Urdu is an international language and is spoken as first language by 70 million people and as second language by more than 200 million people, predominantly in Pakistan and India. It is the official and national language of Pakistan also officially recognized or scheduled in the constitution of India. Significant speech communities exist in the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, United States of America, Saudi Arabia as well. There is also Urdu is spoken and understood in parts of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Fiji, Germany, Mauritius, Nepal, Norway, Sweden, Oman, Qatar, South Africa, Thailand etc. According to research done in 2021 estimates Urdu is the 21st most spoken first language in the world. Ethnologies 2018 estimates Urdu is the 10th most widely spoken language in the world with 270 million total speakers, including those who speak it as second language. Besides Pakistani and Indian universities Urdu is also taught in various international universities including University of Oxford, University of Washington, University of Chicago, University of Virginia, Venice University, Italy, Manchester Metropolitan University, seven universities of Egypt and many others.
Urdu is also gaining popularity in Russia and there are number of scholars and researchers who are doing excellent efforts to promote Urdu in Russia and to bring two very important countries closer. Recently first ever Urdu Russian Dictionary was launched by Uzbek scholar Dr. Tashmirza Khalmirzaev. It was described by analysts a new era dawning in terms of Pakistan’s relationship with Russia and other Central Asian countries.
Dr. Tashmirza Khalmirzaev is a renowned Uzbek scholar, former diplomat and a sitara e Imtiaz recipient in 2011 for rendering valuable services for the Urdu language. He did his Ph.D. in Urdu from Moscow University. He frequently visited Pakistan and is a well-known figure among Pakistani intellectuals. He also served as the Director of the Soviet Culture Centre in Karachi for several years. He describes Pakistan as his second homeland. He is great admirer of Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Another highly admired and important name who served and dedicated herself for the of promoting Urdu is Russia a scholar of par excellence Dr. Ludmila Vasilyeva whose services in this regard part of history now and her name would be written in golden letters. She is highly learned and her name was introduced to me by Sir Tahir who is a highly learned name and his services to promote Urdu are worth mentioning and need to be recognized at national level. Dr. Ludmila is highly learned and distinguished professor of literature at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. The Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow which was established in 1755 and has over 40,000 students enrolled at various disciplines. Dr. Ludmila Vasilyeva translated many books into Urdu from Russian language and from Urdu to Russian language. She has also done a lot of work on Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Altaf Hussain Hali the renowned Pakistani Urdu poets. According to her the History of Urdu in Russia is more than a hundred years old, and it was promoted to the maximum extent during the period of Soviet Union i.e for about 60 to 70 years. During this period there were two publication houses in the USSR which used to publish only Urdu books, which are however later closed down. During the Soviet period a lot of work was done on translations from Urdu to Russian and from Russian to Urdu. The number of readers of Urdu literature was very large and time for Urdu broadcast was very significant, most of them closed down after disintegration of Soviet Union. However, in recent years promotion of Urdu was being revived now and in three Universities of Moscow and St Petersburg, Urdu is taught as foreign language and students pay attention to Urdu education and Urdu broadcasts on FM will be started soon. In no other language there have been as much translation of Urdu literature as in Russian language. Another significant progress was launch of Russian language book containing translation of Faiz’s book in Russian language in January 2022. This great work has been done at the Eastern Culture of the Institute of Oriental studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Allama Iqbal was a great philosopher, poet, thinker and politician of Pakistan and who gave the idea of separate homeland for the Muslims of Subcontinent. His work was greatly admired by scholars from Moscow, Dushanbe, Samarkand and other centers of oriental studies in the Soviet Union. Mr. A. Kromesky (1871-1942) highly appreciated the work, “The development of Metaphysics in Persia” which was the research thesis of Allama Iqbal. A. Barannikov an expert in eastern philosophy and head of the Institute of Oriental Studies (IOS) mentioned Iqbal’s name in the context of the modern Indian literature. Later on, Prominent Soviet and Russian scholars such as N. Anikeyev, L. Gordon Polinskaya, Y, Gankovsky, N. Glebov and others have written extensively on Pakistan’s National Poet and Philosopher.
There is a greater need to do further efforts to bring intellectual communities of both the countries to pave the way for better understanding, bridging the gap and to do serious efforts to enhance bilateral relations and close ties. I hope these efforts would bring positive results and would be fruitful in bringing betterment in the lives of people of both the countries and Pakistan and Russia could play a better role in bringing peace, stability and congenial atmosphere for larger cooperation and removing barriers for justice and equality in the world.