Date: 11 Oct 2001 15:54:47 EDT
From: Josna.Rege-AT-Dartmouth.EDU (Josna Rege)
Subject: Re: humble request for information


--- You wrote:
...would it be fair to characterize Hindi and Urdu as same? In the last 50 
years Hindi has been Sanskritized so much, and Urdu Arabicized so much, that 
the old Hindustani, Gandhi's, and Bose's, choice language, is being lost. 

--- end of quote ---

Very true, Salil. The Hindi we were taught in school as the official national language had been systematically Sanskritized, and thus for many of us who grew up in regions where Hindi-Urdu was not spoken as a first language, the only sources of the Persian and Arabic words in the language were Hindi film songs. For me, learning the Arabic script could provide a bridge to the kind of Hindi-Urdu that is still spoken (albeit with differences)  by so many in both India and Pakistan, and thus has the value of affirming, rather than denying, a shared literary-cultural heritage.  

Josna


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