Dhakaiya Urdu

Dhakaiya Urdu
Sobbasi Language, Khosbasi Language, Nawab Family Language
Region	Old Dhaka
Ethnicity	Dhakaiyas
Era	16th century-present
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Central Zone Western Hindi Hindustani Urdu Dhakaiya Urdu
Writing system	Bengali script Urdu Alpha bet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
IETF	ur-u-sd-bd13

Hakim Habibur Rahmanwas one of the leading Urdu writers in Dhaka.

Dhakaiya Urdu,sometimes unofficially and mythically concocted referred to asSobbasi LanguageorKhosbasi Language,is a distinctBengalinizeddialect ofUrduthat is native toOld DhakabesideDhakaiya Kutti a dialect of Bangla,inDhaka,Bangladesh.It is being spoken by the city's Sobbas community,Khusbas community,Nawab Family,other native communities such as Shia community and aristocratic families. Sobbasi / Khosbasi is not the name of any language but the adjective and identifies some communities as referred byHakim Habibur Rahmanin Dhaka Pachas Baras Pahle. The usage of this language is gradually declining due to negative perceptions following it beingforced upon the people of erstwhile East Bengal.However, at present, with the patronage and sole efforts of the cultural and social activists of the Dhakaiya Urdu language group, Dhakaiya Urdu is rapidly blossoming and expanding again.Today, Dhakaiya Urdu is one of the two dialects of Urdu spoken in Bangladesh; the other one being the Urdu spoken by theBiharisandStranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh.

Features

The dialect differs fromStandard Urduas it takes a number of loanwords fromEastern Bengali,which the dialect's source of origin is geographically surrounded by. Theintonations,aspirations andtoneof the language is also shifted closer to Eastern Bengali thanHindustani phonology.It is described to be a fairly simpler language than Standard Urdu.

English	Standard Urdu	Dhakaiya Urdu	Eastern Bengali (Vangiya)
this	ye(یہ)	ei	e(এ)
he	vo(وہ)	uh	o(ও)
too/also	bhī(بھی)	bī	-o(-ও)
very	bahot(بہت)	bahot(بہت),/ k͟hūb (খুব)(خوب)||khub(খুব)
for what?	kis liye(کس لئے)	kā(h)e-ke liye (কায়কে লিয়ে)(کاہے کے لئے)||kisher laiga(কিসের লাইগা)
help	madad(مدد)	madad(مدد)/sāhāijo (সাহাইয্য)(ساہائجو)||shahayjjo(সাহায্য) /môdod(মদদ)
understand	samajhnā(سمجھنا)	samajhnā(سمجھنا)/būjhnā (বুঝনা)(بُوجھنا)||bujha(বুঝা)
use	istamāl/istemāl(استعمال)	istemāl(استعمال)/byabahār (ব্যবহার)(بیَبَہار)||bêbohar(ব্যবহার)
my/mine	merā(میرا)	merā(میرا)/ hāmrā (হামরা)(ھمرا )||amar(আমার)

Writing system

Dhakaiya Urdu currently does not have a standardised writing system as it traditionally formed thediglossicvernacular,withstandard Urduforming thecodified lectused for writing. Recently, Dhakaiya Urdu is being written in theBengali scriptand also in Urdu [Nastaliq ] script by organisations "Dhakaiya Movement", "Dhakaiya Urdu Zaban" [Dhakaiya Urdu Language]; "Dhakaiya Urdu Learning Centre" and "History of Urdu in Dhaka" aiming to preserve it.

History

The city ofJahangirnagar(now Dhaka) wasBengal Subah's capital in the mid-eighteenth century andUrdu-speaking merchants fromNorth Indiastarted pouring in. Eventually residing in Dhaka, interactions and relationships with theirBengalicounterparts led to the birth of a new Bengali-influenced dialect of Urdu.The descendants of these settlers came to be known asKhusbas(other names includedSukhbasandSubbas) which meant the happily settled. TheBaisand Barapanchayets,used to converse in this language.Their Urdu language also influenced the dialect of theBengali Muslimsin Old Dhaka city which came to be known as theDhakaiya Kuttiand vice versa. However,Abdul Momin Chowdhurydenied the contribution of Urdu as the source of this language. Because the language was not born yet.

The late 18th-century in Dhaka hosted the migration of Mirza Jan Tapish and other Urdu poets fromDelhimigrating to the urban hub after an invitation from Shams ad-Daulah, theNaib Nazim of Dhaka.Poetry and literature in Standard Urdu grew popularity in Dhaka with the presence of organisations such as theAnjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urduand the patronising of it by Dhaka's Nawabs, Sardars and Zamindars such asKhwaja Abdul Ghaniand Mir Ashraf Ali. The 19th-century poetMirza GhalibofAgrawas a close friend of Dhaka's poet Khwaja Haider Jan Shayek. The collaboration between Ghalib and Shayek was collected and compiled byHakim Habibur Rahman,a later Urdu poet of Dhaka, in his bookInshaye Shayek.Habibur Rahman was a prominent Dhakaiya physician and litterateur whose most famous books includeAsudegan-e-DhakaandDhaka Panchas Baras Pahle.He was the editor of Bengal's first Urdu magazine,Al-Mashriqin 1906. He later collaborated with Khwaja Adil in 1924 to found another monthly journal calledJadu.His works are celebrated for preserving Urdu,PersianandArabicliterature, compiling them into hisThulatha Ghusala.

Shortly after theBengali Language Movementof 1952, Urdu culture decreased significantly with many Urdu-speaking families switching to speaking Bengali to avoid controversy. During theBangladesh Liberation Warof 1971, a number of Urdu-speaking families subsequently migrated to Pakistan. As a result, the use of Urdu has become very limited to a few families and a community south of the Dhaka railway line. Furthermore, the new nation ofBangladeshdeemed their newly founded nation onBengaliculture, which would later alienate the other ethnolinguistic communities of the country.

Often described as a wealthy and closed-off community, speakers of the dialect honour the Dhakaiya Urdu poets of the past in privacy within theirmushairas.Other modern examples of usage include theUniversity of Dhaka's dwindling Urdu department as well as the Urdu sermons andIslamiclectures given in Dhaka.

Due toglobalizationin the culture and entertainment sector, manyHindiwords have entered the language today.

Nazir Uddin and Muhammad Shahabuddin Sabu, an associate professor of zoology at Savar Government College, released a Bengali-Dhakaiya Sobbasi bilingual dictionary published by Taqiya Muhammad Publications in 2021.Further Dhakaiya Urdu Jaban editorial board published anotherBangla to Dhakaiya Urduin February 2024.as updated version of the previous one. In another development social, language and cultural activists of Old Dhaka natives Nazir Uddin, Rafiqul Islam Rafique and Khawja Javed Hasan edited "Dhakaiya Urdu to Bangla]" dictionary published by"International Mother Language Institution",Government of Bangladesh.

Poets

These Dhakaiya poets wrote in Standard Urdu:

• Mirza Jan Tapish (d. 1814)
• Mahmud Azad
• Ghaffar Akhtar
• Agha Ahmad Ali(1839–1883)
• Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy(1834–1885)
• Khwaja Ahsanullah(1846–1901)
• Munshi Rahman Ali Tayesh (1823–1908)
• Nawab Syed Muhammad Azad (1850–1916)
• Khwaja Muhammad Afzal(1875–1940)
• Hakim Habibur Rahman(1881–1947)
• Reza Ali Wahshat (1881–1953)
• Syed Sharfuddin Sharf Al Hussaini(1876–1960)

Media

The language flourished in the media during the 20th century cinema.Khurshid AlamandSabina Yasminsang a song,Matiya Hamar Naam,in this dialect for theBangladeshi filmJibon Niye Juawhich released in 1975 after theIndependence of Bangladesh.

See also

• Dhakaiya Kutti
• Bengali Language Movement

Further reading

• Kaniz-e-Butool (2012)."Urdu".InIslam, Sirajul;Miah, Sajahan;Khanam, Mahfuza;Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.).Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh(Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust,Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.ISBN984-32-0576-6.OCLC52727562.OL30677644M.Retrieved1 October2024.

"Dhaka Fifty Years Ago" Translator Hashem Sufi

• Various Articles, videos etc. in Pioneer public groups "Dhakaiya Sobbasi Jaban" renamed as"Dhakaiya Urdu Jaban"[means Dhakaiya Urdu Language], "Dhakaiya Movement" and "Dhakaiya Urdu Learning Center".
• Dhaka Shahore Urdu Sangskrti[ Urdu Culture in Dhaka City] ISBN 984-8319-38-7, published in February 2006;authored by Rafiqul Islam Rafiq
• Bangal Mein Urdu: Wafa Rashedi,Hyderabad, Pakistan(1955)
• A History of Urdu Literature: TG Baily
• History of Urdu Literature: Rambabu Saxsina, Lucknow.
• Standard Urdu is the Mother Language of Dhakaiya Urdu.
• Dhakaiya Urdu Language:Nazir Uddin Dhakaiya