languages-of-india

"Hindus who used words such as religion, or secular, or Hinduism were not merely displaying their fluency in English. They were also adopting a new and alien perspective on their country, and turning it to their advantage."

"“By annihilating native literature, by sweeping away from all sources of pride and pleasure in their own mental efforts, by rendering a whole people dependent upon a remote and unknown country for all their ideas and the words in which to clothe them, we should degrade their character, depress their energies and render them incapable of aspiring to any intellectual distinction.”"

"A universal language for India should be Hindi, with the option of writing in Persian or Nagari characters. In order that Hindus and Mahomedans may have closer relations, it is necessary to know both the characters. And, if we can do this, we can drive the English language out of the field in a short time. All this is necessary for us, slaves. Through our slavery the nation has been enslaved, and it will be free with our freedom."

"According to the Constitution, English should have been phased out by 1965; no outside power was involved when the Indian elite sabotaged this switch. This elite profited too much from the disenfranchisement of the Indian commoners by the dominance of English. Without saying it out loud, they thanked Macaulay for their linguistic privileges... “Decolonization” implies the belated phasing out of English, but this will involve the defeat not of some foreign colonizer but of the indigenous elite."

"For the generation that had successfully concluded the freedom struggle and that laid down a language policy in the Constituent Assembly, it was obvious that free India’s link language could not be the colonial language. A vote was held to choose between Hindi and Sanskrit, which Hindi won with the narrowest of margins. This meant that Hindi would replace English for all official purposes by 1965. But when 1965 came, the memory of the freedom struggle and its nationalist fervour had dimmed sufficiently, while under Nehru the English-speaking elite had gained enough self-confidence to thwart the explicit choice of the Founding Fathers. Since then, English has completely elbowed out Hindi and the other vernaculars, to the extent that schools with the vernacular as medium of instruction are shunned and have come under pressure to switch over to English. A nation with a glorious literary tradition is now voluntarily turning into an underdeveloped country dependent on the former colonial language for all grown-up purposes, where virtually the whole next generation will be schooled through English as medium. [...] In language, the first choice made by the Constituent Assembly was anti-colonial, viz. for a replacement of the colonizer’s language with a native alternative. Yet, by the due date of 26 January 1965, it was decided to overrule the Constitution and perpetuate English as lingua franca. This was a choice made by Indians, not foisted on them by British colonialism nor by other outside factors like American imperialism. This choice reduced the vast majority of Indians to second-class status."

"The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script... for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union..."

"Manipuri is a very beautiful and expressive language, and the present language also helps us understand and identify other languages, showcasing the long history of our language. Such unique is our language that it can create and produce new words from the present one."

"Pettigrew's fascination with Meetei culture went beyond even this. As early as 1896 he had cooperated with Grierson in the section on Manipuri in the latter's multi-volume Linguistic Survey of India. In the early 1920s Grierson, having examined Hodson's version of Numit Kappa in 'old Manipuri' as well as some of Damant's papers, suggested to Pettigrew that he investigate, in cooperation with some Meetei scholars, the archaic Manipuri language and script, since no other Tibeto-Burman language was known to have a literary corpus."

"With no sister-flower No companion Why are you blooming Looking for whom?. ... . O flower of the olden days Your sweetness still lingers. Pity is your fate, for Your beauty can't reach the royal hearts."

"A language poor they call it, By those who are ignorant. Doubt not, the Meetei poet is coming."

"This language is very rich in morphology and also highly agglutinative in nature. Currently, the language is represented using Bengali script as well as Meetei Mayek."

"Chaoba too, in his poem Meetei Kavi gave expression to his profound regret for the lost glory of Manipur which may be compared to 'a gem of purest ray serene', which shone unseen and a flower born to blush unseen'. His love for Manipuri language and literature is articulated in the three lines of great import : Poor is our language This is said only by the ignorant Meetei poet shall emerge. (Meetei Kavi)"

"The vernacular teacher in my previous school used to read loudly in class the Meetei language epic love poem 'Khamba Thoibi' by the famous poet Hijam Anganghal though it was not our textbook. The poet attributed the love and relationship between Khamba and Thoibi to the divine relationship between their souls."

"This is a common feature of the Manipuri language - a whole sequence of events can be encoded in a single word. But translating the crispness into English while maintaining the rhythm of the dialogue was not easy."

"My language is called poor, Because of ignorance, Meitei poet will come. ("Meetei Kavi")"

"They are the only Northeast Indian Tibeto-Burman speaking people with a literate tradition that predates the colonial period. Their language, known as Meitei, Meithei or Meitheilon (or, often, as 'Manipuri') shows some lexical resemblances to Kuki-Chin languages and some to Tangkhulic."

"Meithei represents the language of the original settlers in Manipur, and Chin that of the southern migration. In these southern seats the language rapidly developed, partly by its own natural growth and partly owing to contact with the Burmese. The development of Meithei, the language of the Manipuris, has, on the other hand, been slow and independent. The Manipuris are mentioned in the Shan chronicles so early as A.D. 777, and probably owing to the fact that it has in later times developed into a literary language, their form of speech gives the impression of possessing a peculiarly archaic character. Although they have become thoroughly Hinduised, they have not adopted any Aryan tongue; Meithei is the official language of the State, which all other tribes have to use in dealing with their rulers."

"Thadou, Kom, Chiru, Gangte, Lamgang, Anal and Paite are spoken by dwindling numbers of speakers in Manipur, where these communities are being linguistically assimilated to the Meithei speaking majority."

"Manikchand expressed his opinion that historical association of the early Meiteis with the Chinese, who where the first literate people on this earth and who invented paper, writing etc., could have induced the Meiteis to enter into the literate civilization centuries ahead of their other brethrens in India."

"According to him, Prof. James Matisoff, has excluded Meitei language from the Tibeto-Burman group. He is firmly of the opinion that the North-East people of India who speaks various branches of Tibeto-Burman main group migrated from far east. The exception is the Khasis and the Meiteis. According to him, the Meitei language was self-generated and self-organized in the long evolutionary process and the Meitei alphabet is the only of its kind in the world."

"The Meithei language is rich in its history and literature unlike the Nagas or Mizos."

"Manipuri literature is most emphatically an advanced Modern Indian literature, and cannot be described as the backward literature of a so-called Adivasi and primitive people-the Manipuri writers are already in the front line of modern Indian writing and translation."

""Manipuri Language" means Meeteilon written in Meetei Mayek and spoken by the majority of Manipur population: Provided that the concurrent use of Bengali Script and Meetei Mayek shall be allowed in addition to English language, for a period upto 10(ten) years from the date of commencement of this Act."

"The beginning of this old Manipuri literature (as in the case of Newari) may go back to 1500 years, or even 2000 years, from now."

"The greatness of Manipuri is thus a reflection of the height of civilisation of its speakers. ... As a speech of a well advanced people, Manipuri has already made notable contributions to the Indian culture and literature."

"Among the various Tibeto-Burman languages, the most important, and in literature certainly of much greater importance than Newari, is the Meitei or Manipuri language."

"In fact, during a private conversation recently, Shah talked about how he felt the Manipuri language was more expressive than even Sanskrit. ... When he learnt about the language during BJP’s campaigns in the state earlier, what captivated him was the ever-developing, easy to create process of Manipuri language that has evolved due to the confluence of several languages and yet owns uniqueness in its usage."

"Manipuri is not a new language like Kokborok and has a rich literary tradition and a change of script will not be easy to adjust to."

"The Meitei language or Meiteilon is much more developed and is widely believed to have had its indigenous script which is now sought to be rediscovered."

"The Meitei Lon or Manipuri language is by far the most developed language of the state. For different hill tribes, as the language of one is not easily intelligible to the other, Manipuri serves as the medium of inter-tribal communication."

"Even the Nagas residing in the Meitei dominated Manipur converse in such a kaleidoscopic variety of languages and dialects that they resort to the Manipuri language as the standard medium of communication."

"The suppression of Meitei language is also a cause for the rise of Meitei nationalism, which PLA represents. It is opposed to the use of the Bengali script."

"The present Manipuri language evolved out of the traditional Meitei language, the speech of the politically dominant group. Legends, songs and manuscripts found in this language evidently prove a long and sustained existence of it. The Aryans considered their language as a manifestation of the divine voice, so did the Meiteis. The early people of this land were enterprising and at the same time gifted with a fertile mind and sensitive temperament. Equally were they endowed with the keen propensity for expressing their experiences, feelings and noble thoughts. All this helped the growth of a rich language."

"Meitei, the state language of Manipur, shows significant points of contact with Kachin as well as with Kuki-Naga, though the affinities are prominently with the latter."

"In this family, Manipuri was perhaps the only language which grew under a highly cultured royal patronage and also which had a long written literature."

"The recent five-judge bench Supreme Court judgment in Chebrolu Leela Prasad Rao and Ors v State of AP and Ors, shows us once again how little the 5th Schedule of the Indian constitution which is meant to protect adivasi rights is understood. The reasoning in the judgment – which struck down an Andhra Pradesh government order from 2000 providing 100% reservation for Scheduled Tribe teachers in of the state – moves perilously close to dismantling the entire edifice of the 5th Schedule. [...] Many non-tribals, including lower government officials, have lived for years in tribal areas without feeling the need to learn tribal languages. At the primary level, mutual incomprehension between non-tribal teachers and tribal students hampers the basic education of children. The judges tell us that “It is an obnoxious idea that tribals only should teach the tribals” (para 133), but for far too long, the really obnoxious idea that has pervaded the educational system and is reflected in judgments like this one is that only non-tribals should teach tribals, to “uplift and mainstream” them because “their language and their primitive way of life makes them unfit to put up with the mainstream and to be governed by the s” (para 107)."

"Since the 1960s, Western scholarship has focused selectively but intensively on the premodern (or “medieval”) and modern literary traditions in about half a dozen Indian languages, resulting in major works of translation, interpretation, and commentary. A selective roster of scholars would include Gordon Roadarmel, Charlotte Vaudeville, Ronald Stuart McGreggor, John Stratton Hawley, Kathryn Hansen, Peter Gaeffke, Mark Jurgensmeyer, Karine Schomer, Linda Hess, Kenneth Bryant, David Rubin, and Philip Lutgendorf in Hindi; Edward C. Dimock, David Kopf, William Radice, and Clinton B. Seely in Bengali; Ian Raeside, Eleanor Zelliot, Philip Engblom, and Ann Feldhaus in Marathi; George L. Hart, David Shulman, and Norman Cutler in Tamil; David Shulman, Hank Heifetz, and Gene H. Rogair in Telugu; and Frances Pritchett and Carlo Coppola in Urdu."

"I am not suggesting that Sanskrit be pushed aggressively, but only that the advantage of this great classical language, which is understood by more people in India than Greek and Latin in modern Europe, must be appreciated and utilized. Further, in the Devanagari script, there exists a possible common script for other Indian languages, though one cannot be too optimistic about the practicability of adopting it in view of the tenacious attachment of people to their own particular scripts. Another link language which flourished in India was Persian which in its interplay with Sanskrit and Arabic produced the great modern language, Urdu. Here again, beginning as a court or camp language, it blossomed into a modern tongue of the people, linking India linguistically with the Arab world."

"Hindavi was the language from old times; when the Ghurids and Turks arrived [in India], Persian began to be used and every high and low person learned it … As I belong to India, it is only fitting that I talk about it. There is a different, original language in every region of this land. Sindhi, Lahori, Kashmiri, Kibar, Dhaur Samundari, Tilangi, Gujar, Ma'bari, Gauri, the languages of Bangalah, Avadh, Delhi and its environs, all these are Hindavi, i.e., Indian languages, current since the olden days and commonly used for all kinds of speech. There is yet another language that is favoured by all the Brahmins. It is known as Sanskrit since ancient times; common people do not know it, only the Brahmins do, but one single Brahmin cannot comprehend its limits. Like Arabic, Sanskrit has a grammar, rules of syntax, and a literature … Sanskrit is a pearl; it may be inferior to Arabic but is superior to Dari … If I knew it well I would praise my sultan in it also."

"Article 351 of Constitution of India reads “It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.""

"Right from his early days in the Andamans, Vinayak encouraged people to speak in Hindi....Till then, government records were maintained in Urdu, and even Hindi was written in the Persian script. Vinayak strongly advocated the implementation of the Devanagari script as it was the one in which the oldest language of the subcontinent, Sanskrit, was written."

"In adopting the Hindi as the National tongue of Hindudom no humiliation or any invidious distinction is implied as regards other provincial tongues. We are all as attached to our provincial tongues as to Hindi and they will all grow and flourish in their respective spheres. In fact some of them are today more progressive and richer in literature. But nevertheless, taken all in all the Hindi can serve the purpose of a National Pan-Hindu language best. It must also be remembered that the Hindi is not made a National Language to order. The fact is that long before either the English or even the Moslems stepped in India the Hindi in its general form had already come to occupy the position of a National tongue throughout Hindustan. The Hindu pilgrim, the tradesman, the tourist, the soldier, the Pandit travelled up and down from Bengal to Sind and Kashmere to Rameshwar by making himself understood from locality to locality through Hindi. Just as the Sanskrit was the National Language of the Hindu intellectual world even so Hindi has been for at least a thousand years in the past the National Indian Tongue of the Hindu community..... "By Hindi we of course mean the pure "Sanskrit Nistha" Hindi, as we find it for example in the " Satyartha Prakash " written by Maharsi Dayananda Saraswati. How simple and untainted with a single unnecessary foreign word is that Hindi and how expressive withal ! It may be mentioned in passing that Swami Dayanandaji was about the first Hindu leader who gave conscious and definite expression to the view that Hindi should be the Pan-Hindu National language of India. ""

"In actual life, it is impossible to separate us into two nations. We are not two nations. Every Moslem will have a Hindu name if he goes back far enough in his family history. Every Moslem is merely a Hindu who has accepted Islam. That does not create nationality. … We in India have a common culture. In the North, Hindi and Urdu are understood by both Hindus and Moslems. In Madras, Hindus and Moslems speak Tamil, and in Bengal, they both speak Bengali and neither Hindi nor Urdu. When communal riots take place, they are always provoked by incidents over cows and by religious processions. That means that it is our superstitions that create the trouble and not our separate nationalities."

"For the generation that had successfully concluded the freedom struggle and that laid down a language policy in the Constituent Assembly, it was obvious that free India’s link language could not be the colonial language. A vote was held to choose between Hindi and Sanskrit, which Hindi won with the narrowest of margins. This meant that Hindi would replace English for all official purposes by 1965. But when 1965 came, the memory of the freedom struggle and its nationalist fervour had dimmed sufficiently, while under Nehru the English-speaking elite had gained enough self-confidence to thwart the explicit choice of the Founding Fathers. Since then, English has completely elbowed out Hindi and the other vernaculars, to the extent that schools with the vernacular as medium of instruction are shunned and have come under pressure to switch over to English. A nation with a glorious literary tradition is now voluntarily turning into an underdeveloped country dependent on the former colonial language for all grown-up purposes, where virtually the whole next generation will be schooled through English as medium. [...] In language, the first choice made by the Constituent Assembly was anti-colonial, viz. for a replacement of the colonizer’s language with a native alternative. Yet, by the due date of 26 January 1965, it was decided to overrule the Constitution and perpetuate English as lingua franca. This was a choice made by Indians, not foisted on them by British colonialism nor by other outside factors like American imperialism. This choice reduced the vast majority of Indians to second-class status."

"Maybe it's the Hindi that has gotten in me Whatever's got into me, I don't mind"

"A word from Urdu will be seen intruding into Hindi like a crow among swans, at one place, while at another, a Hindi word in the midst of Urdu will ruin the flavor like salt in a sweet dish."

"The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script... for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union..."

"According to the Constitution, English should have been phased out by 1965; no outside power was involved when the Indian elite sabotaged this switch. This elite profited too much from the disenfranchisement of the Indian commoners by the dominance of English. Without saying it out loud, they thanked Macaulay for their linguistic privileges... “Decolonization” implies the belated phasing out of English, but this will involve the defeat not of some foreign colonizer but of the indigenous elite."

"A universal language for India should be Hindi, with the option of writing in Persian or Nagari characters. In order that Hindus and Mahomedans may have closer relations, it is necessary to know both the characters. And, if we can do this, we can drive the English language out of the field in a short time. All this is necessary for us, slaves. Through our slavery the nation has been enslaved, and it will be free with our freedom."

"“By annihilating native literature, by sweeping away from all sources of pride and pleasure in their own mental efforts, by rendering a whole people dependent upon a remote and unknown country for all their ideas and the words in which to clothe them, we should degrade their character, depress their energies and render them incapable of aspiring to any intellectual distinction.”"