Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India

encyclopedia

EXPRESSIONS OF INDIA

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

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

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.