On the Urdu versus Bangla Dichotomy

On 20 November 2022, the West Bengal (WB) branch of the Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind) in Kolkata organised an education conference. Its purpose was to press for mainly one demand—to provide facilities for teaching the Bangla language in Urdu-medium government schools on a par with state-run and private Bengali-medium schools.

With this demand, it has championed the cause of strengthening the communal bond in a genuinely unique manner for a language organisation—by showing respect and value for the regional language. Language and literature are the best tools to become integral to the regional culture and identity. To send children to Urdu-medium schools as a compulsion is different from doing it as an option, and the two should not be conflated.