Languages of India: Braj Bhasa

Braj belong to Indo-Aryan language family, spoken in the Braj region of in United Provinces or Modern day Uttar Pradesh. 

Braj Region

Braj also known as Vraj, Vraja, Brijbhumi or Brij is on the banks of Yamuna River. Etymologically it translates to a pasture, shelter or resort for cattle. This reflects the ancient nomadic life of the early inhabitants of the place. 

Braj language is descended from Shauraseni Prakrit. It is spoken by around six lakh people. Its purest forms are spoken in Mathura, Agra, Etah, and Aligarh. Most speakers of Braj worship Hindu deity Krishna and their devotion find expression in the Brij which has a firm base in folk literature and songs. 

Through the devotional poetry of early medieval period 1450 -1700 CE and the erotic poetry of late medieval period 1700 to 1850CE Braj developed a superb literary tradition; its literary form achieved a wider acceptability than any other languages of Hindi belt.

Standardization of Hindi marginalized Braj language by creating a linguistic hierarchy that relegated it to an inferior status; a language with rich literary tradition was pushed to backward and rustic.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, driven by nationalist fervour, some of the national leaders thought that a single language for the entire nation would further the integration of different nationalites. They put forward the concept of a national language, and seated Khariboli Hindi (a dialect spoken around Delhi) on it. At that time they had an example: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. Consequently other regional languages like Braj, Awadhi, and Bhojpuri were officially classified as dialects. This classification was artificial. And the new standard Hindi was promoted for administrative and political purposes.

And Hindi became the medium of education, administration and mass media in North India. Braj was no longer taught in schools, and the new generations have less exposure to Braj language, its rich vocabulary and script.

Speakers of regional languages often faced social shaming, being looked down upon as provincial or local or uneducated if they used their mother tongue instead of standard Hindi. Once, it had prestigious and extensive literary tradition featuring works of Surdas, Tulsidas and Mirabai  However with the shift to standard Hindi in Academia and Publishing industry, new writings in Braj largely declined.

Unlike regional languages in South India, Bengal and Punjab where regional languages have strong cultural and political support for their preservation and official recognition, there was less organised support for the regional languages in the North.

There is a feeling among Braj speaking people that Hindi was coerced down their throats. They never loved it or thumped their chests while speaking it. They cribbed about it, the way some of the people now crib about English.

In Mathura, Gajipur, Chandigarh, and Ganganagar students were reprimanded and caned regularly in schools for speaking their mother tongue. (Note that the British never did this in their two hundred years' domination. And they always promoted vernaculars) The Braj language has got its own literature, culture and music.

The statement that 41 per cent of the people speaks Hindi as per the 2001 Census is an illusion, created by clubbing all the numerous dialects, all of which are very much distinct from one another.

Indian rulers have a lesson in the fall of Soviet Union, that the Russian language could not hold the integrity of the nation. Pushing Hindi on non Hindi speaking people only helps disintegration.