Opinion generated by the first ever three-day seminar on Urdu held in Delhi was that this language should be preserved and promoted in India as it cemented cultural bonds among various sections of Indian society. Nobody will deny the fact that Urdu has a rich literature and has enormously contributed to the composite couture of India. It was born and nourished in India and endeared itself to millions of Indians. Distinguished scholars of Urdu from all over the world demanded that Urdu should be preserved and promoted more vigorously. There are no two opinions that Urdu should have the rightful place in contemporary linguistic map of India.
Urdu is taught in about eighteen universities of India at present. Urdu media has all the freedom and is flourishing briskly. AIR has Urdu channel and even private television channels, too, cater to Urdu service. In a couple of States with sizeable population of Muslims, Urdu has been given its rightful official place. Ministry of Human Resource Development has Urdu Development Board with a sizeable annual budget. In Universities, Urdu research studies up to doctorate level are made available. Thus we don’t see any hindrance to further promotion of Urdu. But since at the international conference voices were raised that more needs to be done to promote this language and make it a language of secularism, we would welcome the distinguished participants of the conference to concretize further measures which they think would be helpful in promoting Urdu. The demand that Farsi and Arabic should be accepted as languages for national services examination is not misplaced. These languages have an impact on our cultural history. It is a different matter that Arabs and Iranians never ever showed any appreciation for Urdu nor is it included in their curriculum as optional language. Not only that, Iranians always looked down with contempt at the huge bulk of Farsi literature produced in India during and after the Mughal rule.
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