Rekhta (website)

Rekhta is a literary web portal owned by Rekhta Foundation, a nonprofit and non-governmental organization dedicated to promote Urdu literature in South Asia. It has digitalized about ninety thousand books during the period of six years since it began publishing Urdu, Hindi and Persian literature, containing biographies of poets, Urdu poetry, fiction and nonfiction writings that originally belongs to public and research libraries in the Indian subcontinent.[4] It serves multilingual scripts for contents such as English, Devanagari, Roman, Hindi and primarily the Urdu script.[5] It also includes religious text of the Quran and Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epics of ancient India.[6]

Not to be confused with Rekhta.
Rekhta
Screenshot
Type of site
Literature
Available inEnglish, Devanagari, Roman, Urdu, Hindi
OwnerRekhta Foundation[1]
URLrekhta.org
CommercialNo[2]
RegistrationOptional
Launched2013 (2013)
Current statusOnline
Content license
Creative Commons license[3]

It hosts century-earlier books and is recognized the largest web portal in the world for preserving Hindi and Urdu poetry of the Indian subcontinent.[7][8]

The site has digitalized more than 90,000 e-books with nineteen million pages, which are categorically classified into different sections such as diaries, children's literature, poetries, banned books, and translations, involving Urdu poetry.[9] It is also credited for preserving 4,455 biographies of poets (worldwide), 41,017 ghazals, 26,414 couplets, 7,852 nazms, 6,836 literary videos, 2,127 audio files, 76,398 e-books[10] manuscripts and pop magazines.

History

Rekhta was founded in January 2013 in Nagpur, India.[11] The portal came into existence after the idea of "Urdu virtual library" was introduced by Sanjiv Saraf to professors at the university. The literary works, including Urdu poetry were collected from the different private and public libraries across the major cities of India such as Lucknow, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Aligarh, including India's capital Delhi.[12]

Literature promotion

Rekhta Live

Following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, it launched an "online mehfil" (live seasons) of literature, music and poetry across its social channels via third-party software component. It was attended by the people across the five continents, leading the website to receive over two million views.[13][14]

Festivals
Main article: Jashn-e-Rekhta

The Foundation celebrates various literary festival, including Jashn-e-Rekhta, in which people from different walks are invited to participate in literary works such as Urdu poetry, music, short stories. It also engage the literary figures in direct conversations to promote Hindustani language along with the Urdu literature.[15][16][17] The two day event is organized every year at Delhi.[18]

Shaam-e-Sher

The Foundation has also began organising mushaira, a literary event called Shaam-e-Sher (poetry in the evening). It is generally attended by the young adult poets aged between eighteen to thirty. It was primarily adopted to promote Urdu literature where ghazals and nazms are recited by the event attendees.[19]

Controversies

The organization made changes in the Jashn-e-Rekhta event by replacing the Urdu with Hindustani language, although the organization was established for the promotion of Urdu literature through its portal. On 13 December 2019, it made official announcement during its sixth edition of the mehfil held at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium. The posters, which were received by the event speakers mentioned "Jashn-e-Rekhta: The Biggest Celebration of Hindustani Language and Culture" (not mentioning "Urdu" word). Later, the Urdu speakers criticised the changes citing "It seems Jashn-e-Rekhta has surrendered to the powers that be". An Indian writer and journalist Ziya Us Salam called the changes unfavorable and linked it to the Delhi High Court's decision after it ordered the police "to cut down on “difficult” words in Urdu". An Indian poet Gauhar Raza subsequently called the changes "unfortunate" and "problematic".[20]

References
  1. Desk, Sentinel Digital (December 5, 2019). "A virtual Urdu library for free- Sentinelassam". www.sentinelassam.com.
  2. "Urdu binds people of Subcontinent: Rekhta founder Sanjiv Saraf". November 27, 2018.
  3. "Disclaimer". Rekhta. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  4. World, Republic. "Urdu literature receives a boost as over 90 thousand titles digitised in 6 years". Republic World.
  5. "About Site". Rekhta. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  6. "Rekhta claims digitising 90,000 Urdu titles". December 4, 2019.
  7. Mahmudabad, Ali Khan (13 February 2020). "How did the Indian Muslim identity express itself through poetry before Independence?". Scroll.in. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  8. "Book tickets to Shaam-E-Rekhta - World Poetry Day - Bangalore". insider.in. 15 March 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  9. "Leg up for Urdu literature, 90,000 titles digitised in six years". The New Indian Express.
  10. December 20, Mohammad Waqas New Delhi; December 30, 2019 ISSUE DATE; December 20, 2019UPDATED; Ist, 2019 14:21. "Body of language". India Today.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. Deshpande, Manasi (7 September 2015). "Log on to Rekhta, feel the richness of Urdu". The Hindu. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  12. Link, Indian (December 4, 2019). "Urdu Mahabharata e-book in Rekhta's virtual library".
  13. "Beat lockdown blues: Set 8 pm reminder for RekhtaLive music and poetry". Moneycontrol.
  14. "Music and poetry in the times of social distancing". www.outlookindia.com.
  15. Kumar, Anuj (December 14, 2018). "Sanjiv Saraf: Celebrating the vibrant shades of Urdu". The Hindu – via www.thehindu.com.
  16. "Celebrating the Language of Poetry: Third edition of Jashn-e-Rekhta has artists, poets, writers, musicians coming together". February 17, 2017.
  17. "Urdu put on a fast track by Rekhta in three-day festival". Pakistan Today. 27 February 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  18. Desk, Entertainment (14 March 2015). "Jashn-e-Rekhta begins celebration of Urdu in India today". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  19. IANS (18 June 2016). "Shaam-e-Sher: Reinvigorating Urdu among youth (Societal Feature)". Business Standard India. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  20. Anjum, Nawaid (3 December 2019). "After Rekhta skips 'Urdu' on posters of its annual festival, lovers of the language fret, organisers bring it back". The Indian Express. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
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