New Delhi, Dec 14 (PTI) As Jashn-e-Rekhta, the annual festival celebrating the Urdu language, opened its doors to the city’s young and old alike, its founder Sanjiv Saraf says if it were “a strictly literary programme”, it wouldn’t have made the language regain its popularity among the masses.
The festival centred around Urdu, its literature and the associated culture took off from the limited space of India International Centre (IIC) in 2015. Over the years, it has grown to be hosted at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to accommodate the ever-increasing crowds that walk through its doors.
“Jashn-e-Rekhta was never a purely literary event, from the beginning it was a mix of literature and popular content. We see pure literary events and seminars but there are maybe 20 or 50 listeners,” Saraf told PTI in a telephonic conversation.
He added that Urdu has been “unfortunate in being confined to scholarly discussions”.
“Some credit of taking Urdu to the masses goes to Rekhta. Literary programmes are limited to scholars, researchers, and professors. Urdu is a language of common people. Our films, songs and gazals made it popular. How many people are interested in attending seminars and conferences?” he asked.
The grand celebration of Urdu language and Hindustani culture is known for hosting eclectic art forms including ghazals, sufi music, qawwali, dastangoi, panel discussions, mushaira, poetry recitations, masterclasses, and a curated food festival (Aiwan-e-Zaiqa).
When it was started by Rekhta Foundation in 2015 at IIC, its programming looked similar to what it does today – a mix of poetry, music, theatre, dastangoi and rich literary discussions on the language, its history and influences.
“We are presenting high quality Urdu content in an entertaining and popular manner. Scholars may ignore this factor but a language doesn’t become popular through lectures and discussions. A language becomes popular when people, who have nothing to do with it, are attracted towards it,” the entrepreneur-author said.
Over time, Jashn-e-Rekhta has featured artistes like Piyush Mishra, Kailash Kher, Papon, Rekha and Vishal Bhardwaj, Ustad Shujaat Khan, Sabri Brothers, Javed Ali, and Swanand Kirkire, poets such as Wasim Barelvi, Rahat Indori, Ashok Chakradhar, Javed Akhtar, Farhat Ehsas and Kumar Vishwas.
The festival also invited writers and scholars for discussions, including William Dalrymple, Mahmood Farooqui, Navtej Sarna, Najeeb Jung, Gopi Chand Narang, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Rana Safvi, Khalid Jawed as well as popular actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Shabana Azmi, Vijay Varma, Swara Bhaskar, Kumud Mishra, Vipin Sharma, and Taapsee Pannu.
Given its rising popularity, the festival has continued to move to larger spaces from IIC to Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts, then Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium and now to JLN Stadium.
According to Saraf, Jashn-e-Rekhta last year recorded “a footfall of three lakh” and this year, they have already sold out the entire venue to accommodate nearly 25 per cent more people.
“We could never imagine it in our dreams that it will become so big nor do we have any idea how much more it will grow. The small ‘jashn’ that we started has now become a movement. It has become so popular that it is not even in our control anymore,” Saraf said.
“People across age, gender, caste, community, religion, social strata, and background, everybody wants to be a part of it.” In an effort to control the fans flooding the stadium and to manage sessions better, the organisers have decided to thin out its programme by cutting down on one stage and a few sessions.
“We received feedback that people were not able to run from one stage to another or were missing out on sessions that were at the same time. So we have made some changes. The place is bigger, there are more books and merchandise stalls to spread out the festival,” he said.
The ninth edition of Jashn-e-Rekhta will host more than 200 poets, writers, and artistes, including Javed Akhtar, Popular Meeruthi, Pernia Qureshi, Ali brothers, Professor Ghazanfar, Himanshu Bajpayee, Pragya Sharma, Rukhsaar Kamal Amrohi, Noor Zaheer, Shaista Yusuf, Anisur Rahman, Ali Fazal, and Kavita Seth.
Anticipating a larger crowd next year, Saraf and his team have already put on their thinking caps.
“We are already looking at ways to accommodate more people next year, to make more tickets available. We have to think ahead, warna hum log fas jayenge (else we will be in a fix),” he said.
The festival will come to an end on December 15. PTI MAH RB RB
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