Invention of PIOA -Part 2: My thoughts on Devanagari changes-My neutral and unbiased thoughts on Hindi-Urdu Debate

Friends!

Welcome again to this new post. Well, this post is, as you know, will teach you about the current policy of orthography which Indian Government tries to spread.

(I)

See, Devanagari is the preferred script by Government of India. But actually, its usage is a recent phenomenon. Yes, indeed it is a very new script and I am not joking.

It’s a script which was introduced at the time of British rule by the propagators of Devanagari. There was Nagari Prachaarini Sabhaa (organization supporting Devanagari alphabet). Suddenly these organizations came up with and catered to an ongoing demand of Sanskritization. There were debates taking place on this topic. Sir Syed Ali Khan, an educationist and a reformist, was against the idea of Sanskritization and Devanagari, and only favored the traditional Urdu and its development and propagation.

Let me tell you that there are tons of controversies which led to the divide of Urdu and Hindi. Thanks to Jawaharlal Nehru, he did not prefer over-Sanskritization given that he himself knew Urdu very well, and was not interested in the “Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan & Urdu-Muslim-Pakistan” thing (God really blessed our Secular Republic). Indeed, in India our language policies were affected by this Pseudo-Nationalist Sanskritization propaganda, but people did not pay attention to this. In reality, people started recognizing even Urdu as Hindi There may be virtual divide, but not in reality. People don’t even know how Urdu really looks like, and they will start recite Ghalib or Meer Taqi Meer poetry in Devanagari or Latin!

Really, I don’t believe in this useless fact that Hindi is Sanskritized and Urdu is Persianised. I don’t know what these Sanskrit words, ‘Nagar’ ‘Singaar’ ‘Saawan’ ‘Des’ or ‘Gaahak’ (another form of the word ‘Graahak’) were doing in Pakistan for so many years, and still there are Pakistanis who’ll say “we don’t speak Hindi, we don’t recognize Hindi, blah..blah..blah..”. Same here, we use ‘Zaroorat’ ‘Baarish’ ‘Khaali’ ‘Jageh’ ‘Mulaaqaat’ (and don’t know how many are there like these), and still here people say “We don’t know Urdu, it’s a foreign language,……” and so on.

Khalaas! Enough of these propaganda, you people even don’t know Hindi-Urdu are synonyms of the same language originally spoken in the Delhi state (officially called National Capital Territory). Urdu is a very recent name of this language, and Hindi is a very old term for the same language. Some Ethnic Northern freaks in the South will say “This is not Hindi, this is Urdu”; well, I would argue against this-Study Linguistics and learn properly when Languages are really Languages.

Yeah, I am a Non-Hindi and I am a proud native speaker of both Bengali and Hindustani language. Not any ordinary, I was a topper in that language. If you ask, how could you manage to be a topper in the school where this Bookish Hindi is taught; I would say it’s because my language is Bengali (a too much Sanskritized language). I used to observe my mother tongue very well, and I had a good hold of these Sanskrit loanwords from the beginning. You know, my family calls the Bollywood songs as Hindi songs, and on the contrary, my fellow Pseudo-nationalist Sanskritized Hindi-propagators will say ‘No dear, this is Urdu’.

I am very disappointed friends! I have served this beautiful Lingua-Franca of our country for a long time (I have always considered this as a faithful service to my nation), but I am disappointed seeing that my Hindustani-speaking friends are themselves dividing their language for a long time.

Bro, come to the land of Bengal. Even Bangladeshis use Sanskritized vocabulary to explain concepts in Bengali (we all Bengalis sometimes use Arabic or Persian words, but for specific purposes). You go to Kerala where Islam is supposed to arrive first in India by sea route from Arabia, there Ramadaan is called Punya Maasam (or the Auspicious Month). They even have their own word for Eid!

Why? Why my northern Brothers, only this language of yours is divided for no reason? This language is great, it’s the lingua franca of our South Asia region, don’t insult this language for God’s sake, it’s my humble request!

(II)

Now let me tell you about this thing of deliberate attempt to Devanagarise Indian laguages. Let me tell you from a broader perspective.

It’s not a bad idea given its similarities to other scripts used in India. But not because in whatever way you simplify it, it’s not simple, not even than Latin script.

If somebody says that Sanskrit was written only in Devanagari, well let me tell you we Bengalis mostly don’t use that script even in reciting hymns in rituals. Same situation is other places.

If you think Devanagari is scientific than Latin, let me tell you that so many languages with different phonetic variations are there in the country, how can you superimpose Devanagari on their orthographies, it’s not easy my friend. Even Indo-Aryan languages vary phonologically.

As an outsider you cannot study Bengali by using Devanagari, it has a very different script my friend. Looks similar, functions differ.

If you still think Devanagari is an all-rounder, and that if Sanskrit is assumed to be the mother of all languages, then any language can be written in Devanagari. Firstly, the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is far better. You can’t even compare Devanagari with this alphabet. Secondly, maybe Sanskrit will suit to computers, Devanagari isn’t really suitable to computers. Do one thing, try to fully employ this ‘halanta principle’ (as in writing Sanskrit) in writing Hindi or Bengali. Hindi orthography is bound to be destroyed in this process. I don’t know about what will happen to Bengali, even its own script is too inefficient to handle Bengali phonology, God Save Bengali!

I am a migrant Bengali; I am really sympathetic to my language. But you know, this Bengali (Eastern Nagari) script although it holds a cultural importance, is actually more threatening to Bengali than the Pakistani policies prior to the Language movement in the 50’s. How can we learn the complex rules of pronunciation in this busy life, tell me? Yeah, I am asking you, the natives of West Bengal and Bangladesh.

There are many questions like these, some come from people of other regions as well.

These questions really made me concerned about those languages. It’s a shame that we don’t prioritize our languages at international level. See Turkey, how did they manage to save their language? They didn’t think about their emotion or identity actually, they simply did what was required in those situations, and discarded the thoughts that actually didn’t matter in real life.

I actually shifted from hardcore Devanagarist thoughts in search of answers, and really adopted this concept of ‘Latinization’. But how?

See you in the next post.

Take care!

 

P.S. – Hey conservative and traditionalist brothers, don’t accuse me of threatening the cultural heritage or bringing imperialist thoughts. I am doing my job instead to turn away imperialism from my country.

“I love my country, and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.

I shall always strive to be worthy of it….

In their well-being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness. Jai Hind (Victory to India)!”

….. To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion.