The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the use of Urdu language on the signboard of a municipal council building in Maharashtra's Akola district. The bench said saying that "Urdu the finest specimen of Ganga-Jamuni tahzeeb". The court dismissed the plea filed by Varshatai, a former councillor of Patur in Maharashtra's Akola district, who challenged the use of Urdu, along with Marathi, on the name board of the municipal council.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran on Tuesday heard the plea and rejected it saying, "language belongs to a community, to a region, to people; and not to a religion".
Top quotes by the bench
- "Language is culture. Language is the yardstick to measure the civilisational march of a community and its people. So is the case of Urdu, which is the finest specimen of Ganga-Jamuni tahzeeb, or the Hindustani tahzeeb, which is the composite cultural ethos of the plains of northern and central India. We must respect and rejoice in our diversity, including our many languages," the bench said.
- "The prejudice against Urdu stems from the misconception that Urdu is alien to India. This opinion, we are afraid, is incorrect as Urdu, like Marathi and Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan language. It is a language which was born in this land," the judges said.
- "Over the centuries, it (Urdu) attained ever greater refinement and became the language of choice for many acclaimed poets," the bench said.
- "It would not be incorrect to say that one cannot have a day-to-day conversation in Hindi without using words of Urdu or words derived from Urdu. The word 'Hindi' itself comes from the Persian word 'Hindavi'," the bench said.
- "A schism exploited by the colonial powers in dividing the two languages on religion. Hindi was now understood to be the language of Hindus and Urdu of the Muslims, which is such a pitiable digression from reality; from unity in diversity; and the concept of universal brotherhood," the bench said.
- "Language is a medium for exchange of ideas that brings people holding diverse views and beliefs closer and it should not become a cause of their division," the court said.
- "Our strength can never be our weakness. Let us make friends with Urdu and every language. If Urdu was to speak for herself, she would say: Urdu is my name, I am the riddle of 'Khusrav' Do not hold me for your prejudices, I never considered myself a Muslim. I too have seen happier times I feel like an outsider in my homeland today Urdu is my name, I am the riddle of 'Khusrav'," the top court said in a reference to famed medieval poet Amir Khusrau.
The top court noted that the municipal council had retained Urdu on the name board because many local residents understood the language.
(PTI inputs)
