“Urdu language has played a vital role in the freedom struggle of India, it is a language of composite culture of India, which is born in India and grown up in India. Today Urdu has its home as it is the language of a whole country called Pakistan, to relate urdu to a particular religion is not true as it has produced towering writers of other religion like Rajinder Singh Bedi, Pandit Rattan Nath Sarshar , Munshi Prem Chand and others” these words were spoken by eminent poet, writer Gulzar in the Valedictory function of Jashan –e-Gulzar, which was organized by the department of urdu , University of Jammu in collaboration with Dean Student Welfare. The three day Jashan-e- Gulzar ended today by organizing a valedictory function in the Prof. Gian Chand Jain seminar hall of the department of Urdu, University of Jammu.
Those who were present in the valedictory function as guests include Farooq Khan the Governor of Lakshdeep, Prof. M.K. Dhar Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu, Dr. Taqi Abedi from Canada, Faculty members and member of the civil society. Gulzar at length spoke on the contribution of Urdu language in maintaining communal harmony and mutual understanding. He informed that Urdu is his 1st and last love. It is a globally recognized language, therefore, language is developing day by day. He stressed the need to preserve the scripts of Urdu. “New generation should know the scripts of Urdu said Gulzar. He further said that though the new generation knows to speak Urdu but they do not know the script of language. Therefore, it is need of the hour to transfer the language to new generation along with the script of Urdu. Gulzar said today his name is because of Urdu and Urdu poetry. Urdu has given him a reorganization. He thanked university of Jammu particularly vice chancellor Prof. M.K. Dhar and HOD Urdu Prof. Shohab Inayat Malik for organizing his three day long Jashan. He said that he would never forget the love which he got from the people of Jammu. He described Jammu a place where different people belonging to different religions are living with Communal Harmony and Brother Hood.
Farooq Khan who was the chief guest on the occasion described Gulzar a living legend. He said that he had never thought about sharing dice with Gulzar, but today he is lucky enough that he is sitting on the right side of the legendary poet who has discussed the tragedy of partition in his poetry as well as in prose. Gulzar according to Farooq Khan is a household name of every Indian, who has written some marvelous Urdu Nazams, which would be remember by one and all. Gulzar dedicated the last day of the Jashan to HOD Urdu Prof. Shohab Inayat Malik. According to Gulzar Prof. Malik has organized the function in a befitting manner. He described him a organizer par excellence.
Dr Taqi Abedi while speaking on the occasion informed that he had witnessed various urdu function across the world but Jashan-e-Gulzar was unique in the sense that it was organized keeping in view the all the aspects of personality and works of Gulzar. The one day Inter-national seminar was highly standard as condemnable papers were presented on the life and works of Gulzar. Prof. M.K. Dhar Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu while speaking on the occasion said that Gulzar who started the Golden Jubliee Celebration of University would be respected by the university of Jammu, for his kind gesture he would be welcomed again and again in the university of Jammu, which is one of the important university of the country. Prof. Dhar thanked the legendary poet for accepting his invitation to University of Jammu and started the Golden Jubilee Celebrations.
Dr. Meenakshi Kilam Registrar of University of Jammu presented a formal vote of thanks. Earlier Gulzar on the 3rd day of Jashan released a number of books of budding writers of Jammu region. The writer whose books were released by Gulzar included Dr A.R. Manhas, Fozai Naseem Mugal, Samia Coudhary, Piarey Hatash, Dr. Ayoub. Gulzar lauded the efforts of budding writers for writing the book and hope that they will continue to popularize the urdu language through their writings.