Linguistic Chauvinism

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 6 February 2025 The government of Maharashtra is hell-bent upon promoting Marathi with such a missionary zeal that it has forgotten the fact that many words in modern Marathi have emerged from Persian and also from Arabic and Turkish. But at the moment, Maharashtra and UP governments are rabidly against these languages which they call, the languages of invaders. Ironically, both the states have a sizeable population of Muslims. That apart, how can any language be called a Hindu or a Muslim language? Mughal historian Muhammad Hashim alias Khafi Khan (also known as Khafif Khan; 1664 -1732) who lived in Gujarat and Deccan (Ahmednagar/ Aurangabad) and was also Aurangzeb's court chronicler, described Marathi as Fazbashani Manbaahaf (an archaic Persian phrase which means phonetically poor) language. Very true. Marathi is still a phonetically impoverished tongue and despite having spent a considerable period in Maharashtra, I've not attempted to learn this language lest I should spoil my Urdu and Persian languages. Mughals spent many years in Deccan. Aurangzeb died at Bhingar (Ahmednagar) but he was entombed at Aurangabad which's 110 km from Ahmednagar (now called Ahilya Nagar!). Yet, Maratha religious and political outfits in Maharashtra are trying to remove all traces of Persian and Arabic from their Marathi and Sanskritise it. These people don't know that Maharashtrian Brahmin scholars of Sanskrit and Persian categorically described Marathi as, "Vikrit swaroopam Sanskrit ath vanchit Farsi dushkrityam” (Marathi is a distortion of Sanskrit and a mutilation of Farsi). Marathi became a language, that too, an apology for a language, just 300-odd years ago. Recently, it got the status of a classical language which's a blatant political move. Marathi doesn't fulfil the criteria to become a classical language. It roughens your tongue and badly spoils your Hindi/Urdu. Despite its linguistic limitations, it's being imposed on all. Now it's mandatory to converse in Marathi if you're a government official. Urdu is being removed from all colleges and universities in Maharashtra. Except for Bombay University, nowhere can one study Persian as an academic language or subject. There too, the level of Persian is less said the better. It's execrable, to say the least. Students and their professors cannot even converse in rudimentary Persian, let alone classical, conversational or Iranian Persian. This relentless crusade against Urdu, Persian and Arabic is openly vindictive. A language has no religion. Instead of acknowledging the contributions of Persian to enriching Marathi, the very roots of it (Marathi) are being obscured. This is a sinister political move. The resurgent Sanatanis in Maharashtra are jubilant that now Marathi is the only recognised language in offices, schools and colleges. We're living with fanatics of all types. Some are religious fanatics, some are political bigots and some are linguistic zealots. This is really a sad scenario. Alas, we're helpless. After all, what cannot be cured, must be endured. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/linguistic-chauvinism/d/134536 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism