The Intelligentsia and the Making of the Hindi Movement in Bihar

Abstract

This article intends to give a narrative account of Hindi Movement in Bihar. It argues that the pro-Hindi campaigns should not be studied only as a campaign for democratic rights of Hindi speaking people of Bihar. It was an ideological movement. It started with a moderate stance but soon it turned into a hostile anti-Urdu campaign. The Hindi Movement was a significant movement in the sense that it united a large number of Hindi intelligentsia throughout Northern and Eastern India. In Bihar, unlike the United Provinces, Hindi was introduced as the court language without much resistance in 1880. This movement received support from the government officials (Campbell and others), Bengali newspapers (Bengalee and others), powerful Hindu landlords (Darbhanga Maharaj and others), organisations like Hindi Pracharini Sabha, Hindi press ( Khadagvilas Press) and contemporary Hindi newspapers like Bihar Bandhu. It was not that the claims of Hindi supporters were not opposed by the supporters of Urdu in Bihar but the opposition slowed down as it became evident that the Government was bent on introducing Nagari script, the main demand of Hindi movement supporters.