Hyderabad: A memorandum was submitted to Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday, February 25, regarding the admissions for PhD in Urdu language at Osmania University.
The memorandum was signed by a group of retired professors and social activists who also requested the chief minister to look into the preservation of Records of ICSSR-SCR at Osmania University and restore it through digitalisation for future researchers.
According to retired professors and social activists, authorities at Osmani University are excusing themselves for not getting guides in Urdu, which the memorandum claims to be a total lie.
“The Osmania University, which has taken pride in offering various courses, including professional courses in Urdu since 1918, is now struggling to find qualified guides for research. Additionally, the University authorities are attempting to demolish important historical records of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana without digitizing them, which would be invaluable to research scholars across various subjects. Therefore, the immediate intervention of the Hon’ble Chief Minister is urgently required to address these two critical issues on a priority basis,” the memorandum read.
Sorry state of Urdu dept in Osmania University
In 2022, when the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government was in power, Siasat.com carried a story on the sorry state of affairs of the Urdu Department of this University. The article shed light on the deficiency in Urdu PhD guides and not a single admission for a PhD has been made since 2018.
It stated that the Urdu department was running through temporary teaching staff in the absence of a permanent professor or assistant professor.
Preserve Urdu in Telangana
A month ago, a symposium on ‘Preservation of Urdu in Telangana’ was held which discussed the current state and the future of the Urdu language in Telangana.
Prominent figures like Dr Qutubuddin Quadri, a psychiatrist, and Aziz Pasha, former ex-Rajya Sabha MP, were also called in as special guests. The discussion commenced with the chief editor of the Urdu newspaper Gawah Dr Syed Fazil Hussain Parvez praised the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 for recommending instruction in the students’ mother tongue till grade five.
“Urdu is the second official language of the state but what are its legal implications? Can you file an FIR in Urdu? Can you file an affidavit with the High Court in Urdu?” he asked while urging the Urdu Academy to undertake the task of publishing books aligned with the academic curriculum to ensure students build a strong foundation in the language.
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