By
Mahatma Gandhi
BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
A correspondent writes to ask why I object to English being used, but not to Urdu. The Muslims and the English are the same to us since we are friends of all. The correspondent’s complaint arises out of ignorance. Not only do I not object to Urdu being used, I am its advocate. It is a provincial language like Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Oriya. There are as many languages as there are provinces in India. To be sure there are many more languages in India but scholars have selected 14 or 15 which have well-developed literatures and which are more developed than the rest. But all these 14 or 15 languages cannot be used in all the provinces. The question also is what language should serve as a link language between the provinces. Ever since I returned from South Africa I have been insisting that only a language which the largest number of Hindus and Muslims speak can be our national language. This can only be Hindustani written in the Devanagari or the Persian script. English has no place in India. The British ruled over India and so English became important. It is a foreign language, not an Indian language. Therefore I say, not reluctantly but proudly, that Urdu is an Indian language formed in India. We are all devotees of Tulsidas. You will be surprised to know that he has used any number of words of Arabic or Persian origin in his Ramayana. He just picked up words spoken in the streets and used them because Tulsidas was writing for you and me. He was not writing for the few speaking Sanskrit. The language of Tulsidas therefore is our language.
Lala Lajpatrai¹ was known as the Lion of the Punjab. He is now no more. He was a friend of mine and occasionally I jokingly used to ask him when he would learn to speak in Hindi. He said that would never be. You must know that he was an Arya Samajist² and performed havan and other rituals. As I used to stay with him I observed all this. In these rituals Sanskrit alone is used and he was able to pick a few words here and there in Devanagari. But his mother tongue was Urdu. He was a great Urdu scholar, could write fluently in Urdu and could also deliver long orations in that language. He could also deliver long orations in English but he could never understand Sanskritized Hindi. I could make myself understood by him only when I used selected Arabic and Persian words. How then can the correspondent object to my not objecting to Urdu? I think no one should object to Urdu. English I certainly object to. I have been twice President of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan³ and I said the same thing there and no one opposed it. They in fact applauded me. I am the same man. How then can anyone suggest that I love Hindi less and am therefore less of an Indian? In my view he who objects to Urdu is to that extent less of an Indian.
Today we find ourselves in a mess and have created poison for ourselves. This is what happened in Ajmer. If you want to safeguard Hinduism you cannot do so by treating as enemies the Muslims who have stayed on in India. My days in this world are numbered. Soon I shall be gone. You will then realize that what I said was right. The same rule applies to Muslims. Islam will be dead if Muslims can tolerate only Muslims. The same goes for Christians and Christianity. All the religions of the world are good, for they teach righteousness and friendship. Those that teach enmity between men, I do not consider religions.
Even during the British rule I had said that English could not be the language of India. I love the English language. I can read and write it. Everyone knows that I am not an enemy either of the English or their language. But everything has its place. English is an international language. If we want to deal with the world outside India, we can do so only through English. English is a universal language. Hindustani has not yet acquired that universality. It is a matter of sorrow that while we have freed ourselves of English rule, we have not been able to free ourselves of the impact of English culture and the English language.
Hindustani is the language that has been formed through the blending of Hindi and Urdu like the confluence of the two rivers Ganga and Jamuna at Prayag. They share the same grammar which is the grammar of Hindustani. It has words from Sanskrit, Persian, English and various other languages. The word ’court’ is as much a foreign word as ’kachehari’ and there is no reason to reject the first and keep the latter. Similarly there are words like ’bicycle’ and ’rail’. By what name would you like to call a rail? The fact is that so many English words have got into our speech and we do not despise them. But if the correspondent had written to me in English, I would have thrown away the letter knowing that he did know Hindustani. Similarly if I were to send him any letter written in English he would have the right to throw it away. The matter is really quite simple but we have forgotten what is right and what is wrong. And a kind of perversity has come to lodge in us. May God protect us.
[From Hindi]
Courtesy: All India Radio. Also Prarthana Pravachan—II, pp. 218-22
Notes
- 1. (1865-1928); nationalist leader from the Punjab, educationist and journalist; organized a massive agrarian movement in the Punjab in 1907, and was deported to Burma; President of the Indian National Congress, 1920; died of injuries sustained during demonstration against Simon Commission
- 2. A member of the Arya Samaj, a reformist sect of Hinduism, founded by Dayanand Saraswati
- 3. In March 1918 and April 1935
Notes
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