Benares Hindu University became the central institution in the movement for establishment of Hindi as the national language
The basic tenet of cultural nationalism, a common national language—Sanskrit and a sanskritized, “pure” Hindi—was promoted by the Arya Samaj in educational work, in publishing books, magazines, translations to Hindi and Sanskrit, and so on. Swami Dayananda was convinced of the necessity of promoting and transforming Hindustani from a spoken popular language into a “high vernacular” in Devanagari script in order to replace written Persian and Urdu as the dominant vernacular languages of administration, education, and public discourse. At around the turn of the century the first regular Hindi magazines appeared, college curricula in Hindi were drafted, and Madan Mohan Malaviya, provoked by the founding of Aligarh Muslim University in 1898, initiated the protracted campaign for a Hindu university with Hindi as the sole medium of instruction. In 1915 Benares Hindu University was founded and became the central institution in the movement for establishment of Hindi as a national language. [The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India-Thomas Blom Hansen-1999]
It is probably difficult to overestimate the impact of the Arya Samaj in the subsequent development of culture and politics in north India, especially within the upper-caste literate section of the Hindu population. The entire network of DAV colleges, the Hindi press, Benares Hindu University, and other institutions produced generations of young well-educated men from the upper castes militantly devoted to the cause of the Hindu community. A large number of leaders and activists of the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha were to emerge from these milieus, just as the Arya Samaj’s vision of a strong Hindi-speaking India, mainly Hindu in spirit and complexion, found many takers within the Congress movement.[The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India-Thomas Blom Hansen-1999]
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who was keenly interested in uplifting the educational standards of the country, was the principal founder in 1916 of the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, a premier institution of learning in India. He served as the university’s vice-chancellor for some two decades (1919–38) and remained active at the school until his death. Malaviya’s consciousness toward the public led to the launch of his own Hindi-language weekly, the Abhyudaya (1907), the Leader of Allahabad, an English-language daily (1909), and the Hindi monthly the Maryada (1910).[ Encyclopaedia Britannica] Malaviya’s ideas on language are contained in his book Court Characters
and Primary Education in N.W.P. and Oudh (Allahabad-1887).
to be continued..
