On the Hindi-Urdu debate
In Bhārata, a language has respect if it gels, melds, coalesces, dissolves in the mileu of itihāsa, purāṇa, saṅgīta, nṛtya and so on. E.g. a Tyāgarāja / Purandaradāsa kīrtana, a Rāmaprasādī gīta earn their respective langs respect and esteem. They do so by cajoling the listener as though saying "here, you are safe with me, I am your great grandfather's friend. He gave me this treasure to pass on to you." The extremely skeptical listener is moved and he starts trusting the messenger. None of this in Urdu. Any language and its creations when they strike a deeper chord than the mundane and resonate with our civilizational memory automatically unconsciously and effortlessly earn respect of the "cognoscenti" part of each Bhāratīya's heart. Bhāratīyas have quite good taste. Why Urdu has never commanded such respect is because their creations haven't struck a deep civilizational chord with the Bhāratīya. Inglees has its redeemers such as Aurobindo. Urdu doesn...