専門書店も激減 衰退するウルドゥー語文学

【ニューデリーＡＦＰ＝時事】インド・オールドデリーのバザールの本屋に、店主のモハメド・マフフーズ・アラムさん（５２）がさびしげに座っている。ここは、ウルドゥー語の本を販売する数少ない書店の一つだ。（写真はオールドデリーのウルドゥー語書店）
　アラムさんは今年、ウルドゥー語を愛する気持ちから、約１００年前に開業した書店「マクタバ・ジャミア」の経営を引き継いだ。
　インド憲法で正式に認定された２２の言語の一つであるウルドゥー語を母語とするインド人は少なくとも５０００万人。さらに、数百万人が非母語として話すことができ、隣国パキスタンの国語でもある。
　ウルドゥー語は詩人たちにも何世紀にもわたり、愛されてきた。
　しかし、ウルドゥー語文学はヒンディー語の文化的勢力に圧倒されている。さらに、アラビア文字やペルシャ文字から派生した独自の表記を使うウルドゥー語は外国からの輸入文化であり、イスラム教徒の言葉であるという誤った認識にも苦しめられている。
　アラムさんは「（ウルドゥー語の）書籍が年１００冊出版される時代もあった」と話し、ウルドゥー語文学とその読者が減少している現状を嘆いた。
　アラムさんの書店があるウルドゥー・バザールは、約４００年前に建てられたモスク「ジャーマ・マスジッド」のほど近くにある。
　バザールにはかつてウルドゥー語書店が軒を連ね、オールドデリーのウルドゥー文学コミュニティーの中心かつ、印刷、出版、執筆の中心となっていた。
　だが、狭い通路はいまや、書店に入れ替わり出店した飲食店から漂う、焼きたてのケバブの香りで満ちている。
　現在も営業するウルドゥー語書店は５軒ほどしかない。
　アラムさんは、ウルドゥー文学が「日ごと衰退している」のを感じると言う。
　暗い表情で「朝から座っているが、来店したのはわずか４人だ」「しかもその４人も、勉強のための本を求める大学生や高校生だった」と話した。
　「ウルドゥー語はイスラム教徒と結び付けられてきた。これも衰退に影響した」
　「だがそれは誤解だ。だれでもウルドゥー語を使う。村々に行けば、村人はウルドゥー語を話している。とても素晴らしい言語で、穏やかな言葉だ」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/11/22-18:39）

In the bustling heart of Old Delhi, Indian bookseller Mohammed Mahfooz Alam sits forlorn in his quiet store, among the last few selling literature in a language beloved by poets for centuries.
Urdu, spoken by many millions today, has a rich past that reflects how cultures melded to forge India's complex history.
But its literature has been subsumed by the cultural domination of Hindi, struggling against false perceptions that its elegant Perso-Arabic script makes it a foreign import and a language of Muslims in the Hindu-majority nation.
There was a time when, in a year, we would see 100 books being published, said 52-year-old Alam, lamenting the loss of the language and its readership.
The narrow streets of Urdu Bazaar, in the shadow of the 400-year-old Jama Masjid mosque, were once the core of the city's Urdu literary community, a centre of printing, publishing and writing.
Today, streets once crowded with Urdu bookstores abuzz with scholars debating literature are now thick with the aroma of sizzling kebabs from the restaurants that have replaced them.
Only half a dozen bookstores are left.
Now, there are no takers, Alam said, waving at the streets outside. It is now a food market.
- Dying 'day by day' -
Urdu, one of the 22 languages enshrined under India's constitution, is the mother tongue of at least 50 million people in the world's most populous country. Millions more speak it, as well as in neighbouring Pakistan.
But while Urdu is largely understood by speakers of India's most popular language Hindi, their scripts are entirely different.
Alam says he can see Urdu literature dying day by day.
The Maktaba Jamia bookshop he manages opened a century ago. Alam took over its running this year driven by his love for the language.
I have been sitting since morning, and barely four people have come, he said gloomily. And even those were college or school-going children who want their study books.
Urdu, sharing Hindi's roots and mingled with words from Persian and Arabic, emerged as a hybrid speech between those who came to India through trade and conquest -- and the people they settled down amongst.
But Urdu has faced challenges in being viewed as connected to Islamic culture, a popular perception that has grown since the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in 2014.
Hard-right Hindu nationalists seeking to diminish Islam's place in India's history have opposed its use: in the past decade, protests have ranged from the use of Urdu in clothing advertisements to even graffiti.
Urdu has been associated with Muslims, and that has hit the language too, said Alam.
But it is not true. Everyone speaks Urdu. You go to villages, people speak Urdu. It is a very sweet language. There is peace in it.
- 'Feel the beauty' -
For centuries, Urdu was a key language of governance.
Sellers first set up stores in the Urdu Bazaar in the 1920s, selling stacks of books from literature to religion, politics and history -- as well as texts in Arabic and Persian.
By the 1980s, more lucrative fast-food restaurants slowly moved in, but the trade dropped dramatically in the past decade, with more than a dozen bookshops shutting down.
With the advent of the internet, everything became easily available on the mobile phone, said Sikander Mirza Changezi, who co-founded a library to promote Urdu in Old Delhi in 1993.
People started thinking buying books is useless, and this hit the income of booksellers and publishers, and they switched to other businesses.
The Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library, which Changezi helped create, houses thousands of books including rare manuscripts and dictionaries.
It is aimed at promoting the Urdu language.
Student Adeeba Tanveer, 27, who has a masters degree in Urdu, said the library provided a space for those wanting to learn.
The love for Urdu is slowly coming back, Tanveer told AFP, adding that her non-Muslim friends were also keen to learn.
It is such a beautiful language, she said. You feel the beauty when you speak it.