AMU seminar calls for popularisation of Urdu

The departments of Linguistics and Urdu Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) hosted a two-day conference on Urdu in collaboration with the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) of the Union ministry of education.

The inaugural session of the National Seminar on Urdu Sahafat: Zaban kay Badaltay Pas-e-Manzar kay Hawaly Say saw AMU vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor emphasising the importance of Urdu teachers’ training.

Mansoor said the Urdu Academy at AMU was supposed to train Urdu teachers from the schools of Uttar Pradesh and other states. The departments of Linguistics and Urdu can take up this task after managing funds and resources.

“India has great linguistic diversity and Urdu is the language of all communities, symbolising our composite culture. There is a need to popularise Urdu, particularly in north India,” Mansoor said.

Mansoor also highlighted the key role played by conventional universities in carrying out advanced research and quality teaching in traditional and Oriental subjects in the Faculties of Arts, Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages.

“The interplay of media and language is the key reference point for linguistic studies and Urdu journalistic language and idiom has evolved and undergone changes-a natural linguistic phenomenon,” said M.J. Warsi, the chairman of the department of Linguistics and the director of the seminar.

The keynote delivery focused on the need for improving the language skills of mass communication students.

Keynote speaker Ehtesham A. Khan, the dean of the School of Mass Communication and Journalism, MANUU, Hyderabad, proposed that “training in content and script-writing with focus on language should be part of the curriculum”.

S. Imtiaz Hasnain of the Linguistics department at AMU presented a linguistic analysis of some of the popular serials, which present complex intricacies of human relations.

Syed Mohammad Hashim, the dean of the Faculty of Arts, said the Urdu press played a critical role in the independence movement and promoted language and literature. “Urdu must be taught to children with correct pronunciation and script,” he said.