Competition between India, Pakistan is destroying our culture and language: Javed Akhtar

The renowned Indian poet attended the 7th Faiz Festival in Lahore over the weekend

Renowned Indian poet, lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar was welcomed with thunderous applause at the 7th Faiz Festival in Lahore. Apart from his love for the great Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, the 78-year-old actor spoke largely about language; both English and the mother tongue – whether it's Hindi, Urdu or a regional one – and the need to give the same respect to all of them.

The legacy of Faiz

Akhtar, in his starting remarks, shared that Faiz, in whose memory the festival is being held, is widely followed and read in India - even today. “His works had some magic. They are published and read not just in Urdu, but also in Devnagri. His fans are not limited to Pakistan or India,” said Akhtar.

Political agendas destroy culture

The revered poet believes that the competition and hatred between the neighbouring countries have spread through language and culture. “Some so-called messiahs of language on our side, either it’s for Urdu or some other language, they say remove this particular word because it is not ours. You keep removing, the language will keep getting poorer,” he said adding that script is not language and there are several words that we use in our daily life that are either Turkish, Punjabi, or even Japanese for that matter.

“A language is never made in a day; new words get added to it over the years. Our entire cultural history is in our language. You can’t suffocate a culture by banning words. A man has several identities but the most important one is language. When you cut off from a language, you do so from an entire culture, your identity, roots,” he said.

The cost of learning English

Akhtar opined that it’s “extremely saddening to see children in the sub-continent learning English at the cost of their mother tongue.” The poet added that most parents in the sub-continent now send their children to English-medium schools but that is not the problem.

“I have nothing against English. Those who say don’t learn English are your enemies; of course, it is extremely important. But children are now learning English at the cost of their mother tongue. That should not happen. Whatever your mother tongue is — Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto — you must know it,” he said.

Grammar, not words

While language is described broadly by its script and words, Akhtar believes otherwise. “A script or the words are not languages. The purity of language is a myth. A language only gets richer as more words are added to it. Language is the way you speak. It reflects your cultural history and roots,” he said. “For instance, if I say ‘Ye hall air-conditioned hai’. In this sentence, two main words — ‘hall’ and ‘air-conditioned’ — are from English but does that mean I was speaking in English? No, I am not because ‘ye’ and ‘hai’ hold the sentence. Language is related to grammar. It is your own way of speaking, not the words or script,” added Akhtar.

United for the love of poetry and music

 

 

 

 

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After the festival, several videos made rounds on social media where celebrities such as Sarwat Gilani, Ali Zafar, Resham and more spent the evening entertaining the poet with live music and poetry. Akhtar was seen jamming with Zafar on Kishore Kumar’s Zindagi Aa Raha Hoon Main.