Jashn-e-Rekhta turns 10: Celebrating journey of struggles, success, and making Urdu mainstream

When the Rekhta Foundation launched its first Jashn-e-Rekhta in 2015, the idea was simple -- to bring Urdu out of the two-dimensional space of books and put it before people in all its lived, performed and pulsating richness.

A decade later, the festival has become one of India's largest cultural gatherings and a doorway through which an entire generation is discovering a language once thought distant, difficult or "not for them".

It all started with a website.

Recalling the beginnings ahead of the 10th anniversary edition of the Jashn-e-Rekhta from December 5-7 at the Baansera Park here, founder Sanjiv Saraf and creative director Huma Khalil traced the long and rewarding journey.

"We began with the Rekhta website. Much of our literary heritage wasn't accessible. It was locked in a script many couldn't read. So we put everything online, in Urdu, Devanagari, Roman and English, so anyone could reach it," Saraf told PTI in a virtual interview.

But soon, he said, the team realised that reading alone wasn't enough.

"Paper is two-dimensional. Urdu is a language that lives across art forms like qawwali, dastangoi, mushaira, ghazal, theatre. Reading can't give the full exposure or experience. Unless we brought it among the people, it would stay limited," he said.

Thus was born the Jashn-e-Rekhta, growing from humble origins at the India International Centre with limited audience to facing the "problem of plenty" now.

The modest first edition at IIC offered a medley of Urdu's many genres.

"And from that day to today, it just kept growing. Because the thirst was there for Urdu. It's a beautiful, refined, gentle language, and people of every age, gender, language feel drawn to it," Saraf added.

There was a time, Khalil added, when Urdu was restricted to scholars and academics. A common person in India felt alienated because they hadn't studied it in school, they didn't speak it at home, they thought it was too far from Hindi.

"And after 1947, with Pakistan adopting Urdu officially, the language got boxed into identity debates," Khalil said.

With Jashn-e-Rekhta, the Rekhta Foundation tried to change that perception by offering an accessible entry point.

"We wanted people to step out of intimidating books and difficult words, and simply experience the beauty of Urdu, to realise this is the same Hindustani we speak every day, just a little more elegant, a little more nuanced," she said.

The festival, she said, is meant to be "a window to the world of Urdu".

Space has been a persistent challenge.

From IIC, the festival moved to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, then to the National Stadium and to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium last year - each time outgrowing the venue as tens of thousands poured in.

The festival recorded about 15,000 visitors in its first edition. The number crossed one lakh last year.

"People got so attracted to it that managing the audience has remained a big challenge. The second challenge is managing funds. With an increasing number of artists, performances and stages, the cost kept going up," Saraf said.

The organisers introduced a ticketing model in 2023. But that hardly dampened the spirit of Urdu lovers as the crowds continued to grow.

"When something is free, you can't stop people at the gate. But we also wondered: will people still come? Will Urdu hold its charm when it isn't free?" Khalil said.

"For eight years people soaked in the environment, the beauty, the mood. They became addicted to it. When tickets came, no one objected. In fact, numbers went up," she added.

The husband-wife duo is hoping to invite a larger audience to Baansera park this year with the minimum ticket priced at Rs 600 for a day and the maximum amount going up to Rs 15,000 for a day.

The festival's charm is undeniable among the younger generation. However, its deeper impact lies elsewhere - making everyone feel Urdu belongs to them.

The Rekhta Foundation offers a website, online courses, publications, audio-visual archives, dictionaries, tools for poets, and spaces where new writers and poets emerged.

"Our aim is to remove scepticism around Urdu and show people its full universe," Khalil said.

She added that after each edition more young people turn to the Rekhta website to learn more about Urdu.

"Those who once attended Jashn-e-Rekhta as an audience now come back as poets and read their poetry at 'Nazm-e-Naubahar' mushaira," she said.

Spread over a little more than two days, this year's edition is a bouquet of conversations, poetry, plays and musical performances with more than 200 artists, writers and poets in attendance.

Sessions include "Zubaan Mazhab Nahi Hai" featuring former Supreme Court judge Sudhanshu Dhulia, underscoring that language has no religion, discussions on Urdu script and linguistic diversity.

Plays at the 10th Jashn-e-Rekhta include "Ek Lamha Zindagi", on the life and love of progressive writers Sajjad Zaheer and Razia Sajjad Zaheer, "Rang aur Noor: Urdu Shairon ke Filmi Shahkaar" by Khalil, and "Rooh-e-Majrooh", a musical drama celebrating the life and poetry of Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Rana Safvi, Pushpesh Pant and Tarana Hussain will be among the speakers at the festival, leading discussions on topics ranging from Urdu script to food and literature.

The festival will also feature musical performances by Sukhwinder Singh, Dhruv Sangari, Minu Bakshi, Vidya Shah, Rene Singh and Salim Sulaiman.

Some noted poets taking part in the festival are Wasim Barelvi, Vijendra Singh Parvaz, Hilal Fareed, Shariq Kaifi, Azhar Iqbal, along with young poets such as Abbas Qamar, Aisha Ayub, Ali Haider, Ameer Hamza Halbe, and Himanshi Babra Katib.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)