Nehru and Persian/Arabic

[Samar Abbas]

On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, N. Ganesan wrote:

> On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, N. Ganesan wrote:
>
>  The University Grants Commission allocates funds for
>  research into Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian only.
>  This may be a vestige from Nehru era.

 A thorough knowledge of Arabic and Persian eases understanding of their
derivative, Hindustani, which is the third most widely used language in
the world, is the de facto lingua franca and effective national language
of India and understood by more than half of all Indians. Hence their
status as classical languages: like classical Latin giving birth to the
modern Romance languages, Classical Arabic and Persian gave birth to Urdu
and its derivative Hindustani. Hence their status as Classical Languages
par excellence of the bulk of the Indian population.

 Moreover, a person speaking Hindustani can easily understand and write
Arabic and or Persian with very little effort, while learning other
classical languages is more difficult, but may be suitable for minorities.

Samar