Mughal Administration c17.s10.4

c17.s10.4

The Indian Muhammadans could not retain Persian or Turkish as their mother-tongue, and yet they did not cultivate any Indian vernacular for literary purposes. They were ashamed to write in the *zaban-i-Hindavi* (i.e., Hindustani) which they spoke in the home, the office, the street, and the camp. The desperate and ruinous attempt to cling to Persian as the language of official correspondence, of serious and elegant literature, and polished intercourse, while Hindustani was their mother-tongue, was continued by the Indian Muhammadans till about 1780, when Hindustani was frankly accepted as their literary language. This linguistic difficulty accounts for the literary barrenness of the Indian Muhammadans, and it greatly retarded the spread of real education during the Mughal period.