Marathwada varsity gets Urdu faculty

Aurangabad, April 22: Twenty-five years after the demand was first voiced, the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University will finally have...

Aurangabad, April 22: Twenty-five years after the demand was first voiced, the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University will finally have a full-fledged, independent faculty of Urdu, with the State Government approving a proposal to this effect on Tuesday.

The move is a triumph for the Urdu-speaking people here, 30 per cent of whom comprise the population of Marathwada, part of the erstwhile Nizam State.

The faculty will begin functioning in the next academic year, with one reader and two lecturers on its staff besides other visiting lecturers, the university’s Vice-Chancellor Dr Shivaji Nakade, told The Indian Express.

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The demand for an independent Urdu faculty has been in the pipeline for the last 25 years, which is surprising considering that stalwarts like Dr Rafiq Zakaria had represented Aurangabad in the State Cabinet during the Congress reign in the State.

Though about 200 students enrolling with the university for the two-year Master of Arts (MA) degree course in Urdu, each yearsince 1965, the university has neither a separate building or staff for the course.

Till a few years ago, classes were being held at the Aurangabad Women’s College and it was only when the Marathwada Urdu Action Committee led by Mustaq Ahmed and Zamir Ahmed Quadri stepped up pressure did the university administration allow classes to be conducted at the university campus.

“Very often, the M A Urdu students would be asked to leave half-way through a lecture, being told that the building was not allotted to them,” says Zamir Ahmed Quadri, a former student. Just before the examinations, we had to run from pillar to post searching for a `lecturer’ who could endorse our examination forms, he adds.

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Urdu in Marathwada is spoken with a Deccani accent and lacks the vocabulary of academicians of the language. However, it still flourishes here with Fazal writers making their contribution to film songs every now and then.

Noted lyricists include Bashar Nawaz, who wrote songs for the film Bazar. Among thepioneers were Wali Aurangabadi and Airaz Aurangabadi.

Though the State Government approval for the Urdu faculty is not accompanied by any special financial package, the Rs 5 lakh which the Maharashtra Urdu Academy and had donated a few years ago will finally be put to use now.

However, the students, who have been taking their courses in the Department of Foreign Languages building, are relieved to have finally found a home.

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