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Evolution of Hindi Language

Literary Hindi has been strongly influenced by Sanskrit and is based on the Khari Boli dialect found north and east of Delhi. While dialects like Braj Bhasha, Awadhi, and others are often considered Hindi dialects, they are more accurately described as regional languages within the "Hindi belt" of northern India. These regional languages vary in their resemblance to standard Hindi, with Maithili bearing more similarity to Bengali and Rajasthani resembling Gujarati more than standard Hindi. However, most speakers consider themselves to speak a Hindi dialect due to colonial classification and the use of Hindi in schools. The use of regional languages is seen as a sign of inadequate education, so standard Hindi is used to gain status

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Pradeep Nambiar
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129 views2 pages

Evolution of Hindi Language

Literary Hindi has been strongly influenced by Sanskrit and is based on the Khari Boli dialect found north and east of Delhi. While dialects like Braj Bhasha, Awadhi, and others are often considered Hindi dialects, they are more accurately described as regional languages within the "Hindi belt" of northern India. These regional languages vary in their resemblance to standard Hindi, with Maithili bearing more similarity to Bengali and Rajasthani resembling Gujarati more than standard Hindi. However, most speakers consider themselves to speak a Hindi dialect due to colonial classification and the use of Hindi in schools. The use of regional languages is seen as a sign of inadequate education, so standard Hindi is used to gain status

Uploaded by

Pradeep Nambiar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Evolution of Hindi Language

Literary Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, has been strongly influenced by Sanskrit. Its
standard form is based on the Khari Boli dialect, found to the north and east of Delhi. Braj
Bhasha, which was an important literary medium from the 15th to the 19th century, is often
treated as a dialect of Hindi, as are Awadhi, Bagheli, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, Chhattisgarhi,
Garhwali, Haryanawi, Kanauji, Kumayuni, Magahi, and Marwari. However, these so-
called dialects of Hindi are more accurately described as regional languages of the “Hindi
zone” or “belt,” an area that approximates the region of northern India, south through the state
of Madhya Pradesh.

Within this zone, the degree to which regional languages resemble standard Hindi varies
considerably. Maithili—the easternmost regional language of the Hindi belt—bears more
historical resemblance to Bengali than to standard Hindi. Likewise, Rajasthani, the
westernmost language of the belt, in some respects resembles Gujarati more than standard
Hindi. Nevertheless, the majority of speakers of these regional languages consider themselves
to be speaking a Hindi dialect. Among other reasons, they note that these languages were
grouped with Hindi by the British in an attempt to classify languages in the early days of British
rule. Furthermore, Hindi (rather than one of the regional languages) was chosen as the medium
of instruction at the elementary-school level. In large part as a result of this colonial policy,
members of the urban middle class and educated villagers throughout the zone claim to be
speakers of Hindi because the use of these regional languages or dialects in public venues—
that is, outside the circle of family and close friends—is perceived as a sign of inadequate
education. In other words, speaking standard Hindi gives as much status to people in this region
as speaking English gives in the south of India; both are treated as languages of upward social
mobility. Thus, people in search of new jobs, marriages, and the like must use standard Hindi
in everyday communication. In many cases, young people now have only a passive knowledge
of the regional languages. Particularly since the 1950s, the prevalence of mass media (radio,
television, and films) and growing literacy have led to an increase in the number of native
speakers of standard Hindi.

Occasionally there are demands for the formation of separate states for the speakers of one or
another regional language. Such demands are generally neutralized by counterdemands for the
recognition of that regional language’s many dialects. For instance, when the demand for the
formation of a separate state of Maithili speakers was raised in Bihar in the 1960s and 1970s,
there was a counterdemand for the recognition of Angika in eastern Bihar and Bajjika in
northwestern Bihar. The successful demands for forming the new states of Chhattisgarh (from
territory once in Madhya Pradesh) and Uttaranchal (from territory in Uttar Pradesh) was more
sociopolitical than linguistic.

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