The Indian poet and author Javed Akhtar, who has recently been making contentious claims regarding Pakistan, asserted that Urdu is not a language of Pakistan but rather of India or Hindustan. He made these remarks when discussing the value of the language during a launch party for the Urdu poetry collection “Shayarana – Sartaj,” which he and his wife Shabana Azmi attended, according to the Hindustan Times.
Akhtar remarked during the ceremony that Urdu is an Indian language and does not belong to Pakistan or Egypt. He stated, “This language did not come from outside, it is our own language, it is not spoken outside Hindustan.”Because Pakistan itself was only a part of India before it was divided from that country. Akhtar continued.
Although Urdu is the native tongue of all of India, the Indian poet claimed that Punjab was crucial in its promotion and popularisation. He emphasized, “It is not correct to consider Urdu to be a Pakistani language”. “Punjab has a big contribution towards Urdu and it is the language of India! But why did you leave this language? Because of Partition? Because of Pakistan? Urdu should be given attention,” he said.
He commented on Indians who think Urdu is a language of Pakistan and questioned whether they would accept it if Pakistan annexed all of Kashmir. He also stated that the value of the Urdu language should be emphasized because the younger generation in India has lost track of it. He complained that English is given more attention now. He later added that given that Hindi is their national language, they must communicate in it.
Javed Akhtar further spoke about how language is not related to religion and that it is wrong to link languages with religion as language is not related to religion but to regions. “Therefore, Urdu is not the language of any religion but of India,” he clarified.
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