Society for the Promotion of Urdu

The speech of the President of ‘Society for the Promotion of Urdu’, on the occasion of the Official Launching

Amidst the multi dimensional transformation the world is at present experiencing, we, all are beckoned to determine the identity, interest and role of the beautiful language of Urdu has to play within our Republic of Mauritius and within a broader environment.

The obstacles that have been central to the propagation of the language in the past have to be critically reviewed and reassessed and the spectrum of the present and future challenges have to be embraced with realistic optimism and confidence.  The process whereby this can be realized has to be meticulously crafted and implemented in order to enhance and optimize the role of Urdu in our present day society.

In this regard, some sincere Urdu Lovers have been deliberating for several years to determine and design the best approach to initiate the process of promoting the Urdu Language.

To this end, we have launch the ’Society of the Promotion of Urdu’ (SPU) in 2005.  We firmly believe that this is the first attempt by the SPU to publish the ‘lives and achievements’ of eleven of those pioneers of Urdu in Mauritius, who have left no stone unturned to preserve the cultural heritage of the wonderful language of Urdu.

We also trust that this publication, ‘Rehbaran’ will be recorded as part of the history of Urdu in Mauritius and for future generations.

We have many challenges awaiting us ahead. However, we are under no illusion and realize full well that the process is a long and arduous one, but unless we begin somewhere, we will not be able to reach our objectives.

What are the challenges? First and foremost, we have to make an evaluation of the present state of Urdu in Mauritius. What is the position of Urdu at school/ primary/secondary/tertiary level?  What is the exposure of Urdu in the Media, press/radio/TV/in the propagation of religion? Nevertheless, it is amazing to note that Spoken Urdu is radically decreasing, by the official figure shown by the Central Statistic Office (CSO). In 1990 merely 6810 persons were speaking Urdu.  Most tragically, in 2000 the figure has drastically fallen to 1789.  What will happen in the forth coming Census which will be carried out in 2010, if nothing is done now?

We complain that the MBC is not presenting enough Urdu programs, but what we ignore is that MBC presents programs commensurate to the number of people speaking the language in conformation to the official figure received from the CSO. It we really want to put things right, we are condemn to act immediately.

We urgently need to define our problems, to prioritise our action plan, to use judiciously the human resources available, to have collaborative planning and to head towards capacity building.  Unless this is done, the future of Urdu language will remain blink.

Click HERE to view the URDU version.