Princeton Weekly Bulletin December 7, 1998
70 words for family relations
By Caroline Moseley
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Student-Initiated Seminars may be developed in response to demonstrated student interest in an area that is not a regular part of the curriculum, according to Associate Dean of the College Hank Dobin.
In the spring of 1998, Raj Shah '00 and Deepa Krishnan '00, both of whom are involved in an initiative of the South Asian Students Association to encourage South Asian studies at Princeton, proposed a course in Hindi. As Krishnan pointed out, "It's the national language of India, linking all the regions of the country. It's spoken by millions of people. It is important for students to be able to learn it."
Said Dobin, "If you can find 12 students to commit to the course and a professor qualified to teach it, the Dean of the College Office will fund it."
Using email and word of mouth, Shah and Krishnan gathered the requisite class but were unable to find a professor before the end of the school year. Finally, through contacts at Columbia University, Dobin identified an appropriate instructor: Anjana Sangar, a poet and writer in both Hindi and Urdu, who holds a PhD in psychology from Gujarat University in Ahmedabad and has taught Hindi at all levels for many years.
"For a student-initiated course," says Shah, "you need a base of interested students, including a few who are committed enough to keep pursuing the idea. If you have a valid subject, and prove student interest, the University is receptive. Dean Dobin really worked hard for us."
300 million speakers
Introductory Hindi is not a typical Student-Initiated Seminar, according to Dobin. "It is far more usual to have a Princeton faculty member who frees time for the project, working along with the students to develop the course. However, we try to accommodate student needs if at all possible."
He notes that the seminar "will not count toward any distribution area requirement, nor toward the language requirement." And the students understand that the University has no present plans to follow up the year-long introductory course with one at the intermediate level.
"Because we are a smaller university than many of our peers," says Dobin, "we are more limited in the number of languages we can offer on a regular basis. However, our exchange agreement with Rutgers permits students to take courses in languages not offered at Princeton."
Hindi, a central Indo-Aryan language based on Sanskrit, is the official language of India. While many languages are spoken in India (such as Urdu, English and local languages of individual states, including Gujarati, Kashmiri, Punjabi and Bengali), Hindi is the most widely used -- by 300 million speakers, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
70 words for family relations
Sangar's goal for the students in Introductory Hindi is "to learn reading, writing and conversational Hindi. Once you learn the alphabet," she says, "it's no big deal."
In class, the 14 students are currently struggling with the alphabet (varnmala), written in the Devanagari script. They must learn 11 vowels (swar) and 36 consonants (vyanjan). All the students can write their names in Hindi. They're learning "hello" (namaste) and "goodbye" (alvida), the days of the week, numbers up to 20 -- much the same enterprise as in any beginning language class.
These students of Indian language and culture will also have to learn -- eventually -- some 70 words for family relations. "In English," Sangar explains, "your brother-in-law is your brother-in-law, and your sister-in-law is your sister-in-law. In Hindi, however, your husband's younger brother is devar, and his wife is devarani. His elder brother is jedh and his wife is jedhani. You can chit-chat with devar, as if with your own brother, but you do not speak in front of jedh; you must act respectfully."
Sangar also introduces her students to other aspects of Indian culture, such as the recent holiday of Diwali, which, she says, is "very much celebrated in New York," her current home. Diwali (derived from Sanskrit dipavali, "row of lights") is a festival of lights. "Small lamps or candles are placed in all windows of houses and set adrift on rivers and streams," she says. "This is to celebrate the return of Rama -- an incarnation of the god Vishnu -- from the forest after 14 years in exile. It can be seen as a victory of good over evil."
These insights are a source of surprise and delight to the members of the seminar, most of whom are American-born of parents who emigrated from India. "I didn't know about Diwali," says Rajita Mathur '99. "It's exciting learning about the culture and philosophy of India."
Gaurav Gupta '00 sees the language as "a unifying link with our culture" and points out that Hindi is necessary "if you ever want to study major religions."
"I really look forward to coming to class," says Aleem Remtula '01. "Being with other Indians makes this different from any other class. There's a different level of comfort here, and we can laugh together."
"We do laugh rather a lot," says Sangar. "As in learning any new language, the students make mistakes -- and they all have American accents."