New Delhi: In the bustling heart of Old Delhi, Indian bookseller Mohammed Mahfooz Alam sits forlorn in his quiet store, among the last few selling literature in a language beloved by poets for centuries.
Urdu, spoken by many millions today, has a rich past that reflects how cultures melded to forge India’s complex history.
But its literature has been subsumed by the cultural domination of Hindi, struggling against false perceptions that its elegant Perso-Arabic script makes it a foreign import and a language of Muslims in the Hindu-majority nation.
“There was a time when, in a year, we would see 100 books being published,” said 52-year-old Alam, lamenting the loss of the language and its readership.
The narrow streets of Urdu Bazaar, in the shadow of the 400-year-old Jama Masjid mosque, were once the core of the city’s Urdu literary community, a center of printing, publishing and writing.
Today, streets once crowded with Urdu bookstores abuzz with scholars debating literature are now thick with the aroma of sizzling kebabs from the restaurants that have replaced them.
Only half a dozen bookstores are left.
“Now, there are no takers,” Alam said, waving at the streets outside. “It is now a food market.”
Urdu, one of the 22 languages enshrined under India’s constitution, is the mother tongue of at least 50 million people in the world’s most populous country. Millions more speak it, as well as in neighboring Pakistan.
But while Urdu is largely understood by speakers of India’s most popular language Hindi, their scripts are entirely different.
Alam says he can see Urdu literature dying “day by day.”
The Maktaba Jamia bookshop he manages opened a century ago. Alam took over its running this year driven by his love for the language.
“I have been sitting since morning, and barely four people have come,” he said gloomily. “And even those were college or school-going children who want their study books.”
Urdu, sharing Hindi’s roots and mingled with words from Persian and Arabic, emerged as a hybrid speech between those who came to India through trade and conquest — and the people they settled down among.
But Urdu has faced challenges in being viewed as connected to Islamic culture, a popular perception that has grown since the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in 2014.
Hard-right Hindu nationalists seeking to diminish Islam’s place in India’s history have opposed its use: in the past decade, protests have ranged from the use of Urdu in clothing advertisements to even graffiti.
“Urdu has been associated with Muslims, and that has hit the language too,” said Alam.
“But it is not true. Everyone speaks Urdu. You go to villages, people speak Urdu. It is a very sweet language. There is peace in it.”
For centuries, Urdu was a key language of governance.
Sellers first set up stores in the Urdu Bazaar in the 1920s, selling stacks of books from literature to religion, politics and history — as well as texts in Arabic and Persian.
By the 1980s, more lucrative fast-food restaurants slowly moved in, but the trade dropped dramatically in the past decade, with more than a dozen bookshops shutting down.
“With the advent of the Internet, everything became easily available on the mobile phone,” said Sikander Mirza Changezi, who co-founded a library to promote Urdu in Old Delhi in 1993.
“People started thinking buying books is useless, and this hit the income of booksellers and publishers, and they switched to other businesses.”
The Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library, which Changezi helped create, houses thousands of books including rare manuscripts and dictionaries.
It is aimed at promoting the Urdu language.
Student Adeeba Tanveer, 27, who has a masters degree in Urdu, said the library provided a space for those wanting to learn.
“The love for Urdu is slowly coming back,” Tanveer told AFP, adding that her non-Muslim friends were also keen to learn.
“It is such a beautiful language,” she said. “You feel the beauty when you speak it.”
Fading literature: Delhi’s famed Urdu Bazaar on last legs
https://arab.news/cmtru
Fading literature: Delhi’s famed Urdu Bazaar on last legs
- Urdu, spoken by many millions, has rich past that reflects how cultures melded to forge India’s complex history
- But its literature has been subsumed by the cultural domination of Hindi, struggling against false perceptions
Musk calls Trump’s big beautiful bill ‘a disgusting abomination’
- Musk left his formal role in the administration last week as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk on Tuesday amplified his criticism of the sweeping tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump has been pushing fellow Republicans in Congress to embrace, calling it a “disgusting abomination” that will increase the deficit.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” the billionaire Musk wrote in an X post. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
The broadside comes as Trump pressures Republicans in the Senate to approve the legislation he dubbed the “big, beautiful bill,” which has been passed in the House of Representatives.
Trump appointed Musk, the world’s richest person, to lead a government cost-cutting and efficiency drive, during which he upended several federal agencies but ultimately failed to deliver the massive savings he had sought.
Musk left his formal role in the administration last week as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end.
Trump administration moves to fast-track firings of federal workers for misconduct
- The proposal would allow agencies to refer misconduct cases to OPM instead of going through the traditional disciplinary process
President Donald Trump’s administration moved on Tuesday to make it easier to fire federal employees for misconduct, the latest step in a broader effort to overhaul the civil service and shrink the federal bureaucracy.
The US Office of Personnel Management published a proposed rule that would allow the office, which acts as the federal government’s human resources department, to direct other agencies to fire employees for conduct such as tax evasion, leaking sensitive information and refusing to testify in other workers’ disciplinary cases.
The rule would extend OPM’s existing power to designate job applicants as unsuitable for federal employment, to current federal employees, a change it said was necessary to hold government workers accountable to the public.
Federal workers have for decades been covered by an array of job protections, including the ability to contest firings by engaging in a lengthy administrative process.
The proposal would allow agencies to refer misconduct cases to OPM instead of going through the traditional disciplinary process. If OPM determines that removal of an employee is required, an agency would have five days to terminate them.
“Illogically, the government has far greater ability to bar someone from federal employment who has committed a serious crime or misconduct in the past than it does to remove someone who engages in the exact same behavior as a federal employee,” OPM said in the proposal.
The publication of the proposal kicked off a 30-day public comment period.
Since Trump’s second term began in January, the administration has moved aggressively to shrink the federal bureaucracy, including directing mass firings and layoffs and implementing changes to the civil service. Many of those policies have been met with court challenges and some have been temporarily blocked by judges.
OPM, which is closely linked to the White House, has played a key role in those efforts by attempting to give Trump more direct control of the federal workforce.
Many unions, Democrats and advocacy groups have said Trump’s various policies violate complex federal civil service and labor laws meant to regulate government employment and ensure that federal workers are insulated from political influence.
OPM on Tuesday said the policies agencies have followed for decades rely on overly cumbersome and restrictive procedures that protect misconduct.
“This arbitrary state of affairs seriously impairs the efficiency, effectiveness, and public perception of the Federal service,” the agency said.
Spain cancels contract for missiles built by Israeli subsidiary
MADRID: Spain has canceled a deal for anti-tank missile systems that were to be manufactured in Madrid by a subsidiary of an Israeli company, in a bid to move away from Israeli military technology, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
The decision will affect the license for 168 SPIKE LR2 anti-tank missile systems with an estimated value of 285 million euros ($325 million). The systems would have been developed in Spain by Pap Tecnos, a Madrid-based subsidiary of Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, according to local press.
“The goal is clear ... a total disconnection from Israeli technology,” government spokesperson Pilar Alegria said, adding the government is studying “the effects of the cancelation.”
Israel’s Defense Ministry referred questions on the decision to Rafael, which said it wasn’t aware of the cancelation. Pap Tecnos, located on the outskirts of Madrid, did not comment.
Spain approved the deal on Oct. 3, 2023, four days before an insurgent assault led by Hamas on southern Israel that sparked a devastating war in Gaza.
Authorities argued at the time that the systems used by the Spanish forces were obsolete and should be replaced with up-to-date versions like those used by allied armies.
Spain’s leftist government says it stopped exporting arms to Israel as of Oct. 2, 2023, but there were reports that some shipments slipped through.
The US late last year opened an investigation into whether NATO ally Spain denied port entry to at least three cargo vessels reportedly transporting US weapons to Israel.
Spain formally recognized a Palestinian state in May 2024 in a coordinated effort with Norway and Ireland.
A month later, Spain became the first European country to ask the top UN court, the International Court of Justice, permission to join a case mounted by South Africa that accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Macron to visit Meloni after rivalry creates tension on Ukraine, trade
- Macron is a fervent pro-European who has had a long rapport with Donald Trump
- Meloni is a nationalist with a strong transatlantic tilt who seems more ideologically aligned with the US president
PARIS/ROME: French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday, seeking to improve relations amid tensions between the two European leaders over Ukraine, trade and relations with the United States.
Macron is a fervent pro-European who has had a long rapport with Donald Trump, while Meloni is a nationalist with a strong transatlantic tilt who seems more ideologically aligned with the US president. They have advocated different — even competing — approaches to the new Trump era.
Meloni, whose country has a large trade surplus with the US, has sought to keep Europe aligned with the US, using the slogan “Make the West great again” in a meeting with Trump in Washington in April. Macron has pushed for the EU to take a more independent approach.
On the Russian war in Ukraine, Meloni has been skeptical about Macron’s “coalition of the willing” and a Franco-British plan put forward earlier this year to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement. Sending troops would be deeply unpopular in Italy.
Hostility flared publicly in recent weeks, with officials close to Macron and Meloni privately or openly criticizing their respective initiatives over Ukraine or trade.
Meloni was criticized in Italy for not traveling to Kyiv with Macron and the German, British and Polish leaders on May 10 and then for missing a call with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a summit in Albania a few days later.
After Meloni explained her absence by saying the meetings were about sending troops to Ukraine, her government was furious that Macron said publicly that the meetings were about a ceasefire and seemed to equate her justification with “Russian disinformation.”
French and Italian officials said Macron had taken the initiative to hold Tuesday’s meeting and sought to play down talk of a rift, saying the meeting and a working dinner would be an opportunity for Macron to show “respect” and “friendship.”
“The president is available to all of our European partners, whatever the political persuasion may be,” an Elysee official told reporters.
The Elysee said the two would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, the Mercosur trade deal and US tariffs, as well as industrial cooperation between the two countries, including Franco-Italian carmaker Stellantis, which appointed a new Italian chief executive last month.
Italian officials said the meeting was meant to “lay the foundations for a further strengthening of relations” and added that talks would also address the situation in the Middle East and Libya.
Both Italy and France are worried Russia might boost its presence in eastern Libya, to keep a foothold in the Mediterranean after Moscow’s ally President Bashar Assad was ousted in Syria in December.
“This Macron-Meloni meeting isn’t about rekindling Franco-Italian friendship. It’s about necessity, not nostalgia,” said Francesco Galietti of Rome-based consultancy Policy Sonar, saying the two capitals should find common ground on Libya “fast.”
French prosecutors treating Tunisian’s murder as suspected terrorism
- Hichem Miraoui was shot 5 times by his white neighbor last week, in what police believe was a racist killing
- It follows mounting concerns over hate crimes against Muslims in the country
LONDON: Prosecutors in France investigating the murder of a Tunisian man are treating the case as a suspected racist attack, The Times reported on Tuesday.
Hichem Miraoui, a 46-year-old hairdresser who had lived in France for 14 years, was shot five times on Saturday by his white neighbor, a 53-year-old named as Christophe B.
The involvement of counterterrorism prosecutors instead of criminal prosecutors in the alleged far-right killing is a first in France.
It follows mounting concerns over hate crimes against Muslims in the country after Malian man Aboubakar Cisse, 22, was stabbed to death outside a mosque in April.
In last week’s killing in the southern town of Puget-sur-Argens, a 25-year-old Turkish man was also shot but survived. The killer fled the scene by car but his partner alerted police, who arrested him.
Christophe B, a sports shooting enthusiast who carried gun permits, had earlier posted videos on social media declaring that he planned to kill foreigners.
He urged his compatriots to do the same, and in one video praised the late founder of France’s National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described the killing of Miraoui as a “racist act.” However, the minister was previously criticized for what anti-racism groups described as an inadequate response to Cisse’s murder.
Counterterrorism authorities were also questioned for failing to treat the Malian national’s killing as terrorism, with the investigation into the case being carried out by criminal prosecutors.
Retailleau on Tuesday visited the Tunisian Embassy in Paris to express solidarity with the community.
The Tunisian diaspora in France numbers more than 1 million people. More than 6 million Muslims reside in the country, about 10 percent of the population.
“Racism in France and elsewhere is a poison, and we see clearly that it is a poison which kills. Every racist act is an anti-French act,” Retailleau said.
Official government data shows that racist, xenophobic and anti-religious crimes rose by 11 percent in the country last year.
However, such crimes in France are also “vastly underreported” because “victims often don’t trust the police or the authorities,” said Jean-Marie Burguburu, chairman of the National Consultative Human Rights Commission.
