What is less known is that of the 40% of total population that spoke variations of Hindi didnt speak Hindi at all. They spoke entirely different languages and as time passed and ethno-linguistic research took place, it was revealed that the languages of the North that were clumped into Hindi werent Hindi or its variations! But by 1965 the Indian government had done enough social engineering that people started forgetting their own languages. In fact Hindi itself in an engineered language derived out of a planned and patronized Sanskritized Hindustani.It may be safe to say that Hindustani has its origins in Western UP. On the other hand UP has atleast 4 (or more) distinct languages and ethnicities! It hit states like Bihar particularly hard upon being included in the fold of Hindi. Bihar has 3 distinct languages and 2 additional relic languages. All the langauges in Bihar evolved independently and historically have predated most modern North Indian languages. At one time the standard formal Pali (which is the mother language for all modern Bihari languages) was the official language of all of India. Languages of Bihar influenced evolution of language in Bengal, Eastern UP and Northern MP. So it is closer to cultures of those places than Hindi. Hindi may be Lingua Franca of the North today, but that is the result of a systematic and in my opinion a deeply damaging post-independence social engineering model. While I think it is important to have a common conversational language, it is important to also note that there has also been an ethno-cultural brain washing in Northern India to the point where people have given up on their ethnic heritage completely. And it matters because Northern states are the most populous states in India (and that a whole lot of people when youre in India). And it was mostly done to push the Hindi agenda on the people. Such has been the legacy of this that you will find Gond adivasis of Chhatissgrah speaking impeccable Hindi! The Gondi group of languages are closely associated with Australian aboriginal (yeah!) and Dravidian languages. The North has a deepening identity crisis, which they dont exactly like to talk about. And that only contributes to the problem more. It is a deeply confusing and precarious situation to be in.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 01:57:55 +0000