'Urdu Hai Jiska Naam': The Wire's Urdu Festival on August 1 and 2
New Delhi: As part of the series of events to celebrate 10 years of The Wire, a two-day Urdu festival is being held at Jawahar Bhawan, New Delhi on August 1 and 2. The festival features discussions across a range of issues – from the history of Urdu and translation to Israel's violence in Gaza and meme culture – as well as a performance, mushaira and storytelling for children.
Stalls selling books, calligraphy and other merchandise will also be set up at the venue. You can also pick up some very special merchandise launched by The Wire, in celebration of this ten-year journey.
The festival opens at 4 pm on Friday (August 1) with a panel discussion on the history and legacy of Urdu, featuring renowned speakers Syeda Saiyidain Hameed (former chancellor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad), Peggy Mohan (author, Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia) and Ather Farouqui (general secretary, Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu Hind. Faiyaz Ahmad Wajeeh, the editor of The Wire Urdu, will be moderating the panel.
The evening will close with a very special performance – honouring the legacy of Daagh Dehlvi with narrative and ghazal, presented by Shivangini Yaeshu Yuvraj and Ashhar Haque. They will be accompanied by Ishaan Sharma on tabla and Tanish Dholpuri on sarangi.
The next day (Saturday, August 2) opens at 11 am with a panel discussion on language, writing, ownership and identity. Former executive editor of The Wire Urdu and festival curator Mahtab Alam will be in conversation with Rakhshanda Jalil (author and translator) and Suhail Anjum (journalist and writer). This will be followed by a presentation on Urdu and meme culture by Nasheet Shadani, who founded the popular Instagram page 'Ishq Urdu', moderated by The Wire's multimedia producer Minal Saeed Khan.
We reconvene after a break for a short film screening at 2 pm. The film, Zabaan, is based on a story by K.A. Abbas.
At 2:30 pm, The Wire's senior editor Arfa Khanum Sherwani will be joined by an eminent panel of speakers – Vivek Katju (former secretary, Ministry of External Affairs), Zoya Hasan (professor emerita, Jawaharlal Nehru University), Sabika Abbas (poet and rights activist) and Siddharth Varadarajan (Founding Editor, The Wire) – to talk about Israel's ongoing atrocities in Gaza, and how India and the world should respond to this moment.
A discussion on translation in and from Urdu will follow, moderated by Syed Kashif (translator and writer). Arjumand Ara (academic and translator), Rana Safvi (author and translator) and Shubham Mishra (urban planner and translator) will talk about their work, the intricacies of language and translation, and much more.
Two parallel events will follow – a storytelling session for children by Ashhar Haque, and an open discussion with Meenakshi Tewari, Deputy Editor of The Wire Hindi, on the links between Hindi and Urdu, how our everyday spoken language has and hasn't changed, and the relationships we share with the languages around us.
The event will conclude with a mushaira, featuring well-known poets Farhat Ehsas, Alam Khursheed, Noman Shauque, Aleena Itrat Rizvi and Moid Rasheedi.
Entry is free, and we hope you will all be able to join us in this celebration of language and culture. We look forward to seeing you there!
This article went live on July twenty-eighth, two thousand twenty five, at forty-seven minutes past five in the evening.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
