[Reader-list] A short abstract of the presentation at the workshop

[himanshu ranjan]

Allahabad: A Cultural Centre of the Hindi-Urdu Belt 
(A short abstract of the presentation at the workshop)
 
     The centrality that Allahabad possessed in any sphere of the national perspective is an established fact, politics and culture being specifically the two. Renaissana and Nationalism in the husk culture of the United Provinces (i.e. Hindi-Urdu belt) were delayed ones and the same can be attributed to the emergence of Allahabad as a cultural centre which projected itself as the most burning platform for nationalism as well, comparatively late in the twentieth century. Due to historical reasons and compulsions together with the orientalist-colonial manoeuvres the elite politics of India in the mid-nineteenth century took a communal turn first of all in this very belt that polarised the entire plurality of the country into two religious communities of the Hindus and the Muslims. Consequently, the communal divide expressed itself in the congruence of the religious and linguistic primary fervours of nationalism. Muslim separatism manifested itself through the Aligarh Movement which
 fought for the Muslim cause and, to begin with, that of the Urdu language also. Benaras and Allahabad happened to be two of the most ancient centres of Hinduism which, as priviledged constituencies, organised and promoted the Nagari and Cow-protection movements to the end of the nineteenth Century. Being the safer and exclusive constituency for Hindu religious activities patronised by the Raja of Benaras, excluded from the administrative engagements of both the Mugal period and the colonial one and having less impact of the composite culture of the two religious communities, Benaras superceded, in the first instance, in carrying out the aforesaid movements. Literary magazines and vernacular newspapers supporting the movements were being published from both the centres and also from smaller centres and towns like Kanpur, Mirzapur, Lucknow (the biggest centre of Muslim culture and Urdu after Aligarh movement-wise) etc. But a good number of litterateurs, journalists and literary
 institutions were there in Benaras only. 
     Madan Mohan Malviya, one of the giant personalities of the movements belonged to Allahabad, and being the most efficient activist and organiser played leading role in both the centres and made a link between the two. Malviya won the Nagari battle and in the very dawn of the twentieth century he managed to shift the business partly to Allahabad, his own home city, in an elaborated form, keeping in reserve a greater cause for Benaras of establishing the Hindu University there in the second decade. With the rapid growth of literacy, education and press, Allahabad developed a variety of means and ways to promote the causes of national language, national culture and national movement. Newspapers, in Hindi and English both, journals and literary magazines were launched. The Indian Press started the publication of the most reputed Hindi literary magazine the 'Saraswati' in 1900 which proved to be a launching pad for the new generation of Hindi litterateurs under the editorship of
 Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi who took charge in 1903 and served on the post upto 1921. Dwivedi is said to be the maker of modern Hindi. He standardised the language and through the writings of his own on various subjects and encouraging the new writers for the same, he contributed to the cause of national awakening. Besides, with publications on different subjects and disciplines in Hindi, English and Bengali, the Indian Press made its contribution in expansion of education and learning. It was the first publisher of Tagore's books, and returned its copyrights to him without taking any money when he was arranging the same on a larger scale for a greater cause of establishing Shantiniketan.
     But the HIndi movement of Malviya, in its true sense, was advanced through Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, established by Malviya himself in 1910. It was the further extention of the work done through Nagari Pracharini Sabha of Benaras. Purushottam Das Tondon, another pioneer of the Hindi movement, assisted Malviya in establishing and running the institution. Annual conventions for the promotion of Rastrabhasa Hindi and publications of further researches in Hindi were its main business. The difference between the approaches of the Sammelan and the Indian Press is noteworthy. The former worked strictly on the Hindu-Hindi plank of Malviya and the Benaras school, while the latter was a bit liberal Dwivedi himself was a straunch Rastrabhasa promoter but had a tolerent attitude towards Urdu. In principle he advocated for the promotion of all the provincial languages and worked partly on the same line which was further explored and advanced by Gandhi just after his exit.
     Gandhi was a different man. He had nothing to do with the Hindi-movement, and not the least with the Hindu-Hindi agenda. Rastrabhasa was not his sole concern.He was the architect of Indian nationalism in its true sense and appeared on the scene when diverse undercurrents were conglomerating but not finding the way out. He did nothing but led them all towards mass-movement. Congress gained the real ground and under his leadership it became the umbrella encompassing the various nationalist ideologies and men of different orientations. But Gandhi himself was a make of his own. With his peculiar moral vision he had a 'national-popular' appeal. Rastrabhasa Hindi (later Hindustani) became the vehicle of nationalism, which beyond its local and regional roots and stem, acquired an All India character and role as a link language for the entire population of different languages and cultures of the country. In Gandhi's vision, this Rastrabhasa never thought of ruling the people, but
 represented the people's revolt against the ruling imperial language English. He tried his best to control the sectarian and communal tendencies of the Sammelan but ultimately failed.
     The spatial expansion of Hindi on national scale inflicted a feeling of intense ambition not only in the Sammelan men like Tondon and co., but also in academic scholars. The oriental-revivalist trends had already helped in creating a grand myth of the Hindu civilization. The two scholars - Dhirendra Verma and Rahul Sankrityayan - represented the spatial and temporal dimentions of the restructured 'Akshayavat' of Hindi. Verma's book 'Madhyadesh' still stands and provides the ground for advocating 'Hindi Pradesh'. Ram Bilas Sharma, a straunch marxist, picked it up and submerged it in his nationality-discourse. Rahul was also a marxist and a man of mass movement, but his orientalist scholarly investigations left little room for realistic accommodation with the present state of affairs. He had great many right deviations in his thought and action, walking on the foot-steps of his party CPI which, through its crude and mechanical nationality-discourse, endorsed the two-nation theory
 of the Muslim League and paved the way for the partition of the country. But the historic contribution of Rahul lies on a different plane. It was he who first of all and possibly the last one, till today, advocated the case of the so-called regional dialects of Hindi and their right to grow freely on nationality-line. Hindi has been claiming for the entire territorial space of the Hindi-Urdu belt and its historicity as well, for itself. About two dozen languages, many of them having great literary traditions, are doomed to be treated as mere dialects of Hindi and to submerge their identities in the so-called 'national' interest. Gandhi also advised for the same kind of sacrifice. Rahul developed his thesis on Russian line of nationality - discourse for languages which could not be mechanically applied in the Indian context, particularly on that very historic stage. Afterall the centrality of the emerging nation-state was also a hard historic reality.
     Being the headquarter of the Congress and the centre of nationalist movement for decades, Allahabad witnessed all such developments in the arena of culture also. Besides, Allahabad has also in its credit the growth of Hindi literature from Dwivedi-yug to Nai Kavita, through different literary movements. This growth was not beyond the aforesaid development line of Hindi language. The composite impact of modernity, secularism and that of socialism also, was an intrinsic undercurrent which did litle on its own, but controlled the entire phenomenon and checked the deviations and deformations to be worse.
                                                                          Himanshu Ranjan
                                                                     An Indepdent CSDS fellow
 
 

		
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