Ram Kumar Kaushik/Tonk (Rajasthan)

At a time when student enrolment for Urdu language courses even in Muslim-dominated areas is witnessing a sharp decline, something amazing is happening in a Rajasthan Village. A large number of students belonging to Hindu families are opting for Urdu as a language of study.

Inclusive India

Sidra village in Tonk District, an all-Hindu Village, is unique in the sense that students here opt for the Urdu language as the medium of studies in the state government School. One of the two erstwhile princely states ruled by Muslim nobles in Rajasthan had a culture of Urdu for centuries during the Mughal and British eras.

The principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Sidra – Birbal Meena is so overwhelmed by students' attraction towards Urdu in senior classes, that he has got approval to introduce Urdu as the third language in middle and secondary classes from the education department of Rajasthan. 

From the last session 2021-22, students of the 6th to 9th class in this school have the option to choose either Urdu or Sanskrit as the third compulsory language. Earlier Urdu was only available as an optional subject for Arts stream students in classes 11th and 12th.

After the integration of princely states into independent India, the popularity and use of the language diminished as it had not been the official language like it used to be during the rule of the Nawab. 

Students in class room in local government school in Sidra

Most of the population including Muslims in Tonk speak the local Rajasthani dialect – Dhudhari. It is not only this erstwhile land of Nawab but Urdu finds itself occupying lesser and lesser space in India with each passing day. 

There are many reasons why children from Hindu households find it difficult to take up Urdu as a language of study. A diminishing number of teachers is just one of them. Over the years Muslim populated areas also have lost interest in learning Urdu. 

Dr. John Kurrein, Director of the Pune-based Centre for Learning Resources (CLR) published independent research that narrated a sad story about Urdu, a language that originated in India and from here spread to various parts of the world. The research reported that only 30% of Muslims declared Urdu as their first language and that English had become the preferred choice instead. But Sidra village dominated by the Scheduled Tribes, who are Hindus has shown a remarkable interest in learning the language.

Hindus of Sidra have shunned the unfounded communal overtones of the language and have converted it into a career opportunity. This thought process has integrated society beyond the communal identity that is promoting inclusion in society. 

All these students have opted for Udu and medium of studies

The elderly villagers vouch for the bliss that Urdu has bestowed upon the youngsters of their village. They say that no one from this conservative rural area of the Tonk district has ever objected to the proliferation of Urdu in the village. They have no remote feeling of Urdu as a Muslim lingua franca. 

Principle of the School

The official data made available to this article's writer tells us the story of enthusiasm for Urdu in the village. In this education session, Sidra School has enrolled 37 students in class 11th and 50 students in class 12 who have opted for the Urdu language as an optional subject along with Political Science and Geography. 

In classes 6th to 9th, 61 students out of 249 are studying Urdu as a third language. Rajasthan school education system has three compulsory languages for middle and secondary school students. Hindi and English are compulsory and students can choose a 3rd language out of the list of 5 languages – Sanskrit, Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, and Gujrati. 

Manoj Tiwari, a senior Journalist in Tonk, says “Urdu has come to this village as God's blessing. Studying Urdu has given a fool-proof guarantee of getting a government job in the education sector.” 

Principal - Balbir Singh Meena also supports Manoj. He says that Students are seriously choosing Urdu for their career plans.

Official Data proves studying Urdu has paid dividends to more than 100 youngsters in the last ten years in Sidra. Most of them have got job as teachers in Rajasthan government-run schools and colleges. 

Villagers told me with pride that about 15 boys and girls of the scheduled Tribe families are teaching the Urdu language in Government colleges as lecturers and professors in different parts of Rajasthan. About 15 persons have gotten 1st grade (PGT) teachers' jobs, 20-25 got 2nd grade (TGT) teacher-ship and around 25 persons have been working as 3rd grade (Primary-middle School) teachers in Rajasthan government-run schools.

The trend of studying Urdu as an optional subject by Hindu community students started around 2000 in Niwai town and it clicked when some graduates of Hindu families got a job as Government teachers. Around 2013-14 Sidra village sought to adopt Urdu as a subject in the village school. 

Over the years population of students opting Urdu language in senior classes (+2) swelled. The trend has been picking up since then. 

A class room in Sidra village - Urdu rules supreme

Records from the last five years' board results show that a few students have secured 100% marks in Urdu in the 12th class Board examination and most of the students have got 80-90% marks. School's teaching staff informs that no student has failed the board exam in the last 5 years. 

But he kept his promise to himself and got Urdu as one of his subjects in B.A. and got a B.ED degree from Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi later. He was selected as an Urdu Teacher in 2012. Ramdhan said, “There is so much life and joy to be found in the language. Urdu has huge scope in contemporary India.”

Krishna Gopal Meena who also hails from Sidra village is teaching Urdu at the Government PG College, Tonk. He takes both UG and PG classes there. Krishna told us that he picked up Urdu in Class 11th and he was mentored and guided by a female Urdu teacher Sahana Madani at Govt School, Niwai.

He said “I have proud to be a student of Urdu – a Hindustani language born in India only. I enjoy teaching this language of love and etiquette.” Displaying his love for the language, he recalls the words of contemporary Urdu scholar Prof. Gopichand Narang – “Urdu is like an ocean and I wish to immerse myself into it.”

The Muslim nobles, who ruled the princely state of Tonk had introduced Urdu as the official language of the court of the Nawab, nobles, and scholars. In the erstwhile scholarly tradition, Urdu was not limited to Muslim intelligentsia alone. 

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Ram Kumar Kaushik is a senior print and broadcast journalist