What Do You Understand by Linguistic Plurality? Discuss With References To Bhakti and Sufi Traditions

What do you understand by Linguistic Plurality?
Discuss with
references to Bhakti and Sufi traditions.
Literary traditions in India are as diverse as the country’s different and divergent cultures. Owing
to the simultaneous flow of various languages in the Indian society at a time, these literary
traditions have thrived in their continuities, dynamism and transmutations. In Indian societies,
languages are constantly evolving, growing and changing vibrantly, due to inevitable pluralistic
exchange between cultures and languages.
Linguistic plurality is often described as, “when a speaker or writer alternates between two or
more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or prose or poetry,
it is known as linguistic plurality.” In the Indian context, linguistic plurality is demonstrated by
the way people constantly practice bilingualism or multilingualism creatively and naturally, even
in everyday interaction. There is no such thing as the ‘Indian language’ as there are 22
recognized major regional languages in India, however, the different dialects in India number
several hundred. The language policy of India provides guarantee to protect the linguistic
minorities.
For understanding the linguistic plurality in the Sufi and Bhakti traditions, one requires to
examine the rich and cosmic heritage of these traditions embedded in the everyday culture of the
vibrant Indian society. Understanding the background of such resonant traditions allows one to
further explore the nuances of these mystical traditions.
The Bhakti movement refers to the theistic devotional trend that emerged in medieval Hinduism

and later acted as the de factocatalyst to the formation and subsequent revolutionization in the
form of Sikhism. It originated in eighth-century south India and spread northwards. It swept
over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th
and 17th century CE. The concept of Bhakti or devotion to God was not new to Indians. It is very
much present in the Vedas, but it was not emphasized during the early period. Much later during
the Gupta period, when the worship of Lord Vishnu developed, many holy books including the
Ramayan and the Mahabharata were composed depicting the love and mystical union of the
individual with God. The movement has traditionally been considered as an influential social
reformation in Hinduism, and provided an individual-focused alternative path to spirituality
regardless of one's birth or gender. The Bhakti movement grew out of the emotional requirement
of the people, of the common man who found himself everywhere in chains. It was a movement
of the common people by and large, with an abundance of emotion, emphasis on music, dance
and poetry as a mode of worship, a discovery of the power and beauty of the language of the
people. Along with its protestant features, the movement also voiced the joy of liberated spirit.
The Bhakti movement witnessed a surge in Hindu literature in regional languages, particularly in
the form of devotional poems and music. This literature includes the writings of the
Alvars and Nayanars, poems of Kabir, Nanak (founder of Sikhism), Tulsidas, Ravidas, Namdev,
Mirabai and the teachings of saints like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Scriptures of the Bhakti
movement include the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavata Purana and Padma Purana.
Sufism emerged as a moral and comprehensive socio-religious force, consisting of a variety of

mystical paths that are designed to ascertain the nature of humanity and of God and
to facilitate the experience of the presence of divine love and wisdom in the world. An abstract
word, Sufism derives from the Arabic term for a mystic, ṣūfī, which is in turn derived from ṣūf,
“wool,” plausibly a reference to the woollen garment of early Islamic ascetics. Following the
entrance of Islam in the early 8th century, Sufi mystic traditions became more visible during the
10th and 11th centuries of the Delhi Sultanate and after it to the rest of India. Sufism had left a
prevailing impact on cultural and social life in India, even influencing other religious traditions
such as Hinduism. Sufism, though rooted in the Quran, derived much of its inspiration from
various sources including the folk traditions of Arabia and Persia. Like the Bhakti saints who
were engaged in breaking down the barriers within Hinduism, the Sufis too infused a new liberal
outlook within Islam. Sufism grew because of spiritless legalism as Quranic thought was in the
process of a slow systematization leading to rigidity of law and jurisprudence. Sufism, thus,
thrived as an attitude of protest against the ruling class and against the rigidity of law. Like the
Bhakti saints, the Sufi saints contributed greatly to the growth of a rich regional literature. The
Sufis realised that it was futile to preach Islam through Persian, which was not understood by the
Indian masses. Thus, these saints made use of large number of Hindavi words in their
conversation with their disciples and common people. Besides preaching in major cities and
centers of intellectual thought, Sufis reached out to poor and marginalized rural communities and
preached in local dialects such as Urdu, Sindhi, Panjabi versus Persian, Turkish and Arabic. The
most notable writer of this period was Amir Khusrau, who may be considered the most
linguistically pluralistic writer of this period. This is because he composed ghazals in mixed
language with alternate hemistiches in Persian and Hindi, which went a long way in the
development of the Urdu language. Khusrau took pride in being an Indian and looked at the
history and culture of Hindustan as a part of his own tradition. He made a liberal use of Hindi
words in his works, particularly in his couplets.Amir Khusro called the language used by him,
‘Hindavi’ or ‘Dehlavi’. The fashion of writing mixed poetry was followed by other scholars
too.The Sufis have been further responsible for a large-scale missionary activity all over the
world, which still continues. Their teachings of humanity, love for God and Prophet continue to
be surrounded by mystical tales and folk songs today. Furthermore, it is the attitude of
accommodation, adaptation, piety, and charisma that continues to help Sufism remain as a pillar
of mystical Islam in India.
The Bhakti and Sufi movements were primarily the dissident socio-spiritual movements that
gradually developed with a strong social acceptance. Although the origins of these two
movements considerably differ, their concepts and themes seem identical. Both these movements
portray protest against the traditional, warped religious norms and conventions, thereby
propagating their own ways of spirituality. Therefore, both the Sufi and Bhakti movements laid
great emphasis on love as the bond between the God and the individual. To make their teachings
more accessible to the people, they discarded the use of traditional languages – Sanskrit, Arabic
and Persian. Whereas they favoured local languages, the language of the common people like
Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Sindhi etc; which allowed these movements to be enriched with
linguistic plurality. It was these beliefs and the missionary zeal which made these movements
popular among the common people. The nature of the spirituality of these movements gets
reflected in the nature of their literary works, which were produced in many regional languages.
The saints of Sufi and Bhakti movements infused vernacular languages with the ideas of
equality, liberty, freedom of choice of worship and the importance of being a human, an
individual. This influenced life and thought of the people immensely. It improved the moral
fabric and the spiritual ways of life of the medieval Indian society inasmuch as it exhorted the
coming generations to live in peace and harmony with the spirit of toleration.
Most importantly, the reformers’ preaching in local languages was easily understandable and
therefore, was more effective. They composed hymns and songs in the languages spoken by the
masses. It led to a bonus in the development of Indian regional languages. Therefore there was a
remarkable growth of literature in all these languages, weaving a strong fabric of Indian literary
traditions, thus making it the most linguistically pluralistic tradition in the world.

What Do You Understand by Linguistic Plurality? Discuss With References To Bhakti and Sufi Traditions

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What do you understand by Linguistic Plurality?

The Bhakti movement refers to the theistic devotional trend that emerged in medieval Hinduism

Sufism emerged as a moral and comprehensive socio-religious force, consisting of a variety of

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