The Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

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Mailing Address-   C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur-208020, U.P.

 

 

The Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

 

The Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha was founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1918 to propagate the study of Hindi in south India. Mahatma Gandhi sent to his son Devdas and other associates for it in south India. Mahatma Gandhi had done a lot of work by this organization. Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I thank you for the two months’ donations which you tell me you have sent to Jamnalalji. It was on the strength of these donations that I asked Jamnalalji to make some provision for the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha and two other institutions.” 1 The secretary of Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha gave the advertisement, “The Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha invites applications from educated young men whose mother tongue is Hindi and who are willing to serve as Hindi teachers in South India for a period not less than 2 years. Letters may be addressed to the Secretary, Hindi Prachar Sabha, High Road, Triplicane, and Madras. I hope that there will be sufficient young men from the North to respond to this appeal.” 2  Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “Kindly have Rs. 15, 000 (fifteen thousand only) sent to the Secretary, Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, Madras, out of whatever funds have been collected for the ‘purse’ in connection with the Indore session of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan.” 3

 Mahatma Gandhi spoke, “I am glad to have been asked to distribute the certificates and prizes to those who have passed the examination. I do not know whether you will follow even my simple Hindi. I see that some of those who have received their certificates today do not follow it. But that is nothing to be ashamed of. Not living in the midst of a Hindi speaking public, it is quite natural that you should find it difficult to follow spoken Hindi. What is gratifying is that you are taking some pains over learning Hindi in this southernmost part of India. But please remember that your objective is not to win certificates but to obtain a working knowledge of Hindi. A certificate can but stimulate you to further effort, in order that you may be induced to put up a serious endeavour for an ever-increasing knowledge of Hindi. The first thing that you have to bear in mind is that you belong to India, that India is as much your motherland as of those whose mother tongue is Hindi. You have therefore to think of your country not as extending up to a part of the Arabian sea in the west and to the Ghats on the east but to the Hindukush in the north, Karachi in the west and Assam in the east. If you went to those remote parts of your country where other languages are spoken, what would you speak there but Hindi? You will not find many people capable of understanding English. The temple priest in the great Ananthapadmanabha temple here was speaking perfect Hindi this morning when I was shown over by him through the precincts of that vast temple. His Hindi was certainly more flawless than mine and he made me forget for a moment that I was in Travancore. The uppermost feeling in my mind is not that I am a Gujarati but that I belong to the whole of India. I would appeal to H.H. the Maharaja and Her Highness the Maharani to promote the development of Hindi studies in Travancore and encourage those who are going in for the study of Hindi. Let the objective of Travancore be to make every literate man and woman here Hindi-knowing.” 4

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “You are keeping me regularly posted with the doings of the Sabha. I have carefully read your letter to the members about the difficulty you are finding in coping with the responsibility that Rajagopalachari has thrust on you. Having put your hands to the plough, I would like you to hold on to it till you find a firmer hand yourself. Rajagopalachari when he mentioned your name was most enthusiastic about you and all I have since heard confirms what he told me. Is it not your experience that those who are most wanted for a particular cause have already several causes which they have to serve? Such is the paucity of true workers the entire world over. But it is much more felt in our country. I, therefore, hope that you will not think of giving up what you have taken up without finding an efficient substitute.” 5

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha has no right to change its object. If it exercises that right, its spiritual connection with the central institution must also end. In my opinion, such a change is not necessary either. I have paid no attention to what has been happening.” 6  Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “My address in Madras: Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, Thyagarayanagar. At Calcutta, it will of course be Khadi Pratishthan, Sodepur. I shall expect your reply at either Place.” 7

Gandhiji asked whether “(1) they had removed untouchability, (2) they had achieved communal unity, and (3) they had realized that Adivasis (hill tribes) should also share swaraj. Mahatma Gandhi said, they were all of Hindustan, drinking the same water and breathing the same air so swaraj must be of the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christians and others of India. Referring to the necessity of keeping themselves disciplined and peaceful at meetings, Mahatma Gandhi said that even if one crore of people congregated at one place, there should be no disturbance. Then only could they claim to be organized and disciplined. If even the few people that gathered at a public meeting, compared to the forty crores of India, could not keep themselves in order, he asked, how they could get swaraj. Even supposing they got swaraj, they would lose it, if they were not disciplined and orderly in their behaviour. Gandhiji said that without doubt swaraj would come but their preparedness must be shown by proper discipline. He had not come to collect funds but to test at firsthand how far people were ready for swaraj by self-discipline. Gandhiji next touched upon the lingua franca of India and said, everyone knew that he was at present on his way to Madras to preside over the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha celebrations. Two or three Andhra ladies were travelling with him, and when he spoke in Hindustani, they could not understand. They should all know Hindustani. Gandhiji asked: Do you want to know the language that is common to all Provinces of India or English? Gandhiji said that he was devoting his services to all in India. When that was so, he asked, which would be preferable whether his learning all the languages of India or a small proportion still not knowing Hindustani learning the language for following his advice. Hindustani was a sweet language, easy to learn, which had been adopted as the mother tongue of 33 crores of people so he believed that they should all take up the subject and learn Hindustani. Continuing, Mahatma Gandhi said, swaraj cannot be retained if it came as if by magic. They all proclaimed, they would get their swaraj through non-violence and truth that being so, they should not behave otherwise and cheat the world. Since 25 years they had been proclaiming that they would win independence by truth and nonviolence. On that account, the whole world had placed India on a high place. Supposing in 1920 they had announced that they would win swaraj by violent means and later had won it, they would have lost it by now. Gandhiji wanted them to take a pledge to win swaraj by means of truth and non-violence. Concluding, Gandhiji said that he was glad to have noticed that the crowd had remained peaceful.” 8

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “There is art in dying also. As it is, all die, but one has to learn by practice how to die a beautiful death. The matter will not be settled even if everybody went to Noakhali and got killed. When the time comes I shall call for you, Reddy and Amtussalaam to go there. So far I do not see that the moment has come. Your keeping indifferent health is another difficulty. Considering all this, please tell me what you would like to do. Can you go to Assam or to Sindh?” 9

 

References:

 

1. LETTER TO G. D. BIRLA, August 10, 1924
2. WANTED HINDI TEACHERS Young India, 20-12-1928
3. LETTER TO JAMNALAL BAJAJ, April 1, 1936
4. SPEECH AT DAKSHINA BHARAT HINDI PRACHAR SABHA, TRIVANDRUM, January 13, 1937
5.   LETTER TO N.V. RAGHAVAN, June 13, 1937
6. LETTER TO D. B. KALELKAR, October 5, 1938
7.   LETTER TO SHREERAM SHARMA, January 11, 1946
8. SPEECH AT PUBLIC MEETING, VISAKHAPATNAM, January 20, 1946
9. LETTER TO HARIHAR SHARMA, October 21, 1946