Learning Urdu By Agha Shahid Ali | Learning Urdu Sumary

Table of Contents

Introduction

‘Learning Urdu’ is a poem that is composed by Agha Shahid Ali, a Kashmiri American Muslim. In this poem, the poet talks about the partition of Pakistan and India or its effects on the people of both sides country. This partition divided the people as well as the harmony of the people. It reveals how the tragedy of the partition of 1947 affected not only the people but also the shared language and culture.

About Author

Agha Shahid Ali was an Indian American poet. He was also affiliated with the literary movement known as New Formalism in American poetry. Among his famous literary works include “The Country Without a Post”, “Rooms Are Never Finish”, “The Half Inch Himalayas”, and “A Nostaligst’s Map Of America”. He was awarded the “National Book Award 2001.” Their homes, places, languages, cultures everything. The division crept into the minds of people thus blinding them to all but hate.

Analysis Of Learning Urdu Poem

The poem begins with the image of a victim of the 1947 partition which divided Hindustan into two notions, India and Pakistan. The victim, who belongs to the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, is not alone and along with him comes Dogri, Stumbling.

“From a district near Jammu,
Dogri Stumbling through his Urdu
he comes, the victim of a Continent-broken
in two in nineteen forty, seven.”

The poet wanted to say that at that time when the partition took place there was Dogri Language spoken at that time. But after the division, this language was hatted by the people as this language was spoken by the people of Jammu who went to Pakistan. They started using this language to kill people and to abuse people. Partition was not a peaceful process, hundreds and thousands of people lost their lives to hatred. Partition was not just a geographical partition. Rather, it shredded the lives of people, their homes, places, languages, culture everything. The division crept into the mind of people thus blinding them to all but hate.

In the next stanza, the poet speaks about his loss and trauma. He is in an identity crisis. He no longer remembers or recognizes his home. His village has become just a ‘word’. Partition has done an irreparable damage to its existence. It is not important in which country his village lies now, after partition. It might have been merged into Pakistan or might have remained with India. In either case, the loss is similar and irreparable.

He lost his friends as they dissolved into bitter stanzas of enmity, while others dissolved into bitter stanzas of death.

“My memory belongs to the line blood
across which my friends dissolved
into bitter stanzas of some dead poet.”

The poet then talks about Mir and Ghalib two very prominent names of Urdu Literature. Language is intricately connected with culture. It is not immune. Our memories and experiences shape our relationship with a language. Violence and bloodshed, hatred and killings have smeared the relationship of victims with Urdu. Urdu which is often seen as the language of Muslims, too is suffering and dying. Partition has rendered it too homeless.

People might try to divide language between country and religion, but a language is universal. It does not belong to any geography or religion. Ghalib masquerading as a beggar shows this universality Ghalib, representing the entire Urdu Literature refuses to move to any side.

“Now remembers nothing while I find Ghalib
at the crossroads of language, refusing
to move to any side, masquerading
as a beggar to see my theatre of kindness.”

Conclusion

Thus the poem ‘Learning Urdu’ is about the partition of Pakistan and India. The Poet of this poem, Agha Shahid Ali mainly wants to know how scary and worse the partition was and how it killed the harmony of the people.