August 7th, 2011
As Delhiwaalas gear up to celebrate the 100th year of this World City, they increasingly forget that the true essence of Dilli lies in the glory of the language that was born here.
The centenary Delhiwaalas are bent upon celebrating is not that of the lives of great writers of Hindi and Urdu — namely Sachchidanand Hiranand Vatsyayana ‘Agyeya’ or ‘Asraarul Huq ‘Majaaz’, but of the most soulless of Delhi’s (nine) cities, Lutyens’ New Delhi!
No one likes to remember that it was built by people without great and vibrant aesthetic traditions in the visual arts of painting, sculpture architecture and town planning. Lutyens himself was not even a trained architect and his patrons, the viceroys and the British monarch, were more interested in demonstrating their superior power and not in creating a functioning capital city.
There is also talk of trying for and winning a ‘World Heritage’ status for the city. No one appears to realise that in doing so Delhi will appear like it has forgotten its once glorious history.
From the Pandava Indraprastha (of the legend of the Mahabharata) to Alauddeen Khilji’s Seeree and right up to Shahjahanabad Dillee, the city was an example for other cities in the world to emulate. The well known, planned 18th Century city, Jaipur, shows unmistakable influence of Shahjahanabad (1639-1658).
In the time of Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810), Shahjahanabad Dillee experienced a series of invasions starting with Nadir Shah in 1739 and continuing with Ahmad Shah Abdali with occasional forays by freebooting Marathas and Sikhs. Mir says, चोर उचक्के, सिख मरहट्टे शाहो गदा ज़र्खारां हैं; चैन से हैं जो कुछ नही रखते…(Everyone whether freebooter Lord or beggar is after snatching away one’s wealth. Only those who have nothing to lose are at ease…’) Mir Taqi’s explanation for Delhi’s misfortune was that the eminence of the city and the talent and skills of its inhabitants excited the envy of Heaven and caused its sacking.
This was expressed in verses which saw the light of day when Mir Taqi ‘Mir’ had to abandon Dillee to go to Lucknow. When asked of his origins, Mir said, क्या बूदो बाश पूछो हो; पूरब के साकिनों; हम को ग़रीब जान के; हंस हंस पुकार के; दिल्ली जो एक शहर था आलम में इन्तेखाब; रहते जहां थे मुन्तखिब ही रोज़गार के; उसको फ़लक ने लूट के वीरान कर दिआ; हम रहने वाले हैं उसी उजड़े दियार के (O you easterners who mock us by asking about where we come from as you see our penniless state please note that we are from Dillee, a city chosen and set apart for its excellence; a city where only the top talents and skills were to be found.)
This remarkable city excited the envy of Heaven and was therefore looted, despoiled and abandoned as a ruin without inhabitants. We are the citizens of that ill fated dwelling. Dillee was known as Shahjahanabaad and this name was soon shortened to just Jahanabad (where the whole world dwells). The language that arose in this city (on the regal stairways of the Ja’amaa Masjid) was known as Reykhtaa or Hindavi. To be from Dillee meant that one was an all round culturally developed personality with a command of the new language.
“Languages of Indian origin are looked down upon as is Indian dress and we have TV anchors of Hindi channels sporting trousers and neckties and dropping/adding nuqtaas (dots) in an arbitrary and haphazard manner. The greatest pity is that aggressive Hindi waalaas have dropped all dots and succeeded in cutting off their noses to spite their own faces.”
Mushafi was to say, दिल्ली नहीं देखी है ज़ुबां दां ये कहां हैं (He has not even seen Dillee and therefore can lay no claim to knowing the language.) Perhaps this applies today, as the elite currently enjoying power (howsoever precarious) knows neither Persian nor Urdu. Not even Hindi.
Languages of Indian origin are looked down upon as is Indian dress and we have TV anchors of Hindi channels sporting trousers and neckties and dropping/adding nuqtaas (dots) in an arbitrary and haphazard manner. Thus, we have बेगम baygum spelt as बेग़म bayghum, making बेगम, a lady, into बेग़म ‘one without sorrow’ and other such absurdities. The greatest pity is that aggressive Hindi waalaas have dropped all dots and succeeded in cutting off their noses to spite their own faces.
Our present power elite is, undoubtedly, the least sophisticated of Delhi’s power elites in all its long and chequered history. It struggles along with an archaic English in which it does not possess mastery of phrase and idiom. The rule of the Ibney Macaulays has made Indians a language-less or dumb people. When we had Hindustaanee हिन्दुस्तानी, and called it हिन्दवी, दख्खनी, रेख्ता Hindavee, Dukhkhunee, Reykhtaa, the usage was largely oral. Those who had to write it down could use either नागरी Naagaree or the Arabic script, the version that is now called Urdu. A special effort has to be made in the area of language if we are to emerge from the present barrenness.