Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

EXPRESSIONS OF INDIA

Commission Report in 1956 has strengthened the need for a lingua franca. English continues to be used with Hindi for official purposes although it is not classified as one of the 18 official languages. Under the Official Languages Amendment Act of 1967 English retained the status of an additional official language with no definite date being set for its withdrawal. This position is likely to continue indefinitely given the anti-Hindi sentiment in the south, particularly in Tamil Nadu. It is not surprising that there is confusion around the topic of a lingua franca, given the staggering linguistic and cultural diversity of the nation. An old saying in Hindi," Kosa kosa par pani badale, chara 'kosa par bam:' Every two miles the flavour of the water changes, and the dialect every four miles," neatly expresses the dilemma. Contiguous States and Languages Despite the diversity of tongues, there also exists many fascinat- ing intersections of different languages, particularly along contigu- ous states. Konkani, for example, is spoken along the West Coast. from Maharashtra to Kerala. Accordingly, the script used may vary, although the language spoken is the same. In Karnataka, Konkani is written in Kannada while in Maharashtra, Marathi is used, and in Goa, where the Portuguese once ruled, Konkani is sometimes written in Roman script. Dogri also links the contiguous mountainous ranges of the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana. Common Language, Different Cultures Language can also link people of differing faiths, castes and cultures within one and the same state. Bengali, for example, is the principal language for almost all the people of West Bengal, regard- less of their background. On the other hand, differences in back- ground sometimes give rise to variants in a common language. Such is the case with Oriya, spoken in some bordering areas of Andhra Pradesh and which is considered "standard" but becomes "Southern Oriya" when spoken by the illiterates and lower strata of society in other parts of Andhra Pradesh. Multilingual Population Many Indians speak several languages other than their own mother tongue. In parts of Karnataka, Tamil is as common a language as Kannada. This is due in part to the great influx of Tamil immi- grants. People who live in bordering areas also grow up speaking several languages from childhood. Madhya Pradesh, being in the centre of the sub-continent touches a number of states and it is not uncommon to find people speaking Telugu, Oriya, Gujarati and Marathi, in addition to Hindi and Urdu. The Influence of Indian languages Sanskrit, being one of the world's oldest languages, has influ- enced a great number of languages far beyond the borders of India, including English, Even Romany, which is the language of the gypsies, began as one of the Indic languages of Central India, and variations of it are found all across the world. In fact, Romany, has gone on to become a dialect of whichever local language is spoken in the nation the nomadic bands of gypsies have adopted. More recently, during British rule, many words of Indian origin have found their way into the English language, including guru, thug, nirvana, jungle, cummerbund and juggernaut.

rule. It was only during the rule of the Chalukyas in the 7th century that Kannada was encouraged although Sanskrit and Prakrit contin- ued to occupy a prestigious position. Most of the poets and gram- marians of Kannada were well versed in both these languages. Kannada was therefore naturally influenced by Sanskrit and Prakrit. Later, during the Muslim rule in the Deccan from the 14th century, Kannada was influenced by Persian and Arabic with many words from both these languages being absorbed into Kannada. Spoken Kannada has at least four distinct regional dialects as- sociated with coastal Mangalore, Bangalore, Dharwad and Gul- barga. Malayalam separated from Tamil to become a distinct language by the 11th century. Some scholars believe that Malayalam was in fact a Tamil dialect. It has been greatly influenced by Sanskrit with the incorporation of many words from that language. Malayalam has absorbed words from Arabic, Portuguese, Dutch, French and of course, English. However, there also exists a "Pacha-Malayalam", or pure Malayalam, which remains an important literary language. But the roots of verbs have been taken only from Sanskrit. There are at least three main regional dialects spoken in South, Central and North Kerala. In addition, some sections of the people like the Moplas of the Malabar area, the hill tribes, the Adivasis and the Harijans have their own dialects. The Constitution of India which came into force from January 26,1950 declared that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the official language of India and that English would also be used for official purposes for a period of 15 years. The regional languages could be declared the official language of the state concerned. A Schedule - 8th Schedule - was added to the Constitution to indicate all regional languages to be statutorily recognised. The list contained 15 lan- guages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Sindhi. Manipuri, Nepali and Konkani were added in 1992 bring- ing the total to 18. Lingua Franca The Constituent Assembly which framed the Constitution could not arrive at a consensus on the question of an official language . The question was put to vote and Hindi won on a single vote, the casting vote of the President! Mahatma Gandhi had advocated the simplified Hindi-Urdu — called Hindustani — to avoid the commu- nal overtones of Hindi vs Urdu. Much earlier, Raja Shivprasad in his book of grammar published in 1875 had noted that Hindi and Urdu had no difference at the vernacular level but that the "absurdity began with the Maulvis and Pundits .... who being commissioned to make a common speech of the grammar of upper India made two gram- mars.... The evil consequence is that instead of having a school gram- mar of the vernacular as such... we have two diverse and discrepant class books, one for the Muhammadan - Kayastha boys and the other for the Brahmins and Banias" . The gulf between Hindi and Urdu has yawned in recent years with scholars going back to Sanskrit words for technical terms and expressions in Hindi and Urdu schol- ars looking back to Perso-Arabic resources. The creation of linguistic states started with the formation of Andhra Pradesh as the first linguistic state in 1953 and more linguistic states which came into being on the basis of the States Reorganisation