Sanskrit/Udru/Hindi (Re: Did you hear this?)

[Aditya, the Cheerful Hindu Skeptic]

Robert Zydenbos <zydenbos at GMX.LI> has written as follows:

>I hope I won't disturb Aditya's cheerfulness,
Where did you  get the idea that any disagreement with my post could ever
disturb my cheerfulness? I just relish any and all discussions of ideas.


>If this is a criterion for being élitist, then I fear the vast majority of
>the world's languages are just that. It is in the nature of languages
>to borrow, also from élite languages.
What I was trying to convey is the sycophancy of the speakers who wanted be
associated with the rulers by copying their speech or manners. Those who
could do it considered themselves to be better than the rest of masses.
>
>> Except Pakistan and India muslims use the local language regardless
>> of their religion.
>
>(a) Muslims in Kerala speak Malayalam, those in Tamilnadu speak
>Tamil; (b) what is 'local'? 
Exactly my point. Urdu was the language of muslims in Punjab, UP, Bombay and
Hyderabad.

> My own
>experience is that it is better to speak Urdu in Delhi than Hindi
>(i.e., to say ";suruu karanaa" and "istemaal k." rather than
>"praarambha karanaa" and "prayoga k."),
I do not know where you got the idea that these are the words of Urdu and
not Hindi. Urdu would be " aap ka ism sharif?" instead of "what is your
name?".  The usage that you quoted are obscurantism and examples of
Raghubiri Hindi which never got hold even in the academia.


>understands the former, irrespective of whether Persian / Arabic
>once upon a time was / were élitist or not. Urdu was not at all local
>in East Pakistan, but was local somewhere else, and so much so
>that it is not a "Muslim" language there; (c) maybe localness does
>not matter so much, as in:
Language is somehow considered to a necessary condition for patriotism and
nationalism and promoted so by the politicians who would split the hair and
carve a new language when separatism suits their interest. Pakistani
leadership tried to impose a national language on the new political entity
that was created by the British in 1947  though even in west Pakistan
Sindhi, Balochi and other languages were then and now the language of
communication. It is the mujahirs of Pakistan who still insist on imposing
an artificial language and in the process they have failed to assimilate in
the mainstream of Pakistan. The issue of Urdu has been one of the root
causes  of disharmony and distrust both in India and Pakistan to this day.

>More or less; like in Canada or New Zealand. And why not?
Not so much in Canada which is more influenced by the media across the
border than by loyalty to the queen.

>Universität München
So you are in Munich now?
How is your wife and has she recovered completely?


Have a peaceful and joyous day.
Aditya Mishra 
Primary email: a018967t at bc.seflin.org
Primary homepage: http://www.pompano.net/~aditya 
ICQ # 1131674 Phone #: (954)746-0442  Fax # (209)315-8571
Random thought of the day:
        Philosophy poses questions that may never be answered, religion answers that may never be questioned.