History of 14th September: Hindi the British Baby
Explore the intriguing History of 14th September. from Britain’s adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 to Napoleon’s fiery reception in Moscow in 1812. Delve into the fascinating story of how Modern Hindi emerged at Fort William College, Calcutta.
This series is all about dates, and we mark them, naturally, by consulting ‘the calendar.’ Now, when it comes to calendars, the Gregorian calendar is the main player for most of the world. Some countries, mind you, have their cake and eat it too, using the Gregorian alongside another calendar, while others fancy a modified version of it. Delving into the history of 14th September, I discovered that it was on this very day, back in 1752, when Britain, after much humming and hawing, finally decided to hop on the Gregorian bandwagon. Better late than never, eh?
Ah, the history of 14th September—marking a rather toasty chapter. Picture this: It’s 1812, and Napoleon, with all the swagger of a cat who’s just caught the canary, marches into Moscow after giving the Russians a bit of a thrashing at the Battle of Borodino. But, as fate would have it, the city wasn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet for him. No, instead, the place was about to host the biggest bonfire Europe had ever seen.
You see, the Russian troops, along with most of the sensible civilians, had scarpered on the very same day, leaving the city to the French. And just as Napoleon was thinking he’d bagged a cosy little winter retreat, Moscow decided to go up in flames—quite literally. The fire, which stubbornly blazed on from the 14th to the 18th of September. Talk about leaving the light on for a guest! Napoleon’s grand entrance turned into a rather crispy affair, leaving him with nothing but ashes to claim as his prize.
Several other events are recorded in the history of 14th September like, it was this day in the year 1867 when Karl Marx published ‘Das Kapital’. Then again in the year 1891, the “Empire State Express” train goes from NYC to East Buffalo, a distance of 436 miles, in a record 7H6M. Furthermore in the year 1901, Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as the youngest man to serve as US President, after William McKinley finally dies after an anarchist shoots him in Buffalo. The history of 14th September also takes us to the year 1917 when Russia was officially declared as a republic.
With that I come to the feature story from the history of 14th September, which is:-
Hindi the British Baby
As I delve into the annals of history, I discover that on this very day, 14th September, in the year 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi as one of the official languages under Article 343. It’s important to note, mind you, that Hindi was recognised as one of the official languages, not the national language, as many often mistakenly believe.
Now, having cleared that up, let me share with you some intriguing facts about how the modern form of Hindi came to be, right here in Calcutta, at Fort William.
If you’ve ever wondered how Modern Hindi, one of the youngest and most widely spoken Indian languages, came into being, let’s take a little stroll down memory lane. But mind you, this isn’t your average history lesson—think of it more as a chat over a cup of tea with a bit of wit and a dash of tongue-in-cheek humour.
Modern Hindi, you see, is the sprightly offspring of the Khariboli dialect, the vernacular spoken in Delhi and its surrounding areas. It’s the young whippersnapper that decided to evolve towards the end of the 18th century, just as its elder sibling, Awadhi, the sweet-sounding dialect in which Tulsidas composed his Ramcharitamanas, was starting to lose its shine. Awadhi was all about poetry and romance, but Khariboli was more street-smart—a bit like the Cockney of India, if you will.
But here’s where things get interesting. At the same time that Hindi was cutting its teeth, Urdu, which is basically Hindustani with a Persian twist, was all the rage. It had the linguistic prestige and the posh vocabulary that made it the darling of the Mughal courts. It was the linguistic equivalent of having a double-barrelled surname and a country estate. Hindi, on the other hand, was still finding its feet, a bit like the new kid on the block who hadn’t yet figured out which football team to support.
Now, enter the East India Company, with their silk stockings, powdered wigs, and a penchant for meddling. They were up to their usual tricks—divide and rule, of course. They thought it’d be a jolly good idea to standardise Hindustani into two distinct forms: Hindi for the Hindus and Urdu for the Muslims. This, they believed, would keep the natives busy bickering amongst themselves, rather than uniting against their colonial masters. It’s the classic strategy of “let’s throw a spanner in the works and see what happens.”
But who, you may ask, was the mastermind behind this linguistic surgery? None other than John Borthwick Gilchrist, a fiery Scotsman with a temper to match. Gilchrist, who originally trained as a surgeon, found himself in India after a failed attempt at banking back home in Edinburgh. He took one look at Hindustani and thought, “Well, if I can’t fix people, I might as well fix languages.”
Gilchrist was a curious character, described in his later years as having a “bushy head and whiskers as white as the Himalayan snow” and a face that beamed with the kind of enthusiasm that only a Scotsman abroad could muster. He was likened to a royal Bengal tiger—though one can’t help but wonder whether he saw himself as more of a linguistic lion tamer.
In 1785, Gilchrist decided to take a year’s leave from his medical duties to study Hindustani, and once he got started, there was no stopping him. He never returned to the medical field, instead immersing himself in the world of words. By 1787, he’d published his first work, A Dictionary: English and Hindoostanee. He then went on to suggest the establishment of a training institution in Calcutta, which eventually became Fort William College in 1800, where he served as the first principal.
Gilchrist wasn’t just interested in standardising the language—oh no, he was on a mission. He roped in Indian scholars, offering them financial incentives to write in Hindi, and as a result, the language saw a rapid development. Works like Premsagar by Lallulal became household names, and before you could say “Bob’s your uncle,” Hindi translations of the Bible were being printed, and the first Hindi newspaper, Udant Martand, was published in 1826.
Now, Gilchrist had a rather grand plan in mind. He wrote about the bifurcation of Khariboli into two forms: Hindi and Urdu. In other words, he took what was essentially the same language, put on his metaphorical surgeon’s gloves, and separated them into two distinct entities, each with its own script—Devanagari for Hindi and Persian for Urdu. It was a bit like taking twins and dressing one in tweed and the other in silk, just to see how they’d turn out.
Fast forward to today, and we have historians like Thomas De Bruijn declaring that Fort William College was “more or less the birthplace of modern Hindi.” George Abraham Grierson, an Irish linguist, wasn’t too impressed, though. He called Hindi “an artificial dialect,” a “newly invented speech” that was “the mother tongue of no native-born Indian.” He may have had a point, but then again, aren’t all languages a bit of a hodgepodge?
So, if ever you find yourself marvelling at the beauty of Hindi, just remember that it’s not just a language—it’s a legacy. And while the Anglophone Indians might be known as “Macaulay’s children,” those who speak Hindi could well be called “Gilchrist’s children.” After all, it was Gilchrist who took a scalpel to Hindustani and gave us the Hindi we know today. And for that, we owe him a tip of the hat—or perhaps, in true Victorian fashion, a nod and a knowing smile.
Santosh Kumar Khare, in his essay “The Truth about Language in India,” remarked on the origins of Hindi, stating: “The notion of Hindi and Urdu as two distinct languages crystallised at Fort William College in the first half of the 19th century.” He further noted: “Their linguistic and literary repertoires were developed accordingly, with Urdu borrowing from Persian and Arabic, and Hindi drawing from Sanskrit.”
As K.B. Jindal, the author of A History of Hindi Literature, aptly put it: “Hindi, as we know it today, is a product of the nineteenth century.”
Contemporary Dutch historian Thomas De Bruijin says that Fort William College in Calcutta was ‘more or less the birthplace of modern Hindi.’
George Abraham Grierson, noted Irish linguist of the late 19th and early 20th century, said that the standard or pure Hindi which contemporary Indians use is ‘an artificial dialect the mother tongue of no native-born Indian, a newly invented speech, that wonderful hybrid known to Europeans as Hindi and invented by them.’
That’s all from the history of 14th September. Toodle-oo.
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