Tamilnadu Urdu Academy recast

NT Bureau
Chennai, Mar 31:

The Governing Council of Tamilnadu Urdu Academy was reconstituted by the Higher Education Department under the chairmanship of the State Education Minister. In a press release, Prince of Arcot, Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, who is vice-chairman of the academy thanked Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, for her deep concern and keen interest. He also assured the Chief Minister that the academy would prove to be a meaningful, constructive and vibrant with Urdu-loving people from various walks of life. He expressed the desire of the people that the Chief Minister should inaugurate the Urdu Academy in Chennai, at the earliest.

http://www.newstodaynet.com/31mar/eu1.htm

Urdu varsity to start new courses for women

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

HYDERABAD: More new courses will be introduced by the Moulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) from the next academic year.



The university will introduce a post-graduate degree course in women's education. It will include lessons on how to counsel women, an insight into women's psychology and women's issues. A B Ed course on distance mode for working graduates will be introduced. Both these courses will be in Urdu medium.

The university had introduced regular courses in master's degrees in Urdu, English, business administration, and communication & journalism from the academic year 2004-05. The number of seats for the existing B.Ed course in distance mode will be increased by 200, from the existing 500, university vice-chancellor A M Pathan told The Times of India. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) is being requested to increase the number the seats, he said.

The proposed Urdu Museum will be the highlight for the campus as the it will have valuable Urdu literature and material based on research work in Urdu and poetry. History of great Urdu personalities and their literature will be made available in the form of manuscript as well as in digital form. All formalities have been completed to set up the museum, Pathan said.

A multimedia centre will be set up in the campus with an audio-visual presentation facility. It will be useful for the students of mass communication, he added.

Buildings for staff quarters and offices will also be constructed in a few months as the university has already received administrative sanctions in this regard, he added.

Get more details about this course :

http://manuu.ac.in/Notification1.html

zahoor ka hotal : details

We previously mentioned about play "zahoor ka hotal", now we have more details :




LONDON, 14 March, 2005 – Actors of Indian and Pakistani origin in the UK have formed an alliance to stage a play that touches upon a number of controversial issues dividing the Asian community in the UK. Desi Canvas, the UK-based Theatre group, announced a new play in Urdu, ZAHOOR KA HOTAL, on growing up in a communally divided city of northern India,
Aligarh.

For play related queries: desicanvas@gmail.com
Zahoor's blog: <<http://zahoorkahotal.blogspot.com/>>

To be staged at the Watermans Arts Centre in Brentford, Thursday 14th – Sunday 17th April 2005 at 7.45 pm, ZAHOOR KA HOTAL is the third major production of Desi Canvas since the organisation was launched seven ago by Britain's leading theatre activists and broadcasters in order to promote quality theatre in Hindi & Urdu. However, the recent reports of gagging the freedom of speech in the Asian community led the actors to forge and strengthen the front against all forms of censorship.

Pervaiz Alam dedicates his new play, Zahoor ka Hotal, to Shahnaz Hashmi & Moin Ehsan Jazbi, two amazing teachers at the AMU Aligarh, who have died recently. "Shahnaz Apa was simply brilliant with those who were even remotely interested in theatre and arts. Incredibly refined and an amazing human being, Shanaz Apa aka Beebi, was an eternal romantic with a great style but without any luck," says Pervaiz. "Jazbi Sahib was among the greatest Urdu poets that Aligarh has produced. Even at the age of 80, he looked so vulnerable when I went to interview him at his residence in the late 90s. To my disbelief, he started crying in the middle of the interview the moment I asked him about his childhood. His step-mother used to torture him!" Pervaiz adds.

JAZBI
Har manzil thi dil ki manzil, jab dil ko gham-e-manzil na raha,
har koocha koocha-e-jaanaN thha, jab koocha-e-jaanaN bhool gaye

Here's another gem:

Jab Kashti saabit-o-saalim thi, saahil ki tamanna kis ko thi,
ab aisi shikasta kashti par saahil ki tamanna kaun karey!

Play:

The story is about a British Muslim of Indian origin, Kabeer, who is in love with Kavita, a British Hindu.

Kabeer, a British Muslim of Indian origin, is in love with Kavita, a British Hindu.

However, she's also married to Rajesh!

This is the beginning of an intriguing story in Zahoor ka Hotal, a play set in central London which takes us to Aligarh, just 150km away from India's capital Delhi. How? The answer lies some where at Zahoor's doorstep in a communally divided city.

Failed writers, out-of-work artists, pimps, eunuchs, activists and students converged at Zahoor's for hours of heated discussions on sex, politics, religion and music in the 1970s. But what Kabeer remembers best, now living in dark and dreary London, is listening to Binaca Geetmala on Zahoor's grand old radio.

The show, hosted by the legendary broadcaster Amin Sayani, opened the door to many debates, arguments and ideas that shaped Kabeer's way of looking at the world. Even when Aligarh was engulfed by a raging conflict between Hindus and Muslims, Zahoor ka Hotal was an island, where the differences of everyday life could be put aside.

Zahoor ka Hotal is the second play in the Nostalgia trilogy by Pervaiz Alam. Safar was performed at Watermans in 2002.

Badi Uzzaman plays the character of Zahoor. Badi's latest stage role was in Guantanamo, a highly acclaimed play by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo. Come and see 25 actors, musicians and dancers as they celebrate growing up in the 1970s.

CAST: Badi Uzzaman, Rajesh Joshi, Anwarul Hasan, Salman Asif, Nivedita Sen Gupta, Seema Anand, Suniti Singh, Agha Zakriya, Mohd Sajid and Bhawani Shankar.

Special Zahoor ka Hotal Binaca Geetmala has been recorded by none other than the legendary Ameen sayani himself in his voice. Mr Sayani is based in India's commercial capital Mumbai and runs his own studio.

Thursday 14th - Sunday 17th April 2005 at 7.45 pm
Watermans Arts Centre, 40 High Street, Brentford
TW8 0DS
Tickets: £10 (£8)
Box Office on 020 8232 1010
For play related queries: desicanvas@gmail.com
Zahoor's blog: <<http://zahoorkahotal.blogspot.com/>>

... and if you were surprised to hear about ameen sayani and want to relive the experience; go to his website
http://www.ameensayani.com/

and who can forget jazbi, you may know him by this ghazal :




listen to the ghazal sung by Habib Wali Mohammad here : courtsey of pakistanimusic.com

REVIEW: The diehard

Reviewed by Akhtar Payami

Hasrat's poetic genius has been acclaimed by many writers and critics. In the not too distant past, Hasrat, Jigar and Asghar formed a constellation of emerging poets in a crucial period of India's history. Major political developments were taking place in the subcontinent and the sun was about to set on the British Empire. As conscious members of society, poets and writers do not remain indifferent to the changes in their socio-political milieu. Not only India but the whole world was in a state of flux.

But strangely enough not many writers and poets reacted to the phenomenal changes in the political spectrum. Hasrat Mohani, however, stands out in the motley crowd as a towering figure.

Though several books have been written on Hasrat as a poet, no serious effort has been made to portray the real image of this fearless crusader for the cause of freedom and human dignity. Hasrat Mohani aur Inqilab-i-Azadi is perhaps the only book which faithfully documents the ebb and flow in the life of this restless soul.

The writer has taken pains to collect material from all available sources including numerous libraries spread all over the subcontinent. In his quest for giving an authentic account of this multi-dimensional personality, he has also taken the help of his family members. As he is Hasrat's son-in-law, it would have been easy for him to access many of the not generally known aspects of Hasrat's life.

That Hasrat was an iconoclast is beyond all dispute. Both as a poet and political activist, he maintained his individuality. Unconventional as he was, he did not readily accept the prevalent norms and principles. He revolted against the self-imposed constraints of Urdu ghazal. Indeed he unshackled poetry and rid it of decadent concepts. That he introduced political and social themes in poetry was not a predominant feature of his poetry. Altaf Husain Hali, Brij Narain Chakbast and many others had already made meaningful additions in this field. Patriotic themes and social concerns had already been introduced in Urdu poetry.

Committed to the cause of freedom, Hasrat revolutionized the pattern of Urdu ghazal. He was not happy with images borrowed from Persian and Arabic literature. As a patriot he was in love with his own land and admired its beauty. Down to earth as he was, he also transferred that beauty and charm to his verses. The object of his love was no prisoner of social cobwebs. She was an embodiment of love, a real woman - in flesh and blood - who could interact with him.

This is a strange, rather an inexplicable phenomenon, that despite being a thoroughly religious man and a profound scholar of Islamic thought, he emerged as a profound romantic poet. Religion did not prevent him from feeling and narrating the sweet exuberance of physical love. Platonic love was not his destination. The book, however, does not discuss his literary accomplishment. Perhaps it was not intended to do so. Hasrat's poetry has been subject of elaborate discussion and assessment by a host of writers and critics.

The other and more potent aspect of Hasrat's life is his abiding involvement in politics. He was a thoroughly incorruptible fighter for freedom. He would not compromise for immediate gains. That explains why both Gandhi and Jinnah did not feel comfortable in his company. He was ahead of all political leaders of his time. While many of them were contented with the idea of 'home rule', he advocated complete independence. From every platform - be it the Indian National Congress, the Khilafat Movement, the All India Muslim League, the Jamiat-i-Ulama-i-Islam, the Communist Party or the Majlis-i-Ahrar, he forcefully pleaded the case of total freedom.

Hasrat Mohani despised those leaders who played politics with the masses. A man with a strong ideology, he was the most vocal critic of Gandhi's philosophy of self-reliance. He did not think that the people's salvation lay in spinning wheels. On the other hand, he was inspired by the 1917 socialist revolution of Russia under the leadership of Lenin. He says:



Some biographers have said that Hasrat had met Lenin but this has not been substantiated. It is, however, certain that he did meet Stalin and exchanged views with him on the strategy of guerrilla warfare. The first communist conference in India was held at Kanpur in 1925 where Hasrat spoke on the concept of full independence.

Hasrat was a practising Muslim. But at the same time he developed an amazing affection and love for Mathura (Krishna was his ideal) and he adored the philosophy of communism. So Makkah, Mathura and Moscow (three Ms) became his most popular symbol. He did not find any conflict between them. Rather they created a harmony in his thinking and social and political conduct. While he performed Haj a number of times, he also religiously visited Mathura to derive inspiration from the teachings and philosophy of Krishna. His socialist views influenced the pattern of his life. As a member of the Indian parliament, he questioned why an MP was paid Rs 75 per day as allowance. (This sounds amazing when we find our legislators drawing fabulous salaries and allowances and still feeling dissatisfied!) He was entitled to an official residence but always lived in a rented house and never used the official telephone.

Once the Nawab of Rampur asked him why he always travelled by train in a third class compartment. The Maulana's reply was "because there is no fourth class compartment".He was expelled thrice from Mohameddan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh, for his independent views.

Hasrat's speeches in the parliament amply speak of his undying love for the country. His opposition to Gandhi was known to all. Yet it was he who persuaded Gandhi to learn Urdu and gave him books to read. He was also a bitter critic of Jinnah and distanced himself from him on various issues. He did not conceal his opposition to the partition of the subcontinent. It is on record that he did not put his signature on the Indian constitution in protest against the division of the country.

After independence, Hasrat mentioned three women whose husbands were on the forefront of the independence movement and who suffered immensely because of their spouses' involvement in politics and never complained about it. These three were Hasrat's wife, Nishatunnissa Begum, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's wife, Zulaikha, and Jawaharlal Nehru's wife, Bimla Nehru. Nishatunnnissa Begum was the first Muslim woman member of All India Congress Committee and the first Muslim woman editor of an Urdu newspaper. Hasrat's second wife was Habiba Begum who was a simple woman but looked after him with devotion and was by his side at the time of his death.

Now that politics has come to be known as the last refuge of the scoundrels and corruption is rampant among the politicians, there is need to popularize the views of Hasrat Mohani. The book under review admirably fulfils this requirement.

---

Hasrat Mohani aur Inqilab-i-Azadi

By Nafis Ahmad Siddiqui

Oxford University Press, Plot # 38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi

Tel: 111-693-673

Email: ouppak@theoffice.net

Website: www.oup.com.pk

ISBN 0-19-579502

448pp.Rs595



buy this book here : http://www.oup.com.pk/index.asp

Manto set for rebirth

Manto set for rebirth on screen


Chandraprakash Dwivedi, who made his big-screen directorial debut in 2003 with the award-winning adaptation of Amrita Pritam’s celebrated Partition epic, Pinjar, is now working on a script woven around the life and work of Urdu short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto Manto chronicled the anguish and madness of the post-Independence communal riots better and more starkly than anybody other writer.

According to producer Anish Ranjan of Talking Pictures, the proposed film will weave together elements from Manto’s life with four of his best-known stories, including the one that brought him much posthumous fame, Toba Tek Singh. “The film begins at the point where an ailing Manto is in an asylum and then it fans out in different directions,” he explains. Manto was as much a chronicler as a victim of the Partition. The division of the subcontinent caused him great emotional agony and he poured his feeling on to the pages of his books.

Manto, who began his career in All India Radio in Delhi before shifting to Mumbai to make a career as a film scriptwriter, died in Lahore exactly 50 year ago a few months shy of the age of 43. He left behind a sizeable body of work that said a lot about him personally and about the times he lived in. Says Anish: “I had initially envisaged a film based on three Manto stories to be directed by three different directors. When I contacted Dr Dwivedi, he was already working on a script inspired by Manto’s life. So we decided to get together.” The script is almost ready and work on the yet to be titled film is due to begin later this year. In an interview before the release of Pinjar, Dwivedi had mentioned Manto as one of the writers he had read while researching for a Partition-era subject. “He has written some of the most meaningful stories about the pathos of Partition,” the physician-turned-filmmaker had said.

Pinjar was a commercial failure, so Dwivedi’s fame still rests primarily on the successful television serial Chanakya, which he scripted and directed. His interest in serious literature and history is well known and explains his attempts to mine serious writing for the purpose of understanding the politics and social realities of our times. Manto lived a short but extremely eventful life. In an amazingly fecund writing career spanning a little over two decades, he produced 22 collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three books of essays, two anthologies of personal sketches and numerous film scripts, including Mirza Ghalib, which was made after Manto moved to Lahore in 1948. Although Manto spent many years working with film studios in Mumbai, not too many screen adaptations have been made of his stories. Veteran Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen based his mid-1990s film Antareen on a Manto story, while more recently debutante filmmaker Fareeda Mehta crafted Kali Salwar out of multiple tales authored by the Urdu writer.

http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/28512.asp

little bit more about Manto :
http://www.alhamra.com/Excerpts/mantoaikmutalla.htm

read his famous story "Toba Tek Singh" :
english :http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article.php?lab=Toba
Urdu: http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/pdf/TOBA.pdf

Some more of his stories @ urdustan : http://www.urdustan.com/mazameen/mazduri.html

and some of his books tranlsated in English and available on Amazon.com

zahoor ka hotel : Urdu play in UK

London, Mar 13 : In an attempt to promote quality theatre in Hindi and Urdu here, a UK-based group has announced a new play on growing up in a communally divided city of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.

To be staged at the Watermans Arts Centre in Brentford on April 14 and 17, 'Zahoor Ka Hotal' is the group, Desi Canvas's third major production since the organization was launched six years ago by Britain's leading theatre activists and broadcasters.

Written and directed by the group's creative director Pervaiz Alam, the play is about a British Muslim of Indian origin, Kabeer, who is in love with Kavita, a British Hindu.

However, she is married to Rajesh. This is the beginning of an intriguing story which takes the audience to Aligarh, just 150 km away from New Delhi. How? The answer lies somewhere at Zahoor's doorstep in a communally divided city.

"In bits and pieces the play is musical and a cast of about 25 actors, musicians and dancers are keen to turn the whole experience into walking down memory lane," Alam said.

One of the best known Asian actors in Britain, Badi Uzzaman, is playing the character of Zahoor. Badi's latest stage role was in Guantanamo, a highly acclaimed play by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo, taken from spoken evidence. PTI

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=84990

more info about the Playwright :
http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsA/AlamPervaiz.htm

News from Urdu Conference

Urdu Conference counsel regional words’ blend with Urdu

ISLAMABAD: The maiden International Urdu Conference at its concluding session here resolved enriching Urdu with a blend of words from regional languages besides recommending teaching of Urdu along with regional languages at the primary level.

The adopted resolutions at the conference said that the promotion of Urdu would draw interests of the people from other countries to know more about Pakistan and, in this connection, Pakistani embassies could play a significant role in holding writers’ conferences in those countries, where Urdu is taught.

The conference in its resolutions further recommended holding cultural functions all over the world for the promotion of Urdu and Pakistani heritages.

Besides, the conference demanded from government to slash duties on the prices of paper and printing in order to nurture and nourish a book culture in the country.

The conference further urged upon allowing exchange of books and magazines between Pakistan and India without any hassle by lifting the customs’ restrictions.

The declaration further asked for providing government assistance to the writers of Pakistan and India for doing research work.

http://www.geo.tv/main_files/pakistan.aspx?id=69409

Musharraf lauds efforts being made to promote Urdu

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf has appreciated the Urdu-speaking organisations around the world for the efforts they are making towards promotion of Urdu language in their respective countries.

The president was talking to foreign participants of the Urdu Conference at the Aiwan-e-Sadr here on Saturday.

The conference is being held in Islamabad. Musharraf said he was pleased to see Urdu scholars attending the moot from India, Germany, Russia, UK and Mauritius.

He said Urdu literature could take pride in having produced great poets, dramatists and novelists, who have enriched the literary heritage of the world.

Speaking of Pakistan’s contributions towards promotion of Urdu, he said Pakistan has set up Urdu Chairs in the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the UK and also in the universities in Germany, China, Egypt, Jordan and Malaysia.

He informed that Federal Urdu University has been established recently for imparting higher education and research in Urdu.

He also expressed deep appreciation for the efforts put in by the organisers for making the Urdu Conference a resounding success and wished the participants a pleasant stay in the country.

http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en76958&F_catID=&f_type=source

Some pictures and new in Urdu are here :

http://istaara0.tripod.com/id18.html

Urdu in US census

322 languages are spoken in USA and Urdu is positioned at number 19 with 262,900 speakers

A detailed statistics about Urdu is in this pdf file :

http://www.usenglish.org/foundation/research/lia/languages/urdu.pdf


Listen to this audio from NPR how language landscape is changing USA in this Coney Island, New York
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/may/010531.cfoa.html

Five-day international Urdu conference at Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: A five-day International Urdu Conference has started here today with delegates drawn from nine countries and all set for the marathon intellectual discourse.

The conference organized by Jang and Geo was inaugurated by vice president of Mauritius Abdul Rauf Bandhan and he remarked Urdu languages as a unique, beautiful and it is a mirror of cultural values.

The chief of Indian Academy for literature and culture, Ajit Kaur, and Pakistani famous writer Mushtaq Ahmed and others also spoke on this occasion.

Ajit Kaur said that the civilization of the sub-continent was under severe attacks in the garb of globalization and clash of civilizations and Urdu language would prove to be helpful to promote goodwill relations between the two arch rivals India and Pakistan.

Dr. David said, “Urdu is the language plain and simple and easily comprehensible whose future is bright. Urdu is the fourth language read and understood in Britain”, he disclosed.

http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Mar05/09/14.HTM

TOI endorse budget to help Urdu

As mentioned previously Govt. of India has put provision in the budget for hiring of Urdu teachers. Times of India supports this move. Of course, I don't agree with calling Urdu a "dying language."


It will revive a dying language

In his Budget speech the finance minister announced Central assistance for the recruitment of Urdu teachers for primary and upper-primary schools in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. This is a welcome initiative. The few feeble attempts made in the past by the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments to revive the language by including it in the school curriculum haven't worked. A dose of Central funds was badly needed to infuse life into this dying language. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra account for more than 85% of the Urdu-speaking population of the country. But, except in Bihar, Urdu is virtually out of the school syllabus. With every census the number of people who can read and write Urdu is declining. Naturally, the literary output in the once glorious language has also declined. Today, the Muslim elite send their children to English-medium schools. Urdu is confined to lower middle class who has learnt the language at madrassas. The status of the language is not likely to improve unless it is integrated into the modern educational framework with good job opportunities.

Some could argue that this mere tokenism is meant to appease Muslims. Those who view Urdu as the sole preserve of Muslims do grave injustice to a language born out of our syncretic culture. Just look at the galaxy of non-Muslim Urdu writers and poets. In fact, one of the reasons for the decline of this rich language is the religious overtones attached to it. Even though education is a state subject, Central intervention has always paid off — the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Navodaya Vidyalayas, the National Literacy Mission are some examples of the positive effects of Central initiatives. The Centre's involvement in this case too, is sure to help. The Central government should not just confine itself to giving grants, but should monitor its effective implementation as well.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1043798.cms

Noddy learns Urdu

Noddy learns French, Mandarin and Urdu

Jane Martinson
Thursday March 3, 2005
The Guardian




A new friend has been created for children's television character Noddy to teach his pre-school fans a foreign language.

The character - the first to be introduced to Toyland for 50 years, according to the company behind the latest televised version of the Enid Blyton classic - will appear on TV screens in Britain in January.

Chorion, which owns the rights to Noddy, has paired up with terrestrial channel Five to produce 100 two-minute episodes featuring the new character. Based on an automated toy, Noddy's new friend will teach him a new word or phrase in one of five different languages each episode.

In Britain, the languages will include French, Spanish, Mandarin, Swahili and Urdu.

The programmes will air first in the US. Make Way for Noddy, the animated series show on Five since 2002, will start on public service broadcaster PBS in July. The new language slots will be used to make up the 30-minute segments more usual on US television. In Britain, Noddy airs as 10-minute episodes during Five's morning show for children, Milkshake. In the US, Russian replaces Urdu.

Chorion hopes the new series, Say it with Noddy, will capitalise on research suggesting young children have an aptitude for foreign languages. Nicholas James, chief executive, said the "global potential for character-led early learning" inspired confidence that the new show would be a big hit.

Noddy, created in 1949 and based on the exploits of a four-year-old boy, is now shown in 115 countries.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1429235,00.html

VOA looking for Urdu Broadcaster

Below is a great opportunity for an Urdu speaker (must also be able to read Urdu off a teleprompter). Please pass on to anyone in the US, Canada or UK who might fit the bill (recruiting is also happening in Pakistan).

Position: International TV Broadcaster - Urdu

Text: Excellent opportunity for experienced on-air TV broadcasters fluent in Urdu (including Urdu script) and English to participate in the launch of an exciting new Urdu language TV project at the Voice of America. This position is located in Washington, D.C. Candidates must send current C.V./Resume, references, and videotape or DVD sample(s) of on-camera television work to:

Dan George
Voice of America, Room 1448-H
330 Independence Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20237

For inquiries, contact dgeorge@voanews.com