Lala Behari Lal and the Tradition of Expressing the Technical Topics in Urdu 

Abstract

It is the general apprehension that modern scientific knowledge
cannot be described or narrated in Urdu language but the facts portray the
different picture. Urdu language is able to express the variety of scientific
and technical topics. A history of nearly two centuries is a witness to it.
Urdu had been an effective medium of instruction through many decades.
Jamia Usmania, Hyderabad, India, has a dignified contribution in this
regard. Thomason Civil Engineering College, Roorkee was also an
institution where Urdu language had been medium of instruction for native
students from 1847 to 1870. Many native scholars were appointed to
translate and compile the books regarding Civil Engineering. Lala Behari
Lal was one of them. In this article, his involvement in the translating and
compiling the books has been described and analyzed.