Twitter users start #shameUPSC hashtag campaign to protest exclusion of Arabic, Persian from UPSC during Congress-led UPA regime

The momentum is building to protest Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) decision to remove the classical languages--Arabic, Persian and Pali, from the civil services.

There are tweets about the importance of these languages apart.

The Twitterati forwarded and Re-tweeted (RTd) these messages, causing a stir on the internet.

The hashtags #shameUPSC & #restoreArabicPersianPaliinUPSC were initiated to protest the mindless move on social networking website, Twitter.

Historical documents including papers during the 1857 revolution against British are mostly in Persian. Legendary freedom fighters like Tatya Tope's communication is also in the language. Persian was also official language of princely states ruled by Hindu Rajas and Muslim kings [Nawabs].

Also, there is huge amount of literature in Persian in India. Legendary Indian poets like Bedil and Ghalib wrote in Persian. India has kept Persian in its original form. Pali is one of the oldest languages in India. There are old texts and Buddhist literature in Pali. Arabic is taught across India.

There are madarsas and Darul-Ulooms apart from departments of these languages in dozens of universities in India. There are Arabic-Persian Universities in India like Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti University in Lucknow which has come up recently and the Mazharul Haq Arabic Persian University in Bihar.

There are scores of other institutions too. The 'esteemed members' of UPSC board perhaps have no idea about the huge number of texts, manuscripts and literature in India in these languages.

Perhaps, a situation will come when we will be dependent on foreigners to translate our own works, and we won't be able to decipher them on our own.

Do you know all words that end with 'daar' are of Persian origin? The example is dunkan-dar, kiraye-dar.
Thousands of words like 'gul' [flower], aqalmand [intellect], dilkash [beautiful], khat [letter], aab [water], dil [heart], kitab [book], naan [bread], have come to us from Persian.

The movement aims at telling people the importance of these languages. Isn't Latin taught in Europe even today? Should we sever links to our past heritage? Earlier too UPSC tried to remove the languages in the early nineties. Now there is a fresh attempt.

Sadly, this is happening during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. The fact is that many people aren't aware of the heritage of nearly 1,000 years [many a millennia in the case of Pali]. We urge the President, the Prime Minister, the HRD ministry and Congress leaders to restore the languages.

The JNUSU led by Akbar Chawdhary also led a demonstration on the issue. The protesting students said that by this absurd yardstick, English, is also a foreign language.

Further, there are now growing voices against the controversial move that is hurting a large number of students.

If you want to be part of this movement. Do use the hashtags and tag politicians, important personalities, to inform them about your views. Force them to withdraw the whimsical decision, which shows badly on the members of UPSC who are supposed to know importance of our cultural heritage of thousands of years.

There have been protests on the ground. Now do act on internet as well.

#ShameUPSC
#restoreArabicPersianPaliinUPSC

See earlier post on this issue:
1. UPSC misuses autonomy, removes Arabic, Persian, Pali from civil services

See an important article:
1. The translations of Ramayana in Persian

Temple constructed by Aurangzeb & ULFA's '?' terrorism

Balaji temple for which Aurangzeb granted land

Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb had constructed a huge temple in Chitrakut (Uttar Pradesh) and made arrangement for the 'bhog' at this temple for generations.

Many consider Aurangzeb as a bigot and some historians have also termed the emperor as a 'fundamentalist'.

Aurangzeb had issued a 'firman' as per which 8 villages (330 bighas of land) were allotted for the upkeep of the temple besides Re 1 every day from the government fund.


However, the old arrangement continues till date though nearly 323 years have elapsed since then. Mahant Balram Das of the temple is in possession of the firmaan that was written on brass plate and issued on 19th of Islamic month of Ramzan.

As per the decree Sant Balak Das of Allahabad's Kalinjar pargana's Chitrakoot was given 330 bighas of land without any 'lagaan'. The temple is now in a poor state despite enormous funds at the disposal. The discord amongst Mahants has led to the situation, say locals.

Aurangzeb

Interestingly, Aurangzeb 'Alamgir' had not only got the temple constructed but also wrote the order of 'rajbhog', himself.

The land adjoining the Balaji temple has been encroached by local strongmen and the infighting among the temple committee has affected the structure, which is crumbling, says the District Magistrate, Chitrakoot, in a recent report.

The temple priests show the framed firman with pride. One of the photographs showing the priest, Mangal Das Ji, carrying the old firman is available here.


Now on ULFA killing HINDI speakers

The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has killed North Indians, mostly the Hindi-speakers. More than 75 persons have been killed in the last couple of days. Most of them hailed from Bihar.

ULFA needs to be reigned in. However, North East remains far off from the radar of the national media and news channels and unless there is a major tragedy, hardly any atention is paid to North Eastern states.

Off the cuff but I wonder what terrorism it is. What ideology it could be linked to or what Right/Left-wing militancy it could be? ULFA was anti-Muslim so it could not be Islamic militancy. However, given the reports that are appearing in press that ISI is training ULFA in Bangladesh, one might find ULFA also being branded Islamist-backed Militiancy or quasi-Islamic terrorism...