The demand is in particular about designating all the regions in state where the number of Urdu speakers comprise more than 10% of population, as places where Urdu would get the status of a second official language along with Hindi.
Vociferous demands were made in this regard at the two-day national seminar which concluded in Jaipur. The participants said that after linguistic reorganisation, Urdu suffered the most in Rajasthan, as its official status was removed.
The Urdu Academy was established in 1979. But it remained inactive for a long time, until it was revived recently. The Academy chairman Dr Habibur Rahman Niazi said that Urdu had the status of official language in erstwhile Rajputana for well over a century, until 1949.
The Anjuman Farogh-e-Urdu has also began a campaign in this regard. Other demands include recruitment of Urdu teachers in schools and lecturers in colleges. Urdu is spoken widely in Rajathan along with Hindi and the local dialect Rajasthani.
TIH Bureau
