JOURNAL 



OP THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Part L— HISTORY, LITERATURE, &c. 

 No. III.— 1867. 



On the Arabic Element in Official Hindustani. — No. 2. By 

 J. Beames, Esq., B. 0. S. 



[Received 23rd July, 1866.] 



" If Hindustani, adopted by us as the future general language of 

 India, is to be a language and not a jargon, it must become so by 

 means of its alliance with Persian, the speech which all Indian Maho- 

 medans have at their heart, and use as the feeder, or channel of other 

 feeders, for all their abstract thought, their politics, science, and 

 poetry."* 



This extract serves as a fitting text to the subject which it is my 

 aim to illustrate. In a former paper I gave an outline of some argu- 

 ments in favour of the present Arabicized dialect of our courts, and as 

 the little literature which the language possesses is written in the 

 same style, the following remarks may be considered as applica- 

 ble to the literary style also. In the present I propose to review 

 the assertions of the upholders of the opposite opinion, which 

 may briefly, and I trust fairly, be stated thus : — In writing or 



* Quarterly Review No. 234, page 517 on " Vambery's Travels in Central 

 Asia." 



18 



