Decoding Mirza Bedil — a poet

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 22

An international conference on the legacy of Mirza Bedil was held at Panjab University on Saturday. It was the first event of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) at Panjab University. The chief guest of the inaugural session was MJ Akbar, Union Minister of State for External Affairs. Akbar, while talking in English, stressed upon the importance of native languages, which are vanishing.

While admitting to the paradox of discussing Mirza in English, Akbar said languages like Bangla, Urdu, Sanskrit, Turkish, Persian and Arabic are being lost. He added, “We don’t realise but we use many words of Sanskrit, Turkish and Persian in our daily lives.” Comparing languages to a sea, he said they had no boundaries.

Akbar also discussed the impact of colonisation on various languages and how civil services officer in the British India were taught Latin and Greek. “The process of colonisation began and ended in India. The British conquered other countries with the help of India”.

PU Vice-Chancellor Arun K Grover said he wished to make the PU as the Chandigarh centre for the ICCR. He added that an auditorium, which had been under construction for two years, could serve for the same as it had a huge seating area, an exhibition arena and residential area too.

ICCR academic coordinator Akhlaque A Ahan informed that Bedil was born in Patna and brought the Persian poetry to the region. While a lot of history has been lost, Bedil was known to be the inspiration of many famous poets like Mirza Ghalib and Iqbal.

The day saw various talks about Bedil and the Indian knowledge tradition, his art, connection with the Central Asia and other aspects, which were presented by international scholars. In the evening, a ghazal session was held on Bedil’s works. The two-day event will end on Sunday.