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I.- The Problem 1. The Problem of the National Language. 2. The Difficulty of the Problem.
II.-Indian Languages 3. Chief Languages of India.
III.-Hindi, Hindustani and Urdu 4. Hindi and Allied Languages. 5. Hindi as Literary Language. 6. Forms of Hindi.
IV-Development of the Federal Language 7. Need of Development. 8. Inadequacy of High Hindi. 9. Inadequacy of Urdu. 10. Inadequacy of Hindustani. 11. Need for Borrowing Words. 1.2. Loans in High Hindi. 13. Loans in Urdu. 14. Loans in Hindustani Its Characteristics. 15. Grammer of Hindustani. 16. Hindustani and Common Speech. 17. Origin of High Hindi, Urdu and Hindustani. 18. Khari Boli. 19. Urdu and Braj. 20. High Hindi. 21. How to Develop the Federal Language. 22. Principle of Assimilation. 23. Principle of Inclusiveness. 24. Dangers of Exclusiveness. 25. Technical Terms. 26. Principles of Choosing Technical Terms. 27. International Terms. 28. Recommendations of the Central Advisory Board Committee of 1944. 29 Need for Adopting international Terms. 30. Scientific Backwardness. 31. International character of science. 32. English Terms. 33. Scientific Terms. 34. Societies for Selecting Terms. 35. Difficulties of an Independent Terminology. 36. solution. Adoption of English Terms and How to do it. 37. Uses of Federal language.
V. -Suggested Alternatives : English and Sanskrit 38. Alternatives. 39. English. 40. Objections to English. 41. Sanskrit 42. Objections to Sanskrit. 43. Hindi the only Alternative.
VI. Federal and Regional Languages 14. Difficulties Involved. 45. Its Relation with Regional Languages. 46. Hindi cannot claim Superiority over Regional Languages. 17. Limited Use of Hindi. 48. Federal Language as the Second Language. 49. Its Advantages and Uses. 50. Place of Regional Languages. 51. Federal Language as Alternative to Regional. 52. Pockets of Minorities.
VII.- Script 53. Devanagari Script 54. other Scripts 55. Measures for Developing Languages.
VIII. Place of English 56. Need for Caution 57.Study of English.
IX.-58 Recommendations 304
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I.- The Problem 1. The Problem of the National Language- We have devoted much anxious thought to the problem of the medium of instruction in the universities and institutes of higher studies. No other problem has caused greater controversy among educationists and evoked more contradictory view from our witnesses. Besides, the question is so wrapped up in sentiment that it is difficult to consider it in a calm and detached manner.
For many years the current of national opinion has flowed with increasing force in the direction of the replacement of English by an Indian language. National pride legitimately felt hurt at the idea of an alien language occupying a dominating position in the field of national culture. Thus as the national struggle gathered force the desire for the adoption of an Indian language as the means of inter-provincial intercourse, of administration and of higher education gained in strength and volume. Naturally on the attainment of independence the ardent among its expected an immediate fulfilment of their desire, and they feel somewhat surprised and hurt when it is pointed out that the question is a complicated one and does not admit of an easy and immediate solution.
2. The Difficulty of the Problem-The difficulty of the problem is inherent in the size of India and the character of her population ; for, with the exception of China, there is no nation in the world of equal population or racial variety. Russia which comes next has about 180 million inhabitants compared to over 300 millions in India. Inevitably the diversity of languages is greater in India than else- where. But this very diversity calls for unity. To reconcile the claims of diversity with those of unity is a perplexing problem.
II-Indian Languages 3. Chief Languages of India-How great this diversity is will become plain by a reference to the figures of speakers of different languages. Now although there are hundreds of dialects in India the principal languages which possess literatures of their own and therefore can claim to be fit media of instruction are not more than
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a dozen. The following table taken from the Statistical Handbook published by the Constituent Assembly in 1947, and based on the census of 1931 gives the figures which are only illustrative, but cannot be regarded as strictly accurate for today-
1. Assamese .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1,992,846
2. Bengali (undivided Bengal) .. .. .. 53,091,475
3. Oriya .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 11,133,583
4. Gujarati .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 10,832,278
5. Marathi .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 20,888,985
6. Panjabi (undivided Panjab) .. .. .. 15,811,545
7. Kashmiri .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1,437,983
8. (a) Eastern Hindi .. .. .. .. .. 7,867,103
(b) Western Hindi .. .. .. .. .. 71,354,504
(c) Bihari.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 27,926,502
(d) Rajasthani .. .. .. .. .. .. 13,897,508
9. Kanarese .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 11,206,125
10. Malayalam .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 9,125,397
11. Tamil .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 20,227,545
12. Telugu .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 26,213,087
III.-Hindi, Hindustani and Urdu 4. Hindi and allied Languages-Under item 8 we have brought together four language groups. Eastern Hindi, whose principal literary dialect Awadhi, and Bihari comprising the three languages of Bihar-Maithili, Magadhi and Bhojpuri are closely allied; so are Western Hindi and Rajasthani. The two groups again are closely related to each other. The dialects of Eastern Hindi and Bihari, namely, Awadhi and Maithili respectively possess rich literatures, so also the dialects of Western Hindi and Rajasthani. Among the branches of Western Hindi are Urdu, Braj Bhasha and High Hindi of which each one has produced many writers of genius. Their works are a valued national treasure.
5. Hindi as Literary Language-The remarkable thing about the people who belong to these four groups is that whatever dialect may be the spoken tongue of the particular region in which they live all are adopting Western Hindi as their literary language. Thus for a population of nearly 12 crores inhabiting the regions from the confines of Saurashtra to Bengal and between the Himalayas and the Deccan plateau Western Hindi in its different styles is becoming the medium of polite intercourse.
6. Forms of Hindi-Western Hindi in its literary forms, mainly because of the momentum of the large numbers which support them, has the best chance of recognition by free India as the
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language of the State. Numerous people outside the middle region of India, where Hindi is recognised as the culture language, support its claim and since 1925 when the Indian National Congress adopted it, it may be said that its claim to be treated as the State language has received greater recognition. Unfortunately a fierce controversy has raged round the character of its literary form, and words Hindi, Hindustani and Urdu have become symbols of the conflict.
Why these styles of one and the same language should cause passionate disagreement is a matter which we are not called upon to discuss, nor is it our intention to adjudicate between the protagonists of the different views, for apart from other considerations, the Constituent Assembly which is seized of the issue will before long give its verdict which we hope will end the controversy.
IV.-Development of the Federal Language 7. Need of Development-Whichever form of he Western Hindi is ultimately chosen as the official languages of the Indian Federation, questions regarding its development to make it a fitting instrument of elevated discourse capable of expressing the widest range of thought, will have to be tackled, for this language will eventually be used in the federal legislatures and the highest tribunals of justice, and in all federal administrative work. This will become the language of business, of philosophy and science, of the highest teaching and research.
8. Inadequacy of High Hindi-Now none of its three forms is immediately ready for these prurposes. Braj Bhasha which during a considerable part of the middle ages occupied the position of the language of culture through which the message of Bhakti spread over the whole land, and which as equally well adapted for ethics as for exotics, ceased to serve the new social needs which emerged in the nineteenth century. High Hindi which has replaced it in the affections of the people has made splendid strides and has proved its utility both for serious prose as well as for poetry. But it possesses little scientific literature and its technical vocabulary is rudimentary.
9. Inadequacy of Urdu-In the wealth of its prose and poetical literature Urdu is not behind High Hindi or any other Indian language. It has actually been used as the medium of instruction for higher education in the Osmania University and for a number of years the Nizam's Government has been employing it as the
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language of the State both for administrative and judicial work. Although a number of scientific treatises which are used for Universi- sity syllabuses have been translated into Urdu, it is not possible to. say that is possesses an adequate scientific vocabulary.
10. Inadequacy of Hindustani-Hindustani, the third form of Western Hindi, which aspires to attain the status of the national language is still passing through the initial stages by which a spoken dialect becomes a literary language. Although it is the common denominator of Hindi and Urdu so far as spoken speech is concerned, it has not had adequate time and opportunity to grow a literature comparable with that of Hindi or Urdu.
11. Need for Borrowing Words-High Hindi, Urdu and Hindustani suffer in differing degrees from a similar defficiency in vocabulary. Each one of them has its own solution for the removal of the is deffi- ciency. All three are borrowing languages, but unfortunately they have not been able to arrive at a common understanding regarding the sources from which they should borrow.
12. Loans in High Hindi-The tendency of writers of High Hindi is to borrow exclusively front Sanskrit, and to take these words in the form in which they occur in the lending language. They also employ Sanskrit rules for preparing derivatives from these words. Their preference for Sanskrit words is not confined to neologisms, for even common words long in use, if they happen to be of' Persian or Arabic origin, are replaced by Sanskrit words.
13. Loans in Urdu-On the other hand, Urdu writers place their reliance on Persian and Arabic, and freely make use of Persian and Arabic grammatical rules or word building. In the context of India's nascent nationalism this does not seem to be in harmony with the spirit of the times.
14. Loans Hindustani-Its characterist- Hindustani writers strive to steer a different course. In the first place they lay emphasis on the fact that it possesses a genius of its own which distinguishes it from Sanskrit on the one side and Persian and Arabic on the other. This genius is its phonetic system and morphological order. The sounds of Hindustani speech are peculiar to it and are not identical with those of any other language--Sanskrit. Persian or Arabic. Besides, the combination of these sounds in words is also peculiar and differs radically from that of other languages it follows front this that loan words taken front Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and other languages cannot fit, into Hindustani unless they are modified to harmonize with its genius.
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15. Grammer of Hindustani-Again, the grammer of Hindustani is not identical with the grammer of Sanskrit, Persian or Arabic, although it is identical with that of Hindi and Urdu. It is, therefore, somewhat of an outrage to impose rules of these languages on the forms and derivations of Hindustani words.
16. Hindustani and Common Spech-Secondly, Hindustani endeavours to maintain the raciness of the soil from which it has sprung. It has not only no aversion for the spoken words, no, snobbish contempt for the speech of the common men, it actually endeavours to renew and reinvigorate itself from the sources of living speech of the ordinary people.
17. Origin of High Hindi, Urdu (and Hindustani -Now High Hindi, Urdu and Hindustani ire all derived from the Same source, they have the same phonetic and morphological systems. The same Aryan speech which is enshrined in the hymns of the Vedas is the common mother of them all. This primary Prakrit became modified by the sixth century B.C into middle Indo-Aryan Prakrits, among which Pali and Ardha Magadhi attained the position of literary languages, while another Prakrit spoken in the Madhya Desha (roughly the United Provinces of to daY) became transformed into Sauraseni Aprabhramsha.
18. Khari Boli-Passing through various stages these Prakrits developed into modern Indo-Aryan languages between 1000 and 1200 A.-D. The Sauraseni Aprabhramsha gave rise to the dialect spoken round about Delhi and given the name of Khari Boli. By the same process was evolved the neighbouring, and allied speech of Braj. These dialects received impetus from two factors (i) the establishment of Turkish rule, and (ii) the spread of Sufism and Bhakti. Urdu and Braj Bhasha became the literary vehicles of the socio-religious changes set in motion by these forces.
19. Urdu and Braj-Urdu was largely cultivated by Muslim writers and Bra] Bhasha by the Hindus. But as time passed and they grew. Hindus adopted Urdu as their own, and Muslims Bra' Bhasha. So that Urdu counts among its literatures numerous Hindus and among poets of Bra' Bhasha some of the finest are Muslims. Although both Urdu and Braj Bhasha belong, to the same family in fact they are so closely related that Muslims Hussain Azad and others looked upon them as identical, their growth was moulded in different milieus and they acquired their own special characteristics. But till the end of the 18th Century there never was any conflict among these languages and Hindus and Muslims used and enjoyed them both
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20. High Hindi-In the 19th century the seeds of communalism were sown. The plant had a lusty growth and ultimately its baleful shadow darkened every aspect of life. It was impossible for culture to escape the evil influence, and one of the consequences was the Hindi- Urdu controversy. Now that India is freeing herself of the Octopus of communalism, it should be possible to consider the problem of language in all its bearings without the urgency of emotional pressures and political antagonisms.
21. How to Develop the Federal Langauge-Under whatever name the Constituent Assembly chooses the official languages of the Indian Federation it is undoubted that its basis will be the common substra- tum of the different styles of Western Hindi discussed above. In order to make it a worthy instrument capable of rendering all the service required, it will have to be enriched and developed. In this connection we urge consideration of certain points.
22. Principle of Assimilation-The first is in regard to the principle which should govern the necessary borrowings of words. In the world there are many languages which borrow words, but they do so without violence to their peculiar genius. The English language is a ease in point. It has freely adopted words from Greek, Latin, French, German and other languages including Asian languages like Arabic, Persian and Hindustani. But even one of the loan word has been moulded into the matrix of English, so that excepting philologists ordinary people are hardly aware that they are using words of alien origin. Both writers of High Hindi and Urdu have in the past departed from this principle and the result is that these languages have tended to become learned languages not of the broad masses of men but of select coteries. Against such a development discerning scholars of languages like Grierson have raised their voice. If we disregard their warning it will be at our peril.
A study of the history of our linguistic developments reinforces this lesson. Prakrits like Pali and Ardha Magadhi, were living languages through which Budhists and Jams propagated their gospels. But when they were overburdened with Sanskritisms to satisfy the taste of the learned groups of priests, they ceased to be current among the common people, their vitality, freshness and appeal dwindled and ultimately they were ousted from public favour. Braj Bhasha which was the vehicle of the religion of Bhakti retained its popularity for centuries and even today many critics consider it a more fitting medium of song and verse than High Hindi because of its naturalness and sweetness.
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23. Principle of inclusiveness-The second point for considera- tion is the desirability of retaining the words which have already entered into Indian languages from different sources. It will be unfortunate if the numerous English, French and Portuguese words which have become current are deliberately cast out. Equally unfortunate will it be if words taken from other languages which are on the tongues of millions of Indians are shunned because of their communal association.
24. Dangers of Exclusiveness-Arising out of this there is another important consideration. Some advocates of Hindi want it to rely exclusively upon Sanskrit for borrowing words. Now no one can doubt the close relationship between Sanskrit and Hindi both from the point of view of culture and philology, for the vast majority of Hindi words are derived from Sanskrit or to be more accurate from the Indo- Aryan Prakrit from which Sanskrit was developed. Nor need it be disputed that considerable additions to our vocabulary will and ought to be made from the same source. But there are dangers in exclusiveness which ought to be avoided. Slavish imitation is not good. It will make the language still and stilted. Variety is essential in order to maintain the natural flexibility and suppleness of Hindi and to make it acceptable to as large a number of people as possible . One of the main virtues of a spoken language is the ease of utterance which makes it easy to memorize. To encumber it with words difficult to pronounce is bound to hinder its growth and popularity. We must also beware of revivalist ideology. Recovery of antique virtue or antique culture is not in accord with the laws of history. Sir Walter Moberly who was for many years chairman of Universities Grants Commission of Great Britain says in his challenging book "The Crisis in the University", "archaism is impracticable; what is revived is never more, than a simulacrum. It is also undesirable, since the past always has grave faults, the revival of which would be unpardonable."