The Tyabji Clan—Urdu As a Symbol of Group Identity by Maren Karlitzky University of Rome “La Sapienza”
The Tyabji Clan—Urdu as a Symbol of Group Identity by Maren Karlitzky University of Rome “La Sapienza” T complex issue of group identity and language on the Indian sub- continent has been widely discussed by historians and sociologists. In particular, Paul Brass has analyzed the political and social role of language in his study of the objective and subjective criteria that have led ethnic groups, first, to perceive themselves as distinguished from one another and, subsequently, to demand separate political rights.1 Following Karl Deutsch, Brass has underlined that the existence of a common language has to be considered a fundamental token of social communication and, with this, of social interaction and cohesion. 2 The element of a “national language” has also been a central argument in European theories of nationhood right from the emergence of the concept in the nineteenth century. This approach has been applied by the English-educated élites of India to the reality of the Subcontinent and is one of the premises of political struggles like the Hindi-Urdu controversy or the political claims put forward by the Muslim League in promoting the two-nations theory. However, in Indian society, prior to the socio-political changes that took place during the nineteenth century, common linguistic codes were 1Paul R. Brass has studied the politics of language in the cases of the Maithili movement in north Bihar, of Urdu and the Muslim minority in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and of Panjabi in the Hindu-Sikh conflict in Punjab. Language, Religion and Politics in North India (London: Cambridge University Press, ).
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