Pride and Prejudice of Languages

By Muhammad Asadullah

The most important aspect of a language is it’s charismatic power to bind people with each other . .In our day to day life if we want to get some one’s favor, the key to open the door of his heart is to speak in his or her mother tongue. A famous couplet of Persian says, , Zuban-e Yar Mun Turkey Vo Mun Turkey Nami Danum ,Che Khub boode agar boode Zubanash Dar Dhane Mun .

(My beloved’s language is Turkey which I don’t know; how better it would be if I would have her tongue (language) in my mouth.

Languages are not merely a medium of expression but an asset to be boast about. Nations and people always feel proud of their respective language for different reasons. Some on their being sweetest one, some for their literary heritage, other for their sound and vocabulary and there are some ancient languages a matter of pride for the nation. Arabians were so much proud of their skill of oratory and art of speaking, therefore they would call themselves Arab and say rest of the world, ‘Ajam’ means deaf.

When Sarojini Naidu,famous poetess showed her poems to a British writer, he had a strong objection to her on being a creative writer of English ,as he thought it was the only privilege of British.

In Urdu language famous poet Meer Taqi Meer says ,Reekhta Mein Hum Se Gugtagoo Mat Kar ,Yeh Hamari Zuban Hai Pyare (don't try to have a conversation in Reekhta with us as it is our language( Earlier Urdu language had been called Reekhta)

An other Poet Dagh Dehelvi says :Urdu Hai Jis Ka Nam Hum hi Jante Hain Dagh ,Sare Jahan Mein Dhoom Hamari Zuban Ki Hai.(We are ,the only one ,well versed in world famous ,Urdu language)

The history of languages contains a number of similar examples, which shows people exaggerating merit and greatness of their languages and at the same time they degrade others. In fact literary heritage is a matter of pride for a nation as well as for the people associated to it. But, this love and the pride, some times, had given way to the hatred for other languages too. We know that the people of France are against English. In India Southern states have disliking for Hindi. Similar situation is with Urdu and Hindi in U.P., where these two languages are considered rival to each other. The other day, a comment of a scholar, speaking regarding languages, shocked me. He said: the division of states in India is based on languages, we cant ignore this harsh reality that languages had divided our country .

This is a co-incident that we witness both the sides of reality in our society. I meet a number of people whose mother tongue is either Hindi or Marathi, they are eager to learn Urdu, so that they may enjoy the rich literary treasure of Urdu Ghazal directly through it’s original script. The attention for Urdu language may be for its literary characteristic, particularly for the form of Ghazal.
Ghazal is really very much useful for common man as well as for lovers and even for politicians too .It has a number of couplets enable you to express your heart so skillfully and in an artistic manner , It is helpful to contact to the person you want to convey your feelings, which is not possible in plain conversation.