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Pall Mall Gazette 28 August 1872 Page 2, Column 2
INDIAN AFFAIRS.
Catcutta, July 30.
Locally there has been little incident. The dispute between Mr.
Campbell and the Syndicate of the University, as to the existence of such a
language as Oordoo, and the propriety of teaching it, if it does exist, in
Government schools, has now passed from the stage of the “ quip modest”
to that of the “ reproof valiant,” and will, I understand, be referred by the
University to the arbitrament of the Government of India. Let us hope
that the referee may remember the beatitude, and discover some peacemaking “if” that will set the parties at accord. For though the Lieutenant-
Governor points out to his adversaries that they are only an examining
and not a teaching body, it is of great importance to the cause of education
in India, that the University, as giving the tone to all higher instruction,
should work harmoniously with the Executive, which has the direct
control of the schools and colleges when such instruction is imparted.
I cannot profess to know much of the subject-matter of the
dispute, not being familiar with vernacular literature ; but it seems
to me that in the very act of describing Hindoostanee, the language he
would substitute for Oordoo, as a lingua franca, the Lieutenant-Governor
bars himself from claiming for it any literary status. A lingua franca, if
the term has any distinctive meaning at all, is not a synonym for a composite language, but implies a form of speech begotten by the necessity
for some vehicle of converse between two or more nations or communities
brought into an antagonistic, or at most but superficial contact, and therefore touching only at certain points, Such was the lingua franca properly so-called generated by the Crusades;' such is the “pigeon English” of
China; and such (and very little less barbarous than pigeon Engilsh is the Hindoostanee spoken by ninety-nine out of a hundred Englishmen.
Ex vi termini, such a dialect or jargon cannot have a literature ; the very
range of its vocabulary is too limited. It will be evident that so far,
think, the University has the best of the argument.
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