Language comes from regions, not religions: Javed Akhtar

A two-day festival celebrating the essence of Urdu, Jashn-e-Rekhta, began with a lovely session by poet-lyricist-scriptwriter Javed Akhtar.

The audience at India International Centre was visibly eager to hear the veteran speak and he did not disappoint his fans.

The poet was at his witty self and shared interesting aspects of his work and love for the language.

Regarding his writing inspiration, Akhtar said that he has been surrounded by poets, both at his paternal and maternal home, since his childhood. But surprisingly he never gave a serious thought to writing. Though he agreed to help his friends find 'suitable' words for their respective couplets even then.

Akhtar started writing at the age of 31 when most poets leave poetry.

"I met some cool young poets during 1979 and realized that writing was not that bad a job," he said.

Akhtar was, however, quick to add that his writing style is very different from his father or uncle.

"My writing style is very different from my father or uncle. Our attitudes are different. That also reflects in our poetry," he said.

The same change he feels has helped his children Farhan and Zoya carve their own niche.

Regarding his love for Urdu, Javed said, "Urdu is the language of 'awam' (common man) and has always been used as an expression of anti-regressive thought and anti-fundamentalist movements, which can't be said about poetry written in other languages."

He also stressed the fact that language comes from regions and not religions.

"It is not possible that Pakistan keeps the nouns and India keeps the verbs," he said.

Akhtar also emphasized that languages thrive on the basis of their economic benefits. For instance, these days, English is being taught in China and Chinese is being taught in the US.

He said that in today's global culture, problem with learning English is that it is being learnt at the cost of national language. 

"Hindi has been completely abdicated by middle-class and upper middle-class. Our languages are going in the quicksand of economic conditions," he said.

The veteran lyricist also lamented about the attitude of Indian youth who doesn't like their languages, food or music.

"Then what does the youth love about India," he said

For him, restoration of languages must be given due importance without which our ancient heritage faces extinction. "Language is our identity but it is growing weak today. Love for language must be prioritized," he said.

Akhtar is these days busy with publishing his grandfather's work in poetry, which took him around 10 years to compile.