In Urdu, even placement of a nuqta or dot wide of the mark is enough to question your identity. For instance, Dadi couldn’t bear Topi’s mispronunciation of the word ‘zarur’ as ‘jarur’. This was the sole reason for her irritation in the story of Topi Shukla authored by Rahi Masoom Raza. Urdu, a language that is getting its lifeline from the political struggle of the Hindu-Muslim binary today, was once richly decorated with words of Indian roots, idioms and local metaphors. It represented local culture and folklore just like any other Indian language and it was being used as one of the dialects. It is, therefore, also known as ‘Hindavi’. Prominently called the language of the elite Muslim class, Urdu has been flourishing with different names such as Zuban-e-hind, Zuban-e-dilli, Rekhta, Gujari, Dakkhani, Zuban-e-Urdu-e-mualla.
We will explore in this article how Urdu has become an instrument of oppression in Ashraaf politics. And why we Pasmandas need to reconnect and express our ideology in our own language that is alienated and imposed to make us feel like a lesser human being.
Urdu, originally a Turkish word, means a royal military camp or bazaar/tent. In India’s Turkish courts before 1209, Persian language got the higher position. But even then, Sanskrit continued to enjoy its status under the protection of local rulers and it never lost its utility because it was the vehicle of Brahminical culture. Indians were not familiar with Persian language and that widened the gap between the Turkish rulers and the masses.
Historian Mubarak Ali writes in his book Itihas ka Matantar, “when Khilzi, Tughlaq, Lodhi grabbed the power in Delhi sultanate after the declination of Turkish rule, it weakened the superiority of Persian language as a consequence because it was not the mother tongue of these Afghan rulers. Besides, they also wanted to demean the elite class of Iran-Central Asia whose language was Persian. When the Suris gained power by defeating the Mughals, they also openly expressed their hatred towards the Persian language. But re-conquest of the throne by Mughals gave new life to the Persian and foreign culture…who always kept themselves aloof from India and Indian culture…later due to the financial crunch of Mughal court the arrival of poets from Iran and Central Asia also slowed down and thus the energy that Persian language used to get in India from them also got badly affected.”
In such a situation, the ruling class was not mentally ready to accept Urdu—the language of the masses—as the language of intellectual groups. As such, it took steps to purify Urdu to reflect the difference between the language spoken by the ruler and the ruled.
Poet of the Mughal empire, Sirajuddin Khan Arzoo accelerated this process and raised the language’s standard. He declared that Urdu was now being spoken by the elite class. On this aspect of Urdu, Mubarak Ali quotes Muhammad Hussain Azad, “How Arabi-Persianization cut the roots of Urdu from its own cultural environment. Bypassing all the similes of Indian background, Arabic and Persian similes were imposed on their place. As a result, new style of idioms came to the fore and that had nothing to do with the cultural milieu of India nor with the thoughts of India.”
Also read: Should Karnataka BJP move Muslims under EWS? Quota should be based on hierarchy, not faith
Urdu and the voice of Pasmanda
If you want to kill any civilisation, then destroy their language. The Ashraaf class did not include Pasmandas in ahl-e-zuban (native speakers of a language). Its effect is also visible in Urdu literature: 85 per cent of the Muslim population — the Pasmandas — and their problems, issues and culture have been completely rejected. And yet Ashraafs are in denial about the caste hierarchy in Muslim society, which is profoundly recorded in various government documents including the Mandal Commission report. That’s why progressive and revolutionary poets are not afraid to write ghazals even on ‘khuda ki jaat’ (God’s caste) but not a single couplet has registered a voice against the caste system among them. Which part of Urdu discretion shows the courtesy and fashion of Dalit Muslims?
Aiyub Rayeen writes in his book Dalit Muslim Sahitya aur Lekhak that the Muslim upper-caste (Ashraaf) themselves write less about their shortcomings, evils and social injustices and if others raise those issues through literature, then a ruckus is created. As a result, the Pasmandas or Dalit Muslim authors kept trying to escape this topic. Pasmanda poets and writers are anyway often disregarded by Ashraafs for not being up to the mark. This is the reason why Pasmanda poets don’t write about their looms, sarees, clothes, habits, farming, their cattle, and the problems of their society. Instead, they write poems on women’s beauty just like the Ashraaf poets.
The British Raj established English in India as the language to achieve economic and social success. On the one hand, Muslim reformer Sir Syed Ahmed Khan would insist on English medium education for Ashraafs and, on the other hand, oppose it for Pasmandas.
In the present era, Urdu and Muslim culture are seen as synonymous with each other. As a result, there is pressure on Pasmanda Muslims to save Urdu but the educated lot within the community has no employment opportunities. According to Professor Masood Alam Falahi’s book Hindustan Mein Zaat Paat aur Musalman, engineer Shami Khan Khatana and Ayesha Saman Sahiba collected data on the social status of teachers (assistant professors, associate professors, and professors) in 21 universities of India in departments related to Muslims such as Urdu, Arabic, Parsi, and Islamic studies. And they found that out of 296 teachers, 272 are of Ashraaf caste, three of Schedule Castes, three of Schedule tribes and 18 of OBC. With about 92 per cent of the Ashraafs as teachers, it is evident that their representation will be in majority in the field of education.
Many Ashraaf writers have created fictional Dalit characters who do not narrate their identity. They simply become a medium through which the writers get their oppressor caste point of view across.
In Premchand’s Kaphan and Mahashweta Devi’s Alma Kabutari, Dalit characters only reflect a Savarna mindset. Similarly, Ashraafs have written Pasmanda characters only to support and lend perfection to the Ashraafs in the stories.
Every language has its importance because the existence of humankind is part of it. As our philosophies change with time, our languages also carry those changes communicating our civilisational growth. It is not appropriate to limit Urdu to any religion or caste, but it is also true that the pain of Pasmanda could not become the focus of expression on the stage of Urdu literature.
Now, the question is who will do the work? Who will give the depth of philosophy to Urdu? Who will introduce Urdu to the soul of the indigenous people? We cannot expect it from Ashraafs. We Pasmandas need to express our pain in our own language, words and dialect. If we want to give voice to our fight, then we have to create our own language and strengthen it. We have to record every injustice faced in history and its resistance. Maybe that is when we write something about love, it will inspire us to revolution.
Abdullah Mansoor is a teacher and runs a YouTube channel named Pasmanda Democracy. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)