#MyNameInUrdu movement gaining momentum; love conquers hate

[manlion]

A campaign to write one’s profile name in Urdu is gaining momentum these days which is the best example of unity against hate. Recently, Prabha Raj a Twitterati belonging South India had written her profile name in Urdu. According to Prabha, she doesn’t know Urdu but she liked the Urdu script so she decided to keep her profile name in Urdu. However, she was trolled by saffron elements for her ‘assumed identity’ as a Muslim.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1084287743994224641

In her article in the Wire, Prabha writes, “last week, I found the Urdu script beautiful and decided to use it for my Twitter handle name. I don’t know Urdu at all though. Being a politically active person on Twitter, I’ve seen my fair share of trolls, but this week it turned vicious.”

She added, “I was quite appalled at the sexually graphic pictures and the expletives directed towards me – derisively labelling me a Muslim due to my new Twitter name. I realised the hate was not directed towards my tweets, but rather towards my assumed identity as Muslim. After having enough of it, I tweeted out saying that if you have a Muslim handle, you’re likely to attract abusive trolls but that I won’t let hate get the upper hand. I will keep my Twitter name in the Urdu script.”

However, within hours, people started showing solidarity with Prabha against the hate and started changing their Twitter names to the Urdu script as well. Some started using the hashtag #MyNameInUrdu. People also narrated how they face discrimination every day due to their religious identity and how they have accepted is as the new norm.

https://www.siasat.com/news/mynameinurdu-movement-gaining-momentum-love-conquers-hate-1454512/

 

[manlion]

'Poetry is the antidote': in fight against Hindu nationalism, India turns to verse

Buoyed by social media, Urdu poetry is enjoying new popularity in the face of divisive sectarian politics

In a Delhi hockey stadium in December, about 100,000 people of various ages, genders, and classes flooded in for two days of poetry, debates, food and calligraphy sessions. It was Jashn-e-Rekhta, a three-day Urdu cultural festival, and its popularity reflects a wider appreciation for Urdu poetry. Shayari, historically associated with the politics of resistance, is experiencing a revival in the face of rising Hindu nationalism in Delhi.

At the festival, as people take selfies in front of an “I love Urdu” cutout, Shweta, a 20-year-old college student, says she believes shayari poetry could unite people.

“We as millennials are attracted a lot towards Urdu, both from the romantic side of it and the activism side of it,” she says. “We look for books of shayari, watch YouTube videos and listen to songs with Urdu prominence. We want to express ourselves, and this is a beautiful form of expression.”

Poetry in India has long served a purpose beyond art or entertainment. It has been used throughout history to unify communities and fight oppression; nationalist and patriotic poetry was an important rallying point during India’s fight against British rule. But now Urdu poetry has become a form of dissent against Hindu nationalism, which has risen under prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right wing party known historically for defining “Indianness” in terms of Hindu values. Under Modi, there has been a surge of violence against religious minorities including Muslims, as well as lower-caste Hindus such as Dalits, in some northern states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

And while there is a misconception in India that Urdu, spoken by more than 50 million Indians, is a language of outsiders, associated with Muslims and Pakistan, in reality, most people in north India have been speaking Hindustani – a combination of Hindi and Urdu – for centuries. Shayari enthusiasts view the language’s symbolic importance as an obvious way to bring the country together, says Abhinandita Mathur, cultural adviser to the Delhi government. “Urdu is the language of Delhi. It is a symbol of Delhi’s composite culture that we strongly believe in, representative of harmony, representative of beauty, representative of dissent.”

Across India, Urdu poets, or shayars, gather everywhere from stadium-sized venues for mushaira (poetry symposiums) to more informal sessions, or nashist, in the tiny chai shops of Old Delhi, the historic and religiously diverse quarter of India’s capital.

Abu Sufian is a cultural organiser and arranged this nashist. Weaving through Old Delhi’s maze of hectic, narrow lanes, he says shayari is central to alleviating divisions in his community, where he says minorities have been living in fear for the last four years. “If you are feeling oppressed by the government, you need a medium,” he explains. “Poetry works as an antidote to let people know there is something wrong in the society, and we need to do something about it.”

Enter social media: on platforms from Facebook to Pinterest, young people are writing and sharing their own shayari and poetry memes, using Twitter hashtags such as #shair and #UrduPoetry, and watching So Shayari, a satirical animated YouTube channel. This week, #MyNameInUrdu began trending on Indian Twitter as people changed their usernames to Urdu in a gesture against right-wing trolling. (In solidarity, many users from neighbouring Pakistan changed their names to Hindi.)

Some recitals have been viewed on YouTube millions of times. Hussain Haidry, an accountant in his early 30s, was unknown until his poem about being an Indian Muslim, Hindustani Musalmaan, went viral on YouTube in 2017 (“Don’t look at me with those singular gazes, I don’t have just one, but a hundred faces / I have a character with a hundred layers, I am a story written by a hundred pens / I am as much an Indian, as I am a Muslim”), while the young shayar Imran Pratapgarhi’s recitals now draw crowds of tens of thousands. Known for his new age anti-government voice, Pratapgarhi has indicated he may run for office in the 2019 general election.

One aspect of shayari remains stuck in the past: historically, the form has excluded women, and patriarchal traditions remain entrenched. Azra Naqvi, a veteran shayara (female poet), learned the art from her mother, who used to wear a burqa to sneak out and perform at mushairas, because it was taboo for women to recite poetry. To this day, men and women usually perform at separate gatherings - a tradition Naqvi wants changed – while shayaras often play it safe in the issues they cover. “In my poems I talk about activism and life as it is. But many shayaras only recite verses about love rather than deeper topics,” says Naqvi.

In Delhi, Sufian recently hosted a mushaira where some artists performed a short Urdu story about two childhood friends, one Hindu and one Muslim, who became enemies during the partition but later realise they are happier as friends “living together in religious harmony”. Even such a simple story provoked tears in the audience. “During the partition, there was a divide and rule by the [colonial] government,” he says. “And the government of the present era is doing the same.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...m-india-turns-to-verse?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

[Kashmiri Pandit]

I hope people realise Hindi and Urdu are same language with different script.

 

[Pakhtoon yum]

I hope people realise Hindi and Urdu are same language with different script.

Did you know japanese and Spanish are the same languages with different scripts?

'Poetry is the antidote': in fight against Hindu nationalism, India turns to verse

Buoyed by social media, Urdu poetry is enjoying new popularity in the face of divisive sectarian politics

In a Delhi hockey stadium in December, about 100,000 people of various ages, genders, and classes flooded in for two days of poetry, debates, food and calligraphy sessions. It was Jashn-e-Rekhta, a three-day Urdu cultural festival, and its popularity reflects a wider appreciation for Urdu poetry. Shayari, historically associated with the politics of resistance, is experiencing a revival in the face of rising Hindu nationalism in Delhi.

At the festival, as people take selfies in front of an “I love Urdu” cutout, Shweta, a 20-year-old college student, says she believes shayari poetry could unite people.

“We as millennials are attracted a lot towards Urdu, both from the romantic side of it and the activism side of it,” she says. “We look for books of shayari, watch YouTube videos and listen to songs with Urdu prominence. We want to express ourselves, and this is a beautiful form of expression.”

Poetry in India has long served a purpose beyond art or entertainment. It has been used throughout history to unify communities and fight oppression; nationalist and patriotic poetry was an important rallying point during India’s fight against British rule. But now Urdu poetry has become a form of dissent against Hindu nationalism, which has risen under prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right wing party known historically for defining “Indianness” in terms of Hindu values. Under Modi, there has been a surge of violence against religious minorities including Muslims, as well as lower-caste Hindus such as Dalits, in some northern states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

And while there is a misconception in India that Urdu, spoken by more than 50 million Indians, is a language of outsiders, associated with Muslims and Pakistan, in reality, most people in north India have been speaking Hindustani – a combination of Hindi and Urdu – for centuries. Shayari enthusiasts view the language’s symbolic importance as an obvious way to bring the country together, says Abhinandita Mathur, cultural adviser to the Delhi government. “Urdu is the language of Delhi. It is a symbol of Delhi’s composite culture that we strongly believe in, representative of harmony, representative of beauty, representative of dissent.”

Across India, Urdu poets, or shayars, gather everywhere from stadium-sized venues for mushaira (poetry symposiums) to more informal sessions, or nashist, in the tiny chai shops of Old Delhi, the historic and religiously diverse quarter of India’s capital.

Abu Sufian is a cultural organiser and arranged this nashist. Weaving through Old Delhi’s maze of hectic, narrow lanes, he says shayari is central to alleviating divisions in his community, where he says minorities have been living in fear for the last four years. “If you are feeling oppressed by the government, you need a medium,” he explains. “Poetry works as an antidote to let people know there is something wrong in the society, and we need to do something about it.”

Enter social media: on platforms from Facebook to Pinterest, young people are writing and sharing their own shayari and poetry memes, using Twitter hashtags such as #shair and #UrduPoetry, and watching So Shayari, a satirical animated YouTube channel. This week, #MyNameInUrdu began trending on Indian Twitter as people changed their usernames to Urdu in a gesture against right-wing trolling. (In solidarity, many users from neighbouring Pakistan changed their names to Hindi.)

Some recitals have been viewed on YouTube millions of times. Hussain Haidry, an accountant in his early 30s, was unknown until his poem about being an Indian Muslim, Hindustani Musalmaan, went viral on YouTube in 2017 (“Don’t look at me with those singular gazes, I don’t have just one, but a hundred faces / I have a character with a hundred layers, I am a story written by a hundred pens / I am as much an Indian, as I am a Muslim”), while the young shayar Imran Pratapgarhi’s recitals now draw crowds of tens of thousands. Known for his new age anti-government voice, Pratapgarhi has indicated he may run for office in the 2019 general election.

One aspect of shayari remains stuck in the past: historically, the form has excluded women, and patriarchal traditions remain entrenched. Azra Naqvi, a veteran shayara (female poet), learned the art from her mother, who used to wear a burqa to sneak out and perform at mushairas, because it was taboo for women to recite poetry. To this day, men and women usually perform at separate gatherings - a tradition Naqvi wants changed – while shayaras often play it safe in the issues they cover. “In my poems I talk about activism and life as it is. But many shayaras only recite verses about love rather than deeper topics,” says Naqvi.

In Delhi, Sufian recently hosted a mushaira where some artists performed a short Urdu story about two childhood friends, one Hindu and one Muslim, who became enemies during the partition but later realise they are happier as friends “living together in religious harmony”. Even such a simple story provoked tears in the audience. “During the partition, there was a divide and rule by the [colonial] government,” he says. “And the government of the present era is doing the same.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...m-india-turns-to-verse?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

This is very cute.

 

[Kashmiri Pandit]

Did you know japanese and Spanish are the same languages with different scripts?


This is very cute.

Hindustani (Hindi: हिन्दुस्तानी,[a] Urdu: ہندوستانی‎,https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustani_language#cite_note-9[8]), also known as Hindi-Urdu, and historically also known as Hindavi, Dehlavi, and Rekhta, is the lingua franca of Northern India and Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan language, deriving its base primarily from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi. The language incorporates a large amount of vocabulary from Prakrit, Persian as well as Sanskrit (via Prakrit and Tatsama borrowings) and Arabic (via Persian). It is a pluricentric language, with two official forms, Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu, which are its standardised registers. According to Ethnologue's 2017 estimates Hindustani is the 3rd most spoken language in the world, with approximately 329.1 million native speakers, and 697.4 million total speakers.

 

[Pakhtoon yum]

Hindustani (Hindi: हिन्दुस्तानी,[a] Urdu: ہندوستانی‎,[8]), also known as Hindi-Urdu, and historically also known as Hindavi, Dehlavi, and Rekhta, is the lingua franca of Northern India and Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan language, deriving its base primarily from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi. The language incorporates a large amount of vocabulary from Prakrit, Persian as well as Sanskrit (via Prakrit and Tatsama borrowings) and Arabic (via Persian). It is a pluricentric language, with two official forms, Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu, which are its standardised registers. According to Ethnologue's 2017 estimates Hindustani is the 3rd most spoken language in the world, with approximately 329.1 million native speakers, and 697.4 million total speakers.

Source of this masterpiece. If you say wikipedia then dont even bother quoting me

 

[Kashmiri Pandit]

Source of this masterpiece. If you say wikipedia then dont even bother quoting me

Hindustani language, lingua franca of northern India and Pakistan. Two variants of Hindustani, Urdu and Hindi, are official languages in Pakistan and India, respectively. Hindustani began to develop during the 13th century CE in and around the Indian cities of Delhiand Meerut in response to the increasing linguistic diversity that resulted from Muslim hegemony. In the 19th century its use was widely promoted by the British, who initiated an effort at standardization. Hindustani is widely recognized as India’s most common lingua franca, but its status as a vernacular renders it difficult to measure precisely its number of speakers.

Origin

Hindustani was initially used to facilitate interaction between the speakers of Khari Boli (a regional dialect that developed out of Shauraseni Apabhramsha and is now considered a variety of Hindi) and the speakers of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic languages who migrated to North India after the establishment of Muslim hegemony in the early 13th century CE.
Hindustani’s popularity increased as a result of its use by poets such as Amīr Khosrow (1253–1325), Kabīr (1440–1518), Dadu (1544–1603), and Raḥīm (1556–1627), the court poet of Akbar. Its use by Sufi saints such as Bābā Farīd (flourished late 12th century) and various poets of the Natha tradition (which combined practices from Buddhism, Shaivism, and Hatha Yogain an effort to reach immortality) also increased its popularity.

Vocabulary

Though Khari Boli supplied its basic vocabulary and grammar, Hindustani also borrowed freely from Persian. Among the Persian words that became common are many concerning administration (e.g., adalat ‘court,’ daftar ‘office,’ vakil ‘pleader,’ sipahi‘soldier,’ shahar ‘city,’ kasba ‘small town,’ zila ‘district’), dress (e.g., kamiz‘shirt,’ shal ‘shawl’), cosmetics (e.g., itra‘perfume,’ sabun ‘soap’), furniture (e.g., kursi ‘chair,’ mez ‘table,’ takht ‘dais’), and professions (e.g., bajaj ‘draper,’ chaprasi ‘peon,’ dukandar‘shopkeeper,’ haqim ‘physician,’ dalal‘broker,’ halvai ‘confectioner’).

Hindustani also borrowed Persian prefixes to create new words. Persian affixes became so assimilated that they were used with original Khari Boli words as well. The process of hybridization also led to the formation of words in which the first element of the compound was from Khari Boli and the second from Persian, such as rajmahal ‘palace’ (raja ‘royal, king’ + mahal ‘house, place’) and rangmahal‘fashion house’ (rang ‘colour, dye’ + mahal ‘house, place’).

As Muslim rule expanded, Hindustani speakers traveled to distant parts of India as administrators, soldiers, merchants, and artisans. As it reached new areas, Hindustani further hybridized with local languages. In the Deccan, for instance, Hindustani blended with Telugu and came to be called Dakhani. In Dakhani, aspirated consonants were replaced with their unaspirated counterparts; for instance, dekh ‘see’ became dek, ghula‘dissolved’ became gula, kuch ‘some’ became kuc, and samajh ‘understand’ became samaj.

Colonization And Conflict

When the British colonized India (seeIndia: history of), they chose to instruct their officers in Hindustani. Colonization intensified existing conflicts between the Hindu population and the Muslim population even as it motivated efforts toward linguistic standardization. During the process of creating a literary, standard form of Hindustani, Hindus introduced increasing numbers of Sanskrit words, and Muslims introduced increasing numbers of Persian and Arabic words.

Mahatma Gandhi realized that the standardization process was dangerously divisive. He emphasized the importance of keeping Hindustani as colloquial as possible and of avoiding the addition of unfamiliar Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic words. He also pleaded for the use of both Devanagari and Persian Arabic script for writing Hindustani. However, the religious difference proved intractable, and with partition Hindustani was split into two distinct (if closely related) official languages, Hindi in India and Urdu in Pakistan. Despite this division, many basic terms, such as the names of the parts of the human body and of relatives, pronouns, numerals, postpositions, and verbs, are the same in both Sanskritized Hindi and Persianized Urdu.

Hindustani In The 21st Century

In a study of Calcutta (now Kolkata), the Indian linguist Sumit Kumar Chatterjee in 1931 detailed the use of a lingua franca that he named Bazaar Hindustani. He noted that the language was greatly simplified, with minimal grammatical forms, vocabulary, idioms, and expressions, and that it was used by Indians and Europeans who spoke languages as diverse as Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, and Tamil.

In the 21st century, this simplified version of Hindustani continues to be used as a lingua franca not only in Kolkata but in all of the cities of India, especially in non-Hindi-speaking areas. More than 100 million individuals, including more than 50 million people in India, speak Urdu; many of these individuals may actually use Hindustani for ordinary communication. Approximately 550 million people speak Hindi, and sizable portions of this group, especially those who live in cities, are known to use Hindustani rather than Sanskritized Hindi in ordinary speech. Thus, while Hindustani may not survive as a literary language, it continues to thrive as a vernacular.


https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hindustani-language

 

[Pakhtoon yum]

Hindustani language, lingua franca of northern India and Pakistan. Two variants of Hindustani, Urdu and Hindi, are official languages in Pakistan and India, respectively. Hindustani began to develop during the 13th century CE in and around the Indian cities of Delhiand Meerut in response to the increasing linguistic diversity that resulted from Muslim hegemony. In the 19th century its use was widely promoted by the British, who initiated an effort at standardization. Hindustani is widely recognized as India’s most common lingua franca, but its status as a vernacular renders it difficult to measure precisely its number of speakers.

Origin

Hindustani was initially used to facilitate interaction between the speakers of Khari Boli (a regional dialect that developed out of Shauraseni Apabhramsha and is now considered a variety of Hindi) and the speakers of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic languages who migrated to North India after the establishment of Muslim hegemony in the early 13th century CE.
Hindustani’s popularity increased as a result of its use by poets such as Amīr Khosrow (1253–1325), Kabīr (1440–1518), Dadu (1544–1603), and Raḥīm (1556–1627), the court poet of Akbar. Its use by Sufi saints such as Bābā Farīd (flourished late 12th century) and various poets of the Natha tradition (which combined practices from Buddhism, Shaivism, and Hatha Yogain an effort to reach immortality) also increased its popularity.

Vocabulary

Though Khari Boli supplied its basic vocabulary and grammar, Hindustani also borrowed freely from Persian. Among the Persian words that became common are many concerning administration (e.g., adalat ‘court,’ daftar ‘office,’ vakil ‘pleader,’ sipahi‘soldier,’ shahar ‘city,’ kasba ‘small town,’ zila ‘district’), dress (e.g., kamiz‘shirt,’ shal ‘shawl’), cosmetics (e.g., itra‘perfume,’ sabun ‘soap’), furniture (e.g., kursi ‘chair,’ mez ‘table,’ takht ‘dais’), and professions (e.g., bajaj ‘draper,’ chaprasi ‘peon,’ dukandar‘shopkeeper,’ haqim ‘physician,’ dalal‘broker,’ halvai ‘confectioner’).

Hindustani also borrowed Persian prefixes to create new words. Persian affixes became so assimilated that they were used with original Khari Boli words as well. The process of hybridization also led to the formation of words in which the first element of the compound was from Khari Boli and the second from Persian, such as rajmahal ‘palace’ (raja ‘royal, king’ + mahal ‘house, place’) and rangmahal‘fashion house’ (rang ‘colour, dye’ + mahal ‘house, place’).

As Muslim rule expanded, Hindustani speakers traveled to distant parts of India as administrators, soldiers, merchants, and artisans. As it reached new areas, Hindustani further hybridized with local languages. In the Deccan, for instance, Hindustani blended with Telugu and came to be called Dakhani. In Dakhani, aspirated consonants were replaced with their unaspirated counterparts; for instance, dekh ‘see’ became dek, ghula‘dissolved’ became gula, kuch ‘some’ became kuc, and samajh ‘understand’ became samaj.

Colonization And Conflict

When the British colonized India (seeIndia: history of), they chose to instruct their officers in Hindustani. Colonization intensified existing conflicts between the Hindu population and the Muslim population even as it motivated efforts toward linguistic standardization. During the process of creating a literary, standard form of Hindustani, Hindus introduced increasing numbers of Sanskrit words, and Muslims introduced increasing numbers of Persian and Arabic words.

Mahatma Gandhi realized that the standardization process was dangerously divisive. He emphasized the importance of keeping Hindustani as colloquial as possible and of avoiding the addition of unfamiliar Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic words. He also pleaded for the use of both Devanagari and Persian Arabic script for writing Hindustani. However, the religious difference proved intractable, and with partition Hindustani was split into two distinct (if closely related) official languages, Hindi in India and Urdu in Pakistan. Despite this division, many basic terms, such as the names of the parts of the human body and of relatives, pronouns, numerals, postpositions, and verbs, are the same in both Sanskritized Hindi and Persianized Urdu.

Hindustani In The 21st Century

In a study of Calcutta (now Kolkata), the Indian linguist Sumit Kumar Chatterjee in 1931 detailed the use of a lingua franca that he named Bazaar Hindustani. He noted that the language was greatly simplified, with minimal grammatical forms, vocabulary, idioms, and expressions, and that it was used by Indians and Europeans who spoke languages as diverse as Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, and Tamil.

In the 21st century, this simplified version of Hindustani continues to be used as a lingua franca not only in Kolkata but in all of the cities of India, especially in non-Hindi-speaking areas. More than 100 million individuals, including more than 50 million people in India, speak Urdu; many of these individuals may actually use Hindustani for ordinary communication. Approximately 550 million people speak Hindi, and sizable portions of this group, especially those who live in cities, are known to use Hindustani rather than Sanskritized Hindi in ordinary speech. Thus, while Hindustani may not survive as a literary language, it continues to thrive as a vernacular.


https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hindustani-language

Yawn. Your speaking the language of the occupation forces

 

[Kashmiri Pandit]

Yawn. Your speaking the language of the occupation forces

 

[Pakhtoon yum]

Wow a white guy

 

[Pan-Islamic-Pakistan]

I hope people realise Hindi and Urdu are same language with different script.

Hindi is a butchered and bastardized version of Urdu.

They are not the same languages.

 

[Kashmiri Pandit]

On topic: my name in Urdu is a gimmick.
Why ?

Because you just write your name in a different script instead of English alphabet.
Script and language are two different things.

My name in Devanagari पंडित
My name in Nastliq پنڈت
My name in Latin/Roman alphabet Pandit

 

[Śakra]

Regardless, Urdu is an Indian language from Lucknow.

Hindi (Recent) is a Standardized Sanskritized Form of Hindustani which is derived from Khari Boli (Old) and Urdu is the Perso-Arabic inflected register of Hindustani

 

[Sheena1980]

Did you know japanese and Spanish are the same languages with different scripts?

This is very cute.

Just type Japanese Spanish in google or YouTube & see what pops up. You can also try Hindi/Urdu & see what will come up

Wow a white guy

 

[El Sidd]

When slaves were not allowed to speak the language of the court.

They made a new language in their parallel world