An eminent Urdu poet late Kali Das Gupta Raza has said:
Hindu hai, na Muslim hai Raza mazhabe Urdu
Dono hi ke aagosh me ye phuli phali hai
(Urdu is neither Muslim nor Hindu. Both the communities have nurtured it).
By Imran Inamdar
Solapur: A 65 yr old retired high school teacher Mr.Haroon Karkam is teaching Urdu to its Hindu lovers along with Muslims since past seven years. He works under the banner of Hindi Urdu Quami Ekta Manch and Khadimane Urdu Forum.
The man behind this venture is Mr.Viqar Sheikh who being a bank manager was aware that there are large numbers of Urdu lovers in the Hindu community and they are desirous of learning Urdu.
Under the banner of Hindi Urdu Ekta Manch in association with Maharashtra State Urdu Academy they started the Urdu classes which have progressed very positively.
Programme coordinator and secretary of the NGO Dr. Shafi Chobdar said that these kind of classes help to build communal harmony.
A student of this Urdu class and a well known doctor of the city Dr. Satish Valsangkar said that “to understand and explain the disease process I had started learning Urdu which is one of the sweetest languages of our country .Some days back I got the golden opportunity of learning to read and write Urdu. I jumped at the opportunity and learnt a lot. Caste and language should not be mixed or correlated. Anybody can learn any language”
Urdu language has its own identity and glorious history .Urdu poetry has been very popular among all sections of the society and it is still ruling. Gazal singing sweetens it even more.
Languages have no religious boundaries but unfortunately, accidently or deliberately Urdu learning and admitting children in Urdu medium schools has got limited only to Muslims.
Among the hundreds of Primary and Secondary Urdu medium schools in Maharashtra it is almost impossible to find a non-Muslim student.
Quami Ekta Manch took this initiative to spread Urdu among other communities in 2008. They received very encouraging response from Hindu doctors, engineers, police personnel etc in the very first year.
So far about 150 students have completed their Urdu Learning course.
Mr. Haroon Karkam who had years of Urdu teaching experience in Raigad, took charge of the teaching department after his retirement. Speaking to MuslimMirror.com he said “I have a long time experience of teaching in primary school, in which I used to work a lot on strengthening students’ basic skills like reading writing and identifying letters and words etc. After coming back to home town after retirement I have decided to work for my mother tongue. I came into contact of these NGOs. Discussed and executed the plan. And it is going on smoothly”.
A student Mr.Mukund Bhadange who is a retired government servant said to MuslimMirror.com that “I was very keen to learn Urdu from college days. I find myself very fortunate to have found this class and a teacher like Haroon Sir who taught us in a very simple way.”
Another student Mr. Shailendra Patil, a higher secondary teacher thanked Khadimane Urdu Forum for enabling him to read and write Urdu. He said that he learnt much in this class in three months and can now read Urdu newspaper.
Keyperson Mr. Viqar Sheikh thanked Haroon Sir and his team members Dr. Shafi Chobdar, Mr.Mahmud Nawaz, Mr.Fahim Bathghar, Mr.Shakil Qadri , Mr.Ayyub Nallamandu and Mr.Mazhar Alloli who are all contributing to Urdu to the fullest.