Modernisation of Indian Languages and Literary Forms

• The modernisation of Indian languages and literary forms during colonial India was driven by colonial education policies, print technology, missionary activity, and new socio-political consciousness.

• Introduction of Western education through Macaulay’s Minute (1835) and Wood’s Despatch (1854) created a new class of English-educated Indians who later contributed to vernacular literary modernisation.

• Missionaries promoted the study of vernacular languages to facilitate conversion and education, producing grammars, dictionaries, and translations of religious texts in Indian languages.

• Printing press technology, first introduced by Christian missionaries in Goa (1556) and later in Serampore, Calcutta, and Madras, enabled the mass production of texts in regional languages.

• William Carey, a Baptist missionary, contributed significantly to the development of Bengali, Hindi, and Sanskrit grammars, and translated the Bible into multiple Indian languages.

• Serampore Press, established in 1800, became a major centre for printing Indian language texts, producing religious, literary, and educational material in Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and more.

• The Fort William College (1800) in Calcutta was established to train British officials in Indian languages and encouraged translation, compilation of grammar books, and publication of classical and modern works.

• It supported linguists and Indian scholars like Lallu Lal, who translated the Persian classic Bāgh-o-Bahār into Hindustani, contributing to the standardization of modern Hindi prose.

• Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam underwent standardisation, including development of prose styles, vocabulary reform, and grammatical codification.

• In Bengali, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar played a key role in modernising prose, simplifying Sanskritised forms, and writing school textbooks and essays that shaped modern literary Bengali.

• In Hindi, Bharatendu Harishchandra (1850–1885) is hailed as the father of modern Hindi literature, producing plays, poems, and journalistic essays in Khariboli Hindi, promoting Hindu cultural revivalism.

• The Nagari Pracharini Sabha (founded in 1893) in Banaras advocated for the Nagari script and Sanskritised Hindi, opposing Urdu-Persian influences, which intensified Hindi-Urdu linguistic nationalism.

• Urdu prose and poetry flourished through newspapers, journals, and literary gatherings like mushairas, with writers like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Mirza Ghalib, and Altaf Hussain Hali shaping modern Urdu expression.

• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Aligarh movement sought to modernise Urdu by blending Persian-Arabic literary tradition with modern science and rationalist discourse, exemplified in the Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq journal.

• Altaf Hussain Hali‘s Musaddas-e-Hali represented a reformist modern Urdu poetry, blending classical forms with themes of decline, reform, and national awakening.

• In Marathi, Jyotiba Phule and later Lokhitwadi (Gopal Hari Deshmukh) used prose to attack social evils, caste oppression, and Brahmanical orthodoxy, creating a rationalist Marathi prose tradition.

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak used Marathi newspapers like Kesari to promote political mobilisation, and writers like Vishnushastri Chiplunkar helped develop modern literary criticism in Marathi.

• In Tamil, the revival of classical literature and the development of modern prose were driven by figures like U.V. Swaminatha Iyer, who recovered ancient texts, and Subramania Bharati, who introduced nationalist themes in poetry.

• Subramania Bharati (1882–1921) brought modern diction, free verse, and feminist and nationalist ideals into Tamil poetry, breaking from rigid classical forms.

• In Malayalam, writers like Hermann Gundert (a German missionary) compiled the first Malayalam-English dictionary, and Kumaran Asan, Ulloor, and Vallathol Narayana Menon led the Renaissance in Malayalam poetry.

• Kumaran Asan used modern Malayalam to address social reform and caste injustice, often influenced by Sree Narayana Guru’s teachings.

• Telugu modernisation was led by Kandukuri Veeresalingam, who wrote the first Telugu novel (Rajasekhara Charitramu), promoted women’s education, and used prose for social reform.

• Odia language was rescued from being merged with Bengali by the efforts of John Beams, Fakir Mohan Senapati, and others, who promoted Odia as a distinct language through newspapers, essays, and novels.

• Fakir Mohan Senapati, considered the father of modern Odia literature, wrote the first realistic Odia novel (Chha Mana Atha Guntha), which critiqued zamindari oppression and feudal exploitation.

• Assamese language revival occurred through the efforts of Hemchandra Barua, Lakshminath Bezbaroa, and journalistic platforms, fighting against the imposition of Bengali in Assam.

• The emergence of modern drama, fiction, essays, and literary criticism across languages marked a shift from religious to secular and reformist themes.

• The first modern Indian novel in many languages emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Pariksha Guru (Hindi, 1882), Indulekha (Malayalam, 1889), Durgeshnandini (Bengali, 1865), and Rajmohan’s Wife(English, 1864).

• Indian literature in English also developed in this period, with writers like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Romesh Chunder Dutt, and Rabindranath Tagore producing English novels, essays, and translations.

• Bankim Chandra wrote both in Bengali (Anandamath, Durgeshnandini) and English, using literature for nationalist and Hindu revivalist themes, including the composition of “Vande Mataram”.

• Rabindranath Tagore experimented with prose poetry, short stories, and philosophical essays, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature (1913) for Gitanjali, marking global recognition of modern Indian literary thought.

• Journals and periodicals such as Bamabodhini Patrika, Sudharma, Kesari, Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq, Chand, and Swadeshmitran became vehicles for literary innovation, social commentary, and linguistic standardisation.

• The growth of a reading public, due to increasing literacy rates and availability of cheap printed material, encouraged the development of serialised fiction, public debates, and literary societies.

• The colonial bureaucracy’s need to administer effectively encouraged the codification of Indian languages, especially for court and educational use, thereby stabilising grammar and script usage.

• Language modernisation was closely linked with identity formation, such as the Hindi-Urdu divide, Dravidian language revival, and Bengali literary nationalism, making literature a site of political contestation.

• Translation of Western works (Shakespeare, Mill, Voltaire) into Indian languages helped introduce new genres, rationalist thought, and liberal values, influencing Indian writers to adopt novel, drama, and essay as literary forms.

• Debates over linguistic purity versus hybridity occurred across languages, as writers grappled with Sanskritised vs Persianised vocabulary, especially in Hindi, Urdu, and Bengali.

• Women’s writing and participation in literary culture increased, particularly in Bengali, Urdu, and Marathi, with writers like Begum Rokeya, Tarabai Shinde, and Pandita Ramabai challenging patriarchal norms.

• Begum Rokeya’s Sultana’s Dream (1905) was one of the first feminist utopian works in South Asia, written in English but deeply rooted in Urdu-Bengali bilingual context.

• The Swadeshi Movement (1905–1911) and later Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements stimulated nationalist literature, which romanticised freedom, sacrifice, and anti-colonial resistance.

• Modern literary forms became vehicles for exploring urbanisation, gender inequality, caste oppression, and nationalism, marking a clear departure from pre-modern religious or didactic genres.