englishcircle - Analysis: Unit 2

Essay: “Introduction: A Conspectus” in A House Divided Amrit Rai ‘Introduction: a Conspectus’ written Amrit Rai

Summary/Main idea/Theme of the essay ‘Introduction: a Conspectus’ written by Amrit Rai.

The writer Amrit Rai begins at the beginning and examines the factors that led to the division of Hindi into Hindi and Urdu. The British who followed the policy of "divide and rule" were responsible for separating Urdu from Hindi. It was John Gilchrist the first principal of Fort William College in Calcutta who started the running of Hindi (which he called Bhakha) and Urdu (which he called Hindustanee) on parallel lines as two different languages. Earlier, there was no such division. Also there were not any communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims on grounds of language. On the contrary, some of the greatest writers of Hindi were Muslims. As early as the thirteenth century. Amir Khusro wrote in Hindi and praised its expressive power. An earlier Muslim poet, Masud Sal Salman, published his divan (collection of poems) in Hindi. But the tension began with the artificial division imposed by Gilchrist to divide the Hindus and the Muslims.

Amrit Rai quotes eminent linguists, Gyan Chand and Ghatage, to argue that linguistically there is practically no difference between Hindi and Urdu. The only small difference is in the use of Arabic and Persian words in modern High Urdu and that of Sanskrit in the modern High Hindi. Amrit Rai quotes Gyan Chand to argue that "to call them (Hindi and Urdu] to languages is to belle all principles of linguistics." He further says that even though Hindi literature and Urdu literature are two separate literatures, Hindi and Urdu are not two different languages. To prove his point, Gyan Chand gives the examples of Malay and Panjabi languages. Malay is the language of both Malaysia and Indonesia. It is written in the Arabic script in Malaysia and the Roman script in Indonesia. But it remains the same language Similarly, before Partition, Panjabi was written in the Arabic script by the Muslim in the Gurumukhi script by the Sikhs and the Devnagari script by the Hindus. But nobody considered Punjabi as three different languages.

As for Hindi and Urdu, they have the same grammar, the same basic vocabulary and sentence structure even more, there is phonemic correspondence as the words in both the languages are spoken in the same manner. Grammatically, their pronouns, verbs, and inflections are identical. So although Hindi and Urdu literature are different, they cannot be considered two different languages. As for their inclusion as two separate languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, the writer feels that this was done because of political convenience and not on any linguistic basis.

Ghazal by Amir Khusrau

Forget me not, the sorrowful,

Talk to me with your eyes, dear heart,

I cannot bear the sorrow of parting,

Keep me well within your heart.

Long as tresses the night of parting,

The day of love is short as life

If I see not my love, O friend,

How can I spend dark nights of grief?

Two magic eyes with a hundred charms

Have put my sad heart’s rest to flight;

Now who would care to go and tell

Dear love of my sad and lonely plight?

As a candle lit, as an atom struck

No sleep in my eyes, no rest in my heart

Banished, alas, from that moon's grace

He sends no news, nor shows his face

On the day of love, for truth, Khusrau

The loved one tricked me and went away

If I could find him, I will keep

Him in my heart with love always.

Critical Summary/Theme/ Central Idea of the ‘Ghazal’ by Khusrau

Amir Khusrau was a Sufi poet, scholar and musician. He was a mystic and spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. He is considered the inventor of musical instruments like sitar and tabla. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian but also in Hindi. He is known as the father of “Kawwali”. He is believed to be the originator of ‘khayal’ and ‘tarana’ style of music. He also contributed to the development of ‘Ghazal’.

Love has been a standard theme of Urdu poetry. This Ghazal by Amir Khusrau is no exception. The pictures of love, the lover and the beloved presented in the poem are along traditional lines. Love in Urdu poetry, as in this poem, is given a high status , so is the beloved. The lover yearns for a sight of his beloved. When the beloved is away, the lover's heart becomes restless and his eyes sleepless. He finds it very difficult to pass nights which appear to be rather long. The beloved, as usual, is exceedingly beautiful. Her face looks like the moon and her long curls have entrapped the lover. Her eyes seem to possess magic as she casts a spell on the lover and mesmerizes him. The poem is very rich in images, some of which are traditional. The image of the flickering candle has been used to describe the condition of the lover. So is the image of the "dark night of grief." The eyes' magic with "hundred charms'' is another image. The sensuousness of keeping the beloved close to his bosom is also quite suitable. The image of love presented is quite intense. But the fact is that half of the poem is in Persian and the other half in Brajbhasha. This shows a deliberate attempt at an experiment in bilinguality and to show the similarities of these two languages.

The poem is also complex. The earlier stanzas of the poem present a picture of a beautiful young woman. But the pronouns used for the beloved are masculine: "he" and "him." This is why it is believed that the beloved in the poem refers to Khusrau's poet-friend Amir Hasan Sanjari. Some have expressed the opinion that the beloved in this case is Nizamuddin Auliya, Khusrau's spiritual master. But as Khusrau was also a Sufi, the beloved in this case may well be God. It is one of the doctrines of Sufism that God is love and God can be approached through love. This is why the Sufis, like the saints and poets of the Bhakti movement, think of the relation between God and man as that of lover and beloved.

Lazwanti by Rajinder Singh Bedi

Lajwanti: Character Sketch and Appropriateness of title

Rajinder Singh Bedi has named his story “Lajwanti” which is also the name of the central character. R.S Bedi was one of the leading Urdu writers of the 20th century in India. This short story is set in the backdrop of the Partition of India into India and Pakistan in 1947. There was a great chaos during Partition and millions of people had to migrate, suffer violent deaths and were uprooted from their homes. Many women were abducted forcibly by opposing communities and so were taken away to the other side of the border. Lajwanti is one such woman who has been kidnapped and her husband Sunder Lal has been waiting for her return. The word Lajwanti is also the name of a plant that has sensitive leaves. At the slightest touch, the leaves curl and wither away.

The heroine of the story Lajwanti is slender and fragile when Sunder Lal marries her. But she is inwardly strong and energetic. Sunder Lal used to beat Lajwanti at the slightest of excuses and so mistreated her. She however had accepted the beating like other women of the locality as natural. Besides, Lajwanti loves Sunder Lal and forgets everything with a simple smile from him. After her abduction Sunder realizes the true importance of Lajwanti and feels very sad. He joins the Mulla Shakur Rehabilitation Committee and tries for the return and rehabilitation of abducted women in the locality. Sunder Lal also tries to counter the criticism raised by some people like Narain Bawa and his followers. Then one day, Lajwanti returns to the village as there is an exchange of kidnapped Sikh women with Muslim women at the Wagha Border.

Sunder Lal is very happy at the news of Laju’s return but when he sees her in person he is shocked that she has become healthy. This makes Sunder Lal believe that She has been happy in Pakistan and is surprised why she has returned after all. However he can not see that there is deep unhappiness in her heart. He brings her back and accepts her but there is a change in his attitude. He feels that he had been very cruel to her in the past and so starts treating her with too much kindness. He calls her “Devi” as if she were a goddess. Whenever she tries to narrate her bad experience after kidnapping, he refuses to listen to her. Lajwanti wants him to become the same Sunder Lal again who used to beat her but considered her as an equal human and as his wife. But now he treats her like a “glass object” or “lajwanti plant”. She is no longer his wife but a fragile object that needs constant guard. She represents all women who are considered the weaker,lesser human beings and treated as objects of fragile glass or the women are worshipped as goddesses. But the pity is that they are seldom accepted as human beings. So, Lajwanti has been rehabilitated physically but not in the heart. In this context, the title of the story is quite appropriate.

Main Idea/Theme of the Poem

Hindi by Raghuvir Sahay

Raghuvir Sahay was a versatile Hindi Poet, short story writer, essayist, literary critic and translator. He was the co-founder of “Nai Kahani Movement” in Hindi literature. He was an active campaigner of the Hindustani language (a synthesis of Hindi and Urdu) that preserved the heritage of the country. He won the Sahitya Academy Award in 1984 for his poetry collection “Log Bhul Gaye Hain” “People Have Forgotten”.

Raghuvir Sahay was an ardent supporter of Hindi and he was in favour of making Hindi the sole National Language of Independent India. India became independent in 1947 but English still remained the medium of official communication. This led to strong anti-English sentiment at that time. Raghuvir Sahay expressed these feelings through his poem “Hindi”. The poem was written shortly after the independence of India in 1947.

The poet says that when Indians were fighting against the British rule, they were also fighting for the rightful place of Hindi. But this has not happened and supporters of Hindi have lost this battle. It seems that though they all fought unitedly against the British and liberated the country, the Indian rulers after Independence were not the same people. By keeping English as the language of official communication and not giving Hindi its rightful place, they have proved that they were all the agents of their former rulers, the British. It would seem that the present rulers are not rulers but the mental slaves of the British. The poet raises the question that if Hindi belongs to the real masters—the people of the country-will they have to fight again for its freedom from the present Indian rulers who are still the victim of mental slavery of the English and their language?

According to Sahay, the demand for giving Hindi its rightful place as the national language is not a demand: it is its right which must be given to it. The people of India, who are the real masters in democratic India, speak Hindi. But the rulers, who are supposed to be the slaves of these masters, the common people, still cling to English. Anyone who exposes the hypocrisy of the present rulers will do a real service to the cause not only of Hindi but of the country as well.

Detailed Critical Summary with additional points:

“Hindi” is a poem written by Raghuvir Sahay. He was a versatile Hindi Poet, short story writer, essayist, literary critic and translator. He was the co-founder of “Nai Kahani Movement” in Hindi literature. He was an active campaigner of the Hindustani language (a synthesis of Hindi and Urdu) that preserved the heritage of the country. He won the Sahitya Academy Award in 1984 for his poetry collection “Log Bhul Gaye Hain” “People Have Forgotten”.

The poet says that when Indians were fighting against British rule, they were also fighting for the rightful place of Hindi. But this did not happen and supporters of Hindi lost this battle. It seems that though they all fought unitedly against the British and liberated the country, the Indian rulers after Independence were not the same people. By keeping English as the language of official communication and not giving Hindi spoken by the masses its rightful place, they proved that they were all the agents of their former rulers, the British. It would seem that the then present rulers were not rulers but the mental slaves of the British. The poet raises the question that if Hindi belongs to the real masters—the people of the country-will they have to fight again for its freedom from the present Indian rulers who are still the victims of mental slavery of the English and their language.

According to Sahay, the demand for giving Hindi its rightful place as the national language is not a demand: it is its right which must be given to it. The problem of language has been a complex two-fold problem. At one level the rift is between English and Hindi and at another level there is imposition of High or Pure Hindi over common people’s Hindi. The people of India, who are the real masters in democratic India, speak Hindustani or common Hindi. But the rulers, who were supposed to be the slaves of these masters, the common people, still cling to English or force ‘High Hindi’ in place of ‘common Hindi’. The masters, the policy makers or the affluent ones who raised the voice of High Hindi or ‘pure’ Hindi are now the slaves of their own corrupt ideology. They wanted to establish a language which was the language of the elite. In other words, they were promoting their own agenda of establishing High Hindi or English language. The common man cannot fight for the freedom of Hindi in the language of the higher class. The poet is in a kind of dilemma. Then in which language and for which language the common person should speak of or fight for? This demand for High Hindi is a command given by the masters. The masters are using their slaves to promote High Hindi or English. Anyone who exposes the hypocrisy of the present rulers will do a real service to the cause not only of Hindi spoken by the common people but of the country as well.

Mind Map of the Poem "Hindi" (Drafted using Gemini)

The Historical Context: The poem "Hindi," written shortly after India's independence in 1947, expresses the frustration of those who expected Hindi to be made the sole official language of the country. According to Sahay, the struggle for independence was not just a fight against British rule but also a fight for the rightful place of the Hindi language. However, this dream was not realized, as English continued to be the official medium of communication.

The Betrayal of the Rulers: Sahay argues that the post-independence Indian rulers were not the "same people" who fought for the country's freedom. By retaining English, they showed they were still "mental slaves" of the British and were not truly representing the will of the masses. The poet questions whether the common people—the "real masters" in a democracy—would have to fight again to liberate Hindi from these new rulers who are still victims of colonial mentality.

The language problem in India is complex and has two main levels:The rift between English and Hindi: This is the conflict between the colonial language and the language of the masses. The imposition of "High Hindi": This is an internal conflict where the elite, or "masters," try to force a "pure" or "High Hindi" onto the common people who speak Hindustani or a more common form of Hindi. This demand for High Hindi is seen as a command from the ruling class, who are using their power to promote their own agenda, whether it be English or High Hindi. The poet is in a dilemma because the common person cannot fight for their language using the vocabulary of the upper class.

A Call to Action:The poem concludes with the idea that a true service to the country would be to expose the hypocrisy of the current rulers. This act would not only help the cause of common Hindi but also serve the nation as a whole, which is suffering from this internal conflict and the lingering effects of mental slavery. The poem suggests that the struggle for linguistic freedom is intertwined with the struggle for true national identity.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse