LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 7 July 2012
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.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Gandhi and His Hindustani

Ganpat Teli, M.Phil.

Abstract

During the freedom movement of India, the complex and controversial of the National Language was raised. In this controversy Gandhi supported the concept of Hindustani. Gandhi’s thoughts on languages are discussed in this paper. This article will try to look on other dimensions of his thoughts on languages as well. Gandhi accepts religion as a base to consolidate his views on language. However, Gandhi’s concept was an expression of exclusion in some sense, as non-northern and non-Hindu and non-Muslims weren’t part of it. In addition to these features, Gandhi’s contradictions regarding thoughts on language will also be discussed.

Key Words: Gandhi, National Language, India, Hindi, Hindustani, Urdu, Colloquial, Sankrit, Nagari, Arabic, Persian, Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, Hindu, Muslim.

M.K. Gandhi stepped into the Indian political scene in the initial decades of the last century and soon became the unquestioned leader of the Indian National Congress. He already had strong views on the question of National Language for India when he was not yet well recognized. These views were propagated by him for the linguistic unification of India. In the words of Granville Austin, “Gandhi placed the language issue at the heart of the independence movement” (Austin 2010: 47). In the course of his campaign for the unified national language, he chaired the annul sessions of Hindi Sahitya Sammelan at Indore twice in 1918 and 1935 and delivered its presidential speeches. He also formed Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in 1918 (in 1946 ‘Hindi’ was replaced with ‘Hindustani’), Rashtrabhasa Prachar Samiti in 1936, Hindustani Prachar Sabha in 1942. He regularly monitored the programmes of Hindustani (Gandhi’s use of the terms Hindi, Hindi-Hindustani and Hindustani was rather ambiguous. For convenience, Hindustani is used to represent Gandhi’s advocated language in this paper.) propagation in the non-Hindi regions. In addition to this, he delivered many speeches and wrote many articles in an attempt to build a consensus in favour of Hindustani as the national language. Baldev Raj Nayar notes this fact of Gandhi’s effort writes that “Even though other leaders from non-Hindi regions had advocated the cause of Hindi as the national or link language, it was Gandhi who took active steps for its propagation in the non-Hindi areas” (Nayar 1968). Not only Hindi but due to Gandhi’s efforts, the issue of National Language came into mainstream debate. In words of Jyotirindra Das Gupta, “the most important advocate of a common Indian language designed to unify the national movement was Mahatma Gandhi.” (Das Gupta 1970: 108)

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

Ganpat Teli, M.Phil., Ph.D. Student
Centre of Indian Language
School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)
New Delhi-110067
India
ganpat.ac@gmail.com
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