Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar made another controversial statement. He directly attacked Pakistani culture, now he says that Urdu is not the language of Pakistan but of India.
According to Indian media reports, Javed Akhtar and his wife Shabana Azmi have recently launched an Urdu poetry collection ‘Shairana — Sartaj’.
During this launching ceremony, he stressed the importance of Urdu language and said that ‘Urdu does not belong to Pakistan or Egypt but to India.
Urdu did not come from any other place, it is our own language. It is not spoken outside India. Pakistan also came into existence after partition from India, earlier it was also a part of India. Therefore, this language is not spoken outside India.
On this occasion, Javed Akhtar highlighted the role of Punjab in the development of Urdu. And raised a few questions and said that ‘Punjab has played a very important role in the development of Urdu but why did it leave it? What caused the split?
According to the Indian poet, the youth now give more importance to English than Urdu and Hindi and all their attention has shifted towards it.
He said that we should talk in Hindi because it is our national language. If language was based on religion, all of Europe would have one language. Therefore, language is not a religion but a region.
It should remembered that Javed Akhtar came to Pakistan last month to participate in the Faiz Mela where he mentioned the Mumbai attacks and accused Pakistan. That the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks came from Pakistan and is still roaming freely here.
After which there was a strong reaction from the public and showbiz personalities against his statement.
Read also: Not the first time, Javed Akhtar remarks against Pakistan