# Odisha Urdu Academy

Odisha Urdu Academy, or Odisha Urdu Akademi (Urdu: اڈیشا اردو اکادمی), formerly Orissa Urdu Academy, is an academy and institution in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha, focusing on the promotion, development, and preservation of the Urdu language, its tradition, and culture in Odisha. It was formed on February 7, 1987, under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. This academy is established under the Department of Odia Language, Literature, and Culture, Government of Odisha.

## History

On February 7, 1987, the Urdu Academy was established in Odisha for the promotion and promotion of Urdu language and literature and the survival and protection of Urdu tradition and culture. This academy is established under the Department of Odia Language, Literature, and Culture, a branch of the Government of Odisha, and under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

## Activities

Seminars, lectures, and literary talks are organized through the academy. "Urdu Learning Centers" (for adults) are being run in various districts of Odisha, under which the beneficiaries are trained to read, write, and speak Urdu for six months. Under the supervision of the Academy, the achievement of editing the Urdu-Odia dictionary containing fifty thousand words has been implemented, and this achievement has been accomplished under the auspices of the Dictionary Committee, whose chairman was Karamat Ali Karamat and whose editorial board included Hafeezullah Nawalpuri, Saeed Rahmani, Naseema Begum, and Motiullah Nazish.
Apart from the literary and cultural activities of the academy, the series of publications is also ongoing. Many important publications have been published, especially regarding Odisha, including Karamat Ali Karamat's Aab-e-Khizr (Remembrance of the Poets of Odisha), Odisha Mein Urdu Nasrnigari (Urdu prose in Odisha) and Odisha Ke Mujahideen-e-Azadi (The freedom fighters from Odisha) by Motiullah Nazish, and Saeed Rahmani's Odisha Mein Urdu Shayari (Urdu poetry in Odisha), etc.
In addition to these, S. M. H. Burney's Muhibb-e-Watan Iqbal (Iqbal: Poet – Patriot of India; 1984) was translated from Urdu to Odia under the name Desh Premi Iqbal (1988), an Urdu translation of the stories of some Odia writers, Odia Zaban Ke Numayinda Afsāne (Representative fictions of the Odia language; 2000), Karamat Ali Karamat's Odia Zaban o Adab: Ek Mutala (Odia Language and Literature: A Study; 2020), and Kulliyāt-e-Amjad Najmi (Amjad Najmi's poetry collection; 2017), a collection of Urdu translations of Sitakant Mahapatra's poems Awaaz-e Jarasaura (2008) and Urdu Adab Ka Koh-e-Noor Karamat Ali Karamat (Koh-e-Noor of Urdu Literature, Karamat Ali Karamat) by Azizur Rehman and Abdul Matin Jami.

### Awardees

The people who have been honored with the honors since the establishment of the academy, i.e., from 1987 to 1997, include the following gentlemen:
* 1987: Abdul Rasheed Naqqad, Abdul Latif Arif, and Fazlullah Sharif Afzal Berhampuri
* 1988: Rishi Kant Parekh Rahi, Noorul Huda Qayed, Mahmood Balasori
* 1989: Karamat Ali Karamat, Hafeezullah Nawalpuri, and Khalid Rahim
* 1990: Syeda Maslahat Aizdi Maslahat, Hafizul Bari Hafiz, Sulaiman Khaki Berhampuri, and Sheikh Habibullah
* 1991: Yousuf Jamal, Abdul Majeed Faizi, Yousuf Pervaiz, and Shamsul Huda Shams
* 1992: Sajid Asar, Rashid Shabnam, and Shakeel Desnavi
* 1993: Saeed Rahmani, Sheikh Mubeenullah, and Khalid Shafai
* 1994: Ismail Azar, Maulana Abdul Masjood
* 1995: Ghulam Haider Nayab
* 1996: Ghayel Faridi, Abdus Samad Wasif
* 1997: Khawar Naqeeb
* 2021: Abdul Matin Jami, Abdul Hafiz Bismil, and Afzal Baidar
* 2022: Muhammad Motiullah Nazish, Nasreen Nikhat, and Shaukat Rashid

## Publications

Syed Manzoor Ahmed Qasmi, the first secretary of the academy, has been the secretary of the academy for about ten years since the establishment of the academy, i.e., in 1987. During his time, the academy has developed a lot. He released the quarterly magazine Farogh-e-Adab from the academy in February 1987; later, its publication was stopped. Then, in June 2012, the former secretary of the academy, Dawood Rahman, took over the post, so he started publishing this magazine again in April 2013. Since January 2016, the secretary of the academy is Syed Mushir Alam, who, according to Motiullah Nazish, has a high level of ability in Urdu and is well-versed in Urdu journalism, and the quality of literature promotion in his department has increased immensely. According to Haqqani Al Qasmi, this magazine is playing an important role in the promotion of Urdu language and literature in Odisha, and this magazine has established its identity in other areas besides Odisha.