Urdu in India: victim of Hindu nationalism & Muslim separatis;PART -3

By Syed Shahabuddin, The Milli Gazette

Published Online: May 13, 2011

Print Issue: 1-15 April 2011

 

History of Urdu-Hindi Confrontation:

Historically speaking while both Urdu and Hindi share common roots in Khari Boli and Brij Bhasha spoken in Western UP, literature in the Devanagri script appeared much later than in Urdu. In early 19th century its ‘manufacture’ was sponsored by the East India Company through the Fort William College which was established in Kolkata to train its employees and administrators to facilitate contact with the rural masses. Words of Arabic and Persian origin in Urdu books were substituted by words of Sanskrit origin and Urdu books were rewritten in the Devanagri script. By that time Urdu had also reached its peak as a language of poetry and Hindi was not in a position to offer anything comparable. Thus for many years Urdu remained the language of culture, in north India from Dhaka to Ahmedabad and touched Lahore in the north and Hyderabad in the South; irrespective of their religious affiliation, the elite used Urdu and nothing but Urdu.

By early 19th Century the British had overcome all political resistance in north India and the local potentates had become their tributaries. The British defeated the Marathas in 1804 and entered Delhi, appointed a Resident who was the virtual ruler of Delhi and functionally much more powerful than the Moghul Emperor, who was virtually confined, to the Red Fort with the villages of Palam and Mehrauli as his farthest jurisdiction-’Alamdari-e-Shah Alam, Uz Dilli ta Palam’. The ‘Emperor’ lived on British pension, which was technically in lieu of the revenue collected by the East India Company under the imperial mandate.

In order to bring the alien administration closer to the people as well as to cut at the roots of the residual cultural influence of the Moghul Empire, the British first decided to replace Persian by Urdu in Persian script in offices and courts. It was the time when the Holy Quran was also translated from Persian to Urdu and many works of theology were composed in Urdu including the textbooks commonly used in Madrasas for instruction in theology as well as secular subjects.

Then arose a divisive movement, majoritarian in spirit, that Urdu in the Persian script was not intelligible to a large majority of the people and, therefore, Hindi in Devanagri script should have the same status as Urdu in Persian script. What shocked Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was that one of his old friends Babu Shiv Prasad of Varanasi became a leader of this movement and submitted a memorandum to the Lt. Governor of North Western Province of Agra and Oudh in 1868. This memorandum ended with the prayer that just as the government had thrown out the Persian language, similarly it should now throw out the Persian script. In 1893, the Nagri Pracharni Sabha was established in Varanasi to carry on the campaign for the introduction of Devanagri script. It was supported by Hindu Rajas and nobles apart from personalities like Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya. In November 1895 in Varanasi and again in March 1898 in Allahabad this Sabha submitted memoranda to the then Lt. Governor. The Sabha succeeded in its objectives and the Lt. Governor issued a directive which granted equal status to Hindi in Devnagri script in government offices and courts. The Muslims and the Urdu-speaking elite made a token protest but they were silenced when the Governor threatened to cut off government aid to the MAO College, Aligarh. What is important for us is to remember the words of Christopher King on the real purpose of the Hindi movement; to differentiate Hindi from Urdu and to make Hindi a symbol of culture & medium of education & administration. Hindi movement formed part of a much broader process which fashioned communal awareness in pre-Independence India. The transformation of one linguistic group into two communities and nationalities culminated in the birth of Pakistan.

This is what Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had anticipated and he had expressed his views in a letter to Nawab Mohsinul Mulk on 29 April, 1870. He said’ I am sad and concerned that the movement launched by Babu Shiv Prasad has inspired the Hindus to replace the Urdu language in Persian script which is regarded as a sign of Muslims. This implies that now there cannot be unity between the Hindus and the Muslims’.

We can conclude that, the Hindi movement deliberately tried to widen the gulf between the Hindus and the Muslims while the protagonists of Urdu were pleading the case of Urdu as a symbol of common nationhood. The Hindi movement in every way tried to encourage the Hindus to break off any attachment to Urdu, while the Urdu movement was trying for a synthesis. In fact, again to quote Christopher King, a divide was created so that one could no longer advocate the cause of Urdu & Hindi at the same time. The process culminated in ‘Jap Niranter Ek Zaban, Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan’ as slogan ‘The slogan Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan which indeed left no room for non-Hindi speakers and non-Hindus in Hindustan. Thus the seeds were sown for dividing the nation through the cultural stream which through centuries of common endeavour had produced a common language (Urdu) and enriched a common culture with a unique mode of artistic expression in Ghazal, Hindustani music and miniature paintings.

In 1906, the All India Muslim League, established that year counted Urdu as the undivided heritage of the Muslims. It was therefore, a pointer in favour of the political position which developed as the country moved towards independence. In 1937, after the first elected government was formed in various provinces, Gandhiji tried for a compromise calling for the adoption of Hindi-Urdu-Hindustani as the national language of the country to be written in both Devanagri and Persian scripts.