'Urdu language growing at very fast pace but script shrinking'

Urdu as a language is growing at a fast pace but its script has not kept up and is shrinking, according to noted Urdu poets, who say the need of the hour is to start treating technology as a facilitator for preserving the language. "We should stop treating technology as our enemy. Urdu needs to be inculcated into the youth and technology plays a very important role in it," says Amjad Islam Amjad, an Urdu poet, drama writer and lyricist from Pakistan. According to Amjad, the use of technology can can be used to create a space, which could be used for propagating the language, and thus enable the future generation to relate to it. Amjad was one of the many poets from India, Pakistan, Canada, the US and Dubai who participated in the 18th edition of the Jash-e-Bahar, one of the country's biggest unofficial mushaira. "Urdu is growing at a very fast pace. But Urdu script is shrinking at an alarming rate and it needs to be preserved. Urdu script is like a seed and the language can only be protected if the script is protected," says Amjad. The poet said there was a diminished interaction of the new generation with the Urdu language and pointed out that usually a language gradually fades out of existence once the existence of the script ends. "The new generation's interaction with Urdu is reducing. This new generation is the future audience and it is required that they get proper training. So we need to decide on how to protect the script. To preserve the script, it is required that the script must be made technology friendly," he says. "People are going for courses in Japanese because it boosts their career, we need to make Urdu technology friendly people start seeing Urdu as a way to boost their career too," he says. Another poet from Pakistan said there was need to spread awareness on how to propagate the language and the script. "Social media is very active, so Urdu language can be propagated through that medium, spreading awareness over how Urdu connects people," says Pirzada Qasim, an Urdu poet from Pakistan. There is a commercial angle to everything nowadays, if youth could connect to technology, it may get popularised among them, says Qasim said. According to renowned poet Wasim Barelvi, Urdu is adapting with technology and Urdu poems propagates the language. "Urdu is existing beautifully because it knows how to adapt, it changes forms and with time changes itself," says Barelvi. Other languages are shrinking because they were not adaptable. And there is no danger to Urdu script as people will go to the source of the language and the language exists only through the script. Another factor that is leading to the popularity of the language is the fact that now Urdu is getting written in Roman and Devnagiri form. "That is increasing its popularity, people from across the border are curious about authors from the other side, this is not only leading to the propogation of the language but is also connecting the two countries," he says. Kamna Prasad, Urdu activist and founder of the non-profit Jashn-e-Bahar Trust says Urdu is spreading through the Roman and Devnagiri script. "The most important thing is that Urdu is spreading through these scripts and that is what we should keep in mind," she says.