As language politics heats up, looking back at Nagari Pracharini Sabha, which fought for recognition to Hindi

Indian Express

a day ago

Politics over Hindi and its 'imposition' is heating up again in Maharashtra, with the Thackeray cousins Uddhav and Raj coming together on a pro-Marathi language platform, even as the state government has withdrawn its decision to make Hindi the default third language in primary schools.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has also commented on the row, saying the BJP 'has been forced to back down in Maharashtra, where they govern, due to fear of people's uprising.'
More than a century ago, Hindi too had to fight for inclusion in official use, over then-dominant Persian. In this process, an organisation called Nagari Pracharini Sabha played a prominent role.
After decades of dormancy, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha is active again, and has begun republishing books from March this year. Here's a brief history of the Sabha.
During Mughal rule, Persian was used as the official language in India. With the arrival of the British, the language equation changed. In 1832, the Court of Directors of the East India Company declared that justice should be administered in a language that common people could understand. As a result, Indian languages began to replace Persian.
By 1861, in regions such as the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, the languages used in courts and government offices had become English, Urdu, and Persian. In some areas, the official languages were English, Persian, and Urdu, along with local scripts. Hindi had not yet emerged clearly, as it lacked a comprehensive vocabulary accessible to all.
In the 1890s, the Devanagari script began to replace the Persian script. This shift is credited to British civil servant Antony MacDonnell.
Scholar Alok Rai writes in his well-known book Hindi Nationalism that Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh of Darbhanga, Bihar, introduced Hindi as an official language in his region on July 14, 1888. However, his love for Hindi was influenced by the slogan 'Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan.'
The Nagri Pracharini Sabha was founded in this milieu, by three Hindi scholars —Shyam Sunder Das, Pandit Ramnarayan Mishra, and Thakur Shivkumar Singh— on January 16, 1893. The organisation decided to throw its weight behind the cause of making Hindi the language of courts and government offices. It was also decided that an authoritative dictionary for Hindi would be compiled.
From 1908 onwards, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha began sending people to villages, towns, and cities at its own expense to collect words and their meanings. These collectors documented words, synonyms, and local versions in use on paper. The collected words were then organised systematically and written down. This intense work continued for 21 years.
In 1929, the Sabha published a comprehensive Hindi dictionary in 11 volumes, titled Shabd Sagar. The forewords to this dictionary were written by Acharya Ramchandra Shukla and Shyam Sunder Das. Acharya Shukla's 'History of Hindi Literature', published by the Sabha, is regarded as essential reading for understanding Hindi literature.
In 1896, the largest Hindi library in the country, the Arya Bhasha Pustakalaya, was founded.
At a time when English, Urdu, and Persian dominated the linguistic landscape, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha launched a tireless movement to promote Hindi. Although the movement was apolitical, it gained such influence that prominent freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak also lent support to Hindi.
After independence
After independence, the Sabha's patron was India's first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The oldest and most authoritative journal on Hindi research, Nagari Pracharini Patrika, has been published since 1896. Under the Sabha's patronage, the iconic Hindi magazine Saraswati, edited by Pandit Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, began publication in 1900.
Vyomesh Shukla, the current pradhan mantri (head) of the Sabha, said, 'Initially founded in Banaras, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha expanded to Haridwar and New Delhi. In Haridwar, Swami Satyadev Parivrajak donated land and oversaw the construction of its building. During this period, the Hindi movement spread to various towns, where local units were established and affiliated with the Banaras-based Sabha.'
From the 1970s, the organisation's work began to flag as politics came to dominate language and literature. Issues over which management committee was actually in charge of the Sabha eventually reached the Allahabad High Court, which in February last year gave a verdict in favour of the Vyomesh Shukla-led group.
Under the new leadership, the Sabha has published a complete reprint of Acharya Ramchandra Shukla's History of Hindi Literature in March this year. It has also published a collection of Hindi poems by Amir Khusrau.