Maharashtra: Supreme Court sets the record straight on Urdu

The signboard on a new building at Patur (Akola district) displayed ‘Municipal Council, Patur’ in Marathi on top and in Urdu below. Patur municipal council area had a population of just 21,000 in the 2011 census, more than half of whom were Muslims. Yet, unhappy at the use of Urdu, former council member Varshatai Sanjay Bagade first approached the district collector, stating that only Marathi should be used in the state for official purposes.

The collector ruled in her favour but the council appealed to the divisional commissioner who turned down the collector’s ruling. That was in 2020. Since then, an “aggrieved” Varshatai Sanjay Bagade twice approached the Bombay High Court and twice the Supreme Court to get the Urdu display dropped from the signboard. The Supreme Court finally brought down the curtain on on 15 April. A bench of Justices Sudhangshu Dhulia and K. Vinod Chandran held that the display of an additional language did not violate any law and there was no prohibition on the use of Urdu.

The purpose of any language, including Urdu, was ‘effective communication’, and ‘there should not be any objection if Urdu is used in addition to the official language i.e. Marathi, at least on the signboard of the Municipal Council’, the bench held.

In the judgement, Justice Dhulia, who is due to retire in August, said it was important to dwell at some length on the language issue because the petitioner, a former member of the municipal council, had taken great pains to move the High Court and Supreme Court twice each; and also because many others too may subscribe to the petitioner’s argument.

‘Urdu is a language born in this land, which developed and flourished in India, attained greater refinement and became the language of choice for several acclaimed poets,’ the judgement went on to record.

‘It would not be incorrect to say that one cannot have a day-to-day conversation in Hindi without using Urdu words or words derived from Urdu (pointing out that the word vakalatnama used in Indian courts is an Urdu word). The word ‘Hindi’ itself comes from the Persian word ‘Hindvi’,’ the order noted. According to linguists and literary scholars, Urdu and Hindi are not two languages, but one language. The judgement quotes noted Urdu scholar Gyan Chand Jain, who wrote in 1974, ‘It is absolutely clear that are not two separate languages.

To call them two languages is to belie all principles of linguistics and to deceive oneself and others… even though Urdu literature and Hindi literature are different and independent literatures, Urdu and Hindi are not two different languages… enumerating Urdu and Hindi as two languages, in the Indian Constitution, is political expediency, not a linguistic reality.’

The judgement moved poet and author Javed Akhtar to post, ‘In 1798 an Islamic scholar Shah Ubdul Qadir translated Quran for the first time in Urdu. Almost all the muftis and qazis of that time gave fatwas against him for daring to translate the holy book in such a heathen language like Urdu. After many years, Jinnah, who could not speak Urdu to even save his life, declared Urdu to be the language of Muslims. What actually surprises me is that there are still so many people who seem to believe Jinnah.’

Caste is fine, just not in films

Anant Mahadevan’s Hindi film Phule, a biopic on reformer couple Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule, was due for release on Jyotiba Phule’s 197th birth anniversary on 11 April. Despite a ‘U’ certificate granted by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), the release was held back following protests by Brahmins in Maharashtra.

The film, complained Anand Dave, president of the Brahmin Mahasangh, is designed to promote ‘casteism’. Even the censor board has reportedly requested the filmmakers to drop a few dialogues, voice overs and words like Mahar, Mang, Peshwai and Manu’s system. Brahmin boys throwing cow dung balls at Savitribai in the film is fine but the scene in which a Dalit man walks with brooms tied to his back is not.

Mahadevan, a Brahmin himself, cannot believe what is happening; this is not the first film made on the couple who inspired B.R. Ambedkar. It was Savitribai who is said to have coined the word Dalit to replace the erstwhile usage Shudra. Mahadevan is bewildered because Brahmins in or outside Maharashtra had not objected to any of the earlier films on the couple. He sees it as the expression of a different, more intolerant and more strident generation. Times have changed.

As far back as 1954, Marathi litterateur Prahlad Keshav Atre made a Marathi film on Mahatma Phule, which received the National Award (Silver Medal) for the Best Marathi Feature Film. B.R. Ambedkar wrote the screenplay.

A biopic in Kannada was released in 2018. A series called Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule was aired on DD National. The film Satyashodhak directed by Nilesh Raosaheb Jamalkar was released just last year in January 2024. There were no protests by Brahmins.

Two explanations have been offered for the recent protests. With Dalits’ renewed assertion of their rights and place in society, with demand for a caste census gaining ground and protests against Dalit atrocities and discrimination, there is a new edge to discourses on caste. The pushback from Brahmin organisations could be an expression of their anxiety or insecurity is one explanation. The other explanation is that Brahmins find the present political climate and culture more conducive for their belligerent stand.

Raju Parulekar, political analyst, author and Marathi TV personality, believes the pushback to be a kind of state-sponsored terrorism against the history of Bahujans. Social reforms initiated by Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule, he says, benefited Brahmin women and widows alike. Brahmin women, he feels, actually benefited the most from the work of the couple and Fatima Sheikh.

Brahmin male mentality, however, is narrow, casteist and steeped in arrogance. Writer Darab Farooqui and a few others have named censor board chairman Prasoon Joshi and others who supported the demand for changes in the film. They include Vidya Balan, Vivek Agnihotri, Vaman Kedre, Mihir Bhutia, Ramesh Patange, Gautami Tadimalla, Vani Tripathi Tiku, Jeevitha Rajasekhar and Naresh Chandra Lal.

Almost all of them, they point out, are Brahmins. Rahul Gandhi reacted to the protests and alleged that BJP and RSS wanted to history at every step. Writer and academic Kancha Ilaiah asked, “How can CBFC ask to remove caste-related references from the film when Mahatma Phule’s struggle was against caste and the inhuman practices of the Brahmin communities of the time?” Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana in an editorial titled , questioned the chief minister’s silence.

Fadnavis had freely commented on films like Kashmir Files, Kerala Story, Tashkent Files and Chhava, and exhorted people to watch them. Why is he quiet now? Is it not his job to rein in the Brahmin busybodies issuing threats against the film, it asked. The CBFC has also demanded cuts in the Marathi film Chal Halla Bol, a biopic on Namdeo Dhasal (1949–2014), Dalit poet, writer, activist and founder of the Dalit Panther movement.

The board demanded that the film drop Dhasal’s poem ‘Rakta Petlela Aganit Suryano Ko’ (Innumerable Suns Burning in Blood). Mahesh Bansode, the producer, says he is not ready to drop it and points out that it was this poem that earned Dhasal the Padma Shri in 1999. He also points out that the film was primarily crowdfunded and was screened at 252 film festivals in India and abroad, winning 32 awards.

The demand to drop the poem makes no sense, he says adding that today’s youth need to be told Dhasal’s story and that is what the film aims to do. There is also simmering resentment over reports that a board official had apparently asked, “Who is Namdeo Dhasal?”, exhibiting his ignorance that Dhasal was not just a Padma Shri awardee but also recipient of awards from the Sahitya Akademi.

He had received the Maharashtra State Award for Literature four times. A Google search would have saved the official the blushes. Incensed over the deemed insult, a group in Pune organised a poetry recital and called the event ‘Namdev, Tujhe Baap’ (Namdev, Your Father).

Maha betrayal by Mahayuti?

In the latest twist in the Mukhya Mantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana launched before the assembly election last year, the Maharashtra government has slashed the monthly payout from Rs 1,500 to Rs 500 for 8 lakh women who are also receiving Rs 1,000 per month under the Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi scheme. The reduction is part of the ongoing scrutiny to ensure the scheme is limited to those who meet the eligibility criteria and do not receive a cash transfer of more than Rs 1,500 a month from the government.

The cash transfer was offered to all women aged between 18 and 65, who were domiciled in the state and had an annual family income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh. Families with a government employee or a four-wheeler vehicle were not eligible.

The government had received about 2.63 crore applications for the scheme and after verification, this figure dropped by 11 lakh to 2.52 crore by February 2025 with 2.46 crore beneficiaries receiving the payout in February and March, according to media reports. No screening was done before the election and the question is why. With digital transactions and the Aadhaar database, it would have taken the government no time to find the unique beneficiaries.