Added: 10/16/2005 |
Hindi and other languages in IndiaHindi and English language in India are widely spoken. Hindi was native language of most Indians. Europeans spread English and other European languages such as French, Portuguese, Dutch and others along the country.
But the history of languages in India as the history of the whole country was not smooth. As the country opposes any strange and alien phenomena the language does. Thus, language riots took place not once in India. What would you say that Indians in some regions of the country did not favor even Hindi not speaking about European languages.
For example, Tamilians are people who take pride in their culture and oppose any interference in it. Not surprising most strong opposition to Hindi being made the official Mother tongue of India came from Tamil Nadu. The people in Chennai are zealous guardians of Tamil culture, which they regard as superior to the cultures further north. They very much oppose Hindi being made the national language.
Nevertheless, Hindi not only managed to survive but it was also developing. Hindi has its own history that is closely connected with the history of India and the rest of the world. Let's look closer on the history of Hindi.
The early period of Hindi literature which is called Adikala is accepted as the period upto mid-14th century. The maingroup of trend setters in this period were: 1) the Siddhas, 2) the Jain poets, 3) the Nathapanthis and 4) the heroic poets.
The second period which consists of the mid-14th to mid-17th century is dominated by devotional poetry (Bhakti Kavyas). The Hindi bhakti poetry's consists of two streams: Nirguna, the poets who believed in a formless God or abstract name and Saguna, the poets who believed in singing about a God with attributes. Kabir (1398-1518) is the most important poet in the Nirguna school. He preached the universal religion of man above and beyond Hindu and Muslim orthodoxy and composed a large number of songs and poems. Guru Nanak (1469-1538), the founder of Sikhism is also accepted as an outstanding poet of this school. The Saguna stream is related to Vaishnava poets who belong to the two categories, those worshipping Krishna and those worshipping Rama. Surdas whose poems have been compiled under the title Sursagara was a great poet of Krishna poetry. Vidyapati was also a versatile composer of Hindi poems.
The third period is spoken as the Ritikavyakal. It is also referred to as the Ritismgara Kavya. Riti refers to a special form in which the erotic element is preponderant. Hindi is very rich in both these categories of poetry. During this period Hindi had also a good collection of devotional and historic poetry. In the Bhakti period there were many epics and long narrative poems composed in the dialects of Hindi.
The modern period of Hindi may be divided into two stages. The first stage started in the second half of the 19th century. Bharatendru Harishchandra (1850-84) was the pioneer who ushered in the modern era. Other important writers of this formative period are Maithli Sharan Gupta (1886-1964), R.N.Tripathi (1889-1962) and Gopala Sarana Sinha (1891-1960). Maithli Saran revived the epic tradition. The romantic upsurge spoken as Chayavad is an important element of this period.
At the second stage of the modern period which is referred to as the Dwivedi yug, the leading figure obviously was Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi. Poetry, drama, novel, short story and the essay flourished on account of the western impact. Drama in Hindi has a long history from the 14th century. But the prose-drama developed only towards the close of the 19th century.
It is just a brief look on Hindi and English language in India. More detailed information about these and other languages may be found in encyclopedias and books on linguistics
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