Separating Urdu from Sanskrit
Pakistani intellectuals have been looking for the roots of their separate identity in the remote past for the last two decades. They are not satisfied with the two-nation theory propounded by Allama Iqbal, according to which religion was the basis of nationhood and accordingly the Hindus and Muslims of the Indian sub-continent were separate nations.
They go deeper. They want to show that Pakistan and its culture has its roots in the prehistoric eras.They believe that the Indus and the Gangetic valleys have always been home to separate civilizations. Being the heir to the Indus valley civilization, Pakistan is a geographic entity whose roots go back to time immemorial.
Many intellectuals have taken pains to substantiate this theory. Professor Qudrat Ullah Fatmi, to my knowledge, was the first to write a book on it. Aenul Haq Faridkoti and Prof. Mohammad Asif followed him. However, Aitazaz Ashan’s book titled Sindh Saga carries the best and long drawn out exposition of this concept. Now Khalid Hasan Qadiri has joined this group of theoreticians. In one of his articles published in the current issue of the monthly Al-Ma 'arif of Lahore under the title of ‘Rough notes on Urdu’ he has come up with the claim that the Urdu language has nothing to do with Sanskrit and that its roots are far deeper than this language of the gods and goddesses.
Hitherto, the generally held belief has been that Urdu came into being as a result of social contacts between the Muslims who came to India during the middle ages and the native population. So the language was taken to be a cross-breed of Turko-Persian-Arabic vocables with the local dialects. This is, in a nutshell, the view held by such eminent linguists as G.A. Griesson and Sir Charles Lyall, to mention only two. This theory presupposed that these dialects themselves were based upon, or rather were a by-product of Sanskrit.
Khalid Hasan Qadiri want us to understand that the situation is not as simple or straight forward as it seems or is presented. One has to go very far back in history or rather to prehistory, and turnover many strata of periods of time.
Going back in history, he reaches the conclusion that Urdu has its roots in the languages of the Munda tribes who were the inhabitants of the Indus Valley in pre-Dravidian periods. This view is supposed to be based on the latest excavations of Amri, Nal, Roper, Rajasthan and Kathyawar.
In this way we are led to belive that the Urdu language has a very well-defined and clear-cut grammar, absolutely different from Sanskrit in every respect. The very basic philosophy governing the grammatical structure of these two languages is totally different. And by any stretch of imagination one cannot state Urdu to have emanated from the sacred language of the Hindus. Grammatically speaking Urdu owes nothing to Sanskrit. Hence it cannot be grouped with the Aryan language either. It clearly belongs to some non-Aryan group of languages. And this view is supposed to give us us some solace.
Short stories now, novel later
Azra Butt is not the Razia Butt of yore but she holds her in great esteem and acknowledges to have learnt a lot from Razia’s novels. She aspires to become a novelist. At present she is writing stories. Her maiden collection of Urdu short stories has recently been published. Entitled Ana key More Pay, the collection has reached the readers with accolades of literary pundits, including those who are known to be prisoners of their own ego and are not in the habit of praising others. They include Munir Niazi in addition to A Hameed and Mustansar Hussain Tarar.
Azra Butt usually writes on social issues. Her stories sensitively depict various aspects of our social life and the good thing is that she keeps herself from turning into a cynical reformer. She is a brave woman who has the courage to accept and describe life as it is.
She writes plays as well and recently directed a few stage dramas and music shows. She has dedicated her collection of short stories to those ‘who learn from their sorrows and teach others through words. They are the beauty of our world.’
Remembering Farooq Qureshi
Mohammad Farooq Qureshi passed away in Lahore in the first week of December. He was a left-winger who wrote a number of books on various aspects of the history and movement of Pakistan and tried to remove misunderstandings created by some authors. He had his own point of view regarding this movement and presented it in books and articles. In addition to dozens of newspaper articles, he wrote at least four books on the Maulana and Bacha Khan including Maulana Azad and the Politics of the Nationalist Muslims, Azad in Prison and Pushotoon Nation and Bach Khan.
Qureshi, who was born in Amritsar and migrated to Lahore at the time of Partition had been associated with leftist parties all his life. He remained general secretary of the Awami Nation Party and National Democratic Party. As a committed political worker he worked for the supremacy of law and promotion of democratic values and was consequently jailed many times.
Mohammad Farooq Qureshi had not been keeping good health for the last two years. Nevertheless, he did not like to miss the weekly meetings of like-minded friends held at the Fiction House, a publishing house of Lahore known for its liberal publications. Other friends included Dr. Mubarak Ali, Rashid Malik, Tahir Kamran, Prof. Zahoor Chaudry, Mushtaq Ammad and a few others. They are all writers with varying interests ranging from history and music to philosophy and literature. We admired Qureshi and enjoyed his presence. And now we miss him.
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2001-weekly/nos-23-12-2001/lit.htm#4