FOR HINDUSTANI ONLY

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

FOR HINDUSTANI ONLY

 

 

That the Hindi-Urdu question is in imminent danger of becoming a communal issue is evident from the speech Mr. Purshottamdas Tandon delivered at the opening ceremony of the Hindi Museum at Benares in the first week of this month. He declared that next to Chinese, Hindi was the most widely spoken language in Asia. This means, in other words, that the problem of a common language is solved; it is going to be Hindi, because Hindi is spoken by the majority of Indians. Those who clamour for Hindustani can be outnumbered, therefore they cannot matter. But the counting of heads is no more a remedy than breaking of heads. Whatever Mr. Tandon may have really meant, it seems to me that ground is being prepared for another such indignity as the Communal Award. It is only your prestige and the confidence inspired by your personality that can rescue us. I am giving below a number of points which in my humble opinion are rational in them and provide a sound basis for a common language. If you consider them and find them worthy, not in your own estimation only but also of the cause they are meant to serve, you may make them known to others. What I am dreaming of just now is that they might become the basis of a public pronouncement by you. The points are:

1. That our common language shall be called ‘Hindustani’, not ‘Hindi’. 2. That Hindustani shall not be considered to have any peculiar association with the religious traditions of any community.

3. That the test of ‘foreign’ and ‘indigenous’ shall not be applied to any word, but only the test of currency.

4. That all words used by Hindu writers of Urdu and Muslim writers of Hindi shall be deemed current. This of course shall not apply to Urdu and Hindi as sectional languages.

5. That in the choice of technical terms, specially political terminology, no preference be given to Sanskrit terms as such, but as much room as possible be allowed for natural selection from among Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit terms.

6. That the Devanagari and the Arabic scripts shall both be considered current and official, and that in all institutions whose policy is directed by the official promoters of Hindustani, facilities shall be provided for learning both scripts. There may be friends to whom these suggestions will look like Muslim demands. They are not. But I know that unless an assurance of some such kind is given by you and the Parishad, there can be no question of Muslim literary effort being harnessed in the cause of a common language. So I have submitted these suggestions to you. If they are extravagant, I know you will pardon me, and if they are unjustified, they will not offend you. So far as I am concerned I have only wanted to do my duty, and to show, by an appeal to you, my unlimited respect for your judgment and my confidence in your deep feeling of justice and tolerance.