Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/447

 I have heard Hindi spoken even in the Dravid country. It is not true to say that in Madras one can go on with English. Even there I have employed Hindi with effect. In the trains I have heard Madras passengers undoubtedly use Hindi. It is worthy of note that Mahomedans throughout India speak Urdu and they are to be found in large numbers in every Province. Thus Hindi is destined to be the national language. We have made use of it as such in times gone by. The rise of Urdu itself is dlie to that fact. The Mahomedan kings were unable to make Persian or Arabic the national language. They accepted the Hindi Grammer, but employed the Urdu character and Persian words in their speeches. They could not, however, carry on their intercourse with the masses through a foreign tongue. All this is not unknown to the English. Those who know anything of the sepoys know that for them militarv terms have had to be prepared in Hindi or Urdu.

Thus we see that Hindi alone can become the national language. It presents some difficulty in the case of the learned classes in Madras. For men from the Deccan, Gujarat, Sind and Bengal it is easy enough. In a few months they can acquire sufficient command over Hindi to enable them to carry on national inter- course in that tongue. It is not so for the Tamils. The Dravidian languages are distinct from their Sanskrit sister in structure and grammar. The only thing com- mon to the two groups is their Sanskrit vocabulary to an extent. But the difficulty is con fined to the learned class alone. We have a rig ht to appeal to their pat- riotic spirit and expect them to put forth sufficient effort in order to learn Hindi. For in future when Hindi has

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