Urdu is facing a troubling decline in India, exemplified by the shuttered gate of Maktaba Jamia’s Jama Masjid branch in Old Delhi’s Urdu Bazar. For over a month and a half, the branch has remained closed, with its lone employee sent home.
Maktaba Jamia, the publication arm of Jamia Millia Islamia University, was established by the university’s founders leaders of the freedom movement to develop curricula and serve as a university press akin to Oxford University Press. It has published works by notable figures such as Gandhi, Zakir Hussain, and Prem Chand.
Despite its rich legacy and thousands of titles, Maktaba Jamia has been neglected over the past two decades, left to languish. Employees have not been paid for years, and all branches are on the brink of closure. This situation underscores the broader crisis facing Urdu in the country.
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