Twitter users start #shameUPSC hashtag campaign to protest exclusion of Arabic, Persian from UPSC during Congress-led UPA regime

The momentum is building to protest Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) decision to remove the classical languages--Arabic, Persian and Pali, from the civil services.

There are tweets about the importance of these languages apart.

The Twitterati forwarded and Re-tweeted (RTd) these messages, causing a stir on the internet.

The hashtags #shameUPSC & #restoreArabicPersianPaliinUPSC were initiated to protest the mindless move on social networking website, Twitter.

Historical documents including papers during the 1857 revolution against British are mostly in Persian. Legendary freedom fighters like Tatya Tope's communication is also in the language. Persian was also official language of princely states ruled by Hindu Rajas and Muslim kings [Nawabs].

Also, there is huge amount of literature in Persian in India. Legendary Indian poets like Bedil and Ghalib wrote in Persian. India has kept Persian in its original form. Pali is one of the oldest languages in India. There are old texts and Buddhist literature in Pali. Arabic is taught across India.

There are madarsas and Darul-Ulooms apart from departments of these languages in dozens of universities in India. There are Arabic-Persian Universities in India like Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti University in Lucknow which has come up recently and the Mazharul Haq Arabic Persian University in Bihar.

There are scores of other institutions too. The 'esteemed members' of UPSC board perhaps have no idea about the huge number of texts, manuscripts and literature in India in these languages.

Perhaps, a situation will come when we will be dependent on foreigners to translate our own works, and we won't be able to decipher them on our own.

Do you know all words that end with 'daar' are of Persian origin? The example is dunkan-dar, kiraye-dar.
Thousands of words like 'gul' [flower], aqalmand [intellect], dilkash [beautiful], khat [letter], aab [water], dil [heart], kitab [book], naan [bread], have come to us from Persian.

The movement aims at telling people the importance of these languages. Isn't Latin taught in Europe even today? Should we sever links to our past heritage? Earlier too UPSC tried to remove the languages in the early nineties. Now there is a fresh attempt.

Sadly, this is happening during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. The fact is that many people aren't aware of the heritage of nearly 1,000 years [many a millennia in the case of Pali]. We urge the President, the Prime Minister, the HRD ministry and Congress leaders to restore the languages.

The JNUSU led by Akbar Chawdhary also led a demonstration on the issue. The protesting students said that by this absurd yardstick, English, is also a foreign language.

Further, there are now growing voices against the controversial move that is hurting a large number of students.

If you want to be part of this movement. Do use the hashtags and tag politicians, important personalities, to inform them about your views. Force them to withdraw the whimsical decision, which shows badly on the members of UPSC who are supposed to know importance of our cultural heritage of thousands of years.

There have been protests on the ground. Now do act on internet as well.

#ShameUPSC
#restoreArabicPersianPaliinUPSC

See earlier post on this issue:
1. UPSC misuses autonomy, removes Arabic, Persian, Pali from civil services

See an important article:
1. The translations of Ramayana in Persian