Urdu in Lal Qila
New Delhi: Displaying a unique affinity between Hindi and Urdu languages, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today read his address to the nation on the Independence Day in Hindi but the script was in Urdu.
He turned the pages of his speech from last to first and also read the words from right to left.
According to sources, Prime Minister’s love for Urdu is well known. Whenever he holds summit talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, there is always an element of Urdu poetry. He reads out several Urdu couplets to make the atmosphere light.
The Prime Minister was educated in Urdu during his school days.
Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and the official language of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as an officially recognized regional language in India. Widely spoken Hindustani dialect across the northern parts of India is a mix of Hindi and Urdu words.
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=14053
Probably, after Bahadur Shah Zafar, India gets a head-of-state who is well-versed in Urdu. Urdu-wallas shouldn't get too happy with this news, as he may very well be the last of his kind and situation of Urdu will get better only with grass root effort.
2 Comments:
A couple of small corrections- the Head of State in India is the President and not the Prime Minister. President APJ Kalam does not know Urdu. Also, Nehru was very well versed in Urdu. In fact, when he mentioned his mother tongue as Urdu during the debate on the national language, one of the right wing Hindu leaders (I cannt recollect his name)castigated him by saying (words to the effect) that being a Brahmin he should be ashamed to proclaim Urdu as his mother tongue.
well the de facto head of state in Indian government is the Prime Minister and yes you are right Nehru was well versed in Urdu.
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