A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

Language
THE LANGUAGE OF THE SUBCONTINENT
Vibhuti Naraian Rai
Translated by
Meenakshi Pawha
The most interesting aspect about language is that if on one hand
the elite use it to strengthen their control, on the other hand, the
deprived use it to protest. Man, in his different stages of development,
has also developed language. Of the factors which evince the various
changes, as a result of development, language will be on top. If
we were to see it in the Indian context, Hindi is a language which
is free from the shackles of grammar. To a large extent, it is a
contact language which has helped us become a nation-state. But,
it is also responsible for sowing the seeds for the fissiparious tendencies
to divide the nation on the basis of religion. Without getting into
much elaboration, two examples can help us understand. Arya Samaj,
in those days was quite a revolutionary movement. It helped eradicate,
to a large extent, the rituals and caste-system that seemed to have
the North-Western India in its tentacles. But when it came to the
issue of language, its perspective proved to be divisive. The slogans
of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan inspired the Hindus of Punjab to write Hindi
as their mother tongue during a census survey. This is a strange
contradiction. When people, who always confabulated in Punjabi in
their homes, started to write Hindi in the column of mother tongue,
it created a rift between the Hindus and the Sikhs, despite their
very similar traditions and customs. Later, whatever else factored
in the Khalistan movement, this ostensibly was one very major reason
for the chasm that was created between the Hindus and the Sikhs.
62 :: January-March 2012