A two-day National Urdu Seminar “Trends and nature in modern Urdu poetry” sponsored by National Council for Promotion of Urdu language, Ministry of HRD, Government of India and organised by Rizwani Welfare Association, Bhadrak, concluded on Sunday last.
The seminar held in the Sanskruti Bhavan was inaugurated by Dr S Musheer Alam, Secretary Odisha Urdu Academy, Bhubaneshwar by lighting of candles.
The seminar started with recitation of holy Quran by Moulvi Sk Raziuddin. Thereafter, a two-minute silence was observed in memory of Dr M Jamalun Nabi, vice-president of the association, who expired on January 24 last. later, Suraiya Begum spoke on peace and non-violence ingrained in the teachings of Islam. Rashmita Das presented an Urdu poem highlighting the value of peaceful co-existence in the context of India’s composite culture.
Dr Alam spoke on the beauty of Urdu language which was born and flourished in the subcontinent. He said that Urdu had been enriched by many non-Muslim poets, novelists and essayists like Firaq Gorakhpuri, Krishna Chandra, Prem Chand, Gopi Chand Narang. Dr Alam felicitated Rizwani Welfare Association for holding the seminar in Odisha.
Scholars from Delhi, Hyderabad, UP, Jharkhand and Odisha joined. Eight scholarly papers were presented on the first day. On the concluding day six more papers were presented.