A teacher who taught free Urdu to 14 thousand people in India

I am 76 years old now. I have been taking Urdu classes for more than 40 years. So far, I have taught more than 14 thousand non-Urdu scholars to read and write Urdu. I have not taken a single penny from anyone in return for it till date.’

This is Muhammad Qamar Hayat, a resident of Nagpur in the Indian state of Maharashtra, who has been teaching Urdu to non-Urdu-speaking people free of charge in an institution called Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh located in Jhansi Rani Chowk Sita Bardi in the city since 1979.

Qamar Hayat told Independent Urdu that 75 percent of the people who come to him to learn Urdu are non-Muslims who speak Marathi.

Since 1979, I have taught 108 batches to read and write Urdu. I have a passion for teaching Urdu that never lets me get tired. My class is for one hour but by two hours I am tired and neither are my students sitting in front.

‘I have a habit that I never sit and teach. Several times he suffered from fever, headache and other common ailments but never stopped taking classes.’

Asked how it was possible to teach Urdu in a city that houses the headquarters of the hard-line Hindu ideological organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and is considered its stronghold.

Qamar Hayat replied: ‘People feel a little strange when they hear the name RSS, but we have people of all religions living in Nagpur and that too in a very friendly environment. No one has ever objected to my teaching Urdu. I have been provided a place for this work by the majority class here. I believe that if Urdu has been harmed, then the Urdu people themselves are responsible for it.

The official language of Nagpur is Marathi. But Marathi speaking people here like Urdu very much. They want to learn this language. It is our misfortune that we do not pay much attention to teaching Urdu.’

Origin of Urdu classes

Born in Nagpur in 1945, Muhammad Qamar Hayat was appointed as a teacher in the government school ‘Corporations Urdu School’ in 1973 and retired in 2003.

While teaching in the Corporations Urdu School, friendly ceremonies were established with non-Urdu scholars. He often told me that we also want to learn Urdu language, but no one teaches. I realized that it was my duty to do something.

Dr. Mansha Rahman Khan Mansha was a great poet of Urdu language. He was well known in Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh, a famous institution of Marathi language established in Nagpur. They gave me a place there and I started Urdu classes which, Alhamdulillah, are still going on today.

In the first batch of 1979, 180 people took admission. I was very nervous about how I could teach 180 people at once. I told Dr. Manshaur Rahman Khan and Mohammad Khizr Hayat that I felt nervous to teach such a large number of people together.

He asked me to keep in mind that none of these 180 people know Urdu and if anyone knows Urdu, it is me. This gave me a lot of motivation and I started teaching and never looked back.’

Qamar Hayat says that he has adopted a unique method of teaching Urdu language which is not found in any book.

To save the students from boredom, I also tell Urdu poems and jokes in the middle. By doing this, my students don’t even know how an hour and a half or two hours have passed. I conduct a three-month course and within these three months an aspiring student learns to read and write Urdu easily.’

Qamar Hayat says that the poems he recites in front of his students promote national unity and mutual brotherhood. For example

Learn to do everything with love
Learn to erase human suffering

Win is the goal, so win hearts
Learn to attack the enemy too

(Hamid Nagpuri)

Urdu language teacher Qamar Hayat has 27 such registers which contain the details of all those who have learned Urdu from him since 1979 till date.

A good number of those who learn Urdu from them are engineers, doctors, lawyers, government officers, police personnel and people working in private companies.

Qamar Hayat says that he found a change in those learning Urdu that they start treating each other with great politeness and respect.

‘I was motivated after every batch because of the passion and interest of the learners. It never occurred to me that I should stop taking these classes.

When someone asks me what is the difference between Hindi and Urdu, I tell them that Urdu people see dreams and Hindi people dream. The only difference is the dream and the dream, everything else is the same.’

Some Memories, Some Talks: In Qamar Hayat’s own words

The series of taking Urdu classes had entered the 14th year. A woman, who was a government officer, came to me and said that you are not bored teaching the same subject for 14 years. Are you not propagating your dharma i.e. Islam under its guise?

I told the lady officer that I had no answer except this two-stanza poem.

The politicians should know what their duty is
My message is love wherever it goes

(Moradabadi’s liver)

I told them that I am giving a message of love and brotherhood in the guise of Urdu. Now it is up to you how you take this message. My aim is to promote Urdu. Because it is the language of India.

A woman who wanted to learn Urdu once told me that ‘Urdu is the language of Pakistan.’

I asked, ‘How is that?’

His answer was ‘because it is the official language of Pakistan.’

I said, ‘Urdu was born in the Deccan, grew young in Delhi and then spread to many parts of the world. We should be proud that the official language of Pakistan is Urdu, born and raised in India. It is wrong to say that it is the language of Pakistan.

I also told him that before the partition of India, Urdu was the language of people belonging to all religions, but after the partition of India, this language became a victim of politics. Due to this politics, the language was associated with a particular religion, but even today, the finance minister presenting the budget in the Parliament of India starts his speech with Urdu language poetry. Every three to four minutes he recites a poem.

Sanjay Meshram, assistant editor of the Marathi language newspaper ‘Lokmat’ based in Pune, Maharashtra, learned Urdu from me. He learned so well that he translated a book of Pakistani poet Parveen Shakir from Urdu to Marathi.

‘I also taught Urdu to two women who were judges in local courts. I asked him what was the reason for learning Urdu, and his answer was that we have issues related to the marriage of Muslims. After seeing the marriage certificate, we felt that Urdu should also be learned. Both learned to read and write Urdu very well.

A journalist of a Hindi newspaper once asked me why you don’t teach Urdu in Devanagari. I told him that my aim is to preserve the Urdu script. I can teach urdu in hindi but if i do that my main purpose will die.

A few years ago, the police department here made it mandatory for the investigating police officers to learn Urdu so that they could read Urdu writing found in someone’s pocket or possession. I was called by the Commissioner of Police and asked to teach Urdu to 40 officers. I taught them all Urdu within three months.

‘Then the police commissioner called me and gave me some money. I refused saying that I don’t take money for teaching Urdu. He told me that this money came from the government. We can’t keep it so you have to take it. Under duress, I accepted that money.’

Effects of covid

While every aspect of life has been affected due to the corona virus, Qamar Hayat’s Urdu classes also could not escape from being affected. Although regular classes have been closed since last year, Qamar Hayat continues his mission in one way or another.

‘I am not sitting idle and silent during Covid. I lead people on the phone and I get many calls on a daily basis. There are some people who call me to correct their pronunciation to get into Bollywood. I invite such people to my house and train them.

“I will soon talk to the organizers of Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh and restore normal Urdu classes. I hope more people will come forward and do the work of teaching Urdu.’