Sanskritisation is the process of introducing features from Sanskrit, such as vocabulary and grammar, into other languages.[1] It is sometimes associated with the "Hindu-isation" of a linguistic community, or less commonly, with introducing a more upper-caste status into a community.[2][3] Many languages throughout South Asia and Southeast Asia were greatly influenced by Sanskrit (or its descendant languages, the Prakrits and modern-day Indo-Aryan languages) historically.[4][5][6]
Sanskritisation often stands in opposition to the Persianisation or Englishisation of a language within South Asia,[7][8] as occurs with the Hindustani language, which in its Sanskritised, Persianised, and English-influenced registers becomes Hindi, Urdu, and Hinglish respectively.[9][10][11] Support for Sanskritisation in South Asia runs highest among Brahmins and Hindu nationalists.[12]
Sanskritization of the names of people and places is also commonplace in India, except in some areas like Tamil Nadu.[13][14][15]
See also: Hindi–Urdu controversy and Hindi § Sanskrit |
During the medieval era, the Indian languages had taken in a lot of Perso-Arabic influences as a result of Muslim invasions, particularly in the northwestern subcontinent;[19] colonial-era education policies, religious nationalism, and the influence of some of the more Sanskritised Indian languages played a role in Hindus and Muslims increasingly separating in terms of their linguistic influences,[20] with Hindus tending towards the usage of Sanskrit words and the Sanskrit-associated Devanagari script for writing Hindi.[21][22][23]
Since the 1947 Partition of India, the Indian government, which at one point considered making Sanskrit the national language, instead has sought to further Sanskritise Hindi,[24] considering it to be easier for Indians to learn,[25] and as a way of distancing Hindi from the Urdu spoken in the newly formed country of Pakistan.[26] Sanskrit has been used to form new words to describe modern concepts and technologies in several South Asian languages by forming calques based on English words.[27][22][28] In addition, Sanskrit words that have been nativised into other languages have been mixed with words from other language families, such as the Dravidian languages, to form new words.[29]
Cultural debates have emerged over how much Sanskrit should appear in Hindi and how acceptable Persian and English influences should be,[30][31] with Hindu nationalists favouring Sanskritised Hindi,[32] opposing Urdu in part because it is a Muslim-associated language,[33] and some boycotting the Hindi-language Bollywood film industry for featuring too much Urdu and English in its movies.[34][35]