Devanagari (Re: SV: Workshop on Islamicate Culture)

[Yashwant Malaiya]

rohan.oberoi at CORNELL.EDU wrote:

>I don't have references on hand right now, but British policy, I
>believe, replaced Urdu in the Arabic script with Hindi in the Nagari
>script around 1881-1882 in Bihar.  That seems to indicate that wide
>use of Devanagari (as distinct from use of Devanagari for religious
>purposes) significantly postdates the decline of Islamic political
>power in northern India.

The official languages used by the British were earlier Farsi and
Urdu. Ordinary Hindus generally used Devanagari for religious,
literary and business purposes. Some Hindus had started using
Urdu script as the primary one, I have heard that some residents
of Delhi wrote the mantras in Urdu script. However in much of
north India, for non-government purposes, people generally used
Devanagari.

Philip McEldowney in "Colonial Administration and Social Developments in
Middle India: The Central Provinces, 1986-1921" writes

=====
The entire issue of official languages for the Central Provinces was not
finally decided until 1871, after an Indian group from Jabalpur petitioned
the government in favor of Hindi, instead of Urdu. The Chief Commissioner
agreed that the official language should be "the language of the people."
Both the petitioners and the Chief Commissioner presented statistics which
showed that Hindi was definitely the popular language of the northern
province. A few British officials opposed Hindi, describing it as
an "inferior tongue." But the Chief Commissioner concluded that

"two great errors" had been made by previous administrations.

First, mere official convenience was consulted, instead of keeping to the
broad principle that we should recognize but two official languages--the
language of the governing nation (English) and the language of the people;
and, second, we did not apprehend the strong affection felt for the Hindi
language by the mass, and believed erroneously that by perservering in the
use of Urdu we could naturalize it.
     It is my view that not even in the North-West Provinces has Urdu taken
such a hold on the people that it will very long be able to maintain its
place as the official language. (50)"

The Chief Commissioner's forecast proved correct, though the decision
produced much stronger controversy there than in the Central Provinces.
=====

Incidentally the first Hindi weekly in Devanagari "Udanta Martanda" was
started in 1826 from Calcutta. The first daily "Samachar Sudhavarshan"
was started in 1854. In 1873 Mahendra Bhattacharya's "Padarth-vigyan"
(Chemistry) text appeared in Hindi.


Yashwant