Rekhta is an Urdu literary web portal started by Rekhta Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Urdu literature.[4] The Rekhta Library Project, its books preservation initiative, has successfully digitized approximately 200,000 books over a span of ten years.[5] These books primarily consist of Urdu, Hindi and Persian literature and encompass a wide range of genres, including biographies of poets, Urdu poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.[6] The collection originates from public and research libraries in the Indian subcontinent. It serves content in multiple scripts such as Devanagari, Roman and, primarily, Nastaliq.[7] It hosts books from centuries earlier and is recognized as the largest website in the world for the preservation of Urdu literature.[8][9]
The site has digitalized more than 200,000 e-books with thirty-two million pages, which are categorically classified into different sections such as diaries, children's literature, poetries, banned books, and translations, involving Urdu poetry.[10] It is also credited for preserving 7000 biographies of poets (worldwide), 70,000 ghazals, 28,000 couplets, 12,000 nazms, 6,836 literary videos, 2,127 audio files, 140,000 e-books[11]manuscripts and pop magazines.
History
Rekhta was launched on 11 January 2013 in New Delhi, India.[12] The portal came into existence after the idea of "Urdu virtual library" was introduced by Sanjiv Saraf to professors of Urdu from across leading universities. The literary works, including Urdu poetry were collected from the different private and public libraries across the major cities of India such as Lucknow, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Aligarh, including India's capital Delhi.[13]
The Foundation celebrates various literary festivals, including Jashn-e-Rekhta, in which people from different walks are invited to participate in literary works such as Urdu poetry, music, short stories. It also engage the literary figures in direct conversations to promote Hindustani language along with the Urdu literature.[16][17][18] The two day event is organized every year at Delhi.[19]
Shaam-e-Sher
The Foundation has also begun organising mushairas, a literary event called Shaam-e-Sher (evening of poetry). It is generally attended by the young adult poets aged between eighteen and thirty. It was primarily adopted to promote Urdu literature where ghazals and nazms are recited by the event attendees.[20]
Aamozish
Launched by the Foundation in 2017, Aamozish is an e-learning initiative that seeks to promote the Urdu script.[21]
Sufinama
Sufinama[22] is a Rekhta Foundation initiative that preserves and propagates 400 years of Sufi writing and philosophy. It also provides the largest online collection of Hazrat Amir Khusrau's work and the translations of his Persian ghazals.[23]
Hindwi
The Foundation also launched Hindwi, a website dedicated to Hindi literature, in July 2020.[24][25]
RekhtaLabs
RekhtaLabs[26] is the research wing of Rekhta, aimed at advancing NLP research for Urdu, by collaborating with universities and independent researchers working at the intersection of Computer Programming and Urdu.
Anjas
The Foundation also launched Anjas, a Rajasthani website dedicated to Rajasthani language, art, literature and culture in October 2022.[27]
Controversies
The organization made changes in the Jashn-e-Rekhta event by replacing Urdu with the Hindustani language, although the organization was established for the promotion of Urdu literature through its portal. On 13 December 2019, it made official announcement during its sixth edition of the mehfil held at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium. The posters, which were received by the event speakers mentioned "Jashn-e-Rekhta: The Biggest Celebration of Hindustani Language and Culture" (not mentioning "Urdu" word). Later, the Urdu speakers criticised the changes citing "It seems Jashn-e-Rekhta has surrendered to the powers that be". An Indian writer and journalist Ziya Us Salam called the changes unfavorable and linked it to the Delhi High Court's decision after it ordered the police "to cut down on “difficult” words in Urdu". An Indian poet Gauhar Raza subsequently called the changes "unfortunate" and "problematic".[28]
