Muslims lament growing disinterest of Muslim youth towards Urdu at the Annual Urdu week in Agra
To memorialize the contribution of these giants, the Huda Islamic Association organized the annual 'Urdu Week' at the Huda Islamic college in Agra, where the birth anniversary of famous Urdu poet Allama Iqbal was also celebrated on Monday.
Once known as the capital of Urdu poetry in the world, Agra was the home of famous Urdu poets like Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir and Nazir Akbarabadi, the stalwarts who formed the backbone of Urdu literature in the later 1800s.
To memorialize the contribution of these giants, the Huda Islamic Association organized the annual 'Urdu Week' at the Huda Islamic college in Agra, where the birth anniversary of famous Urdu poet Allama Iqbal was also celebrated on Monday.
Talking to India Today, Mohd. Umar Soori, convenor of the Urdu Week celebrations said that Hindi and Urdu were two sister languages, but while Hindi is better known as 'Khadi Boli', Urdu has the smoothness of honey and hence, is the favoured language for poetry in this subcontinent. Most of the residents of Punjab know Urdu as second language, but in the birthplace of Urdu, Uttar Pradesh, this language is slowly dying as even the Muslims are no longer keen at learning it.
He said that it was a need of today that parents should educate their children in Urdu so that they remain connected to the rich poetic heritage of India that is primarily in Urdu. He said that Firaq Gorakhpuri was originally an English professor, who chose Urdu as his primary language of poetry, despite being non-Muslim.
He said that there were several non-muslims today who did poetry in Urdu, but the Muslims themselves were forgetting this language and a major part of today's Muslim youth had only basic knowledge of this language.
He said that Hindi and Urdu cannot be separated, but Urdu needs to be nurtured just like Hindi so that it does not lag behind its sister tongue.