Page:Bal Gangadhar Tilak, his writings and speeches.djvu/41

 everything is comprehended or proceeded from vâk or language. Therefore if you want to draw a nation together there is no force more powerful than to have a common language for all. And that is the end which the Sabha has kept in view. But how is the end to be attained? We aim at having a common language not only for Northern India, but I will say, in course of time, for the whole of India including the Southern of the, Madras Presidency, and when the scope of our labours is so widened our difficulties seem to grow apace. First of all we have to face what may be called the historic difficulties.The contests between the Aryans and the non-Aryans in ancient and between the Mahomedans and the Hiddus in later times have destroyed the linguistic harmony of the country. In Northern India the languages spoken by the Indian population are mostly Aryan, being derived from Sanskrit; while those in the South are Dravidian in origin. The difference exists not only in words but in the characters in which those words are written. Next to this is the difference between Urdu and Hindi to which so much prominence is given in this province. On our side we have also the Modi or the running script character as distinguished from the Balabodha or the Devanagari in which the Marathi books are ordinarily printed.There are, therefore, two great important elements which we have to harmonise and bring together