s trying to rewrite history. Will it succeed? Yes, it has already succeeded in rewriting a false narrative that Urdu belongs only to Muslims.
Sanatanis are trying to purge their Hindi of all Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Turkish words. These bigots don’t know that Urdu also has words from Sanskrit! Sanskrit words ‘Ritu’, ‘Yatna’ and ‘Shringaar’ become ‘ Rut ‘, ‘Jatan’ and ‘Singaar ‘ respectively.
Can these morons find a synonym for the Persian word ‘Gulaab‘ (rose) in Hindi or Sanskrit? Hating a language shows the bankruptcy of those who want to establish a Hindu Rashtra. They seem to have gone berserk. But my point is, the government may have certain asinine and discriminatory policies. But why are the masses following them gleefully? This blinding hatred has blinded all of us. No one can say or guess when and where’ll this orgy of (communal) hatred end. Perhaps, this will end after engulfing all of us.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world’s premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/orgy-communal-hatred/d/130418