Lucknow, Sep 14 (PTI) Famous novelist Professor Abdul Bismillah on Saturday said there should also be a fight against linguistic communalism.
Bismillah was addressing a felicitation ceremony for eminent people from the literary world, organised on the occasion of Hindi Day at the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Auditorium at the Samajwadi Party (SP) headquarters here.
According to a statement issued by the SP, party chief Akhilesh Yadav felicitated senior literary figures and social workers on the occasion of Hindi Day.
Besides Bismillah, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister honoured Uday Pratap Singh, Virendra Yadav, Surya Kumar Pandey, Pramod Tyagi, Deepak Kabir, Professor Ramesh Dixit, Vandana Mishra, Himanshu Sharma, Neeraj Yadav, Sanjeev Jaiswal, Qadir Rana, Archana Dixit, Rakesh Kumar, Mukesh Darpan, Ayush Yadav, Manendra Mishra, Sanjeev Yadav, Sandeep Yadav and Jaishankar Pandey, among others.
Bismillah, whose first work — “Jhini-Jhini Beeni Chadariya” — is considered to be a milestone in the world of Hindi fiction, said “there should be a fight against linguistic communalism as well”.
“The British spread confusion by calling Hindi and Urdu the languages of Hindus and Muslims respectively and later, started making a living out of it,” he said.
Bismillah also claimed that “there is no difference between Hindi and Urdu”.
“This honour is for shared culture and hence, it is special,” he said.
Former MP and poet Uday Pratap Singh said, “The linguistic communalism created by the British is still in existence. (Mahatma) Gandhiji and Maulana Azad had supported the creation of Hindustani by mixing Hindi and Urdu. Hindi is also among the most widely spoken languages of the world.” Writer Virendra Yadav said “there has been a deep relationship between the socialist movement and Hindi. Dr Ram Manohar Lohia had started a movement to remove the dominance of English in independent India”.
“The slavery of the British has not gone even today,” he said.
The writer said the slogan of PDA (Backward, Dalit, Minority) given by Akhilesh Yadav is connected to Lohia’s ideology and added that therefore, B R Ambedkar is also included in the philosophy. “This will pave the way for alternative politics,” he said.
On the occasion, Akhilesh Yadav released Pramod Tyagi’s book, titled “Shapit Mahayodha Karna”. Tyagi is a senior advocate from Muzaffarnagar, a social and political activist and is also active in the field of writing.
Gunveer Rana presented his collection of songs, titled “Aansoo Ki Sabha”, to the SP president. Former Uttar Pradesh minister Rajendra Chaudhary, state SP president Shyam Lal Pal and MLA Pradeep Yadav were present on the occasion. PTI CDN RC
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