Hindi is not a real language. Hindi as in the singular language it is considered today, has not been a real language for hundreds of years. Maybe ever infact.

Maybe 1000 years ago from now, its the western belt of UP, and the NCR region, many “dialects” of this barely 200 year old infamous language were spoken, I quote dialects because its such an irony that the apparent dialects are infact older than the “language” that they fall under. Languages like Braj, Awadhi, Rajasthani, Khadi Boli, Bhojpuri all come under Hindi as per the government, but are they infact in anyway Hindi? What is Hindi?

Hindi, the Language

When people hear of the label “Hindi”, different people understand different things from it. This is the key cause for a lot of the confusion and misunderstandings. But let me explain what possible real things can be understood from the term Hindi:

1. Language of Old Delhi: This was the spoken tongue of Delhi prior to the invasion of the sultans of Central Asia. This was the colloquial tongue of the various people that lived in Delhi. It was probably Khadi Boli, one of many dialects we mentioned earlier. People refer to this as Hindi, although it would be more proper for us to call it what it really was, and still is, Khadi Boli.
2. Medieval Lingua Franca of the sub-continent: In the medieval age, under the rule of the sultans and badshahs of the Persianized Central Asians, a more “refined” and much more popular tongue came about. This language had almost entirely replaced the historic “old dialects” in the urban centers, especially amongst the Muslims, and Hindus of those non priestly classes. This was called Hindvi, Rekhta, Dakkhni, Urdu, Hindustani. This is the language most of the lay population of the sub-continent still speaks, unless educated in a highly priestly setup of either the Muslim or Hindu community.
3. Official Language of “Indian Republic”: The modern abomination of TV anchors and politicians. This is the language you would maybe hear Modi, or Yogi Adityanath speak. If you spoke this on the streets, you’d be laughed at. If you saw this anywhere other than in a political rally, or a religious “bhaashan” you would laugh at it. Engineered by the British in Fort William in the early 1800s.

Fake vs Real - Hindi

So what is Hindi really, and is Hindi actually not real like the title says? Well, depends on what Hindi we are talking of.

Of #1, it was real. Very real, although Khadi Boli does not have any literary pedigree, and its only occurrence in literature is after the synthesis of Khadi Boli (also called Old Dehlavi, and like we mentioned earlier, Hindi) with Perso-Arabic under the Sultans of North India (which basically formed what #2).

On that note, #2, yes very real. It was the lingua franca of the urban centers for about 500-ish years gaining in popularity every passing century. It was based on Khadi Boli, or Old Dehlavi, but spread across India due to changing of the capitals of the Sultans of India, and came to the south as “Dakkhni”, and remained in the north during this period as “Rekhta” or “Urdu”. This tongue was quite persianized but the intensity of the persianization depended person to person, area to area, and situation to situation. Bazaar talk was quite different from what was scribed on to books of poetry, the words, even some grammar structures changed based on the situation and person. But this was the lingua franca, a dialect continuum, and was accepted by its various names. Outside India, this was referred to as “Hindi” or “Hindvi” to distinguish it from the clearly persianized cultures and societies that spoke Persian. (which was the case in India too, in the courtly and official circles, until the late end of the Mughal Empire)

On #3, this is an artificially engineered experiment of the British. This was a language created in the early 19th century, where linguist John Gilchrist engineered a more sanskritized register of the spoken lingua-franca of the sub continent, to create separation and division between the two largest communities of India. Before this, from Sikhs, to Hindu Rajas to Deccan Sultans all spoke in the refined Urdu/Hindvi/Hindustani language to each other, or straight up Persian in the courts of Hindustan.

My point being, when we understand the term “Hindi”, we can think of multiple things, but of those only few are actually meaningful or organic. #3 has been engineered, and what it is, has been retrofitted on to the term “Hindi”, but the term itself is not fake, or lacking of pedigree. Infact its quite real, but what today has been retrofitted, and most people understand to be
“Hindi” today, is #3, and is not a genuine language created naturally through the interaction of people, but could be considered an artificial scientific experiment on the priestly class by British Linguists.

How is it all Urdu?

Now for the more controversial stuff, what the average person, across the entirety of “Hindi”-speaking India, whether they like to admit it or not, aligns much more closely with what Urdu is or historically was, than what is understood to be Hindi now (#3).

The priestly class of the Hindus have no history of speaking this artificially sanskritized dialect of Hindustani, they spoke their own tongues, or used Sanskrit altogether.

Even the Urdu that is spoken in religious sermons, or in ultra-educated circles of Muslims, is not really a good example of “Hindustani” or any of the 5-6 terms we used earlier. Atleast, not a good example of what was spoken by the average person in the medieval ages. Despite that, it has far far more pedigree and foundation in its existence, due to the historical abundance of literature and written material available, even in this ultra-persianised, or ultra-arabized register. Regardless of the formality of this tongue, it was still developed organically, by average people who needed a common link to communicate, and developed further by poets, islamic figures, and in its less formal dialects, the average man. Whereas what we describe as Hindi today, was created only as a reaction to the existence of an organic highly perso-arabicized dialect of Hindustani.