VIT Chancellor G Viswanathan, who inaugurated the two-day international seminar on ‘Popular Literature: Problems and Prospects’, organised by the department of Urdu at C Abdul Hakeem College in Melvisharam on Wednesday said, VIT University would introduce Arabic and Urdu languages in the university from next academic year.
Terming Urdu as a secular language, he said it was widely spoken in Vellore district and many pockets of the north India. VIT University had already introduced other languages such as German, Spanish, Chinese, French and Japanese, and Arabic and Urdu would be added to the list of languages from the next academic year giving the students a wider option of languages to choose from. The plea to introduce the two languages came from A Mohamed Ashraf, secretary and correspondent of The New College, in Chennai, when he addressed the gathering earlier.
College principal, Dr S Y Anver Sheriff, welcomed the gathering. Two books on correlation between Tamil and Urdu, written by Dr Habib Ahmed and Dr Mohamed Yassir (seminar convener) and another one on ‘Poetic collection of Urdu’ written by Syed Wassiullah were released on the occasion. Three Urdu newspapers also bagged awards. Dr M N Sayeed, former chairman, Karnataka Urdu Academy, Bangalore, also spoke.