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Urdu, Baba-i-Urdu & Pakistan Movement
Aug 15: In the first chapter of his book `Pakistan: the formative phase', Khalid Bin
Sayeed has given an interesting account of the conflicting views about the
origin of Pakistan. The learned author has given many diverse views, citing, for
example, British policy of divide and rule, Muslim anxiety and the
Quaid-i-Azam's determination, but in the conclusion he writes:
"Each view
taken by itself is a highly exaggerated account of the origin of Pakistan. Each,
perhaps, played its role and Pakistan was brought about by a multiplicity of the
factors. But perhaps a dominant or decisive cause of Pakistan is that there has
never taken place a confluence of the two civilizations in India – the Hindu and
the Muslim. They may have meandered towards each other here and there, but on
the whole the two have followed their separate courses – sometimes parallel and
sometimes contrary to each other."
Historians concur that it was the zeal
of the writers, poets, journalists, scholars and intellectuals that created
awareness in the Muslims. They agree that Altaf Hussain Hali, Maulana Muhammad
Ali Jauhar, Akbar Allahabdi, Allama Iqbal, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan and many
others brought about the cultural awakening of the masses. But Baba-i-Urdu
Moulvi Abdul Haq's role is downplayed, though inadvertently, perhaps under the
misconception that he was merely a scholar of the Urdu language and secretary of
Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu. But it was he who fought on the linguistic and cultural
front, countering the efforts of the Hindu revivalist movements to make the
Hindi language an icon of Hindu culture and religion. Emphasising the cultural
importance of Urdu for Muslims, Abdul Haq worked with a nationalistic spirit. It
is a well-established fact that after religion, the most important role in the
Independence Movement was played by the Urdu language. The emergence of Muslim
nationalism owed much to the Hindi-Urdu controversy. Baba-i-Urdu's part, as any
student of Indo-Pakistan history would tell you, in strengthening Urdu's case at
a historical juncture was pivotal. It would not be wrong to say that he had
devoted his entire life to Urdu's cause.
Baba-i-Urdu Moulvi Abdul Haq was
born in Sarawah, a village near Hapur (District Meerut), on Aug 20, 1870. He got
his early education in Ferozepur, Punjab, where his father Shaikh Ali Hussain
had settled. Graduating from Aligarh in 1895, Moulvi Abdul Haq had the fortune
of meeting there luminaries such as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Prof Arnold, Shibli
Naumani and Altaf Hussain Hali. The would-be stars of the Indo-Pakistan
sub-continent such as Maulana Zafar Ali Khan and Dr Ziauddin Ahmed were his
classmates.
A few years later, Abdul Haq went to Deccan, the princely
state in South India, and worked there on different posts including headmaster,
translator, assistant to director of education, inspector of schools, director
of the bureau of compilation and translation and principal of Usmania
College.
Abdul Haq was made secretary of Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu in 1912.
The Anjuman was created in 1903 in Aligarh with Prof Arnold as president and
Shibli Naumani as secretary. It was in fact an offshoot of Muhammadan
Educational Conference, established by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in 1886. Abdul Haq
established the Anjuman's office at Aurangabad (Deccan) as he was settled there
in those days and it was much later, in 1938 to be precise, that the office of
the Anjuman was shifted to Delhi.
It is often said that when Baba-i-Urdu
took charge of the 'offices' and the 'assets' of the Anjuman, they consisted of
an old metallic box (tied with a piece of rope) which contained a few worn-out
registers, a few unedited manuscripts, an inkpot and a pen. This oft-quoted
incident is not a myth. It was all the Anjuman consisted of. Building it from
scratch, Moulvi Abdul Haq made the Anjuman one of the most dynamic and prolific
institutions working for the development and progress of Urdu.
In the
establishment of Usmania University, Abdul Haq played a very vital role. After
retirement from the post of principal in1929, he was made professor of Urdu at
Usmania University in 1930.
In 1936, after a meeting of Bhartia Sahitya
Prishad (Indian Literary Society), where Gandhi declared that 'Hindi Hindustani'
would be India's national language, the Urdu-Hindi controversy started to rage
and anti-Urdu forces were unleashed to crush and wipe out Urdu from the face of
the earth. Baba-i-Urdu convened an All-India Conference in Aligarh, resigned
from the university, brought the offices of the Anjuman to Delhi and set out to
counter the attacks on Urdu. His famous skirmishes with Gandhi on the language
issue made him all the more prominent and his fight for the cause of Urdu got a
boost, supported by Muslim political as well as religious leaders and
Ulema.
After the independence, Moulvi Sahib wanted to work for Urdu on
both sides of the border but Anjuman's Delhi office was ransacked by the rioters
and Abul-Kalam Azad told him that in India suspicion and distrust on him was on
the rise. Moulvi Sahib migrated to Pakistan in January 1949. He established
Anjuman's office in Karachi.
In Pakistan, his primary task was to
re-establish the Anjuman and do what he had been doing all his life: researching
and editing the rare manuscripts, publishing reference books in Urdu and
promoting higher education through Urdu. His dream was a college and a
university where all the medium of instruction till the highest level would be
Urdu. Both of his dreams came true but the first one after a long and fierce
battle with the establishment and the second about 40 years after his
death.
What anguish he had to go through during his last years of life
and what treatment he received at the hands of the office-bearers of the Anjuman
and Urdu college is a long and sorrowful story. In brief, Field Marshal Muhammad
Ayub Khan had to come to his rescue and through a martial law ordinance Urdu
college was handed over back to him with full powers restored. Qudrat-ullah
Shahab, Ayub Khan's secretary and a writer in his own right, helped Baba-i-Urdu
in his twilight years, perhaps a lone example of co-operation from the
bureaucracy for someone working for the cause of our national language, be it a
legend like Moulvi Sahib.
In addition to editing Anjuman's literary
magazines and a large number of published articles, Moulvi Sahib has a long list
of books to his credit, mostly rare texts edited and annotated, but more
prominent among his great feats are: Qavaid-i-Urdu (A grammar of Urdu) and
Lughat-i-Kabeer (Greater Urdu dictionary). Dawn
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