Words like Kashmir and Taliban have jolted American attention to the region of South Asia.
UW-Madison Professor Muhammad Umar Memon hopes that focus can spread to the more delicate words of the region's rich culture, especially Urdu, a language spoken by millions of people in Pakistan and northern India.
Memon is the publisher of the Annual of Urdu Studies, the only English-language journal discussing Urdu. In 1993, Memon took the editorship for the publication that is now based out of an office in Van Hise Hall.
He said the Annual has \basically three types of readership: the general scholarly community, Urdu speakers in the West, and scholars of Urdu [in the subcontinent].""
The main thrust of the journal is not creative literature like the literature in translation course Memon teaches at UW-Madison on Urdu prose; but rather it is more comprehensive scholarly work on Urdu humanities.
""It is the only source for those with a very strong interest in the health and life of the language and its literature, and offers certain perspectives that are not native,"" he said.
According to Project Assistant Jane Shum, Memon began his work in the area many years ago and his efforts now are ""finally beginning to bear fruit.""
""He sets such a high standard because as an author himself'he cares so much'agonizing over the translation of just a single image or phrase,"" she said.
""I am greatly impressed with his devotion and dedication to Urdu language and literature,"" Shum added. ""He has worked all his life to increase awareness in these authors.""
Memon attended Karachi University in Pakistan before beginning graduate studies at Harvard as a Fulbright Scholar.
Memon calls UW-Madison's 45-year-old Department of Languages and Culture of Asia ""one of the major places of study on South Asia in the United States.""
""Our library resources are in the top four or five [in the country],"" he said.
Urdu is one of four South Asian languages taught regularly at UW-Madison. Centuries ago, there was little distinction between Urdu and the spoken forms of Hindi, a language widely spoken in India. British imperialists began to differentiate the two, giving the Arabic scripted language the name Urdu, or ""camp language,"" as an attempt to separate the language, and Muslims, from the rest of the Indian subcontinent.
Memon, a native of India, said he longed for an increased interest in Urdu and the region.
""One should have a healthy interest in other cultures for their own sake, with the beginning assumption that there will be a difference,"" Memon said. ""I would rather have Americans choose to study other languages and cultures than have some terrorist force them to pay attention to the differences. That's a very negative way, but maybe the end result will be positive.\
