Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (2000) - The University of ...

S. KULKARNI
century. The Sabha was, however, dominated by the upper caste Brahmin
elite. The Brahmin leaders failed to persuade the larger non-Brahmin
population to accept their leadership and eventually Pune, the centre of
Brahmin power in the mid-nineteenth century, became the stage for non-
Brahmin propaganda. In 1873 Jotirao Phule, a Mali (gardener, non-Brahmin
low caste), founded the Satya Shodhak Samaj in Pune to challenge the
supremacy of the Brahmins and to champion the cause of the non-Brahmin
castes. Above all, he aimed at educating non-Brahmins (and women) so that
they would be able to compete with Brahmins on their own terms (for a
detailed account refer to Johnson 1970). In the 1970s Pune once again
became a scene for caste struggle in the state. The anti-caste movement
initiated by Phule re-manifested in the shape of the Dalit Panthers. The
dalits (the downtrodden in the society) waged a battle against the high caste
nexus of the Brahmins and the landed Marathas.
The Marathi language was standardised in the nineteenth century
under the supervision of Major Candy, the British director of education in
what was then the Bombay Presidency (K.S. Rajyashree 1980 provides a
comprehensive account of the historical development of standard Marathi).
The attempt was made in response to the need to have a uniform code which
could be used to produce grammars and dictionaries of the language, and to
finally translate school textbooks from the English to replace indigenous
texts. The English-educated Brahmins and other high caste elite in the city of
Pune, who were closer to the centre of power, first introduced the Marathi
language to the British and, subsequently, their variety of the language came
to be recognised as the prestigious variety. Pune had been the educational
and cultural centre of Maharashtra besides being the seat of the government
for over a century. The choice of the Pune variety met with little resistance
and was generally approved by the influential native grammarians and
scholars at the time. During the period 1874-1947 planned standardisation of
the Marathi language resulted in a well-stabilised, elaborated code. Eminent
social and political reformers writing in this variety lent further prestige to
the standard code. The acceptance of the Pune variety for literary and
educational purposes meant the relegation of the other dialects to the
position of mere vernaculars.
Since independence increasingly larger masses of people were being
exposed to the standard variety through formal education, the mass media
and social mobility. The growing number of educated people came from a
wider range of social backgrounds and the standard was now being used in a
variety of social domains; the regional non-standards such as the language of
the slums and the lower castes were now finding expression in Marathi
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