NavDharmyug

Languages live and die with human interests. Language does not have with in it to carry itself through public apathy. Language cannot survive vacuum and apathy. One of the biggest loss of the 21 st century is the death of languages. While technology has been one cause of it, religious appropriation and attribution is another important reason. Suddenly we have Latin for Christians, Sanskrit for Hindus and Urdu for Muslims. Absolutist religions have brought clash of civilization to our doorsteps. This reflects in the election of Donald Trump in the US and the books on Islamic supremacy being in best-sellers in France. It is not totally unfounded. Technology connects the mankind in unprecedented manner. Therefore, famines of Bengal in 18 th and 19 th century could not cause mass transfer of humanity from Asia to Europe nor could most bloody of wars in 7 th century push people westwards, as much as it could today. One can easily call names to people who are simplistic and intelle...

Couple of months back, it occurred  to me that while in a world of WhatsApp and Twitter, Urdu poetry has come into vogue after being vaguely dormant for a long time. Owing to the wit, the wisdom and snappy style, while it has grabbed the attention of the millennial child, but it still lacks the affection it got in pre-90's days. The tragedy of any language is to link it to a religious faith and elevate it with puritanical elitism to such a level, where it becomes obsolete. A language is like a lovely butterfly, which needs to play, dance, float and fly in an open garden. Once it gets appropriated by elite, it loses its gait, its charm and eventually its life. This happened to Sanskrit, to Persian and seemingly Urdu faces the same challenge. Although this is not a singular plight of Urdu as a language, in a world of emoji, all classical languages bear the brunt of too much of technology and too little of time.  With this in my mind, I c...