Defining a phase of Hindi

In this week’s column, I focus on the vital role that Hindi plays in the postcolonial India and the role it played in unifying diverse political entities under the flag of India.

I concluded last week’s column with an important observation by Travedi who states, “The new national identity of India, whether i n the colonial first half of the twentieth century or in the postcolonial half, thus had Hindi as one of its defining components. Consonant with this role, the growth of the novel in Hindi reflected if not a conscious project to narrate the nation than at least a marked proclivity to represent not merely local or regional but equally national and nationalist thematic concerns.”

One of the important developments in the evolution of Hindi as a major Indian language is the adoption of Devanagari script. Travedi points out that in 1835, British in India adopted the policy, favoured by Macaulary and Bentinck, of Aglicising the subject people. According to the new policy, the British abandoned the previous practice of acquiring Oriental knowledge and in 1837, English replaced Persian at the highest level of administration supplemented by the regional languages at the lower levels.

Injustice

Trivedi observes, “While this change worked out fairly unproblematically in most parts of the country, it led to perceptions of distortion and injustice in the Hindi-speaking areas. Here, largely because of Urdu’s close similarity in both vocabulary and script to Persian, the old language of command, it was Urdu in the Persian script and not Hindi in Devanagari script (popularly, Nagari) that was proclaimed the local language.

The situation was further complicated by the existence –since at least the founding of the College of Fort William in 1800-of the beginnings of a contentious debate over whether Hindi and Urdu were really one and the same language ( Sometimes in the singular called Hindust[h]ani) written in two different scripts, or whether, despite deceptive syntactic identity and a common basic vocabulary, these were in fact two languages substantially distinct in their ‘higher’ vocabulary, their literature, and their cultural genealogy. ”

One of the positive outcomes of the debate is the demand for the adoption of the Nagari and Persian scripts at lower courts of law and other strata of administration. Trivedi observes, “Articulated for the first time in Benares in 1867-1868, this demand was reiterated with great force in 1882, and then from 1893. The main reasons advanced in its support were that in the Hindi-speaking areas primary education was given almost entirely through Hindi in the Nagari script and that Urdu in Persian script ( a notably unscientific script and ambiguous script anyhow, especially when compared with Nagari) was known mainly to Muslims, who constituted no more than 14 percept of the population. (Among the Hindus, only the very small communities of Kashmiri Brahmans and Kyasths, the latter according to one definition being a relatively recently formed caste of ‘mixed origin’ knew Urdu, for members of both communities had traditionally led in literacy and acted as officials and scribes in previous Muslim administrations). ”

What is obvious from this development is not only linguistic politics but also the economic advantage of using the language of administration which was up to that point was Persian.

Demand

Travedi stresses that the demand for the adoption of the Nagari script was ‘thus put forward as a democratic demand on behalf of the vast majority of the population, who were otherwise denied direct access to official documents and procedures. ”

A most convincing statement for the adoption of Nagari script was made by Bharatendu Harischandra (1850-1885) who is considered as the father of modern Hindi literature.

Travedi observes, “One of the most cogent and forthright statements in the cause of Nagari was made by Bharatendu Harischandra (1850-1885), often acclaimed as the father of modern Hindi literature. He was a poet in Hindi (as well as Sanskrit and Urdu), the founder of modern Hindi drama, a translator into Hindi of several major literary works from Sanskrit as well as of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, a pioneer and influential journalist and editor, the charismatic center of a large literary circle, and one of the wealthy and eminent citizens of the Benares. In 1882, in response to a questionnaire circulated by a British Education commission he stated (in English);

The best remedy would be to make… the language of the court the language used by the people, and to introduce into the court papers the character [i.e. script] which the majority of the public can read. The character in use in primary schools of these provinces is, with slight exceptions, entirely Hindi, and the character used in the courts and offices is Persian, and therefore the primary Hindi education which a rustic lad gains at his village has no value, reward or attraction attached to it…

Monopoly

If Urdu ceases to be the court language, the Muslims will not easily secure the numerous offices of the government …of which they have at present a sort of monopoly. By the introduction of Nagari character they would lose entirely the opportunity of plundering the people by reading one word for another and thereby misconstruing the real sense of the content…For example make a mark like [ a three letter word in Persian script], and we have 606 different pronunciations.

May God save us from such letters! What wonders cannot be performed through their medium? Black can be changed into white and white into black… The use of Persian letters in the offices is not only an injustice but, it is a cause of annoyance and inconvenience to the majority of the loyal subject of Her Imperial Majesty. ” The next major initiative to promote Nagari was to establish several societies with the objective of promoting the use of Nagari. Principal among such societies formed was the Nagari Pracarini Sabha ( Society for the propagation of Nagari) which was formed by a group of students in Benares in 1893. Travedi states the vital role that society played in ensuring the official acceptance of Nagari and helped shape and defines the Hindi language and culture in decades to come.