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One of the most troubling questions from the pre-independence era is whether or not all Indians need to speak the same language. Language serves more than just being a medium of communication, as it’s the most vital tool that also evolves a country's stature on the international stage and facilitates its external policies. Indian foreign policy’s multi-dynamic approach has been rooted in its profound history due to the different agents and structures influencing the nation.
Illustration by The Geostrata
As a result of this, we are able to see courteous relations with the United States and its allies, the Russians and their partners, and lastly, the Global South, which India takes pride in being the head of. These geopolitical relationships emerge from the culture and linguistic history as well, apart from the political and economic ties that have been presented throughout the historical empires, such as those of the Mauryas, Guptas, Mughals, and British.
LANGUAGE IN INDIAN HISTORY
India has been the home of many languages and cultures throughout history, both inside and outside the empire's courts. However, there has been a striking difference between the linguistics of the courts and that of the common people due to the predominance of the social-structural hierarchical relationship.
The Mauryan Empire, which was India’s first ever pan-India empire founded in 321 BCE with Chandragupta Maurya as the ruler, had linguistic diversity from the very start. While Prakrit language and Brahmi script were a greater part of the Mauryan Empire, in its north-western part appeared Aramaic language and Kharosthi script.
This multilingual aspect of the empire could be seen through various inscriptions and edicts found in the northern and western parts of the subcontinent. The Ashoka’s inscriptions, the first deciphered Indian epigraphy, are written in Prakrit, Greek, and Aramaic. Moreover, a bilingual Greek-Aramaic inscription was found at Shar-i-Kuna, near Kandahar in south-east Afghanistan, and one in Taxila. This multilingual nature helped the empire prosper and establish relations and trade with West Asia and Central Asia, which passed through northwest India.
The early mediaeval period saw a significant shift in the political arena with the coming of foreign powers as invaders or migrants, particularly from the northwest frontier, resulting in the rise and fall of empires.
These foreign powers, like the Kushanas and Indo-Greeks, brought with them new cultural identities and languages, giving birth to new linguistic culture and tradition in the region. While the Kushanas introduced the Bactrian script, which is said to have evolved into the Kharosthi script, the Indo-Greeks brought Greek alphabets, which influenced the development of local scripts.
When we move ahead in time, the coming of the Gupta Empire in 320 CE, which is referred to as the ‘Golden Age’ of Indian history, left a deniable mark on the country’s culture and language. It was under their reign that Sanskrit once again attained the status of a lingua franca and managed to scale even greater heights than before, the revival that was set in by the Shunga dynasty.
Under the rule of the Gupta Empire, poet and playwright Kalidasa created epics such as Abhijnanasakuntalam and Malavikagnimitram; Vishnusharma penned Panchatantra; Sudraka wrote Mricchakatika; and Vishakhadatta created Mudrarakshasa.
Sanskrit and Prakrit linguistics predominated the empire throughout. This intellectual surge was not confined to the courts or among the royalty. People were encouraged to learn the nuances of Sanskrit literature, oratory, intellectual debate, music, and painting. Several educational institutions were set up, and the existing ones received continuous support.
The Pushyabhuti Dynasty and the Maukharis rose after the downfall of the Gupta Empire in northern India, around 6th century CE. The Pushyabhuti Dynasty which is also known as the Vardhana Dynasty, had one of the most notable rulers, Emperor Harshavardhana or Harsha, under whom the kingdom achieved imperial status. Harsha was a patron of the arts and learning.
He made huge endowments to the Nalanda university and to intellectuals and scholars. Under him, poets such as Bana flourished and composed many literary works in Sanskrit. Harsha himself is believed to have written three plays called the Priyadarshika, Ratnavali, and Nagananda. In the seventh and eighth centuries, ‘ghatikas’, or colleges attached to the temples emerged as new centres of learning.
The ‘ghatika’s provided Brahmanical education and the medium of instruction was Sanskrit, which further made Sanskrit make a bigger and more impactful mark in history. The post-gupta period and before the advent of the Turko-Afghan Rule marked the transition to early mediaeval India.
Further, with the establishment of the Mughal Empire in 1526 by Babur, who was a Turkic ruler based out of modern-day Uzbekistan, he was able to establish diplomatic relations with the neighbouring Islamic kingdoms. Kingdoms such as the Safavids in Persia and the Uzbegs in Central Asia.
Despite the rhetoric of a Sunni Empire, it was able to cultivate constructive relations with the Safavid Empire, which was influenced by Shia doctrine. The Delhi-based Gurkanis placed their national interests as paramount in developing foreign policy with regional actors. Prior to the Mughals, the majority of Middle Eastern invaders arrived with the intention of growing their own empire's wealth rather than attempting to formally establish their reign.
The Mughals, being the first of their kind, built a system that combined Islamic and pre-existing cultures. They succeeded in combining the state's languages and cultures in their attempt to achieve that. While Persian was the official language of the court, among people there was a diverse use of a variety of languages - Sanskrit, Pali, and Tamil – showcasing the amalgamation of the linguistics and cultures.
With the beginning of the nineteenth century, the question of ‘chaste’ versus ‘standard’, written versus oral, and language with or without grammar and literature became a politically and emotionally charged issue. It also led to the politics of linguistic dominations and subordinations, as well as resistances to such processes.
In India, this translated into the British’s imposition of English, having a firm hold over Indian culture and linguistics, to the extreme that it led to diluting more than influencing the existing culture. For the British, it was an arduous task to classify and categorise various languages and knowledge systems of ‘natives’ in India into one single hegemonic narrative. They did not follow a consistent linguistic policy, which remains a daunting task for the post-Independent governments in India as well.
CONCLUSION
In particular, language turns out to be a powerful marker of group identity. While linguistic diversity, in terms of mother tongues and languages spoken, varies across Indian states, it is also true that in each state and within each state, the diversity has increased. After its independence, India faced the challenge of choosing the official language due to its linguistic diversity.
Gandhi believed that all Indians needed to learn a common language, viz., Hindi. He believed that a common language was central to integrating India. As a result, the three-language formula (3LF), enunciated in the National Policy on Education of 1968, was an instrument for achieving the objective of a multilingual India. Under the 3LF, children were supposed to learn three languages in school.
India today is home to 121 languages and 270 mother tongues, which adds to its soft power and diaspora in the global world order.
According to Marshall Singer, professor of International and Intercultural Affairs, “any language people choose for themselves and their children is a function of their perception of that language’s standing in the world and of the relative importance of the nation or nations that use it.” The global reach of languages like English has led to a concentration of soft power in English-speaking nations. India's growing multilingual status can challenge this linguistic predominance in this multilingual world.
BY AGRIMA KUSHWAHA
CENTRE FOR HISTORY & CULTURE
TEAM GEOSTRATA
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