HINDI URDU CONTROVERSY
Urdu was nearly 300 years old and considered as the language of the Muslims in the sub-continent from the early times. The amalgamation of Arabic, Persian and Turkish gave birth to a new language which was called Hindustani, Shahjahani and finally Urdu. It was also called as Lashkari because of the fusion of other languages. Gradually the new language of Urdu became the media of expression of the sub-continent. They adopted this language for the expression of their social, cultural and regional feelings. Urdu soon passed through stages of development and became the symbol of Muslim unity and culture. The Muslim and Hindu writers worked a lot for the development of Urdu. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan also rendered valuable services for the development and protection of Urdu. The Muslims, therefore, developed an emotional attachment with Urdu which had attained a status of their national language.
The Hindus, for their eternal jealousy and hatred toward the Muslims and their culture, did not like the rapid progress of Urdu. Urdu was introduced as an official language of the sub continent in 1825 which aroused Hindu antagonism against this language. The British too, were not in favour of any measure which was to promote Muslim cultural values in the sub-continent. The British rulers in order to please the Hindus, began to oppose Urdu to eliminate the influence of Muslim culture.
The Hindi-Urdu controversy began in the year 1867 when Hindus demonstrated against Urdu and demanded its replacement with Hindi as an official language. Some prominent Hindu leaders organized an agitation against the use of Urdu as official language and demanded that Hindi written in Davanagri script should be introduced in the offices and courts as official language. Sir Syed was extremely disappointed to see the Hindus behaving in a prejudicial manner. He was now convinced that the Hindus would never be friendly with the Muslims.
On this occasion Sir Syed expressed his views about Hindus and Muslims as two separate nations for the first time in 1868. He expressed his views in a painful manner to Mr. Shakespeare, the Governor of Benaras and said I am convinced now that Hindus and Muslims could never become one nation as their religion and way of life was quite distinct from each other.
In view of the Hindu opposition. Sir Syed decided to adopt measures for the protection of Urdu. He demanded from the Government in 1887 that a Dar-ul-Tarjama be established so that the authentic works could be translated into Urdu for the benefit of the University students. The Hindus intensely opposed Sir Syeds activities for the protection of Urdu but he continued with his efforts to safeguard the language Sir Syed established Central Association in Allahabad and effectively used the platform of Scientific Society for the protection of Urdu.
The Hindus persisted with their anti-Urdu agitation which gradually spread in other parts of the country. In 1871, Georage Cambell, the Lt. Government of Bengal, ordered that Urdu should be scrapped from the syllabus books. In 1900 the U.P Government Anthony MacDonal who had gained widespread notoriety for his anti-Muslim Sentiments, pressurized by the Hindu agitation, issued orders that Hindi should be used as official language in public offices, educational institutions and courts. These orders created a sense of shock among the Muslim of India. Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk criticized the Government decision which had no legal or ethical grounds. He established Urdu defence society which held public meetings on several places to protest against the biased decision of Anthony MacDonal. The students of Aligarh College also protested against MacDonal for scrapping Urdu as official language. These protests by the students of Aligarh College, in support of Urdu infuriated MacDonal who threatened the trustees of the Aligarh College to stop the Government grant if Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, the Secretary of the College and the students did not stop their anti-government activities. The threat did work to ease down the Muslims agitation as the Aligarh College was facing financial problems.
However, Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk did not stop his endeavours for the protection of Urdu. After the resignation of MacDonal, Nawab Mohsin-ul Mulk set up Anjuman-i-Tarakki-i-Urdu in Aligrah which rendered invaluable services for the cause of Urdu. It produced several books on Urdu literature under the supervision of Maulvi Abdul Haq, the Baba-i-Urdu.
The scraping of Urdu as an official language had significant and far-reaching impact on the political scene of the sub-continent. The blatant act of the Government to eliminate Urdu did a severe blow to the Muslim culture for it proudly contained the religious and cultural heritage of the India Muslims. The elimination of Urdu, in fact, would have meant the total extermination of the Muslims as a Nation.
The Hindus opposition to Urdu created a new political awareness among the Muslims who had come to realize the prejudicial Hindu approach toward Muslim and their culture. The Muslim now realized that both Hindus and British were not sincere towards them and to expect any justice and fairplay from the Hindus and British meant living in fools paradise. The anti-Urdu stance by the Hindus strengthened Muslim belief in the Two-Nation concept which later on came to be the crowing factor in the Muslims struggle for a separate homeland.