Premchand On National Language: Rashtrabhasha

Premchand on National Languageis a collection of his writings, translated from Hind into English, spannin the years from 1931 to 1936. The debates over Hindi as national language in the Devanagari script and the nature of contestations with Urdu in the Persian script led to an intellectual polarization that furthered the split between Hindus and Muslims. The need for a common language was generally accepted but to consider Hindi as national language was not accepted easily as its most challenging contender was English. The views and opinions on the issue of Hindi as ‘rashtrabhasha’ by leaders and intellectuals like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Lady Abdul Qadir, and others, referred to by Premchand gives us an insight into the turbulence of the times. His writings are largely in the form of reports, observations and critical comments that trace the chequered and contested issue of the history of proposing Hindi as the national language and even almost nine decades after, its relevance remains. Hindi, along with English is still not the national language, but the official language of India.