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PAKISTAN : HINDU ALTERNATIVE TO PAKISTAN
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The second is the retention of Sanskrit as sacred language, Hindi as national language and Nagari as the script of Hindudom.*
“The Sanskrit shall be our “ देवभाषा ” (Deva Bhasha)§ our sacred language and the “Sanskrit Nishtha”† Hindi, the Hindi which is derived from Sanskrit and draws its nourishment from the latter,
is our “ राष्ट्रभाषा ” (Rashtra Bhasha)‡ our current national language— besides being the richest and the most cultured of the ancient languages of the world, to us Hindus the Sanskrit is the holiest tongue of tongues. Our scriptures, history, philosophy and culture have their roots so deeply imbedded in the Sanskrit literature that it forms veritably the brain of our Race. Mother of the majority of our mother tongues, she has suckled the rest of them at her breast. All Hindu languages current today whether derived from Sanskrit or grafted on to it can only grow and flourish on the sap of life they imbibe from Sanskrit. The Sanskrit language therefore must ever be an indispensable constituent of the classical course for Hindu youths.
“In adopting the Hindi as the National tongue of Hindudom no humiliation or any invidious distinction is implied as regards other provincial tongues. We are all as attached to our provincial tongues as to Hindi and they will all grow and flourish in their respective spheres. In fact some of them are today more progressive and richer in literature. But nevertheless, taken all in the Hindi can serve the purpose of a National Pan-Hindu language best. It must also be remembered that the Hindi is not made a National Language to order. The fact is that long before either the English or even the Moslems stepped in India the Hindi in its general form had already come to occupy the position of a National tongue throughout Hindustan. The Hindu pilgrim, the tradesman, the tourist, the soldier, the Pandit travelled up and down from Bengal to Sind and Kashmere to Rameshwar by making himself understood from locality to locality through Hindi. Just as the Sanskrit was the National Language of the Hindu intellectual world even so Hindi has been for at least a thousand years in the past the National Indian Tongue of the Hindu community..........
“By Hindi we of course mean the pure “Sanskrit Nistha” Hindi, as we find it for example in the “Satyartha Prakash” written by Maharsi Dayananda Saraswati. How simple and untainted with a single unnecessary foreign word is that Hindi and how expressive withal! It may be mentioned in passing that Swami Dayanandaji was about the first Hindu leader who gave conscious and definite expression to the
*Speech 1939, pp. 21,22,23.
§ Language of Gods.
†Basically Sanskrit.
‡National Language.