Jashn-e-Rekhta (, ) is the world's largest Urdu language literary festival. It is a three-day event held in New Delhi that celebrates the Urdu language. The festival showcases Urdu poetry, Urdu literature, Qawwali, Islamic calligraphy, with performances such as Ghazal, Sufi music, recitations, panel discussions, debates, conversations on films, and calligraphy workshops. It also includes shopping and a food festival. It provides a platform for Urdu lovers to share their poetry and stories in various open forums. The slogan of the festival is "Celebrating Urdu", and it is attended by a huge number of Urdu enthusiasts, especially people who are younger.
History
The festival was first held in 2015. It is organised by the Rekhta Foundation, a non-profit organization that is devoted to the preservation and promotion of the Urdu language and culture.
Notable participants
Jashn-e-Rekhta has seen participation from dozens of Urdu writers and prominent names from the film, music and TV industry from India, Pakistan, and the United States, including: Javed Akhtar Imtiaz Ali Muzaffar Ali Tom Alter Shabana Azmi Wasim Barelvi Rekha Bhardwaj Wadali Brothers Prem Chopra Nandita Das Shamsur Rahman Faruqi Ali Akbar Natiq Nida Fazli Gulzar Hans Raj Hans Intizar Hussain Rahat Indori Javed Jaffrey Pandit Jasraj Prasoon Joshi Annu Kapoor Irrfan Khan Rafaqat Ali Khan Ustad Amjad Ali Khan Ustad Hamid Ali Khan Ustad Rashid Khan Anwar Maqsood Anwar Masood Zia Mohyeddin Shubha Mudgal Gopi Chand Narang Munawwar Rana Shilpa Rao Waheeda Rehman Nawazuddin Siddiqui Sharmila Tagore Maithili Thakur Amish Tripathi Harshdeep Kaur Zakir Khan Kumar Vishwas
Critical Views
Jashn-e-Rekhta received criticism from various corners due to its emphasis on Devanagari script and Roman script in expressing the Urdu literature. Rizwan Ahmad argued that "The first few editions did not have the Jashn-e-Rekhta written in Urdu. Recent ones did include the Urdu script, but the schedules were available only in English. The big ‘I LOVE URDU’ cut-out where the youth were seen taking pictures was only in English. Both speak volumes about the targeted audience".