IN the modern age, internet has become the latest, fastest, easiest, the least expensive and the most reliable source of incorrect information.
At least it is true when it comes to Urdu language and literature. Sometimes online information on Urdu language and literature can be termed nothing but ridiculous.
Take, for example, Wikipedia’s category of ‘Dialects of Urdu’. It lists four pages, namely “Urdu, Dakhini, Hyderabadi Urdu, Rekhta”. It is a shockingly incorrect piece of information that reeks of utter lack of knowledge. But the fallout can be devastating as it must have been copied down numerous times and many “online experts” (read: novices who think only they have heard of Wikipedia) proudly copy and paste the information to kindly let illiterate and unsuspecting folks like this writer know how many dialects of Urdu there are.
A dialect is “any distinct variety of a language, especially one spoken in a specific part of a country or other geographical area”, wrote P.H. Matthews in his Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. Victoria Fromkin, a renowned American linguist, wrote in her book An Introduction to Language that “dialects are mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systematic ways” (page 401, 5th edition). She says that these differences may be lexical, phonological, syntactic and semantic.
But most dialects differ mainly in pronunciation or local vocabulary, though some of them cannot be easily “mutually intelligible” and be extremely difficult to understand for the speakers of the other dialects of the same language. What makes it more complex is the fact that a dialect may have varieties and they may be subdivided into sub-dialects, too.
As for Urdu’s dialects, according to real experts, dialects of Urdu are: Khari boli, Brij bhasha, Haryani or Haryanvi, Mewati, Bhojpuri, Bundeli or Bundelkhandi, Kannauji or Qannauji, Marwari, Purabi, Dhundari and some others. In fact, the topic of Urdu’s dialects is quite vast and there are many other dialects that need to be discussed at length (maybe some other day.) But today this piece would be restricted to a long poem written in Urdu and Dhundari.
The poem, titled ‘Masnavi majm’a-ul-lisaan’, subtitled ‘Jang nama-i-Mohangarh’, and composed by Mohammad Ismail Khan Muhkam, is in Urdu but many couplets are in Dhundari, a Rajasthani dialect of Urdu. Interestingly, some parts are in other languages and dialects too, such as Punjabi, Persian, Pashto, Mewati, and Purabi. A few lines are in English as well.
The poem describes the events of the year 1267 Hijri (1850-51 AD) and also mentions the battle of Mohini or Mohangarh that took place in 1851. Mohangarh was a town east of Tonk, Rajasthan. The manuscript of the poem was in possession of Prof Hafiz Mahmood Khan Sherani (1880-1946), one of the most respected (and feared) scholars of Urdu. The manuscript was given to Punjab University Library. But his grandson, Prof Mazhar Mahmood Sherani, found two more manuscripts and edited the poem with the help of all three manuscripts. It has now been published by Lahore’s Majlis-i-Taraqqi-i-Adab.
Prof Mazhar Mahmood Sherani has mentioned in his intro that Urdu had indeed been influenced by the Rajasthan dialects during its development because of Rajasthan’s vicinity to Delhi and the areas of Muslim strongholds. But what hinders the study of this historical development, according to him, is the lack of written literature in Rajasthan’s dialects and the lack of knowledge about these dialects on the part of Urdu’s scholars. Since the Sheranis belonged to the former Princely State of Tonk in Rajasthan, they are well-versed with these dialects and Prof Mazhar has edited this work in his usual scholarly fashion and has also added a glossary that explains the words from dialects into standard Urdu.
Prof Dr Mazhar Mahmood Sherani is a scholar of Urdu and Persian in his own right and owes to Hafiz Mahmood Sherani, his eminent grandfather, only the knack for languages and literatures. But, apparently, he has inherited a knack for researching Urdu’s regional varieties and dialects, as the senior Sherani is famous for his thesis on Urdu’s origin that says Urdu was born in Punjab.
Prof Mazhar Sherani holds a PhD and had been teaching Persian and Urdu in some colleges and at GC University, Lahore. He had also edited, along with a team of scholars, a Persian dictionary in four volumes. An author of several books and research articles, he is a true heir to his grandfather, one of the most prominent scholars of Urdu.
So it seems that people were more aware of Urdu’s dialects some 168 years ago when this poem was written than it appears from looking at what the internet has to tell you about Urdu’s dialects.
Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2018
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