'Urdu has no religion'

Delivering the keynote address, former Sahitya Academy Chairman Gopichand Narang said that Urdu was a language that carried a pluralistic message with it.

“Urdu does not have a religion or a region”, he said. “It co-exists with other languages such as Kannada, Telugu, Kashmiri, Punjabi, and Hindi in most states”, he added.
On Urdu’s nomenclature as the language of love, Narang said that this was because it was an open-ended language. “It has always been secular, that is why it has such a reputation”, he said.

 He regretted the increasing trend of communalisation and politicisation of language.
Governor H R Bhardwaj, who inaugurated the conference, said India had a history of secularism right from the times of Mughal emperors like Akbar. “Akbar’s pluarlism was evident in his attempt at forming a universal religion like the Din-e-Ilahi”, he said. Bhardwaj added that Hinduism and Islam were two eyes of the same face.

Govt condemned
The conference also saw all round condemnation reserved for the State Government after it removed conference convener Khaleel Mamoon from the post of the chairman of the Karnataka Urdu Sahitya Academy. Mamoon was removed last month after the government was upset with the Academy’s decision to conduct the conference without approval from the government.

Mamoon, in a defiant mood, told the delegates that there was no need for permission to hold a conference. Governor Bhardwaj also said that the whole Raj Bhavan was behind him, and that he would hold discussions with the Central government on his removal.
The conference will conclude on Thursday with an all night Mushaira to be held at the Shivajinagar stadium 8:30 pm onwards.