Rajasthan: Urdu Teachers, Activists Call Off Their 22-Day “Yatra” After Govt Assures To Accept Their Demands

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Urdu teachers, activists posing for photographs after talks with Rajasthan Wakf Board chairman Khanu Khan Budhwali. Photo: India Tomorrow.

The “yatra” had turned into a mass movement, with over 200 Muslim organisations getting united on the issue and more than 130 Congress MLAs writing letters to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in support of the demand in favour of teaching Urdu in the state.

Raheem Khan | India Tomorrow

JAIPUR—Thakur Shamsher Khan, an Urdu teacher, has called off his 22-day march called “Dandi Yatra”, after meeting with a Rajasthan government representative who agreed to accept all his demands with regard to teaching of Urdu in the state. Shamsher Khan is the son of former Congress MLA Bhalu Khan.

Rajasthan Wakh Board chairman Khanu Khan Budhwali, who was deputed by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to have discussions with the protesting teacher, told mediapersons that he accepted nine-point demands of Shamsher Khan after which the latter agreed to withdraw his “yatra”. The meeting took place in Udaipur where Shamsher Khan had reached on Sunday as a part of his march. Budhwali said that he has invited Shamsher Khan to meet State Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasra in Jaipur to solve the problem.

Shamsher Khan began his foot march from Churu on November 1. People in many cities Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Tonk, Sawai Madhopur and Kota held demonstrations in support of his demand. His march, in fact, brought unity among all the Muslim organisations and took the shape of a mass movement. The degree of support can be understood from the fact that over 130 former and current MLAs, including some from BJP wrote to State Education Minister and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot supporting the cause of Urdu raised by Shamsher Khan. Among the BJP MLAs include former minister Rajendra Singh Rathore who extended his support to the demand.

Urdu teachers in Rajasthan have been complaining of their neglect by the state government for the last several years. While the State Minority Affairs Department had appointed Urdu teachers in ‘madrasas’, they were on contractual basis only and their services were not being regularized despite several reminders to the government. Not only that, the state government was also not regularizing Urdu teachers in primary schools under the State Education Department, causing discontentment among Muslims as Urdu is generally studied by Muslim students only. All the Urdu teachers are also Muslims.

But what came as an immediate provocation for Shamsher Khan to launch the “yatra” to bring pressure on the government seeking justice for Urdu and Urdu teachers in the state, were two government orders issued by the State Education Director Saurabh Swami on September 2 and 5. According to the two orders, only one ‘third’ language will be taught in classes from 6to 8 and only one teacher will be appointed for it. According to this order, only Sanskrit language could be taught, pushing the Urdu out. The move was considered by the Muslims to kill the Urdu language in the state by the Congress government which claims itself to be secular and came to power in the state with support of Muslims. Before the September 2 order, it was the district education officer who decided which minority language will be in which school depending on the strength of students. This provision allowed teaching of Urdu language in schools where there were sufficient Muslim students. But September 2 order took away this power of the district education officers and Primary Education Director issued a general order for all schools that allowed only Sanskrit to be taught as ‘third’ language, even if the students want to study Urdu, Punjabi or Sindhi.

Though both the orders of September 2 and 5 have been withdrawn after the march and the state education department has come out with a formula that it will conduct surveys in schools and ask students if they want to study Urdu or not. If 10 or more than 10 students are ready to learn Urdu language, the government will appoint an Urdu teacher in such schools. But Shamsher Khan is opposing this formula, saying that this can again be manipulated by school head masters and principals against Urdu by using their influence over the students and forcing them to give in writing that they don’t want to study Urdu language.

Shamsher Khan is also demanding revival of all 128 Urdu medium schools, where all subjects from Class 1 to 5, were earlier taught in Urdu language only. He has also demanded to re-start teaching of Urdu as a language in classes from 6 to 12 in all schools for students who want to study Urdu as a language irrespective of the community or the faith to which the students belong. He also wants the government to revive teaching of Urdu as a subject in all the 500 degree colleges where Urdu was earlier taught as a subject. According to activists, Urdu was gradually dropped from schools and colleges primarily during the Congress rule in the state.

(The article was originally written in Hindi and has been translated in English by Kashif Ahmad Faraz).

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