The Linguist

26 The Linguist Vol/64 No/1 ciol.org.uk/thelinguist FEATURES SIGNS OF RESISTANCE (Clockwise from top l) Urdu calligraphy at a poetry celebration in New Delhi; a station sign in Hindi, Urdu and English in Uttarakhand; there have been calls for Urdu words at the Kumbh Mela to be replaced; schools like this one in Katni Madhya Pradesh have been instructed to remove the word 'Urdu' from their name; a sign in Urdu at a rally in Kolkata against religious discrimination declares 'We all are brothers' ; and a child in a madrasa, which may be monitored by the National Council for the Promotion of Urdu Language Aiman Khan looks at how India's language policies are affecting one of its most widely spoken languages L anguage decline often unfolds gradually as communities face pressures to assimilate into dominant cultures. The fragility of linguistic memory is something even casual learners might recognise – for words, once cherished, can wither into oblivion when deprived of use. A language needs regular practice to thrive; otherwise it risks becoming a faint echo, its sounds obscured in the haze of forgetfulness. In India, more than 1,600 languages are spoken and 192 are classified as vulnerable or endangered. Although the country has 23 official languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil, 1 the current government's prioritisation of Hindi over other languages, as the unifying national tongue, has ignited debates regarding the marginalisation of regional and minority languages. In this context, Urdu, spoken by about 63 million people in India and as a first language by 4.2% of the population, 2 finds itself increasingly on the periphery. This is despite the fact that Urdu and Hindi differ mainly in script and share common linguistic features. Indeed, Urdu has long borne the brunt of deeply entrenched sociopolitical prejudices. The initial divide can be traced back to John B Gilchrist (1759-1841), a colonial linguist who promoted Sanskritised Hindi and Persianised Urdu, and linked them to Hindu and Muslim communities (the Nasta'l īq script used by Urdu resembling Arabic script). The nation's trajectory from monarchical dominion through colonial subjugation to post-independence democracy has tended to perpetuate, rather than dispel, the vestiges of colonial hierarchies. In the aftermath of Partition (which separated India and Pakistan), government policies and educational paradigms progressively diminished the status of Urdu in the spheres of public discourse, scholarship and artistic expression in India. This can be traced back to the Official Language Act of 1950, which established Hindi as India's official language, and the National Education Policy (NEP) of the same year. Urdu was gradually excluded from curricula, reducing its public presence. This was reinforced by the 1986 NEP, which prioritised Hindi and English, relegating Urdu to secondary status and limiting educational access for Urdu-speaking communities. The issue is not the absence of Urdu speakers but the curtailment of the language's influence through ostensibly curative but ultimately exclusionary measures. One example is the establishment of the National Council for the Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) in 1995. Intended to support Urdu, it was repurposed to promote the majoritarian agenda, according to Bikramjit Dé. The legal history professor argued that the NCPUL served to further marginalise Urdu and undermine its role in Muslim education and culture. 3 In 2020, the government enacted a new National Education Policy that aims to promote equity and the use of regional and mother tongues. 4 Comprising 27 points, the policy emphasises multilingualism, but Urdu, one of the country's most commonly spoken languages, is not mentioned in the curriculum. At the same time, NEP 2020 makes Sanskrit, spoken by less than 0.002% of the population, 5 a central focus in language education and integrates Hindu religious texts into school curricula. The policy risks reducing access to Urdu texts and erasing narratives related to Muslim identity, such as Mughal history. Public attitudes In contemporary India, Hindi is culturally linked with Hinduism and promoted as a symbol of Hindu identity. The marginalisation of Urdu reflects many of the issues faced by Muslims in India today; the aim is seemingly to depict India as a land exclusively rooted in the ethos of the cultural majority. The association of Urdu with Muslim identity has been a significant factor in fuelling tensions in India, resulting in incidents of violence. Shockingly, several lynchings have occurred in recent years because the victims bore Urdu names. In February 2021, the retail brand Fabindia was forced to withdraw its advertisement for its festive collection named Jashn-e-Riwaaz (Festival of traditions) due to objections over the use of an Urdu phrase. More recently, Mahant Ravindra Puri, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad body of Hindu The fall of Urdu?

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