LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:12 December 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Arabic in India: Past, Present & Future

Mukhlesur Rahman, Ph.D. Research Scholar

Abstract:

India has been one of the most well-known non-Arab states where Arabic language grew and developed through the different periods; despite the fact it had never been an official language. A thorough study of Indian history suggests that India's first substantial contact with the Arabic language came when the Arab Muslims settled in the western Indian province of Sind. Subsequently, the Arabic language continued to flourish further under the patronage of the Mughal rulers in India. In the Islamic epochs, the usage of Arabic was liturgical. But after the independence of India, non-sacred Arabic gained momentum. Departments of Arabic have been established in many central and state universities considering the demand of the language in different government as well as private sectors in today’s globalized world. This paper has made an attempt to analyse the processes and extent of development of Arabic in India since its arrival, indicating career prospects in the days to come.

Key words: Arabic language, Arab Muslims, Sind, liturgical Arabic, development of Arabic, Mughal rulers

Arrival of Arabic in India and Its Development

Early Trade Relations and People Contacts

Though the political relations between India and the Arab world were first established in the seventh century after Christ, the trade relations between them date back to the ancient times or perhaps pre-historic times. Trade relations flourished and persisted between them because “two of the three routes by which trade was carried on in ancient times between India and the West, passed through Arabia. The first route ran from the mouth of the Indus and up to the Euphrates, at the point where the road branches off to Antioch and the Levantine ports. The second route, more important than the first, lay from the Indian coast to that of Yaman and Hadramawt and from there, passing along the Red Sea coast, to Syria and thence to Europe, either directly from the Syrian coast or via Egypt and Alexandria’’. (Ahmad 1968, p. 3).

Thus the entire Arab world was strategically situated in terms of trade playing a vital role in strengthening relations between India and the Arab world. Though historians are not sure about the starting point of the contacts between India and Arab word, but it is certain that the trade relations between them had been well established in pre-Islamic times, perhaps as far in the past as 50 CE, before Arabic was attested as a distinct language in the Arabian Peninsula in the third century. Through Arab traders, Indians may have learned some words of the Arabic language during the early trade. But after birth of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula in seventh century, and conquest of western Indian province of Sind in 711 CE by Muhammad b. al-Qasim al-Thaqafi, India came in first substantial and sustained contact with both the religion of Islam and the Arabic language because Arabic had religious prestige being the language of Islamic scripture, and familiarity with the Arabic Qur'an was deemed necessary for the correct ritual practice of Islam. (Qutbuddin 2007, p.315-16) Subsequently, learning and teaching of Arabic started in substantial way under the patronage of Muslim rulers which continued to flourish further with the passage of time.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Mukhlesur Rahman, Ph.D. Research Scholar
Centre of Arabic and African Studies
SLL & CS, Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110067
mukhles1@gmail.com

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