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Is North India imposing its 'Hindi sub-nationalism' on the Country

by Karthik Venkatesh

In 1977, the movie Dangal was released (not to be confused with Aamir
Khans movie of the same name released in 2016). It was a Bhojpuri film
in fact, the first Bhojpuri colour film starring Hindi movie villain
Sujit Kumar of Aradhana fame and Prema Narayan, a seventies starlet
who had never graduated to the big league in Hindi cinema. This kicked
off a second wave of Bhojpuri cinema.

About two decades previously, the Hindi movie character actor Nazir
Hussain had sought the blessings of the then-President, Rajendra Prasad
and kicked off shooting for the first Bhojpuri film Ganga Maiya Tohe
Piyari Chadhaibo. It took nearly five years for the movie to hit the screen
and was released in 1962. The movie was a smashing success and a rash
of films followed, many of dubious quality. By the decades end, Bhojpuri
cinema had petered out.

Dangal heralded a revival of sorts. A fresh set of films followed, many

starring Sujit Kumar, who remained its most saleable star. In 1984,
Amitabh Bachchan made a special appearance in Sujit Kumars film, Pan
Khaye Saiyaan Hamar.

By the late eighties, the industry ran aground again. Since the turn of the
millennium however, Bhojpuri cinema has made a comeback and indeed
thrived. Such has been its appeal that at least two of its stars have been
inducted into politics solely on the basis of the wide acceptance of their
persona among the Bhojpuri-speaking public Manoj Tiwari and Ravi
Kishan.

The success of the Bhojpuri film industry is a telling commentary on the

perception that the name of the language spoken across a swathe of
North, Central and East India is Hindi. Clearly, to a great many people,
Hindi movies did not satisfy the need to hear their tongue being spoken.
Bhojpuri it was that their hearts actually deigned to own. Hindi remains
a foreign tongue to them.

From Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar

Pradesh in the north through Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in
central India to Bihar and Jharkhand in the east, the notion that Hindi is
spoken in all of these States is a piece of fiction that every schoolboy has
been fed for well-nigh half a century or even longer as fact.
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The many languages that are actually spoken in these States have been
demoted to dialect status, (in the national interest, of course), and
Hindi as it is spoken in Delhi and perhaps, a corner of Uttar Pradesh
promoted as their language.

In popular telling, these States constitute the Hindi heartland and they
are spoken of by most people outside these areas as a huge parcel of
territory that is more or less similar, ignoring the many local histories,
traditions and indeed linguistic differences that ought to be considered
when discussing these areas.

Take the case of Bihar. Hindi and Urdu are its declared State languages.
A whole host of other languages spoken in Bihar Angika, Bajjika,
Magahi, Maithili and Bhojpuri (all related Indo-Aryan tongues) do not
figure in the argument at all as they were subsumed under Hindi in the
1961 Census.

Only Maithili has managed to recover from this act of linguistic

emasculation, having been granted Scheduled Language status in 2004.
As for a language like Santali which belongs to the Austro-Asian family
and is spoken mostly by tribals, it barely even registers as a language for
many people.

Across Bihar, each of these tongues has a distinct territory. Angika is

spoken in Bhagalpur and its surrounding areas in the south-eastern part
of the State. Maithili is spoken in the north-eastern parts of the State, in
Darbhanga and its nearby areas. Bhojpuri on the other hand is spoken in
the north-west, in Saran, Champaran and Bhojpur areas.

Magahi is spoken in south Bihar, in the districts of Patna, Gaya and

Nalanda, and Bajjika is spoken at the intersection of Bhojpuri and
Maithili, in areas such as Muzaffarpur and Samastipur. Santali, spoken
by close to 4 lakh people (as per the 2001 Census), too is an important
language whose speakers are spread across the State.

Similar is the case of Uttar Pradesh. In central Uttar Pradesh (UP), the
spoken tongue is Awadhi. In Bundelkhand (Jhansi, Lalitpur and nearby
areas), the tongue is Bundeli. Indeed, Bundeli is spoken in parts of
neighbouring Madhya Pradesh as well.

In eastern UP, especially in the areas bordering Bihar, Bhojpuri holds

sway. In western UP, Braj Bhasha is the name of the language. But, in
western UP, as one approaches Delhi, one also notices a preponderance
of Khadi Boli which is perhaps the closest to mainstream Hindi as it gets
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and is spoken in Delhi by and large. This is really the clincher.

Hindi, as it is assumed to exist, is really the language of Delhi and in the
Delhi fashion, is spoken in Lucknow and Patna too besides a few other
State capitals and prominent urban centres. heartland is not Hindi at all.

In the rural heartland across these States, it is Angika or Haryanvi or

Bundeli or Marwari or perhaps one of the many other tongues that have
been denied the fullness of their identity owing to the need for a single
language that is required to be termed national, that is the real language
of the people.

Even as the southern part of the country alongwith Punjab and Bengal
has kept an eagle eye for the slightest whiff of Hindi imposition, it is
perhaps time for north India to think in terms of resisting Hindi
imposition too. Northern India ought to own up its local languages and
resist their being subsumed under the arbitrary label of Hindi.

This owning up is bound to have important implications for the identity

of the populations in the various States as well as for the education
system in these States their educational material is currently prepared
in Hindi, which is bound to have a telling effect on the population.

Acceptance of local languages will enable creation of material in the

true mother tongue. Eventually, the effect will be positive. The false
identity of Hindi sub-nationalism ought to be done away with. It is an
idea that has outlived its purpose.

A tongue based on false premises cannot truly fulfil the aspirations of the
people. India does not need a language. Our many languages have fed
into a colourful identity of our own that have effectively challenged
western notions of nationalism. Our many local identities can co-exist
with our Indian identity.

Eventually, our Indian identity can co-exist with a South Asian identity
that recognises the many commonalities across the region. Perhaps, in
time, we will realise the true meaning of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

My sincere thanks to Awanish Kumar who helped identify the many

languages of Bihar and UP and their geographical spread..