The origin of Hindi dates back to over a millennium, almost at the same time when Islamic invasion started in North-West India. Hindus of the North had developed some defense mechanism linguistically though officially Arabic and Persian dominated in the North of India even when British arrived. The formal language of Indian Muslims of the North, Urdu, is a mulatto between Hindi, Arabic and Persian.

Hindi is a simple language and therefore it is expansive. Hindi was must for the idea of India as other than English there should had been one Indian language which be spoken in many states. All other Indian languages are mostly confined to one state and the migrants of that linguist group in other states as the foundation of Indian states was based on language. It turns out to be the correct idea.

The usage of Hindi is increasing though English is the most popular language among the educated classes. The growth of Hindi is just like the growth of Hindu Rightist opinion: it can not come without imports and without increasing the chauvinistic tendencies among other language speakers. Hindi reflects the history of Hindi speaking people.

The fact is that Hindi has many imported words; it has imported far more words than any other Indian language. But had it not been the case the foreign rulers would have banished it in the medieval period. Hindi is not that creative, innovative and effective language like, say Bengali, Punjabi and Tamil. The reason is that the most productive class; the middle class of Hindi speaking region was butchered brutally by medieval rulers to expand Islam and their rules. Hindi could not develop too many faculties and they never recovered from that traumatic experience. The ‘Banyan Tree worship’ saved the Hindi-speaking people from the confrontation with Islam, and consequently from bigger conversion to Islam.

Hindi-speaking did not fight too many wars and they just prayed to their Ishvara in their temples for revival of Hinduism and for the creation of a state conducive and favorable to their identity. The British arrived and with them the things started to change significantly for Hindus and Hindis. The British imparted national consciousness to their subjects by introducing English, press and by their various development projects. Slowly the influence of Arabic and Persian among the Northern Indian Hindus started to wane and Hindi started to take formal shape and became the dominant language of Indian freedom struggle in the majority part of what is now geographic India.

The rise of Nehru and his family also helped the cause of Hindi to some extent with this family making Uttar Pradesh as their political base. The acceptance of Hindi by Gandhi and Patel also helped the cause of Hindi though all of the freedom fighters knew that English was inevitable. The competition between majorities and minorities also helped the cause of Hindi even though it faced stiff opposition in the south, particularly in Tamil Nadu.

With the end of cold war, there have been two major political changes: proliferation of identities and inability of any political party to get absolute majority in the Lower House of the Parliament and the rise of the BJP. With the rise of the BJP Hindi also gets prominence. The proliferation of political identities bode well for Hindi and regional languages.

The most important thing for Hindi-speaking populace is to become somewhat regionalized without offending anyone. They should unite as a social force, and as consumers of the biggest market in India based on linguistic identity. With the glue spreading all over North, they need to understand two things simultaneously—they should overcome the barrier of the caste within to as much extent as possible and keep good relationship with Muslims. They will help them expand and make a pan-Hindi identity. Hindi-speaking citizens of India need to learn to respect their language first, and should try to do as much work in Hindi as it is possible. They should try to come closer to Sanskrit and should reject many Islamic words without communalizing the issue.

The greatness of Hindi lies in following the dharma with modernity without offending anyone. The dharma is not to fight in peace. If they do so Hindi will prosper and so will its speakers. Consumerism and nationalism along with politics will keep the Hindi clock ticking till there is perceptible growth.