Hindustani
Topic: Framing the Indian Constitution · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Framing the Constitution"
Meaning
Hindustani was a mixed, everyday language that blended Hindi and Urdu. Ordinary people in large parts of India spoke it. By the 1930s the Congress had accepted it as the national language. Gandhi believed it was the people's language. Because it drew on many cultures, he hoped it could unite Hindus and Muslims, and north and south India.
Example
From the late nineteenth century, Hindi was being Sanskritised (filled with Sanskrit words) and Urdu was being Persianised (filled with Persian words). Language got tied to religious identity. Even so, in October 1947 Gandhi held on to the mixed ideal. He said that keeping only to Hindi or only to Urdu would be "a crime against intelligence and the spirit of patriotism".
Don't confuse with
- Hindi in the Devanagari script: this is what the Constituent Assembly finally chose as the official language. Hindustani was the mixed Hindi-Urdu speech that Gandhi wanted. It was not adopted.
Related concepts
- R.V. Dhulekar
- Language Committee
- Official language debate
- G. Durgabai
- Shankarrao Deo
- T.A. Ramalingam Chettiar