The Gujral Committee Report - Language in India

any such court and in what character applications to and proceedings in such courts should be written. 5.23 For the purposes of Urdu, we are concerned chiefly with United Provinces, Bihar, of
Central Provinces In the erstwhile British India. The final state of affairs in regard to these areas is summarised below . (i) In the United Provinces, petitions or complaints in civil, revenue and criminal courts Punjab,
be -presented either in the Urdu or in the Devnagari character. (It was all along a could
of script -and not of language). All summons and proclamations issued by the courts or revenue officers were to be both in the Urdu and the Nagri characters. For all ministerial appointments execept those in the English office, knowledge of both Urdu question
Hindi was essential. (ii) In Bihar, after 1881, all documents issued by the courts were to be in Hindi or Kaithi characters except 'the exhibits' produced in courts, which could be in other languages. and
all police and ministerial officers knowledge of the Hindi character was made For
(iii) In Central Provinces, as in Bihar, Hindi was introduced as the language of courts. (iv) In Punjab, Urdu was being used for official purposes in the lower courts as also at compulsory.
lower administrative level. 5.24 The position in the princely States was different. In a large number of States falling within the present boundaries of the States of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, the
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, Urdu was Uttar
used in the courts at lower levels and in some of the States like Hyderabad, Bhopal, Patiala, etc., up to the highest judicial levels. 5.25 On the eve of Independence, the question of a common official language for the being
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The Gujral Committee Report
Union as well as for, each individual State was being discussed widely in non-official circles. The anxiety of our national leaders in the pre-independence period to evolve a common language was fully justified by the post-independence events. At that time, there was unanimity among the political elements in the country to eliminate the use of English from Government offices and courts as soon as possible and to replace it by an
on Urdu