Thread by @Parikramah

1. Next 21 tweets on #Sikh tradition's relationship with different languages & scripts in Indic core & extended MidEast/Mongol/Tibet/E.Asian family.

What were the cultural undercurrents of the first Sikh movement towards Indicization?

What derailed this?

What about the future?

2. #Sikh Guru Angad ji pioneered the re-introduction of Indic script in Punjab. Rolled back imposition of modified-Arabic script.

#Gurmukhi is derived from Sharada script of #Kashmiri Hindus. Related to far flung Tocharian script. Is only surviving member of that script-family.

3. #Sindhis, Hindus from #NWFP & Hinglaaj (present-day #Balochistan), + today's #Kashmiri Hindus' Indic scripts have lost currency. Most now use modified-Arabic script.

These groups should consider adopting #Gurmukhi as script for their languages as they reclaim their identity.

4. As #Sikh misl-kingdoms rose to power, they patronized not only #Gurmukhi but also #DevaNagari script used widely across N. India.

DevaNagari is a versatile script, particularly useful for #Sanskrit phonetics.

Gurmukhi is simpler, tailored for vernaculars across India/Persia.

5. Thus the simpler, easier to learn Gurmukhi script was aimed at mass literacy in the local language.

It is not suitable for #Sanskrit, which in that era was restricted to aristocrats.

Gurmukhi is superior to modified-Arabic script, which is inadequate & ruins Indic phonetics.

6. Modified-Arabic script used in downstream, converted satellite cultures ranging from #Persia to #Muslim India/#Pakistan (and pre-Ataturk #Turks), is a clumsy jerry-rig, inadequate and callous.

#Gurmukhi is more customized to the needs of a wide swathe of these languages.

7. So a #Persian or #Urdu-speaker learns 4 different letters for "z", ostensibly arbitrarily used in #Arabic loan words, b/c he cannot pronounce the original Arabic sounds.

& his 'custom' Arab-script cannot capture sounds unique to his forefathers' language.

Underlings forever.

8. Thus, #Sikh Gurus stopped & reversed the continuous degradation & pidginization of Indian language - a critical component of culture.

They replaced what needed to be replaced (pidgin custom-Arab script), & kept separate what needed to be kept separate (#Sanskrit DevaNagari).

9. In Indic civilization, there has always been a 2-tier language/cultural ecology.

a. Deshiya देशीय / ਦੇਸੀ - regional

b. Maarga/Naagara मार्ग/नागर / ਮਾਰਗ/ ਨਾਗਰ - cosmopolitan

#b absorbed & crystallized words, ideas from #a & disseminated across participating sub-cultures.

10. This 2-tier culture/language/religious ecology is what created the most diverse & stable civilizational platform in world history.

Regional participating subcultures donate to & absorb from other fraternal subcultures through the #Sanskrit link, and all thrive and co-create.

11. Sky-&-Earth:

Under 1 spiritual Sun, waters of diverse lakes/rivers/seas evaporates to Possibility-Sky.

Necessity-Winds move culture-clouds, precipitate distillate across boundaries.

Graceful, collegial, organic.
Not haphazard, colonial, clumsy like Anglo/Arabized pidgins.

12. #Sikh Gurus literally rehabilitated this 2-tier language-cultural-religious ecology - starting from an area that was being crushed under the wheels of ISIS-like #Islamic imperialism.

Gurmukhi for mass literacy, esteemed diverse desi dialects, creation of Sanskritic Nirmalas.

13. As #Sikh power expanded and began to look beyond Madra Desh, they extended patronage to other languages/scripts, both Indic and foreign, at different levels.

Persian found patronage in works of art.

DevaNagari found a place even on coats of arms...

14. Here is the coat of arms of the #Sikh principality of Jind, with motto in DevaNagari script.

hubert-herald.nl/BhaHaryana.htm…

15. The Brar Jat state of Faridkot had this coat of arms, with motto in DevaNagari:

hubert-herald.nl/BhaPunjabPS.ht…

16. Nabha, the founder of the Phulkian states had this coat of arms, with motto in DevaNagari:

hubert-herald.nl/BhaPunjabPS.ht…

17. And the state of Patiala, regarded as head of the Phulkians, had this coat of arms, with motto in DevaNagari:

hubert-herald.nl/BhaPunjabPS.ht…

18. It is even more noteworthy that the #Sikh principality of Patiala played a central role in the rise of modern #Hindi prose under royal patronage.

Ram Prasad Niranjani was from Patiala, and is regarded as the 1st author of modern #Hindi prose.

chandanswapnil.blogspot.com/2018/03/blog-p…

19. The #Sikh royal court of Patiala was the hotbed of emergence of modern Sanskritized #Hindi as far back as 1730's. "Patiala naresh" is praised as prime patron.

Hindi savant Ramdhari Singh Dinkar's nationalistic, integrationist history "Sanskriti ke 4 adhyaay" mentions it.

20. #British later forced highly Arabized #Urdu on Punjab & N. India, reversing the work of #Sikh Gurus & the policy of Sikh misls.

Curiously, a catfight between Punjabi & Hindi language was also contrived in colonial era & Nehruvian India. With English as compromise, of course.

21. Future:

(a) Revival of spoken #Sanskrit is already afoot.
(b) Indic languages reconnect to Sanskrit, while absorbing foreign words. No haphazard pidginization.
(c) Reconnect with Tibet, Mongolia, Japan, SE Asia.
(c) Introduce Gurmukhi script to Urdu & Persian speakers.