Indian songwriter Javed Akhtar looks set to stir up controversy once again with his latest comments on Urdu and the places where it’s spoken, after attending the Interest Festival in Pakistan last month and ending the disaster after making some offensive remarks.
Akhtar and her husband, actor Shabana Azmi, recently released an album of poetry in Urdu. Shayaran – Sartaj. According to this Indian Express, During the launch, the screenwriter emphasized the importance of the Urdu language by saying that it belongs to Hindustan, not Pakistan or Egypt. “Urdu didn’t come from anywhere else… Our own language. It’s not spoken outside of Hindustan… Pakistan also emerged after the Separation from India, it was only part of India before. So no language is spoken outside of Hindustan,” he explained.
He highlighted the role played by Punjab in the growth and prominence of Urdu in the past. “Punjabi has a great contribution to Urdu and it is the language of India! But why did you leave this language? Is it because of the split? Is it because of Pakistan? Urdu should be noted,” he said. “Before it was just Hindustan – Pakistan later seceded from Hindustan. He said now Pakistan Kashmir is ours… Will you believe that? I think no’! Likewise, Urdu is also a Hindustani.[i] tongue and remains [so]”
Akhtar thinks the focus of the youth has shifted from Urdu and Hindi to English. “We should speak Hindi because it is our national language,” he said, adding that the language is based on region, not religion. “If language were based on religion, then it would be the only language in the whole of Europe. So language is the language of the region, not of religion.”
He led the Indian delegation at the Faiz Festival held in Lahore in February and was invited to a dinner at the house of singer Ali Zafar. A day or so later, a clip from his speech at the festival went viral, in which he said the terrorists responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks were still “roaming free” in Pakistan.
“The truth is, blaming each other won’t work. We need to de-escalate the tension in the region. We are from Mumbai, we saw how our city was attacked. Those people weren’t Norwegian, were they? They didn’t come from Egypt either. They’re still circulating in your country. If these complaints are in the heart of a Hindustani, Don’t be taken,” he said.
Actor Resham, who was also at Zafar’s dinner, condemned the songwriter’s comments. This Teefa is in trouble The actor said he wasn’t aware of what Akhtar’s “insensitive words” were, as he was not at the festival.