/ARTS WEEKLY/INDIA: Computerisation Threatens Urdu Calligraphy

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sudeshna Banerjee

NEW DELHI, May 7 2003 (IPS) - Saba Zaidi, a student of fine arts, dreams of being a good calligrapher of Urdu, Arabic and Persian, but she knows there are few patrons left for this ancient art of writing with style.

Worse, computers have almost completely replaced the work of calligraphers in the publishing world.

”If it takes 100 U.S. dollars to publish a book with manual calligraphy, it takes just 20 dollars to do the job in computers. Nobody would like to waste money or time in publishing by using traditional calligraphy,” says Nafiz Ahmed, an Urdu-language journalist.

”So it is but natural if ‘kitabat’ (calligraphy used in publishing) is getting phased out," says Nafiz Ahmed, an Urdu journalist.

Ahmed, who is in charge of the Urdu wire service of the United News of India (UNI), a major Indian news agency, recalls how knowing calligraphy was once a matter of pride for many Indians just a generation ago.

There was mass appreciation for the art. The last signs of beautiful calligraphic etchings can be seen on the marbles and walls of the Taj Mahal at Agra, outside the Indian capital, and many other beautiful monuments in India and over in Pakistan, where Urdu is the national language.

Many historical inscriptions, manuscripts, monuments, metal tablets, jewellery, weapons and woven textiles bear beautiful traditional calligraphy. During the Mughal and and pre-Mughal Islamic period in India, every empire had its own style of calligraphy. It was a style that changed with every period.

It was an effective replacement for art that uses images – which Islam frowns upon. In fact, calligraphy has been the only means of intellectual and creative outburst for many. Calligraphers would draw inspiration from flowers, birds or other motifs to decorate anything from certificates to buildings with stylised letters verses from the holy Koran.

Abdul Huq Amanat Khan, who was the chief architect of Taj Mahal, is still remembered as one of the greatest calligraphers of all times.

As Waseem Ahmed, calligraphy instructor at Delhi’s Urdu Academy, where Zaidi is a student, aptly puts it: "Calligraphy is like the beautiful attire that can change one’s entire personality."

But the sad part is that today,. the art of ‘khattat’ (artistic calligraphy) and ‘kitabat’ are dying.

"While ‘khattat’ may stay, ‘kitabat’ is hardly practised. People are not much bothered about the aesthetics," complains Jalaluddin Aslam, chief calligrapher and artist with the Urdu daily newspaper published from the capital, ‘Quami Awaz’. With computer software being easily available to do most of the publishing jobs at cost competitive rates, most calligraphers have lost their bread and butter.

But there is a flip side to this. "Earlier, anybody could learn a bit of calligraphy and get a job in publishing, so that quality began to suffer. With the advent of computer software, nobody can think of earning quick money that way,” says Waseem Ahmed.

Few know that India bears one of the world’s most glorious traditions of Arabic, Persian and Urdu calligraphy. As many as 30 different styles of calligraphy are found here despite the ravages of the 1947 partition of the subcontinent, when large numbers of Urdu speakers went to Pakistan.

As per the 2001 census, more than 12 million people in northern Uttar Pradesh state are Urdu-speaking, followed by 850,000 in eastern Bihar, 570,000 in western Maharashtra and 550,000 in southern Andhra Pradesh. However, this is not enough to encourage people to learn calligraphy.

With fewer and fewer people actually taking interest in the Urdu language, which is associated with the Islamic religion on the subcontinent, has elements of Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit, the art of calligraphy is dying a slow death.

"Only 300 to 400 books in Urdu are sold in a year in India. Children shy away from learning Urdu and you are talking about calligraphy? It takes a lot of dedication, understanding and patience to learn this art," argues Waseem Ahmed. "It takes at least three hours to write a page."

The art of Urdu calligraphy requires a lot of dedication and patience to learn. There are seven basic styles of calligraphy around which the 30 different styles extant in India have been created.

Every style has its own rules and discipline and one cannot deviate from one style and mix things haphazardly, as this would mean violation of the basic rules of the art.

It took Zaidi quite some time to even find a school where she could learn the art. Before joining the Urdu Academy, she had tried her hands in calligraphy with the help of books, but that did not suffice.

"With books I could learn only the mathematics of calligraphy. I never understood the aesthetics. And calligraphy is an art where neither mathematics nor aesthetics can be ignored,” she says.

Now, people learn calligraphy, either to teach the form of art in ‘madrasah’ or Islamic schools, or for creative pursuits. According to Aslam, there are only four known experts in Delhi and about 15 others spread across the country.

To revive the art, the Indian government has established its own institutional framework for the development of the Urdu language. The National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) has been established as an autonomous body for the promotion and development of Urdu.

NCPUL runs several schemes like computerised calligraphy training centres to help people learn calligraphy for publishing jobs. A bureau for the promotion of Urdu has been specially set up to promote calligraphy, both ‘khattat’ and ‘kitabat’.

NCPUL runs 125 centres throughout the country and as many as 11,003 diplomas have been awarded so far. In a year it spends about 1.2 million dollars to promote calligraphy alone, say officials.

However, most people suspect the quality of teaching and aesthetics of calligraphy in these institutions. "The Urdu Board also started designing courses in calligraphy like NCPUL, but that is not enough. I doubt if they teach the aesthetics and discipline well," comments Waseem Ahmed.

While people like Aslam feel that computerisation is as heartless as a robot, they all agree that the future of calligraphy would depend on the machine in today’s world of mass media.

Today only the best and the dedicated ones can survive, because manual calligraphy as a profession in Urdu publishing is doomed.

But there will still be a demand for artistry in wedding cards, religious inscriptions and ‘togras’, or the artistic calligraphy of Koranic verses hung on the walls.