Gross neglect is killing Urdu in Bihar, a state where the language once flourished. Its implications for Bihar’s Muslims are grim, says Anand ST Das
At close to two crore, Bihar has the country’s second largest number of Urdu speakers after Jammu and Kashmir. However, despite its being the state’s second official language, Urdu has received scant government attention for a number of years, significantly contributing, say experts, to the backwardness of Bihar’s Muslim community. Now in sharp decline, the once-flourishing language has mainly been relegated to the care of the madarsas which, despite their poor condition, are regarded as Urdu’s last hope in Bihar today. Braving funding crises, several thousand madarsas have been set up outside the ambit of an indifferent Bihar Madrasa Education Board (BMEB) because Bihar’s Muslims want their children to learn Urdu and keep the language alive.
In 1983, when the then chief minister Jagannath Mishra declared Urdu Bihar’s second official state language — a step that had earned him the nickname ‘Maulana Mishra’ — he appointed 3,000 Urdu translators and typists at block, subdivision and district levels. However, all his successors, from Bindeshwari Dubey to Rabri Devi, appear only to have worked to undermine Urdu’s legitimacy in the state, with Laloo Prasad Yadav, the self-proclaimed messiah of the Muslims, often singled out for having dealt Urdu its worst blow. “During the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) regime, the printing of Urdu textbooks was delayed beyond all useful limits and was then suspended for many years; no Urdu-speaking teachers were appointed at Urdu-medium schools, while vacant posts were filled with Hindi teachers; the Assembly’s Urdu section was disbanded and its staff transferred to other sections; over 200 Urdu teachers’ posts in universities lay vacant for a decade, and nearly 1,500 Urdu translators’ and typists’ posts were unoccupied for an equal period,” says Dr Ahmed Yusuf, former vice-chairman of the Bihar Urdu Academy. It was also during the RJD’s tenure that the posts of translators were abolished in the blocks and assistant translators’ posts were abolished in the subdivisions. Many Urdu translators and typists were assigned to ordinary clerical jobs which had nothing to do with Urdu.
State-funded Urdu-medium schools, where contemporary education is imparted to students as per government-prescribed syllabi, account for only about two per cent of Bihar’s 50,294 primary and middle schools. Once the favoured choice for Muslim students desiring a secular education, many of these schools have not seen Urdu teachers appointed for more than a decade — nearly 25,000 posts for Urdu teachers in primary, middle and high schools have been vacant for the last 15 years. Worse, several Urdu-medium primary schools have been turned into fully Hindi-medium institutions, with even their names being changed from ‘Urdu Maktab’ to ‘Hindi Pathshala’. Two of the many examples of this statewide trend can be found around Patna at the Khalilpura primary school in Danapur block and the Nausa primary school in Phulwari block.
Of Bihar’s madarsas, only 1,119 are funded by the BMEB, while 2,900 affiliated madrasas, whose certificates are recognised by the state government, are run without any government funding. Apart from these, there are about 15,000 schools in Bihar called ‘azad madarsas,’ that run on community funding, with no state assistance whatsoever. “Our funds have always been insufficient, but we have never closed our doors for even a day,” says Shakil Ahmed, the head teacher at Madrasa Hifazat ul Aslam in Kamala Nehru Nagar, a slum in the heart of Patna, which caters to 140 students from poor families.
At Patna’s two prominent linguistic minority schools — the Ayub Urdu Girls High School and the Patna Muslim High School — the medium of instruction and examination has turned from Urdu to Hindi over the past decade because of the lack of Urdu textbooks and question papers. Neither school has the staff strength for the over 6,000 students that attend them. Along with Bihar’s 17 minority high schools attended by Muslim students seeking contemporary education, these institutions have been suffering due to an utter lack of adequate and sincere government attention.
Of the 21 sanctioned teachers’ posts at the Madrasa Islamia Shamshul Hoda (MISH) in Patna, the only fully government-funded madarsa in Bihar, eight teachers’ posts have been vacant for over 10 years. The madarsa has a well-stocked library, a fairly good laboratory and a hostel with 150 students. Teachers and students pride themselves on the fact that India’s first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, was an alumnus of the institute. “Over 200 of our recent products are in state civil service jobs. Nearly 75 percent of Urdu and Persian professors in Bihar’s universities are mish students,” says principal Abul Kalam Fasmi Shamsi, going on to add that Bihar’s madarsas are the best in India. “The BMEB was set up in 1922, earlier than in most other states. The degrees awarded by Bihar’s Board-affiliated madarsas are recognised across the country. Unlike in states like UP, the madarsa curriculum in Bihar is standardised and monitored by the Board. It is thanks to the madarsas that Bihar has such a strong Urdu legacy.”
Turning to the state’s 1,400 Urdu translators and typists, many have seen more than one year when they have not got their salaries for months together. Leaders from the Rajbhasa Urdu Karamchari Sangh (RUKS) met CM Nitish Kumar a while ago, demanding the release of six months of their salaries. With Eid then round the corner, Kumar released the sum in days. “The allotment of our salary turned particularly irregular after the fodder scam came to light,” says ruks president Iqbal Hayat. “Getting our pending salaries are small battles in Urdu’s losing war in Bihar.”
Hayat, however, feels that things are looking up for the language under the present government. The Bihar Urdu Academy, an autonomous state-funded body working for the promotion of Urdu language and literature, had been in a shambles until the nda government was sworn in. Neither Laloo nor Rabri convened a single meeting of the Academy during their tenure, while both allegedly facilitated much bureaucratic meddling in the organisation’s activities, and cut the government grants to it from Rs 1 crore to about Rs 25-35 lakh a year. Within months of becoming cm, Nitish Kumar convened the Academy’s meeting, posted a treasurer and released grants of Rs 1 crore.
Another positive development has been the revival of the Assembly’s Urdu Section, after consistent campaigning by the Urdu Council Hind. A tri-monthly Urdu magazine, Tarzeman-e-Assembly, was also brought out earlier this year. The Urdu Directorate, the Rajbhasa Department’s Urdu wing, which is expected to promote Urdu in Bihar, also printed its magazine, Bhasa Sangam, recently, after 11 years of discontinuance.
In 1983, when the then chief minister Jagannath Mishra declared Urdu Bihar’s second official state language — a step that had earned him the nickname ‘Maulana Mishra’ — he appointed 3,000 Urdu translators and typists at block, subdivision and district levels. However, all his successors, from Bindeshwari Dubey to Rabri Devi, appear only to have worked to undermine Urdu’s legitimacy in the state, with Laloo Prasad Yadav, the self-proclaimed messiah of the Muslims, often singled out for having dealt Urdu its worst blow. “During the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) regime, the printing of Urdu textbooks was delayed beyond all useful limits and was then suspended for many years; no Urdu-speaking teachers were appointed at Urdu-medium schools, while vacant posts were filled with Hindi teachers; the Assembly’s Urdu section was disbanded and its staff transferred to other sections; over 200 Urdu teachers’ posts in universities lay vacant for a decade, and nearly 1,500 Urdu translators’ and typists’ posts were unoccupied for an equal period,” says Dr Ahmed Yusuf, former vice-chairman of the Bihar Urdu Academy. It was also during the RJD’s tenure that the posts of translators were abolished in the blocks and assistant translators’ posts were abolished in the subdivisions. Many Urdu translators and typists were assigned to ordinary clerical jobs which had nothing to do with Urdu.
State-funded Urdu-medium schools, where contemporary education is imparted to students as per government-prescribed syllabi, account for only about two per cent of Bihar’s 50,294 primary and middle schools. Once the favoured choice for Muslim students desiring a secular education, many of these schools have not seen Urdu teachers appointed for more than a decade — nearly 25,000 posts for Urdu teachers in primary, middle and high schools have been vacant for the last 15 years. Worse, several Urdu-medium primary schools have been turned into fully Hindi-medium institutions, with even their names being changed from ‘Urdu Maktab’ to ‘Hindi Pathshala’. Two of the many examples of this statewide trend can be found around Patna at the Khalilpura primary school in Danapur block and the Nausa primary school in Phulwari block.
Of Bihar’s madarsas, only 1,119 are funded by the BMEB, while 2,900 affiliated madrasas, whose certificates are recognised by the state government, are run without any government funding. Apart from these, there are about 15,000 schools in Bihar called ‘azad madarsas,’ that run on community funding, with no state assistance whatsoever. “Our funds have always been insufficient, but we have never closed our doors for even a day,” says Shakil Ahmed, the head teacher at Madrasa Hifazat ul Aslam in Kamala Nehru Nagar, a slum in the heart of Patna, which caters to 140 students from poor families.
At Patna’s two prominent linguistic minority schools — the Ayub Urdu Girls High School and the Patna Muslim High School — the medium of instruction and examination has turned from Urdu to Hindi over the past decade because of the lack of Urdu textbooks and question papers. Neither school has the staff strength for the over 6,000 students that attend them. Along with Bihar’s 17 minority high schools attended by Muslim students seeking contemporary education, these institutions have been suffering due to an utter lack of adequate and sincere government attention.
Of the 21 sanctioned teachers’ posts at the Madrasa Islamia Shamshul Hoda (MISH) in Patna, the only fully government-funded madarsa in Bihar, eight teachers’ posts have been vacant for over 10 years. The madarsa has a well-stocked library, a fairly good laboratory and a hostel with 150 students. Teachers and students pride themselves on the fact that India’s first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, was an alumnus of the institute. “Over 200 of our recent products are in state civil service jobs. Nearly 75 percent of Urdu and Persian professors in Bihar’s universities are mish students,” says principal Abul Kalam Fasmi Shamsi, going on to add that Bihar’s madarsas are the best in India. “The BMEB was set up in 1922, earlier than in most other states. The degrees awarded by Bihar’s Board-affiliated madarsas are recognised across the country. Unlike in states like UP, the madarsa curriculum in Bihar is standardised and monitored by the Board. It is thanks to the madarsas that Bihar has such a strong Urdu legacy.”
Turning to the state’s 1,400 Urdu translators and typists, many have seen more than one year when they have not got their salaries for months together. Leaders from the Rajbhasa Urdu Karamchari Sangh (RUKS) met CM Nitish Kumar a while ago, demanding the release of six months of their salaries. With Eid then round the corner, Kumar released the sum in days. “The allotment of our salary turned particularly irregular after the fodder scam came to light,” says ruks president Iqbal Hayat. “Getting our pending salaries are small battles in Urdu’s losing war in Bihar.”
Hayat, however, feels that things are looking up for the language under the present government. The Bihar Urdu Academy, an autonomous state-funded body working for the promotion of Urdu language and literature, had been in a shambles until the nda government was sworn in. Neither Laloo nor Rabri convened a single meeting of the Academy during their tenure, while both allegedly facilitated much bureaucratic meddling in the organisation’s activities, and cut the government grants to it from Rs 1 crore to about Rs 25-35 lakh a year. Within months of becoming cm, Nitish Kumar convened the Academy’s meeting, posted a treasurer and released grants of Rs 1 crore.
Another positive development has been the revival of the Assembly’s Urdu Section, after consistent campaigning by the Urdu Council Hind. A tri-monthly Urdu magazine, Tarzeman-e-Assembly, was also brought out earlier this year. The Urdu Directorate, the Rajbhasa Department’s Urdu wing, which is expected to promote Urdu in Bihar, also printed its magazine, Bhasa Sangam, recently, after 11 years of discontinuance.
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