Telangana Principal Attacked for Teaching Urdu: Justice Katju Says Assault Is an Attack on India's Composite Culture
Justice Markandey Katju condemns the assault on a Telangana school principal over Urdu classes, arguing that attacks on Urdu are attacks on India's shared cultural heritage.
A National Disgrace
By Justice Markandey Katju
A school Principal in Telangana was recently physically attacked by bigoted right-wing elements for teaching Urdu in his school. The Principal said Urdu was taught only for 2 days, that too at the request of many parents, and only Urdu alphapets were taught on these 2 days by a lady teacher. What is particularly shocking is that this physical assault took place in the presence of the police...
Such incidents are a disgrace to India. The culprits, who are lumpen elements and gundas, instead of being punished, are often hailed as saviours of Hindu culture and civilization.
Urdu, like Sanskrit, is a great language of India. But great injustice has been done to it, just as great injustice has been done to Sanskrit.
Urdu was wrongly branded by some ignorant bigots as a foreign language, and as a language of Muslims alone.
In my article and video 'What is Urdu ?', I have explained in detail about Urdu, its origin, its features, etc. Hence I am not repeating its contents.
In my judgment as a judge of the Allahabad High Court ( Ramesh Upadhyaya vs State of UP, 1993 2UPLBEC 945 ) I held that Sanskrit and Urdu, our 2 great all-India cultural languages, should be taught for 5 years in all schools
In para 14 of this judgment, I observed :
''In my opinion, along with Sanskrit, Urdu should also be taught for at least 5 years in our schools ( say upto class 8 ).
Urdu is also a great language of our country, and it was falsely given out to be a language of Muslims alone.
The British wanted to divide our people, and hence they created the false propaganda that Hindi was the language of Hindus, and Urdu of Muslims. In fact, Urdu was the common language of all educated North Indian ( and even some South Indian ) people, whether Hindus, Muslims, or Sikhs. The great Urdu poets like Mir, Ghalib, Faiz, Firaq and Josh were thoroughly secular, and their poetry is of the highest order.
Today our young generation is thoroughly deculturized, cynical, and lacking in all moorings. Most of them are totally ignorant of the 2 great all-India cultural languages, Sanskrit and Urdu. Hence, if they are taught these languages for at least 5 years in school, it will provide them at least a rudimentary knowledge of these great languages ( which can later be increased by their own effort ), and thus acquaint them with their own culture.
This will also blunt the effort of fundamentalists ( both Hindu and Muslim ) who are trying to divide our country on religious lines ''.
The right-wing fanatics who oppose Urdu, like those who attacked the school Principal, are ignorant bigots and lumpen elements, who know nothing about Indian culture, and are a disgrace to our nation. An attack on Urdu is an attack on the rich heritage and composite culture of India.
In my opinion, Urdu should not just be taught for 2 days only, but for 5 years, in all schools in India, along with Sanskrit.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India and a former Chairman of the Press Council of India. These are his personal views.)
