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Urban vocabulary in Northern India
Denis Vidal, Narayani Gupta
| I THE WORDS OF THE CITY IN NORTHERN
INDIA: A PROBLEMATIC
1. Limits of the area of study This study concerns itself mainly with the geographical zone in Northern India where Hindi is predominantly spoken. The core of this zone is made up of four northern Indian states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan) and includes Delhi, the capital city of India. According to the classification used in the 1981 census, this zone constitutes at least one third of Indias cities and towns (1116 out of 3245). In India, as in every other multilingual society, language plays a determining
part in the making of regional identities. Thus, for instance, the language
criterion has played a decisive role in the long-drawn-out historical process
which has unfolded in India since Independence and which led to the geographical
and administrative reorganization of the states inside the Indian union.
But, beyond every classification, it is important to observe that this
whole zone (the Hindi belt) is frequently given a common identity in a
great number of studies about the very diverse aspects of Indian society.
2. Linguistic heterogeneity of the urban vocabulary The criterion of the dominant language allows one to define a relevant geographical area for our research. But, paradoxically, the same criterion loses all its validity as soon as the concentration is on its very object. The urban vocabulary of northern India cannot in any way be restricted to Hindi only. The first characteristic of the urban lexicon is indeed to be found at the junction between a variety of languages (Hindi, Urdu, English, regional languages,...) which sustain more or less distant ties between them and whose respective vocabularies overlap in some measure. This is specifically the case with the urban vocabulary. Before Independence, the "common language" in the northern Indian towns and cities was Hindustani a kind of synthesis between various languages, dialects and means of expression that gave all its richness to the linguistic universe of this region. Hindustani vocabulary was heterogeneous; it included in different proportions terms borrowed from the many regional languages of northern India, from Arabic, from Persian and, in certain specific domains (pertinently to our study), from English and from Sanskrit (and its direct derivatives). After Independence, however, the linguistic policy of the Indian government which was not seen through to completion was to promote Hindi not only as one of the Indian union official languages, but also more specifically as what was to become the only national language of the country. The terms borrowed from Arabic or from Persian were more or less officially bowdlerized and replaced when necessary by Sanskrit ones, or by terms constructed from a Sanskrit base. The same policy was carried out, to a lesser degree, for English terms that had been incorporated into the common language. Indeed, it had been initially planned in the Indian constitution that English would cease to be used as one of the official languages of the country ten years after Independence. Had such a policy seen radical results, our research would have been simplified: the contemporary urban vocabulary would then have been exclusively constituted by sanskritized terms, or terms still in use in regional languages of Northern India. But this was not to be the case, and even less in the domain of urban vocabulary than in any other. That is why we can find today in the urban glossary terms that derive from Persian and Arabic as well as English and the different regional languages of Northern India. Many reasons explain the particularly syncretic nature of the urban
vocabulary. Here are some of them:
Consequently, every study of northern Indian urban lexicon is compelled to take into account, on the one hand the effects brought about by the diversity of languages and idioms from which this vocabulary is made up, and on the other hand the variability of the vocabulary used according to the backgrounds and contexts. In this perspective, it becomes particularly important to make the distinction
between:
It is only by crosschecking these two dimensions that one may specify
the range and content of the northern Indian urban glossary, and also the
status of the terms included in it.
3. Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, English: legacies and uses In India, there is an important Sanskrit vocabulary for architecture
and ancient urbanism available, thanks to a corpus of ancient classical
treatises often very normative ones. Notwithstanding some terms still
in use to date, the interest in studying this corpus lies mainly in history
and should not, in theory, be included in our research. There are however
contemporary uses of this corpus that must be considered:
There is, as well, a whole urban lexicon that we know about, thanks
to the works of historians, on the rich corpus of manuscripts and documents
written in Persian and Urdu. There again, the bulk of this corpus has no
real place in our glossary, though one has to consider:
Quite similar distinctions might be made when it comes to the use of
English:
4. Putting this all into perspective Because of the particular urban history of this part of the world, the urban lexicon of northern India is, as we have seen earlier, the result of a complex process of synthesis in which operate conceptions of urban space and a terminology borrowing several elements from Sanskrit and Prakrit, as well as Indo-persian and Anglo-saxon vocabularies. There is therefore a striking contrast between the vast lexicographic resources generated by such a situation and the relatively restricted number of terms whose use has spread beyond their original language or cultural, social and professionnal background. So, most of the issues with which we have been confronted in establishing
an urban glossary of Northern India seem to be more generally an echo of
the issues that face the whole "the words of the cities" project. Such
as:
It seems that, from this perspective, one has to pay a particular attention
to:
II CASE STUDY India is a large country with many languages. In the vast region incorporating North India and Pakistan, the language is Hindi/Urdu. Both these have derived their vocabulary from other languages. Hindi was initially called Hindawi (derived from Hind, the name for the plains, east of the river Sindhu/Indus). Hindi had elements of classical Sanskrit, later Prakrit, as well as elements of popular languages (what is called khari boli). Urdu developed to fill a need, i.e. to devise a common language, a kind of esperanto for soldiers serving in North India who spoke the languages of Central Asia, West Asia and India. This was called Zuban-e-Hindawi (Hindawi tongue/language) or Urdu (derived from the Turkish orda = military camp; whence horde is English/ French). Urdu became an increasingly literary language at the same time as Hindi, from the 15th century, reaching a high point in the 18th and early 19th century. It is interesting to note that the well-known urdu poet, Ghalib (1796-1869) used the term hindavi interchangeably with urdu. When the British in Calcutta began to study Indian languages at the end of the 18th century, the scholar J.B. Gilchrist, coined the word Hindustani (the language of Hindustan i.e. North India) to include Hindi and Urdu, although the first was written in the Devanagari script and the second in the Persian script. From the 19th century, some European terms were incorporated into Hindi and Urdu. After 1947, Urdu, in Persian script, was made the official language of Pakistan, and Hindi in Devanagari script, the official language of India. Urdu is also taught in schools and colleges in India. When spoken, the two languages are alike in grammar though some of the vocabulary is distinct. Many words of Hindi/Urdu have also been carried over into other Indian languages, in some cases with modifications in the nuances or in the pronunciation. Words related to towns are found in Sanskrit from the 1st millennium B.C. From the 11th century A.D., terms of Arabic, Persian and Turkish origin also came into use, and were sometimes combined with Sanskrit suffixes to make new words. From the 19th century European terms came into use, and from the mid-20th century, American sociological and planning terms were indigenized. After India became independent one of the elements in the creation of an Indian identity was the use of Sanskrit terms in urban nomenclature. Abbreviations used in the following nomenclature S : Sanskrit (from 6th century B.C.)
Dates for the beginning of any language are obviously not definite,
and should be taken as tentative.
1. Nomenclature for towns 1.1. The town is defined as an area which has been settled, where the
number of inhabitants has increased, which has become prosperous. The Sanskrit
verb vasa (to live) became colloquialized into basa and gave
rise to the term basti (small town). It has a sense of an urban
area small enough to generate a sense of belonging, and not of alienation
(cf. Intezar Husains novel: Basti). The Persian abad karna
(to cultivate, to settle) is the origin of abadi (small settlement,
population) and of the suffix abad attached to the name of the
towns founder.
1.2. Gram in Sanskrit originally connoted community, hence
the word sangram (inter-communal conflicts). As the community got
fixed in place, the word came to mean village. The suffix gram/gaon
suggests that the towns have grown from small rural settlements. A wada
is a house/abode.
1.3. The act of leveling or clearing an area to establish a town is
expressed by prastha (level ground). The longest surviving suffix
meaning town is the Sanskrit pura (variants: pur, puri, puram).
The Puranas (9th century A.D.) refer to the divine architect Vishvakarma,
who built Alakapuri, the city of the Gods (and who is the patron-saint
of masons and builders). Sanskrit texts have lyrical descriptions of towns.
Another Sanskrit term is nagar/nagari/nagaram, a term which is often
used for a town founded by merchants. A later term is the Arabic qasba
(market-town). Nagar and pur are supplemented by shahar,
the Persian term for city, which connotes size and grandeur. Interestingly,
its root is kshatra (field), kshetra in Sanskrit. Thus, the
suffix in Bulandshahar has the same root as the suffix in Ranikhet since
shahar
is derived from kshatra and khet from kshetra. The
destruction/ decline of a great city is conveyed by the genre of poetry
in Urdu called shahar-ashoob (lament for the city). For the sense
of a metropolitan city, nagar is prefixed with maha (= great,
first mentioned in 6th century B.C.)
1.4. Many urban places originated as religious centers which, in turn, had been built on sites given rent-free to Hindu Brahmins (agraharam / devadanam / brahmadeya) or to Muslim men of religion (madad-i-maash). 1.5. Urban places / Centers with religious connotations because of specific landscape features (mountains, confluences) are called tirtha (S) (= ford, crossing, used literally and symbolically). A town associated with a Sufi saint often has the prefix hazrat (P) (= excellence, a term also used for individuals and invariably for the prophet). Specific functions e.g. market, defence, government, give specific suffixes to towns, though later those functions may not have been unduly important/relevant. 1.6. Terms for markets and centers of trade are the most numerous:
b : Ganj (P), mandi (H/eastern languages), katra
(S),
bazaars (P), refer to market-towns, the first two usually founded,
the third suggesting an enclosed space, the last evoking a market-place
which has a liveliness which goes beyond simply buying and selling. A serai
(P) was an inn with provision for storing goods and stabling animals
c : Bandar (P) = port, supplemented the older Sanskrit pattanam
(= emporium) which was used for inland towns as well as ports. This word
has many variations: patan, pattana, patna, patta, pet.
1.7. Defence was one of the major rationales for founding towns. This
could be walled settlements: kot/kotla (S) or garh (H/Marathi).
An army camp (katak) was derived from the word for an army in Sanskrit
(katak). Sadr (A) also connoted a cantonment.
Chhaoni (H), the word for cantonment, referred to the act of thatching (equivalent of pitching camp). 1.8. Capital cities were called Raj dhani (S), Sadr Mukam
Zila (A), Dar-ul-Khilafat (P), Dar-Ul-Hukumat (P) (=
site of government).
2. Administration of urban areas Before the 19th century, Indian towns were compact areas, usually walled, with administrative agencies distinct from those for adjacent rural areas. 2.1. Walls and embankments were essential for the security of towns - the divar (P)/fasil (A) (= wall) was also referred to as shahar-panah (P) = the protector of the city. The wall was broken up by dwars (S), darwazas (P) and phataks (Pk) or khidkis (Pk) = gates, wicket-gates/ backdoor). Apart from defining tax-frontiers and legal boundaries, the gateways connoted the idea of threshold, or frontier. Examples: Dwarka (Gujarat, I) = the many-gated city; Shahdara = city of the royal gateway (Delhi, I); Darbhanga= gateway to Bengal (Bihar, I). 2.2. In official records, the area within the walls was referred to literally as that as anderun-fasil (P/A). In the last fifty years, planners and journalists have used the term walled city (E) pejoratively to describe areas where in many cases, the walls have been destroyed. The intra-mural area was divided into thanas (from sthana (S) = wards). These were atomized into mahallas (A) = neighborhoods (later on written as mohulla in North India. 18th-century Delhi had 18 thanas and 600 mohullas, which are still identifiable though their legal identities are gone. Before the Indo-British government established municipalities (1860s) the intramural town was under the kotwal (S-P) (town-magistrate), with thanadars supervising mohulladars (-wal,-wala,-dar, all Persian, indicate functionaries) and darogas (P) = policemen/prefects. The major towns of North India in the medieval centuries were ruled by families of West/Central Asian descent, hence the Persianised terminology. These are also to be found in South Indian towns like Bijapur and Hyderabad, the governments of which, in the medieval centuries, welcomed many Persian scholars and soldiers. 2.3. Extra-mural settlements grew/were established either to serve as
wholesale markets or to accommodate an increasing population. These had
usually suffixes listed above in 1 (wada, pur, mandi, ganj, bazaar,
pet).
2.4. Land ownership in towns, as in rural areas, was by the State (nuzul) or religious trusts (waqf). Inalienable personal ownership was instituted by Indo-British rulers. 2.5. In European settlements in India, and later in Indian towns ruled by the Indo-British, distinct areas of jurisdiction were defined. The factory (E) was where the factor, the trading companys representative, had his office (usually a walled enclosure). Later, the cantonment, military lines, civil lines, and notified areas were designated. In some towns, white town and black town were used to indicate predominantly European and Indian areas respectively. 2.6. In the jargon of planners in Independent India, slums i.e. areas
of dense habitation became an administrative category, often overlapping
with walled cities. Urban villages (shahari gaon = P+H) was an
awkward term used to designate the territory of a village, the land-use
of which had changed from rural to urban. Resettlement colonies
were groups of houses for the poor displaced by urban improvement/development.
Translation into Hindi was de rigueur in all official documents. Neo-Sanskritic/Persianized
phrases have come into use in the past 30 years: urban land is nagar
avas bhoomi (nS) or shahari rihayashi zameen (nP). An urban
area is nagar kshetra (nS) and small urban settlement shahari
basti (P+H). A metropolis is mahanagar (nS).
3. Units within each urban area, particularly in the last 200 years 3.1. British Indian towns were different from older ones in respect of their area and population. Many units became enclaved in larger settlements (Daryaganj, Yusuf Sarai or Taimur Nagar in Delhi; Agraharam Road in Madras; Gariahat in Calcutta ) all parts of larger towns. Some words undergo a change of sense: bastis (spelt bustees) were used to mean the shanty towns that spread in open areas around big mansions in Calcutta. 3.2. Neighborhoods were laid out in the British period, not always contiguously,
since space was freely available in their open cities. Terms like town,
park, gardens, were imported from the English
3.3. These English terms were translated in independent Indias names
for neigborhoods : puri (S) = town; bagh (P) / Udyaan
(S) = garden;
Kunj (S) = woods and Viharas (S) = sanctuary
are also terms used frequently, if inappropriately, for housing estates.
3.4. As towns expanded by accretion, different terms were used to distinguish
one section from another:
From 1957, the superimposition of American zoning ideology on the Indo-British
hierarchical cantonment-like planning has made recent Indian urban development
very different from the organic towns of earlier centuries.
4. Buildings and enclosed structures In towns previous to or not touched by British rule, there was no great variety in building structure. The home and the place of prayer were distinct, but secular public functions did not necessarily need the appendage of many and distinct buildings. During the British period and subsequently, there was a great expansion in public buildings. This will be obvious from the following lists. The (E) sign makes it clear that most public buildings originated with British rule. 4.1. administration
4.2. education
4.3. hospitality
n.b. The word khana (P) = room is appended to define spaces: gym-khana = an equestrian event; in India, a place for stabling horses; baithak-khana = sitting-room; kahwa-kana = tea-house; karkhana = workshop, etc. 4.4. commercial
4.5. religion, cult-centres
4.6. residence
5. Open areas In the north Indian climate, streets, open areas and gardens play an important role as places for relaxation and conviviality. More time (and much unstructured time) is spent here than in formal interior areas. 5.1. passages, open areas
n.b. gali and chowk figure prominently in Urdu/Hindi poetry and stories. 5.2. gardens
5.3 water bodies
Hindi/Urdu words have not only used derivations from different languages
but have quite unconsciously combined terms from different languages to
make portmanteau words. This was done even with English words. It is
too early to say whether these terms will be edged out by more pure Sanskritic
terms in India and pure Persian words in Pakistan. If so, this will be
as a result of the periodic waves of enthusiasm for renaming places in
order to erase the memory of foreign rule. This is a meaningless exercise,
because such gestures do not promote patriotism certainly do not erase
history. In any plan for urban conservation (which in the last fifteen
years has begun to appeal both to policy makers and to citizens), respect
for nomenclature and for older forms of civic organisation will or should
have high priority. Their value for historians, architects and town-planners
is self-evident.
III A LARGER GLOSSARY - un plus large glossaire To the examples given above one can add a longer, more thematic list
of words of the town with their equivalents in French and English: though
not, of course with all their nuances therein. The terms which we consider
particularly significant are shown in bold.
Urban areas and types of domicile - Sections urbaines et types dhabitat
Urban roads / Thoroughfares - Voies urbaines
Gates / Entrances - Enceintes, portes
Marketplace terms - Termes liés au marché
Buildings - Édifices
Types of housing - Demeures et lieux d'habitation
Open areas - Lieux ouverts
Water Eau
References Acharya, P.K. (ed.): Indian Architecture According to the Manasara
Silpasastras, London,1928.
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