Language, Society and Politics: A Study of Hindi Revivalism in Late 19th Century U.P

The Hindi movement provides an interesting and extremely complex example of the relationship between language, society and politics in north-India in the nineteenth century. To understand the Hindi movement, one must first become acquainted with some of the linguistic and social demography of the north-India. The most vocal support for Hindi has come from Hindi speaking areas of the north-India, particularly of United Provinces of nineteenth century. United Provinces was Hindu majority province while Muslims were in minority. Despite this, Hindi movement got momentum in U.P. against the Muslims as rival. The present paper traces the Hindi movement in the United Provinces. It also deals with the factors which raised community consciousness in the province. It also tells that how this community consciousness influenced the society and polity of the province in the last decade of the nineteenth century. It is also interesting that Hindus were majority community in the United Provinces but were feeling minority complex in the province. Minority feelings and their effect on society has also been discussed in the study. Any finally, the paper also tells that how language and community consciousness persuaded the communal politics in the province.