KARACHI: The consolidation and strength that Persian language and culture enjoyed in the 18th century in South Asia wavered around the 19th century, with the increasing number of vernacular and indigenous languages being the main challenges.

These views were expressed by British academic Professor Francis Christopher Robinson while exploring the Persian-Islamic culture in South Asia and how through understanding the 18th century realities in their proper context one can address 20th century concerns.

The lecture was organised by the Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture on its premises on Thursday.

Addressing the packed room full of students, teachers and scholars, Prof Robinson, whose academic research focuses primarily on the Muslim world, with particular emphasis on the Muslims of South Asia, highlighted quite a few obscure facts in his lecture. He said the Persian was spoken in administrative circles and beyond till the 19th century when an increasing number of vernacular and indigenous languages challenged its influence.

“But Urdu was a greater challenge,” said Prof Robinson reading from his paper. “It was invented by the Indian Muslims with adjectives and nouns taken from Persian. Eventually, Muslims in Delhi discarded Persian and took up Urdu as a new form of expressing poetic language.”

Steeped in Sufism, the Persianate literary culture eventually diluted as both Hindus and Muslims took on Urdu for communicating within communities. Another major reason for the decline was during the 1820s and 30s. During that time, English was the official language of the government. Prof Robinson says British did not have a direct role in the decline, but nonetheless, what they “did from the outside, Hindus and Muslims did it from within.”

“By the 18th century, Shah Waliullah attacked the rationalistic tradition of Iran and Central Asia. It was all done by him to bring out the truth so that divisions and power struggles would end. To do that, and bring people closer, the Quran was translated into Persian to be understood in its pure meaning,” shared Prof Robinson.

In his earlier writings on the subject, Prof Robinson has written extensively on the fact that historians have taken these developments as the forerunners for the movement that eventually led to a separate state of Pakistan. As a result, he says, “the eighteenth century Islam was presented in a distorted manner that tends to ignore the rationalistic approach towards Islamic teachings prevalent at the time.”

Answering a question by a member of the audience, he said Dars-i-Nizami basically focuses on the core of the message rather than relying heavily on a syllabus. To understand key passages, a set of books has to be read, he said.