2AHIFA?

JELAI
Politics of Language
Decline of Urdu in Uttar Pradesh
Once a language patronised by the nawabs, Urdu saw a consistent decline in patronage and support. This paper traces its decline, from the era of divisive colonial politics to the decades after independence, when the language became a victim of an increasingly communalised political arena in UP. It also attempts to unravel the paradox that is Urdu today a language spoken mainly at home in UP; in western India and in West Bengal, instruction in Urdu has in recent years seen a growing popularity.
SUDHA PAI
he importance of language as part of the culture of a people has been widely recognised. Today, the right of minorities to use ones own mother tongue and to receive education in it has come to be regarded as a classical right. Article 27 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights 1966 requires that in those states in which ethnic and religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with other the other members of their group, to enjoy their culture, to profess and practise their own religion or use their own language. Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enjoins on states to recognise the right of everyone to education and to undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents to choose schools for their children in the language of their choice [Venkatachaliah 1999:1659]. The Indian Constitution protects the cultural rights of all minorities. Article 30(1) provides that all minorities whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Article 350A enjoins upon every state and every local authority within the state to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups. However this constitutional provision has not been realised in the case of Urdu which has experienced decline in the post-independence period. Economic and Political Weekly This paper traces the reasons for the decline of Urdu in UP, a region where it developed under the patronage of the Awadh rulers in the 18th and 19th century, was widely spoken, and was the language of the courts and the administration. The paper argues that while lack of support from the government in post-independence India is an important reason especially when it is contrasted with support accorded to Hindi historical developments, together with the politicisation of the issue of recognition of Urdu as a second language in UP after independence, are significant factors which have contributed to its decline. Two other factors considered later in the paper are the role played by the post-independence generation of Urdu speakers in north India and the impact of market forces on the future development of the language. are struggling to forge an identity to sustain their nationhood in the post-colonial period. In this situation if a language is not characterised by political neutrality, it too often becomes the tool by which this language group seeks to extend its domination over the minority communities. Such situations are not limited to the developing countries. Among the developed countries, a good example is the considerable struggle by Francophone Canadians in the post-war period in Quebec to obtain recognition of French as the official language of this province in which their children could gain education and which citizens could use in trade and business. The British North America Act 1867, on the basis of which Canada was formed, had sought to preserve the rights and privileges which the religious minorities in both Canadas the English and French-speaking territories possessed regarding their denominational schools at the time when the union was formed. However, despite this, it was only after the Francophone elite had gained control over the economy and polity of Quebec, that they were able to preserve and propagate the French language and their culture [Gagnon 1983]. In this context it is necessary to examine the relationship between Urdu and Hindi during the colonial period in north India and at the point of independence. The neglect of Urdu is a post-independence phenomenon, more specifically arising out of partition, but certain changes taking place in the colonial period form a significant backdrop. The national movement was a period when communities and their cultural identities were sharpened and defined. This is true of all linguistic groups on the subcontinent. Two kinds of movements took place during the national movement: large horizontal movements in which people were mobilised by leaders like Gandhi, and second, smaller regional movements in which regions were vertically integrated based upon common language and culture. Language-cum-cultural movements and colonial policy combined to contribute to the construction of community identitiesand stereotypes associated with language. In the United Provinces two significant developments took place with repercussions for the post-colonial period: the splitting of

I Urdu and Hindu in the Colonial Period

The close historical connection between language and formation of nation states is now well recognised. In states struggling to build a national identity from heterogeneous elements the selection of an official language is an important symbol and practical necessity. However, in a multi-linguistic society it is often difficult to provide a just balance of opportunities for different groups. In such a situation selection of a language as the official language often represents a politically contentious decision. This is particularly true of developing countries, which

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Urdu and Hindi into two languages and the emergence of the latter as a superior language vis--vis local languages of the province. The development of both Hindi and Urdu in the colonial period is instructive in understanding their present day stature in UP. The two languages developed sideby-side and educated members of the Hindu and Muslim community used both. It is interesting to note that the first weekly newspaper in the United Provinces the Benaras Akbar and little later the Sarvahitkarak in 1855, were published in a mixture of both Hindi and Urdu [Narain 1998:21]. In the mid-1800s the Urdu press flourished in the province and many weekly or fortnightly newspapers were published from Meerut, Delhi, Agra, Lucknow and Aligarh such as the Oudh Akbar, Bharat Patrika, Shabana-i-Hind, etc. According to a study in 1861, Hindus owned most of the Urdu newspapers (Ibid:22). Hindi as we know it today developed in the late 19th century, which saw the rise of modern Hindi journalism, beginning with the Kavi Vachan-Sudha published from Benares. By the end of the century many others had followed such as the Pradip (Allahabad) Brahman (Kanpur) Basundhara (Lucknow), etc [Verma 1978:19]. This led to a flowering of literary works in Hindi and in the mid-19th century a number of associations sprang up for advocating the cause of the language, such as, the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan and the Nagari Pracharini Sabha in Benares. Gurukuls were also established to revive the Aryabhasha and its literature. Hindi Sammelans began to be held, the first in 1911 and then regularly afterwards. Big Hindu merchants and financiers donated large sums for the propagation of Hindi language and Marwari merchants established scholarships for its propagation. The use of Hindi was equated with Swadeshi in order to draw the people into the national movement. The use of the Devanagari script became widespread during that period. The Nagari Pracharni Sabha in Benares claimed the antecedents of the new language in the Khari-Boli tradition and soon forced Urdu to adopt a course of purification, i e, distinguishing itself by adopting Persian and Arabic words. The process that got underway saw Urdu rejecting the tradition of the bhashas while Hindi written in the Devanagari script adopted the bhasha tradition as its own [Srivastava 2000:3899]. Governmental policies on language also contributed to this splitting apart of the two

languages. The Hunter Commission in 1882 related the idea of the Indian languages with employment under the state. This encouraged the language associations associated with Hindi and Urdu to demand government recognition to their languages. In the early 20th century the government appointed Grierson to compile and conduct the Linguistic Survey of India. Adopting the historical method, in the course of this survey he traced the roots of the languages in north India to two main sources Sanskrit and Arabic/Persian. During this survey a differentiation came to be established between Hindi and the regional languages of the province such as Braj and Awadhi. The Hindi Sahitya Sammelan and the Hindi department of the Allahabad University successfully claimed that Hindi was the mother of all these regional languages that were described as its dialects. This led to all these losing their identity to Hindi and paved the way for the emergence of Hindi as the predominant language of north India (Ibid). It is against this background that the impact of the divisive policies of the colonial rulers can be understood. On March 2, 1898 a deputation of 17 leading Hindus had presented a petition to the Lt governor asking for use of Devanagari script in the use of courts in the United Provinces. At that point the governor did not commit or take any action. On April 20, 1900 the government suddenly decided to act on this petition and issued a notification recognising Hindi written in the Devanagari script, together with the Persian also as the court language [Verma 1978:17]. The government worried by Hindu-Muslim unity over many issues associated with the plague, law and order and other matters in the early 1900s, which they feared would lead to a joint movement against it, felt the need to create a divide between the two communities and succeeded in doing so. The words of Sir Anthony the Lt governor on this occasion are pertinent. He said that Urdu was not being replaced by Hindi because the time was not opportune for incurring that difficulty (Ibid:36) thus creating apprehensions in the minds of Muslims. The measure was bound to affect the Muslims. Urdu had long been the language of the courts and administration in north India and due to its continuation, many Muslims had been able to continue in the British administration. A study shows that in 1887 Muslims occupied about 30 per cent of important

posts given to natives in the United Provinces. There were also a number of eminent Muslim lawyers in the Lucknow bar and the Allahabad High Court. Hence such a change would have affected the educated sections of the community who were educated in Urdu. The thanksgiving ceremonies organised by the UP taluqdars also contributed to this wedge. Muslim leaders held protest meetings in many towns such as Aligarh, Lucknow, Badaun, Meerut, etc, which were put down with a heavy hand. The governments policies of favouring one community against the other fanned the differences between them (Ibid).

II Language Policy in Post-Independence India

The role played by the Congress Party at independence is also important. Both Nehru and Gandhi were keen that Hindusthani should be the official language of India. This would have made both Hindi and Urdu relevant in post-independent India as it could be written in either script. As Nehru wrote in his autobiography, I have no doubt whatever that Hindusthani is going to be the common language of India. It is largely so today for ordinary purposes [Nehru 1962:454]. He cited its widespread use as well as acceptability as the basis of his decision. The Congress Party under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru supported the use of Hindusthani. As late as September 29, 1938 a resolution passed by the Congress Working Committee said, The proceedings of the Congress, the AICC and the Working Committee shall ordinarily be conducted in Hindusthani. The English language or any provincial language maybe used if the speaker is unable to speak in Hindusthani or whenever permitted by the President [Sampurnanand 1962:89]. However, at independence following partition, many members of the Congress Party were vociferous in their demand that Hindi be made the official language and Nehru had to give in. The debates in the constituent assembly show that many members were interested in helping minorities preserve their language. But the constituent assembly (by the presidents casting vote) decided to make Hindi the rajbhasha. Many protagonists of Hindi, most of whom were from UP, such as C B Gupta, Purshottamdas Tandon and Sampurnanand equated this with July 6, 2002

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rashtrabhasha. They did not want Hindusthani because they said it was the language of the bazaar and inadequate for conducting the business of the country. They felt it was a creative language, which was good for writing literature or poetry but not for government business as it lacked a vocabulary for the purpose. They further argued that Urdu is not a separate language, but merely a style of Hindi in which words of Arabic and Persian derivation form a high percentage (Ibid:90). Consequently, in UP under the Official Languages Act 1951, Hindi was declared the official language and no room was provided to Urdu. The UP Board of studies declared that Hindi would be the sole medium of instruction and examination at the high school level. The government decided to stop aid to Urdu medium schools. Nehru did point out that acceptance of Urdu as a second language would not hinder the growth of Hindi, but leaders in UP were opposed to it. The differences that had developed in the colonial period came to the fore and were strengthened due to partition and Urdu came to be identified in north India with Muslims and the newly created state of Pakistan. Urdu in short became a victim of Indian history on the subcontinent [Bhambhri 1997:79]. In the immediate post-independence period the political atmosphere in UP was not conducive to the growth of Urdu. The result was that language policy particularly the question of Urdu became politicised. There was a demand for the recognition of Urdu as the second language in the state. But Hindu communal forces on the one hand and weak and vacillating and opportunist secular forces on the other, created an atmosphere which contributed to the decline of Urdu. Weak secular parties such as the Congress in UP did not play any active role in promoting Urdu as a second language. A major problem was that UP situated in the gangetic plains, unlike many other states, lacks a regional identity within which cultural identities could be grounded. As a result identities were defined entirely by language and religion, and in the new atmosphere Hindi came to be identified with the Hindu and Urdu with the Muslim community. In contrast, in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, strong language movements had taken place in the colonial period, which led to the formation of linguistic states and use of their language for both administration and education. Political parties in these states Economic and Political Weekly

such as the DMK and the TDP have supported the use of their mother tongue for such purposes. While Congress leaders in UP did not openly support groups that were against Urdu, many agreed with their views. Not only the Congress, all political parties Jan Sangh, Socialists and the CPI were opposed to it as they felt it was a foreign language. Kamlapathi Tripathi, Acharya Narendra Dev and many other important opposition leaders were involved in organisations propagating the use of Hindi. This unanimity across party lines, which has continued to the present, means that the political class in UP has abandoned Urdu after independence. The central government apart from its sympathy in the early post-independence period has done very little to promote Urdu. Indira Gandhi set up a committee in 1972 under the chairmanship of I K Gujral to recommend measure for advancement of Urdu. It submitted its report in 1975, which ran into 250 pages and made 187 recommendations and was laid on the table before parliament. Political considerations underlay the establishment of this committee and no action was taken on its report mainly because political leaders from the northern states were not interested and in fact opposed to any steps to help Urdu. The Janata Party released the report but did not act on it. After 1980, Indira Gandhi was no longer interested in the issue. In UP, V P Singh as chief minister in 1980s took some steps including an ordinance to make Urdu the second language of the state in 1982, but did not succeed in his attempts. Two other committees headed by Ale Ahmad Suroor in 1979 and Ali Sardar Jafri in 1990, submitted reports on which again no action was initiated. The second committee found that hardly any of the recommendations made by the Gujral committee had been adopted. On October 6, 1989 the UP legislature amended the UP Official Languages Act adding section 3 whereby Urdu was to be treated as the second official language of the state. This was a step taken by N D Tiwari just before the 1989 Lok Sabha elections in the hope of gaining minority votes, though it was only in 1994 that Mulayam Singh Yadav was able to implement it. The Act passed under Article 345 of the Constitution1 was challenged in a PIL writ petition filed in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court by the UP Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in 1989. The main ground was that Hindi having been declared official language exhausted the power of the legislature to adopt any other

language for any official purpose. A second argument was that there was a limitation that there must be a desire expressed by a substantial proportion of the population of a state that the language should also be officially be recognised; and third that no substantial proportion of the population of UP was Urdu speaking. The high court ultimately rejected all the many legal grounds raised by the petitioners though on the second, there was a difference of opinion between the judges [Latifi 1999:45]. However, the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan filed a special leave petition and the matter is now pending before the Supreme Court. The case has taken a long time after the initial stay order obtained by the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan and the government has shown little interest in hurrying up the matter. Thus, the one initiative taken by the UP state government has remained mired in controversy. The apathy of the UP government has wiped out Urdu from the curriculum of educational institutions in the state. Under the three-language formula adopted by all state governments, in UP it is Sanskrit instead of Urdu which has been taught as a modern Indian language. Under this system there was scope for Urdu to be taught but this did not happen. As a result of this Urdu, which was taught in all schools prior to independence was stopped. There is not even a single primary or junior high school of Urdu medium. The only two Urdu medium high schools are run by the AMU. There are few books and teachers available in the state. Even in Urdu medium schools subjects like science are taught in English due to lack of vocabulary or books. In some schools it is offered as an option and there is a provision for appearing for an examination at the high school level, but most students prefer to learn English. In sharp contrast, in Maharashtra with an Urdu-speaking population of only 43 lakh and Karnataka with 35 lakh, there are 2,103 and 2,853 staterun Urdu medium schools respectively [Farouqui 1994]. As a result in UP parents who want their children to learn Urdu send them to madrasas, which remain the only source of Urdu education, though they are not equipped to teach the language as their interest lies in religious instruction. The type of Urdu taught in these institutions has little relation to the spoken Urdu that people are familiar with, thereby contributing to its further decline outside such institutions, especially among the nonMuslim sections of the population. Consequently, as there is no arrangement for

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teaching Urdu at any level in UP, postindependence generations of Muslims are not familiar with the language.

III Civil Society and Market

A very important reason for the apathy of the government is that Urdu has been abandoned not only by the political class, but also by the new post-independence generation of Urdu speakers in UP. In a multi-lingual country languages have to be supported by political parties and the public. The earlier example of Canada is pertinent here. In Quebec not only was French declared the language of the state but was supported by political parties and the educated middle classes. This is also seen in south India where Tamil, Telugu and Kannada were supported by language movements in the colonial period and by the middle classes that stridently opposed the imposition of Hindi after independence. However, in UP the Muslim upper middle class does not send its children to Urdu medium schools. Elite perception of education has changed and no public school shows any interest in Urdu. All this points to the fact that the new middle class which has emerged after independence in UP has abandoned Urdu. An often quoted reason is that this is because a substantial section of the elite and educated Muslim middle classes migrated to Pakistan leaving behind social strata that was not well educated and which fell back upon the existing network of Urdu medium educational institutions catering to Muslims in UP. However, an equally important reason is that market forces also have an impact on the development of a language, a fact seen all over the world. Urdu cannot get support from the market; those who learn the language have little hopes of getting a job except in the few educational institutions that promote it. In an age of globalisation and with the shrinking of state sector and of state support, no further help can be expected. A majority of the children in the madrasas are from lower middle class families who cannot afford public schools. According to reports even the latter, prefer the English medium for their children if they can afford it, even where this is poorly taught and is a burden for these children as they are not familiar with the language. Here it maybe mentioned that a similar situation exists in the case of Sanskrit promoted by the state and taught as a second language. In Delhi schools, for

example, most children prefer to study French, German or Japanese in lieu of Sanskrit. Moreover, in UP the revival of Urdu is linked to competitive politics of jobs, which are shrinking. Building upon developments in the colonial period a new middle class has arisen, particularly among the Hindu backward and middle castes, whose identity and route of upward mobility is centred around Hindi and government jobs where it is used. Due to the lack of any other substantial industrial or professional class in a backward state, they are politically powerful and have been able to prevent the state from supporting Urdu. This means that a literary and creative language like Urdu has a future only if elite institutions take up the task of preserving and promoting the language. The present day Urdu medium schools cannot do the job as they lack funds. The government has maintained very few schools with poor infrastructure and which cater only to the lower middle classes. The Muslim minority institutions teaching Urdu have poor standards. No civil society organisations exist which could take interest and propagate it actively. Individual Urdu speakers belonging to elite families, who are attached to the language and are knowledgeable, have not tried to keep the language alive by teaching their children to read and write Urdu. As a result it has become a language spoken in the home [Russell 1999:44]. This is in sharp contrast to immigrant Indian families in Britain who have been able to make arrangements for their children to learn the language which they recognise as their traditional cultural language. Nor has Urdu journalism in north India played a role in developing the language. Paradoxically a new middle class of Muslims in south India and West Bengal are more interested in Urdu even though it was not their language in the past. Nor does this seem to conflict with their regional identity or language, which they continue to maintain. For example in Bangalore, a Kannada-speaking city, Urdu daily newspapers (for example the Salar) are popular despite the small number of Urduspeaking population. Thus the further growth and development of Urdu depends upon voluntary Muslim organisations. What is needed is preserving Urdu through self-help [Latifi 2000]. In conclusion, Urdu can be preserved as the spoken language of the people as it still retains as many Urdu as Hindi words, despite the attempts to create a sanskritised Hindi. Another important reason has been the Indian film industry where Urdu is

used as much as Hindi. A suggestion by some scholars for the preservation of the language, is to publish Urdu literature in the Devanagri script [Russell 1999]. The number of those interested in Urdu literature but cannot read it is large enough to make this worthwhile. Hindi speakers offer a favourable audience for Urdu literature as many may not want to make it the language of education, but would enjoy reading Urdu materials. In fact this is already happening as publishers are bringing out Devanagari versions of popular literature by Urdu writers. This is not a new idea but was there in the immediate postindependence period as well (Ibid). Translations into English would also find an audience particularly among immigrants from Urdu-speaking families in the west. In this way Urdu can be developed and popularised as a creative and literary language without necessarily linking it to education. -29
[This paper was prepared for the Seminar on Minorities, Education and Language in 21st Century Indian Democracy: The Case of Urdu by the Dr Zakir Husain Study Circle, New Delhi, February 8-11, 2002.]

Note
1 This reads that the legislature of a state may by law adopt anyone or more of the languages in use in the state or Hindi for purposes of the state.

References
Bhambhri, C P (1997): Urdu Language: A Victim of Indian History, Mainstream (Annual):79-80. Farouqui, Ather (1994): Urdu Education in India, Economic and Political Weekly, April 2:782-85. Gagnon, Alain (ed) (1983): Quebec State and Society, Nelson, Toronto. Latifi, Danial (1999): Urdu in UP, Nation and the World , August 15: 44-46. (2000): Preserving Urdu Through Self-Help, The Annual of Urdu Studies, number 15, part 2:353-57. Narain, Kirti (1998): Press, Politics and Society UP 1885-1914, Manohar Publishers, New Delhi. Nehru, Jawaharlal (1962): An Autobiography, Allied Publishers, New Delhi. Russell, Ralph (1999): Urdu in India since Independence, Economic and Political Weekly, January 9:44-48. Sampurnanand (1962): Memoirs and Reflections, Asia Publishing House, New Delhi. Srivastava, Sunil (2000): The Farce That is Hindi, Economic and Political Weekly, October 28: 3898-99. Venkatachaliah, M N (1999): Language and Politics: Status of Urdu in India, Economic and Political Weekly, June 26: 1659-60 Verma, G L (1978): Party Politics in UP (190120), Sundeep Prakashan, New Delhi.

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