Mansooruddin Faridi/New Delhi

Urdu is an Indian language and It is not ‘dead’ because it has become a common language,” said Javed Akhtar, famous scriptwriter and lyricist of Hindi films as he inaugurated the world’s biggest Urdu Literary and cultural festival in Delhi to herald the resumption of the Jashn-e-Rekhta after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Javed Akhtar, who has scripted dialogues for blockbuster Hindi films called for the need to simplify the language (Urdu). He called the Hindi language and the Urdu language twin sisters. “Urdu should take help from Hindi and Hindi can do the same with Urdu.”

Making the gathering comprising mostly youth burst into peals of laughter, Javed Akhtar said: “Generally when people understand the (Hindustani) language, they refer to it as Hindi, and when they don't they call it Urdu-“

Huge gathering at the inauguration of Jashn-e-Rekhta

Asking people not to have such notions toward Urdu he said a language is a script. He said the Punjabi language is being written in several scripts.

Javed Akhtar said at one time when Urdu emerged as a language, Persian was in vogue and that is why Urdu was written in Persian script. He said English does not have its script and has borrowed Roman script,”

He said: "Urdu attracts the common man; I am proud that my mother tongue is Urdu. Other languages ​​started with religion, but the Urdu language does not follow a religion."

He said the best poetry on the festival of Holi is in the Urdu language; it’s the same for the beauty of Ganga Ghat in Banaras.

Jashn-e-Rekhta used to be the most awaited of the cultural; events in Delhi during winter. Its revival has generated a lot of interest and enthusiasm among lovers of Urdu and Hindustani.

Javed Akhtar with Sanjiv Saraf, founder of Jashn-e-rekhta

The three-day festival will conclude on Sunday night.

On the second day(December 3) the festival will have several sessions of poetry and its different genres. Discussions, and workshops for budding writers.

The festival is being organized by the Rekhta Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Sanjiv Saraf. The purpose of Rekhta is to protect and promote Urdu as a language and part of the Indian civilization.

The organization began as a website in 2013, and in no time, it became the world's largest website for Urdu poetry, prose, and books.