The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea challenging the use of Urdu on a municipal signboard in the town of Patur in Maharashtra’s Akola district.

The court said that the prejudice against Urdu “stems from the misconception that Urdu is alien to India”.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran said that Urdu was born in India, and that it is, like Marathi and Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language. “Urdu developed and flourished in India due to the need for people belonging to different cultural milieus who wanted to exchange ideas and communicate amongst themselves,” the court noted.

The court dismissed a petition by former councillor Varshatai Sanjay Bagade, who had challenged the use of Urdu on a signboard of the new building of the Patur Municipal Council.

Bagade had earlier approached the Bombay High Court, which also ruled in 2021 that using Urdu was not prohibited under the Maharashtra Local Authorities Official Languages Act, 2022, or any other legal provision. She then filed an appeal before the Supreme Court, which also upheld the use of Urdu along with Marathi.

The bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran highlighted that “language is not religion” but is instead “culture”.

Dhulia started the judgment with a quote of Anglo-Algerian author Mouloud Benzadi: “When you learn a language, you don't just learn to speak and write a new language. You also learn to be open-minded, liberal, tolerant, kind and considerate towards all mankind.”

Delving into the histories of Hindi and Urdu, the court said that the fusion of the two languages met a roadblock in the form of puritans on both sides, with Hindi becoming more Sanskritised, and Urdu more Persian.

“A schism exploited by the colonial powers in dividing the two languages on religion. Hindi was now understood to be the language of Hindus and Urdu of the Muslims, which is such a pitiable digression from reality; from unity in diversity; and the concept of universal brotherhood,” the court said.