ABSTRACT
Grierson had close links and an extensive correspondence with organisations like the Nagari Pracharini Sabha. These links are reflected in his writings, in which Hindi becomes a cultural symbol for a specific version of India. In constructing this symbol, Grierson uses a language of visceral difference when differentiating Hindi from Urdu, thereby combining the ontological categories of Islam and Hinduism with the physicality of the visceral. Grierson used a loose language of nationality and citizenship rights for some regional languages, and he explicitly cast Urdu as an uncertain ‘citizen’ in India. Grierson sought to institutionalise a Hindi-Urdu divide and to foreground the importance of the Devanagari script in the Indian Civil Service exams. Grierson also played a key role in the creation of Hindi as a subject for the Cambridge Examination Board in Britain. As such, he was an advocate for Hindi internationally. Grierson’s political views also had an impact on his approach to Kashmiri and Kashmiri pandits’ learning.
