Urdu Examination- Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Urdu Examination- Mahatma Gandhi 

 

The Hindustani Prachar Sabha has begun its work in right earnest. It is purely a body of workers who believe in the message and mission of the Sabha. The message is that the national language of India is not English but Hindustani, i.e., Hindi plus Urdu. Shri Purushottamdas Tandon, who is the soul of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, was the author of the Congress resolution on Hindustani. It was he who made it crystal clear to me that Hindustani at present must mean Hindi plus Urdu. Everyone who attends Congress meetings realizes this truth, for when a Congressman speaks in Hindi the Urdu-speaking men do not fully understand him, if at all, and the same thing applies to Urdu speakers. Therefore if you wish to be understood by all, you have to speak a combination of the two as I have heard Malaviyaji and Babu Bhagwandas doing Hence the necessity of Indian nationalists speaking both the varieties of Hindustani speech. No one may be said to speak Hindustani who is not equally at home with both the varieties. Hence the necessity also of their knowing equally well both the scripts. To supply this felt want is one of the main causes of founding the Hindustani Prachar Sabha. Its founders were and are members of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan.

But their ambition was not satisfied with mere Hindi propaganda. Therefore, with the approval of the Sammelan, they have founded the Hindustani Prachar Sabha. Naturally the Sabha’s first act should be to induce all the Hindi-knowing persons to learn Urdu and to provide facilities for them. To this end I am in communication with Maulana Abdul Haq Saheb, the learned secretary of the Anjuman Taraqui-e-Urdu for help and guidance. The council of the Sabha has decided to hold the first examination in Urdu on the 22nd November. The particulars, including the syllabus, will be published as soon as possible. Those who would appear for this examination are requested to send in their names to Acharya Shriman Narayan Agrawal, Hindustani Prachar Office, and Wardha. I hope that all those who have passed the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan examinations will be eager to pass the forthcoming Urdu examination. Of course those who do not know Hindi would also be welcome. Knowledge of any language at any time enriches one’s mind and enables one to cultivate closer contact with the people who speak that language. How much more valuable must a knowledge of Urdu be to the one who knows Hindi only, as that of Hindi must be to the one who knows Urdu only? If living Hindustani is to come into being it can only be through a natural and happy fusion of the two. Such a fusion is impossible without a large number of persons having an equal command over both the sister languages. 

 

Reference: 

 

Harijan, 2-8-1942