Articles
Language as Unifier?
Dt: 16/11/21
Language as Unifier?
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
First let me give some interesting facts.
· There are 7100 languages currently spoken in the world and the number is going down.
· Mandarin is the Chinese language which is spoken by the largest number of people in the world but only in 3 countries - China, Taiwan and Singapore.
· In India, Hindi is spoken by the largest number of people - 528 mln out of 1300 mln . It is spoken in a compact and contiguous area in North India.
· English is spoken by 260 mln people in India.
· In the United Kingdom, English is spoken by 67 mln people.
· In India, the language spoken by the second largest people is Bengali at 97 mln
· Konkani a variant of Marathi and Kannada is spoken by 2.3 mln people
· In India Sanskrit is spoken by 25,000 people but is known and cherished by millions of people – Intelligentsia, especially academicians across the world hold it in high esteem as a treasure house of knowledge.
· English, French, Spanish and Chinese are the official languages in the United Nations. Anyone speaking in any language is translated into these 5 languages simultaneously.
· North and South Korea speak the same language, are of same race but are deadly divided and are mutually hostile .
· Egypt and Syria of same language , religion and race united to form the United Arab Republic (UAR)but parted very soon .
· Austria and Germany speak the same language have the same religion and same race but are two different states.
2. What unifies people and for what purpose :
· Arabic is spoken by 17 member nations of the United Nations. That has not united these 17 into one political nation state
· There are 62 nation states in the Organization of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) where people and the states profess Islam as their religion. Islam has not untied them into one federal nation state.
· Iran & Saudi Arabia have the same religion. But they are divided both by race and sect ( Sunni Saudi Araba and Shia Iran) . They are not united but are in fact, deadly adversaries.
· US and Canada are both Christian and the people speak English. Neither Christianity nor the English language has untied them as one political nation state.
· There are several Spanish speaking Christian nation states in the two Americas (Mexico in North America & the rest in South America). But they are not united into one state.
· People in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have the same language .They were separated . One group living in the Madras province and another in the Nizam’s state were untied in 1956 into Andhra Pradesh but separated in 2014. Language did not keep them united.
· There are two Tamil speaking states Tamilnadu & Puducherry.
· People in West Bengal and Bangladesh speak the same Bengali language but they are divided into separate states by religion.
· England and Scotland were two different states; they were united in 1707 . There is recently a movement in Scotland to separate from England (United Kingdom)
· Quebec province in Canada is French -speaking. There is a separatist movement as the French speaking people are not wanting to be dominated by the English speaking Canadians.
3. It is clear that neither religion nor language nor geography is the sole factor for unity in the people. Several factors influence the unity of people for different purposes - civilizational inheritance, geographical location, faith and beliefs, culture, political ideology and language. Each one of them has different value for forming and prevailing view of unity. Unity for what purpose is the question.
4. Most languages in India excepting Tamil are derived from Sanskrit . Although Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are different languages, about 80% of their words are from Sanskrit and their structure is similar to Sanskrit just like for Guajarati, Bengali, Marathi or Hindi. It was Sanskrit which acted as the common language of the intelligentsia of India and it conduced to the cultural and civilizational unity of the country. India was thus a nation by culture with Sanatan Dharma and its derivatives acting as glue . The core value of the Sanatan Dharma is unity in diversity. Diversity is characteristic of nature. Diversity does not mean contending or mutually opposed differences; but coexistence for the preservation of creation - Loka Sangraha.
5. To illustrate cultural unity in diverse expressions take Deepawali festival. In the North it is celebrated as Rama’s coming back to Ayodhya from his fourteen year vanavas . The same is celebrated in the South as Naraka Chaturdasi - the killing of the demon Narakasura by Satyabhama, a consort of Krishna. Rama is fair in the South but is blue in some parts of North India.
Bharat’s cultural and civilizational unity has been maintained through the centuries not through any one language. The contents in the Ramayana,Mahabharata, Bhagawata and otherer Puranas all in Sanskrit expounding the philosophy and spiritualism of Sanatan Dharma ( Hinduism) through the lives and deeds of Rama, Krishna, Rishis, Kings, Saints and Sages were retold in the myriad language of Bharat, century after century adding local flavours, some times as translations , other times as Khanda Kavyas , plays , poetry, prose , ballads, bhajans, and keertans . For the most learned Sanskrit was the language, for others the local languages.
6. Now let us see what is the position of Urdu: It is not a classical language . It emerged during the Muslim rule in North India. Muslim rulers’ armies comprised of people from Turkey, Persia, Arabia , Afghanistan and several parts of India , all of different mother tongues. In fact in the Cantonments where the Muslim rulers’ soldiers from different countries and the native converts as well as un- converted constituting the Muslim rulers’ armies, Urdu developed as common lingua franca (common language) among them. Then, over a few centuries it has become the language of most Muslims in the North. In the South, Muslims mostly speak the languages that their overwhelming Hindu majority people speak and their ancestors spoke – Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. Only in the old city of Hyderabad and in pockets of some towns in Telangana Urdu is spoken by Muslims.
7. It will not be untrue to say that attempts have been and are being made to make Urdu as the language of all Muslims. Considerable efforts were made to foist Urdu on India, especially Hindus. Md. Ali Jinnah denounced Hindi as state language that was thwarting the development of Urdu . He wrote to the Vice Roy Linlithgow in 1939 after the resignation of the Congress Ministries that Urdu should be declared as the national language of India. In that letter he also extended full support of Muslim League to war effort . Sir Mirza Ismail as Dewan of Jaipur made Urdu compulsory for recruitment to that state’s public services . That a religion cannot be defined by language is borne out by Islam being followed by different languages speaking people – Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Pusthu, Punjabi, Sindhi and Bengali…
Answering a question about Muslim grievances the late Guruji Golvalkar said this about Urdu: Look at their stance on Urdu. 50 years ago Muslims in various states spoke and studied the local languages. They never thought that they had a different religious language of their own. Urdu is not a religious language of the Muslims . Urdu is a hybrid product evolved during the Mughal rule. It has nothing to do with Islam. It was in Arabia that Islam was born. The Holy Koran is Arabic. If at all there is a religious language of the Muslims it is Arabic. So why this emphasis on Urdu? It is because on the strength of one common language Muslims are sought to be united into a political force . ..such a political force is bound to go counter to the interests of the country”.
In order to preserve and promote Urdu the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU)) was established in and located in Hyderabad. The Urdu spoken in a part of Hyderabad city differs from the Urdu spoken in Lucknow in Avadh area of Uttar Pradesh.
8. We have a Telugu university. There are Telugu speaking people in Bengal, Delhi, Orissa and Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Karnataki . But the Telugu university has no centers or campuses in those states. Why should MANUU have centers in Bihar, Kerala and elsewhere? Is it to unify the Muslims all over India by defining Urdu as the language of the people whose religion is Islam? Iran or Turkey does not promote Arabic even as the Holy Koran is in Arabic. Kemal Ata Turk ordered that the prayers in Turkey should be offered in the Turkish language and not in Arabic. He said if god is great, he would understand all the languages.
9. If the preservation and promotion of Urdu is prime purpose of MANUU, why should it have courses in Engineering, English, sociology, management and other subjects like exclusion studies not related to Urdu language? Are the non-Urdu language subjects offered to students in MANUU in Urdu or in English? The Osmania University before 1949 used to have Urdu as the language of instruction for all subjects including Engineering & medicine. The graduated students could not be employed outside the Nizam state . After the liberation and integration of the Nizam’s sate with the rest of India, the Osmania University taught all the subjects in English. If medicine and engineering or science are taught in Telugu, at the degree level can they find employment in the rest of India? Similarly, if Urdu is the medium of instruction and examinations for subjects other than the language, can they find employment and where and in what numbers?
10. If Urdu is said to be not only the language of Muslims but even of Hindus, then why is it that only a Muslim is appointed as the Vice Chancellor ? Muslims are becoming Vice Chancellors for so many universities all over India and why cannot a Urdu -knowing Hindu be appointed as Vice Chancellor for MANUU or for that matter, for Alighar Muslim University and Jamia Millia University since all these are funded by the secular state. For religion there could be exclusive seminaries funded by the followers of those religions. For eg: we have a Sanskrit university in Tirupati. It is entirely funded by the Hindus offerings to Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala/Tirupati.
11. If unity for national purposes is to be achieved then, no one language should be said to be the language of a particular religion . No secular state should fund a language university which seeks to unite people of a particular religion by establishing centers/ campuses all over the country ostensibly for preservation, promotion and development of a language but which in fact is used for uniting people of a particular religion.
12. Since MANUU is located in the Telugu speaking state of Telangana why cannot Telugu be one of the languages for study while foreign languages like Arabic and Persian are available for study as languages other than Urdu . If language can contribute in a small and its own way to understanding among people is it not desirable to have Telugu also offered by MANUU for study in Hyderabad?
13. Finally, the Constitution of Bharat recognizes that a common language for the whole of India is important for promoting and preserving the unity of the nation. There is therefore a special directive in Article -351 which mandates the development of the Hindi language. Hindi is spoken by 45% of the people of Bharat and is accepted as the official language of the Union of India, though English is permitted to be used for some more time. The Article reads: “Directive for development of the Hindi language. It shall be the duty of the Union to promote and spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms , style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the 8th schedule and by drawing wherever necessary are desirable, for its vocabulary “primarily of Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages”. It shall therefore be the duty of all of us Bharatiyas irrespective of region and religion to learn and gain proficiency in Hindi for preserving and promoting our nation-hood and the integrity of the sacred land of Bharat. The Sahitya Akademi and the Jnanpith of India promotes all the languages without any discrimination . We should all develop respect for all the languages that are spoken in India.
14. To conclude, unity is dependent on and for multiple factors and purposes – cultural and philosophical heritage, ideology, geography, religion, historical experience, values, economics, visions of future are of all contributory factor. Unity can be temporary as it was between Hindus and Muslims during the Kilafat movement ( 199-23) and can evaporate when some other interest prevails, as when India was partitioned - Punjabi and Bengali speaking people were at each other’s throats, foisting Urdu in East Pakistan denigrating Bengali, led to the break-up of Pakistan. Bangladesh emerged as a result of language nationalism . That religion and even race could not keep a nation united was proved by East Pakistan that is East Bengal , now Bangladesh breaking away from Pakistan mostly because Urdu was being forcibly foisted on the Bengali speaking Muslims. The Bengali language nationalism was so strong that independent Bangladesh adopted its National Anthem, a lyric written by Sri Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali.
Sir Md Iqbal’s wrote Tarana -e-Hindi before 1906:
“Saare jahan se acha Hindusitan hamaaraa
Hindi hain ham, Hindi hai ham”
In this he hailed Rama as Imam-e-Hind .
In 1910, four years after the founding of the Muslim League in Dhaka in 1906, he wrote Tarana-e-milli :
“Chin-o-Arab hamaaraa, Hindusitan hamaaraa
Muslim hai ham, Muslim hai ham,
Vatan hai saaraa jaahaan hamaaraa”
Another Urdu poet wrote:
“ Na Hindi, na Marathi, apani bolee mieethee bolee.
Yet another poet, Akbar Mallihabadi wrote :
Laharonki tarah lado,
Magar ek raho !
This is the best message that language can convey.
15. The views expressed in this paper may not be to the liking of sectarians but need to be considered dispassionately so that the secular state’s funds are not utilized for accentuating communal separativeness.
16. An article titled, “Let the Myriad of Indian Languages Be” by a well-known columnist Harish Bijoor in the edit page of Indian Express of 9-11-2021 may be read for more understanding of language as a factor for national unity.
( 2,448 words)
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