The BJP-led Rajasthan government has initiated a process to replace Urdu and Persian terms in police terminology with Hindi.
Minister of State for Home Affairs, Jawahar Singh Bedham, stated, “New recruits and officers in the police force don’t know much about Urdu. Since Hindi is in greater use, ‘Shudh’ (pure) Hindi should be adopted for police documents, investigations, and training.”
Following this directive, DGP U.R. Sahoo issued instructions to identify Urdu terms commonly used in official documents like FIRs and complaints and suggest Hindi alternatives.
Training materials will also be revised to remove Urdu, and new recruits will be briefed on these changes.
The opposition Congress has condemned the decision, calling it unnecessary and divisive. Spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi argued, “These words have been in use for decades. Without uniformity across states, this change is meaningless. The government should have consulted legal and bar councils before making this decision.”
This move echoes earlier actions by the Rajasthan government to marginalize Urdu in education. Since 2014, more than 17,000 public schools, including many Urdu-medium institutions, have been merged with Hindi-medium ones, leaving only eight Urdu-medium schools in the state as of 2024.
Critics view these changes as part of a larger effort to erase Urdu’s historical and cultural significance in Rajasthan, sparking concerns about the impact on linguistic and cultural diversity in the state.