SC gives an important cultural lesson: Language is not religion, all languages should be celebrated

How a dry legal case can be recast as a rich cultural tutorial – the Supreme Court showed that in style on Tuesday. The question before it was, did a municipal building signboard flout the ‘rajbhasha’ status of Marathi in Maharashtra, by offering an Urdu translation below the Marathi? Nope. Like Bombay HC before it, SC found no prohibition on the use of an additional language.

It went further. It emphasised that Marathi and Urdu share the same status under Schedule VIII of the Constitution. It reminded that Urdu is one of the official languages across UP, AP, J&K, Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Telangana and Delhi.

This has to be understood against the vilification of Urdu as ‘gaddar zabaan’, enemy’s language, a factless campaign that’s, recently and sadly, found many takers. This prejudice, like many prejudices, dwells in high ignorance. Urdu is as Indian as Sanskrit. The first Urdu translation of Quran took place at 18th century’s end but there are Urdu words in Tulsidas. It’s truly a composite language. But as gloriously rich as India’s cultural inheritance is, appreciating this is no longer the default mindset. So SC belabouring the obvious is a critical intervention in public discourse: “Language is not religion…Language is culture…We must respect and rejoice in our diversity, including our many languages.”

Woh yaar hai jo khusbhu ki tarah, woh jiski zubaan Urdu ki tarah – That lover who’s like fragrance, his language is like Urdu. Haters gonna hate, but this iconic dancy catchphrase from Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se speaks for all the rest. Many who cannot write Urdu in Nastaliq, do so in Devanagari, Roman, Gurmukhi…instead. Delhi’s annual Jashn-e-Rekhta festival is jampacked with young Urdu enthusiasts. Urdu has been popularised by the Hindi film industry, which has drawn upon it because it’s been awaam ki awaaz– language of the people. They have loved it. But as the great Anand Bakshi wrote and the great Kishore Kumar sang, majhdhaar mein naiya dole to maanjhi paar lagaaye, maanjhi jo naav duboye use kaun bachaye? – If the boat shakes midstream, the boatman takes it across, if the boatman sinks the boat, who will save it?

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This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.

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