Jashn-e-Rekhta: Celebrating Urdu despite its consistent decline in India

Events like Jashn-e-Rekhta have done much to revive popular and elite interest in the language, but unless the younger generation embraces it, Urdu will continue to languish on the margins

Jashn-e-Rekhta, an organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Urdu language, its literature and culture, recently concluded its 5th edition in Delhi last week. Jashn-e-Rekhta, which literally means ‘the festival of Urdu’, has been extremely successful in attracting huge audiences to its events built around Urdu. The popularity of the event has led to the establishment of another organization, Rang-e-Rekhta, curated by the Rekhta Foundation, which takes the success of Urdu to other cities. So far it has held three events in Chandigarh, Jaipur and Gurugram.
 
This apparent success of Urdu also raises an important question about