Tuesday, October 06, 2020

Hindi’s century-long struggle to be recognised over a more powerful Urdu

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Urdu was the predominant language in those areas of the subcontinent that are today called the ‘Hindi belt’.

In the years immediately following the Independence of India, the literary genius Sadaat Hasan Manto wrote a short fiction commenting on the strange language dispute that had been simmering since the earliest days of the freedom struggle. The Hindi vs Urdu debate appeared odd to Manto. He compared it to an imaginary debate over lemon-soda and lemon water. “Why are Hindus wasting their time supporting Hindi, and why are Muslims so beside themselves over the preservation of Urdu? A language is not made, it makes itself. And no amount of human effort can ever kill a language,” he noted in his story titled ‘Hindi aur Urdu’.

The Hindi vs Urdu debate was in fact just about a century old then. It is only from the mid 1800s that we see a gradual politicisation of the two languages, and their consequent polarisation. “It is a misconception that Hindus speak Hindi and Muslims speak Urdu. Reputed writers like Premchand and Amrita Pritam wrote in Urdu, even though they were not Muslims,” explained linguist and cultural activist Ganesh Devy. “ Even today, Urdu is spoken in Punjab, Bihar, and Maharashtra very widely, and not just by Muslims ” he added.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Urdu was the predominant language in those areas of the subcontinent that are today called the ‘Hindi belt’. Historian Sumit Sarkar in his celebrated book, ‘Modern India, 1885-1947’, noted: “Urdu had been the language of polite culture over a big part of north India, for Hindus quite as much for Muslims.” He elaborated: “As late as 1881-90, 4380 Urdu books had been published in UP as compared to 2793 in Hindi, while the corresponding circulation figures for newspapers were 16,256 for Urdu and 8002 for Hindi.”

The roots of the Hindi vs Urdu debate

At the time when the English East India Company (EIC) started making inroads in the Indian subcontinent, Persian was the official language of administration in the Mughal empire. In the 1830s, the EIC replaced Persian with English at the higher levels of administration and local vernaculars at the lower levels. This meant that in large parts of north India, Urdu took the place of Persian.

Consequently, from the 1860s, a large scale controversy erupted over what should be the official language in north India. The debate took the form of literary works like plays and poetry, petitions, memorandums, gloating over the merits of Hindi and Urdu.

Historian Christopher King in his research paper published in 1977, titled, ‘The Hindi-Urdu controversy of the north-western provinces and Oudh and communal consciousness’, explained the changes that took place in the socio-political environment of north India between the 1830s-60s that led to the emergence of the Hindi-Urdu dispute. “The rapid expansion of the government educational system, its bifurcation into two vernaculars, Hindi and Urdu, and the favoured position of Urdu in administration, made it inevitable that the competition for government service would come to express itself in linguistic and communal terms,” he wrote.

It is not as though education in Hindi and Urdu or Persian were officially bifurcated between Hindus and Muslims. However, surveys of the period showed that the Hindi schools were largely consisting of Brahmin, Rajput and Baniya castes. On the other hand, Muslims and the Kayasthas were more likely to be educated in Persian and Urdu schools. King noted that all through the 19th century, Persian and Urdu educated Muslims and Kayasthas held a virtual monopoly over government service.

When language and religion became one

As proponents of Hindi started spelling out the merits of having Hindi as the official language of administration, they drew upon narratives emphasising that the language belonged to the original inhabitants of India, and that it was in popular use before the Muslims took over large parts of the country.

Babu Shiva Prasad of Benaras, an official in the department of public instruction was one of the first to publish such a memorandum. In his work, ‘Memorandum: Court characters in the upper provinces of India’, he wrote: “When the Mohommedans took possession of India, they found Hindi the language of the country, and the same character the medium through which all language was carried on.” Prasad argued that the new Muslim rulers did not bother learning the new language, rather forced the Hindus to learn Persian. Consequently, he wrote that by making Hindi the language of administration, not only would the masses be able to understand court proceedings, but also ‘Hindu nationality’ would be restored.

Similar arguments were also made by Bhartendu Harishchandra, also known as the father of Hindi literature, and by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya who went on to establish the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha. At the same time, several organisations also started cropping up to put forward a case for Hindi. Instrumental in this regard were Nagari Pracharini Sabha formed in Banaras in 1893, Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in Allahabad in 1910, Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in 1918 and Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samiti in 1926.

Things came to a head in 1880 when the government of India appointed a commission under the chairmanship of Sir William Hunter to take stock of the progress made by education in India. Many came under the impression that the commission had the power to bring about a change in the language policy. “Several North West Provinces and Oudh organisations collected over 67,000 signatures in favour of Hindi and Nagari and sent them to the commission along with a hundred memorials,” wrote King in his book, ‘One language, two scripts: the Hindi movement in nineteenth century north India’

After a lengthy and robust campaign, the Hindi advocates found a ray of hope in 1900 when the government of North Western Provinces and Oudh declared an equal status to be shared by the Devanagari and Urdu script. King in his article noted how many educated Muslims reacted sharply to the decision. He quoted a report from the Indian Daily Telegraph of Lucknow that summarised the reaction of the Urdu speakers: “This calamity…hangs above our head; we are required thereby to wander amidst the zigzag of the strange and horrible characters of the Devanagari script and bid farewell to the language which reminds us of the glory of our forefathers and which is now the remnant of the once mighty sovereigns of India.”

Urdu writers came to believe that with the resolution of 1900, their language would become extinct. Several organisations sprang up with the objective of defending and promoting the Urdu language. Chief among these was the Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu (Society for the progress of Urdu) which was set up in 1903.

Though the resolution of 1903 did not actually bring much of a change in the official and popular usage of the two languages, it did embitter Hindu-Muslim relations for decades to come. Many believe that the Hindi-Urdu controversy of the 19th century contained the seeds of Muslim separatism, and found itself finally manifesting in the Partition of the country. The religious dichotomy between the two languages acquired further currency when Pakistan adopted Urdu as its national and official language, and India adopted Hindi along with English as its official language.

It will require concerted efforts to make the workplace inclusive for women scientists in India

Ensuring equality without compromising quality of research, by creating an environment of individual freedom and institutional trust, requires concerted effort from policy makers, institutions and individuals.

In a welcome move, the Department of Science and Technology is reportedly drawing up a policy where the proportion of women employed will be considered in ranking a scientific institution. Consistent efforts by individuals and organisations, notably the Indian Academy of Sciences, has exposed the dismal statistics. Indian scientific institutions collectively employ only 15 per cent women even as women form 37 per cent of PhD holders and accounted for 40 per cent of university enrolment in science subjects in 2001, according to the report of the National Task Force for Women in Science. Fast forward to 12 years later, a period that can be considered about one-third of the formal employment period of a scientific career, the Indian National Science Academy had only 5 per cent elected women fellows in their ranks. As ever increasing numbers of women come out of universities and look for opportunities, this policy must aim to prepare institutions to ensure a diverse and inclusive workplace for women in science.

A precipitous drop in the number of women in science happens at the stages following graduation. Juggling professional and domestic responsibilities is only the tip of the iceberg. Building a motivated team and attracting consistent funding are the two main challenges that any young researcher faces. Attending research conferences and presenting papers at national and international meetings is how one gets noticed. Administrative hassles at the workplace, uncertainty of securing a travel fund and help at the home front caring for young children or ageing parents often makes the woman scientist focus on publications since they are perceived as the one objective criterion to judge a scientist. However, scientific ideas grow and take form through interactions, and immersive experiences away from the lab and home help in developing fresh, creative and contemporary projects.

A few structural changes can go a long way in rectifying the inequalities during the early stages of a scientific career. The recent guidelines making creche facilities mandatory at workplaces employing a certain number of women were much needed. A lesson from the experience of starting one such facility is that it would be unaffordable for students and post-doctoral fellows if all the costs were to be borne by the users. By stepping in and providing qualified manpower, the institute where I work ensured that the creche was sustainable, affordable for all and provided employment opportunities to more women. The second major challenge is safe travel, especially if this policy is to percolate beyond the major cities, into suburban towns, where many large educational campuses are built. Prioritising young families for on-campus housing by revamping the current seniority-based system and workplace transport facility in cities is the equivalent of cycles for schoolgirls in remote districts.

The third most important change should be in our approach to conferences. By supporting and rewarding organisers who ensure greater participation of women, we can ensure higher participation and present networking opportunities without the inequalities imposed by the variable practices at different institutes. With growing impetus on securing funds from the industry, special sessions at conferences can provide a platform for floating ideas and understanding the needs of the industry. Women will especially benefit from moving such discussions from alumni networks and informal clubs to the open format of conference sessions.

It is important to note that these measures not just help women but provide a more equitable workplace. The workplace creche, for example, not only supports women but also men who share childcare responsibilities. The childcare leave, like the leave travel concession, if extended to either parent, will prevent women from bearing the brunt of career setbacks. Ironically, many measures conceived to be “women-friendly” can have unintended and undesirable consequences, especially in the short-term. In some institutes, to ensure their safety, women are advised to work only during official hours, while men can access labs any time. Instead of segregating any group out of sight, the best research institutions create spaces for mixing and mingling, ironing out stereotypes and perceptions of being the “other” group.

Another informal practice at many institutes is to avoid hiring couples. This has been a major stumbling block for many scientists who found like-minded partners in their own fields. Often dubbed the “two-body problem”, couples are forced to put one career before another to ensure at least one stable job. My experience has taught me that most fears of couple-hiring are imagined and exaggerated. In fact, these couples are often invisible bridges between the islands that inevitably form in a profession that requires deep specialisation and wide networks in equal parts.

Institutes around the country can benefit from increased mobility of senior academics. A major hurdle for experimentalists is that they are loath to leave facilities that they have built up from scarce resources with time and care. By creating a metric for valuation of such resources, and a channel for inter-institutional mobility, cross-fertilisation of ideas, technical expertise and resources can ensue. Many women find a second opportunity in their fifties. The flexibility to switch career paths with an initial exploratory period followed by the opportunity to make a permanent move could prevent stagnation and create a much-needed flux between academic institutes-government and private centres of learning, research institutes and even the industry.

The new policy should apply to private and government institutes. We have been witnessing an influx of philanthropic funding, entry of foreign institutions and the rapid growth of private institutions in the arena of higher education. If we place the burden of reversing long-standing inequalities and ensuring inclusivity only on government-funded institutions, we are in fact putting them at a great disadvantage in a competitive arena.

If we truly want “inclusivity, equity and diversity” in our scientific institutions, the new policy has to be sensitive to ground level realities. Committees and organisations have to be sensitised and implementation ensured through periodic evaluations of outcomes. Making the data regarding publicly funded projects widely available will allow analysis of factors beyond equality in numbers, by asking deeper questions, like what percentage of funding goes to women scientists at various levels. Poorly thought out and haphazardly implemented policies that focus on mere ratings and rankings can backfire. At least in the early stages, the benefits of such radical changes are also likely to go to the women who are less in need of such measures.

Some turbulence in the short term is inevitable to bring about lasting change, but without scope for self-correction, policies may evolve into entrenched practices that take us away from the intended course. Ensuring equality without compromising quality of research, by creating an environment of individual freedom and institutional trust, requires concerted effort from policy makers, institutions and individuals.

This article first appeared in the print edition on October 6, 2020 under the title “She is a scientist”. The writer is a molecular biologist, working for 15 years at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. Views are personal

Source: Indian Express, 6/10/20

Thursday, October 01, 2020

Quote of the Day October 1, 2020

“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”

‐ Franz Kafka

“कोई भी व्यक्ति जो सुंदरता को देखने की योग्यता को बनाए रखता है, वह कभी भी वृद्ध नहीं होता।”
‐ फ्रेंक काफ्का

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 55, Issue No. 39, 26 Sep, 2020

Editorials

Bills of Contention

Symbiotic Federalism

From the Editor's Desk

Does Critique Create Illusion?

Gopal Guru

Commentary

Infrastructuring Floods in the Brahmaputra River Basin - Hydrocracies, Hubris, Hazardscapes

Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman

Book Reviews

Muslim Minorities and UPA Regime - Useful Insights and Inadequate Explanation

Maidul Islam

To Flog an Elephant - Foucault and South Asia

Khaliq Parkar

Perspectives

Disability during COVID-19 - Increasing Vulnerability and Neglect

Srei Chanda, T V Sekher

Special Articles

Neo-liberal Reforms in Higher Education Accelerated by the Pandemic

Debashis Biswas

Macroeconomic Consequences of a Lockdown and Its Policy Implications

Arun Kumar

Notes

Impact of MGNREGA on Consumption Expenditure of Households

P Mahendra Varman, Neeraj Kumar

Discussion

Assam and the NRC - A Political Reading

Akhil Ranjan Dutta

Postscript

Vamping It Up - Prime-time News or Television Saga?

Rohitha Naraharisetty

Escaping the Future

Rashmi Sawhney

On Reading

Tapas Mitra

Last Lines

Engage Articles

Occupational Safety Continues to be Ignored as a Right

K R Shyam Sundar

Negotiating with the Changing Landscape: The Case of the Rajbanshi Community

Gautam Chandra Roy

Current Statistics

Letters

Unpacking Indo–Nepal Relations

Medha Pande

Minimum Age for Girls’ Marriage

Sanjay Kumar Rout

From 50 Years Ago

From 50 Years Ago: Story the Votes Tell

Appointments/Programmes/Announcements

UPSC CSE 2020: Here’s 7 last-minute preparation tips to crack prelims

UPSC CSE 2020: With the final verdict of Supreme Court cancelling the petition to postpone the UPSC 2020 Prelims, candidates should now focus on to give their best shot in the exam

UPSC CSE 2020: Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is going to conduct the Civil Services 2020 examination (prelims) on October 4. The civil services (Main) examination is scheduled on January 8. The national level examination consists of three stages – prelims, main and interview.

As the countdown for the UPSC IAS preliminary exam has begun, there are certain important preparation tips that every candidate must follow. These 7 preparation tips are of paramount importance for candidates to clear this stage in the first attempt itself.

UPSC aspirants must focus on strengthening their basics rather than just mugging-up various concepts to get a place in the merit list. In objective type questions, a candidate’s knowledge is challenged more than their ability to memorise. To understand important topics, candidates must refer to various sources of information. However, they must not get confused by referring to many unnecessary sources.

Candidates are advised to browse through one or two important newspapers on a daily basis. They must keep themselves abreast of all the important events and decisions being taken every day. To strengthen the preparation, they can also use multiple apps containing current affair quizzes. Solving mock tests is another good option to brush up knowledge.

Previous year question papers and answer keys are of utmost importance while preparing for the UPSC examination. This gives a clear idea about the syllabus covered frequently, the type of questions asked, etc. It also helps in managing time and deciding as to which section should candidates solve first.

Candidates must have a clear idea of the IAS syllabus. They must also have a thorough knowledge of the topics covered in NCERT textbooks. For this, they must read these textbooks multiple times. Solving previous year question papers can also provide clarity in the type of questions being asked.

Aptitude test solving capability solely lies on the candidate’s ability to think in the stipulated time-period and under pressure. This section covers topics like comprehension, mental ability, logical reasoning, etc. The aptitude section requires constant practice and concentration.

In every examination, revision is a must and the Civil Services exam is no exception. Candidates must revise key concepts multiple times to increase their speed and improve their conceptual understanding. The revision also helps them recall important concepts while solving the paper. To prepare for the comprehension section, candidates can refer to English reference books like Wren & Martin. Reading the newspaper every day can also improve their language skills.

Subjects like history and geography are theoretical and can be prepared by reading NCERT textbooks of class 6 to 10. Important dates and historical events must be noted while preparing for these subjects. Sleep deprivation clogs the mind and affects a candidate’s concentration while solving the exam. All students must ensure to get proper sleep every day, especially a day before the examination.

Source: Indian Express, 1/10/20

Education, labour and agriculture reforms will usher in individual freedom

The recent reform is substantial but must be followed by civil service, banking, compliance, decentralisation, and urban reform

It’s unfair to simultaneously regret and defend the status quo in education, agriculture and labour markets. Change is a form of hope.

India’s agriculture laws were neither pro-farmer nor pro-consumer but pro-middleman. India’s labour laws were neither pro-labour nor pro-employer but pro-labour inspectors. India’s education laws were not pro-student or pro-employability but pro-UGC, AICTE and block education officers. Yet, why didn’t we change them for decades?

A wonderful new biography of Dadabhai Naoroji by Dinyar Patel has three lessons for reforming dysfunctional regimes. First, any change needs evidence: Naoroji’s drain theory used government data to prove India’s exploitation. Second, any change must be balanced: Naoroji was too moderate for the radicals and too radical for the moderates. Finally, any change requires openness because you can’t simultaneously regret and defend the status quo: Naoroji became more radical well into his eighties because he embraced new ideas instead of retreating into the safety of his old convictions.I make the case that our labour market status quoists chose vested interests over individual freedom, our education, labour and agriculture reforms are deeply connected, and change is a form of hope.

Delivering the equality and justice dream of our Constitution needs individual economic freedom. But vested interests create a minority rule in agriculture (only 6 per cent of farmer benefit from MSP and 45 per cent of our labour force only produces 15 per cent of our GDP), minority rule in employment (only 22,500 of 6.3 crore enterprises have a paid-up capital of more than Rs 10 crore and only 10 per cent of our workers have social security) and minority rule in education (only 15 per cent of our kids who start Class 1 finish Class 12 and only 10 per cent of Indians have a college degree). Policy change is difficult because effectiveness needs the right balance of conviction with listening. If you don’t listen, seek out hearing aids and surround yourself with cognitive diversity, you make avoidable mistakes. But if you don’t have convictions, you become a perfectly oiled weather vane who doesn’t get anything done. The great sentinel Tagore’s advice to Gandhiji — “Ekla cholo re” or walk alone — was hardly anti-listening but suggested courage on the difficult path of the greatest good for the greatest number. It would be unfair to deny that 10 per cent of India’s farmers, workers and educators would be adversely affected by the recent reforms. But it would be insane to allow this organised vocal minority — economist Mancur Olson called them distributional coalitions — to continue their punishment of 90 per cent of India’s farmers, workers and youth. A vote cannot be a veto because nobody cuts the tree they are sitting on.

The three reforms in education, agriculture and labour laws are related because employed poverty is a bigger challenge than unemployment, farmers are not self-employed but self-exploiting, our employers are mostly dwarfs not babies, our labour is handicapped without capital, our capital is handicapped without labour, unemployability is a bigger problem than unemployment, helping farmers involves having less of them, our government school teachers have no fear of falling or hope of rising, and our universities are over-regulated and under-supervised. India is still poor because the Avadi resolution of 1955 sabotaged individual freedom in entrepreneurship and factor markets. Purity is the enemy of progress and individually NEP, four labour codes, and three farm bills balance extreme positions while creating a new chance for India’s land, labour and capital to work together and raise “total factor productivity” (sadly India lost magnificent economist Isher Ahluwalia last week whose early work on the Solow residual thought hard about productivity).

The big gainers from these individual freedom reforms will be the youth, factories, farmers, MSMEs, and wages: Youth because an employment contract that is marriage without divorce doesn’t lead to fewer marriages, but fewer registered marriages; factories because nobody could comply with 100 per cent of our labour laws without violating 10 per cent of them. The criminalisation of politics and politicisation of trade unions is a poisonous combination and China factory refugees hesitate with laws that make them ATM machines for labour inspectors. Farmers will get a larger share of retail prices and the farm to non-farm labour transition is easier to factories than services. MSMEs don’t have the margins to manufacture their own employees and labour laws are inimical to scale. Finally, the only sustainable and scalable minimum wage programme is higher human capital and formal non-farm job creation.

Change is a form of hope especially as the COVID-19 pandemic destroys fiscal space. The Indian welfare state doesn’t lack ambition but resources. Historian Ramachandra Guha reminds us that India has remarkably created the world’s largest democracy on the infertile soil of the world’s most hierarchical society. A new national goal should be our grandchildren living in the world’s largest economy — Chinese and American demographics suggest we get there at $15,000 per capita income. India has a unique chance to create mass prosperity because structural opportunities (a new world of work, organisations and education), global opportunities (capital glut that overvalues growth, China fatigue, toxic politics in ageing countries) and domestic opportunities (young population, productivity frontier distance, and lower corruption) combine to create a potent policy window. Our choices must reflect our hopes rather than our fears.

The recent reform is substantial but must be followed by civil service, banking, compliance, decentralisation, and urban reform. Over the next decade, they will combine to raise manufacturing employment from 11 per cent to 18 per cent of workers, reduce farmers from 45 per cent to 15 per cent of workers, raise women’s labour force participation from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, and raise India’s per capita income from $2,500 to $10,000.

India’s old economic path often cited John Maynard Keynes’ 1923 comment, “In the long run, we are all dead”, allowed vested interests to control our land and labour markets, and blunted individual economic freedom. Our new path involves changing our minds, taking risks that expand individual choice for our workers and farmers, and citing Keynes’ 1942 comment that, “In the long run, almost anything is possible”.

This article first appeared in the print edition on October 1, 2020 under the title ‘About three reforms’. The writer is Chairman, Teamlease Services

Source: Indian Express, 1/10/20

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Quote of the Day September 29, 2020

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

‐ Alexander Graham Bell

“आप जिस कार्य को कर रहे हैं उस पर पूरे मनोयोग से ध्यान केंद्रित करें। सूर्य की किरणों से उस समय तक अग्नि प्रज्जवलित नहीं होती है जब तक उन्हें केन्द्रित नहीं किया जाता है।”
‐ अलेक्जेंडर ग्राहम बैल

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