The Panjab University’s Urdu Department has objected to its proposed merger with other foreign tongues, asserting that Urdu is not a foreign language but an Indian one like Hindi and Punjabi. The university recently proposed making the Urdu Department part of the School of Foreign Languages to be set up after merging departments of Russian, French, German, Chinese and Tibetan languages, said Urdu Department coordinator Ali Abbas on Saturday. A “wrong impression” is being created by certain elements that Urdu is a foreign language”, said Mr. Abbas, asserting that “it is far from the truth”. “... or the Urdu Department may be allowed to function independently as per the present arrangements,” he wrote. Before Partition, the Urdu Department was a major department of the then University of Punjab, Lahore, which was set up in 1882.

Source: The Hindu September 29, 2019 00:00 UTC