Dubbed by detractors as ‘a Pakistani agent’ and praised by admirers as ‘India’s cultural ambassador’ and ‘Urdu’s great voice’, Dr Prof Gopi Chand Narang, the distinguished Indian scholar, linguist and critic, was recently in Karachi for almost a week. Speaking extempore at two sessions of the five-day Urdu conference and other literary gatherings in the city, he held spellbound the audience with his erudition, eloquence and oratory.

As a professor emeritus of the University of Delhi, Dr Narang has extensively travelled in Europe, the Middle East, America and Japan to shed light on issues related to Urdu language and literature. But his visits to Pakistan, the country of his birth, have been frequent. He gave a boost to cultural ties between the two nations by inviting Pakistani writers and poets to attend various literary events. His goodwill gesture generated similar sentiments among his counterparts in Pakistan and exchanges of such delegations became regular and frequent.

Dr Narang’s love for Urdu and Pakistan has been so apparent that he was once labelled as a Pakistani agent by his critics. Asked if he was disturbed by the label when it was slapped on him, he says: “I said I had two other such agents with me -- Khushwant Singh and Kuldip Nayar. And if India had a dozen or so more ‘agents’’ like us, the two nations would be much closer culturally, though we couldn’t help in political matters,” he says in an interview with Dawn at his hotel room here on Sunday.

Asked bout the future of Urdu in India and if there was any pressure on its script, he says: “Partition dealt a severe blow to Urdu’s popularity. The dominant language of India was now viewed with suspicion as the language of the Muslims. The initial two decades were really hard for Urdu. But now one can say that there is less hostility to it. And there is no pressure on its script. It were progressive writers who had suggested that Urdu adopt the Deonagri script for a wider acceptance. But that suggestion did not materialise as it was opposed by scholars who wanted Urdu to retain its script.”

About its relevance in present day India, he says: “Urdu has influenced Hindi so much that the latter has coopted many Persian and Arabic words through Urdu. Urdu, the product of Hindi-Islamic culture, is the language that best satisfies one’s sentimental and spiritual needs. All our legal terminology is in Urdu -- muqadama, jirrah, wakeel, adalat, shadi, gham. All these words are derived either from Arabic or Persian. All pre-partition official record in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, etc, was in Urdu. Kumra (room) is a Turkish word. Similarly, chaqoo, chic, kursi are also foreign words which have, over a millennium, been imbibed by the language that has given me recognition and made me what I’m today.”

Gopi Chand was born on February 11, 1931 at Dukki, a village in Loralai, Balochistan. After receiving his early education in his hometown, he went to Delhi for higher studies in 1946. His father, a revenue officer in Balochistan, opted for Pakistan and stayed on till 1956. But the young Gopi Chand took the family to Delhi, where he studied and also worked to support his family. He did his master’s in Urdu with distinction and won a scholarship to do PhD. “Those four years gave me ample time to study the subject I had loved. When I had opted to do my master’s in Urdu, people said I had gone crazy studying a subject that was on its way out.”

Dr Gopi Chand is the author of more than 64 books – 12 in English, seven in Hindi and 45 in Urdu, which are highly in demand. He is busy completing his three books – on Urdu short stories and novels; a selection of his interviews published in various newspapers across the world, and a selection of letters written to him by friends and men of letters. “Written by prominent personalities, some of the letters, which will fill six volumes, are really amazing,” he says.

More than a dozen books and dissertation have been written on the author.

The titles of some of his books may reflect his interests and expertise: Hindustani qisson say makhuz Urdu masnawiyan, Iqbal ka funn, Amir Khusrau ka Hindavi kalaam, Urdu afsana, riwayat aur masail, Saniha-i-Karbala bataur shairi isti’ara, Usloobiyat-i-Mir, Hindustan ki Tehreek-i-Azadi aur Urdu Shairi, Karkhandari dialect of Delhi Urdu, Readings in literary Urdu prose, An anthology of Urdu short stories, Rajinder Singh Bedi: selected short stories, Krishan Chander: selected short stories, Urdu Language and Literature: Critical perspectives, Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature (6 volumes), etc.

He is a recipient of high literary awards, both national and international, in recognition of his services to literature, culture and education. The long list includes: Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Rajiv Gandhi Award for Excellence in Secularism, Ghalib Award for life time achievement and Canadian Academy of Urdu Language and Literature Award.