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Around The World :
Why Hindus are learning Arabic
There is a sudden interest among Indians to learn Arabic and among
the 88 students following a course at the University of Mumbai’s leafy
Kalina campus, 15 are Hindus.
They are mostly from the professional class - doctors, engineers,
businessmen and event managers - who earlier did not have even a
fleeting acquaintance with the language in which the Koran was revealed
1,400 years ago.
Apart from the Koran and the Hadith (the Prophet’s traditions), all
those exotic tales of medieval rulers who lorded over the sandy lands of
Arabia and other pieces of fascinating literature that Indians have read
in translations, are originally in Arabic.
One student who lives in a Muslim dominated area says, “I stay in
Mumbra, a Muslim-dominated area, where I often hear the azaan and the
mullah’s rendition of the Koran. I felt sorry as I couldn’t understand a
word and gradually developed an affinity to the language.” He can now
read and write rudimentary Arabic.
Apparently, curiosity about the Koran has drawn many to the Arabic
class. A saree clad event management executive at a top-end hotel in
Mumbai, always wanted to know what the Koran, one of the divine books,
tried to convey.
“As I read the Koran in translation,” she says, “my appetite to
understand it only increased. I decided to read it in Arabic as a
translation can never match the flavour of the original.” Her parents
were initially opposed to the idea of her joining the Arabic class. But
not everyone attends this class because of any particular fascination
for Islam or its holy scriptures.
As a child, another student says he was hooked on to Alif Laila (The
Arabian Nights). “I always thought Laila was a female character’s name.
Now I know it actually means night in Arabic,” he says. Chaudhari and
his wife Vidya Sarode, also an engineer, now try to converse in Arabic.
“We actually fight in Arabic,” says Vidya. She asks their Arabic
teacher Shafique Sheikh, “Sir, tell me the equivalent of ‘shut up’ in
Arabic.” Sheikh says jovially, “No, you will misuse it and direct it at
your husband.” Then he goes on to explain, “Shut up in Arabic is uskut.”
- Roving Eye |
