JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government has directed the state police department to remove all Urdu and Persian words in official documents and replace them with Hindi.In a letter to the Director General of Police (DGP) on Saturday, Jawahar Singh Bedham, the Minister of State for the Home Department, asked the police department to prepare a formal proposal for replacing Urdu and Persian words currently used in documents, letters, reports, notice boards, and other communication with Hindi terminology.In his letter, the minister suggested that the police department should simplify its language by replacing Urdu and Persian words with their Hindi equivalents. He also directed the DGP to prepare and submit a proposal for the use of Hindi language words in place of Urdu-Persian vocabulary in police functioning, so that the process of decision-making at the competent level can be completed. The proposal would then be reviewed and implemented at the appropriate administrative level, the letter added. The minister further noted that a letter was previously written in this regard on 30 September 2024.The minister argued that in present times, police personnel and the public at large are not familiar with Urdu and Persian words. He further claimed that due to this, such words should be replaced with terms in Hindi, which he described as the “national language”.Although Hindi is used as the official language in Rajasthan, the Constitution of India does not list any language as the national language.The directive from Minister Bedham further stated that Urdu and Persian words were introduced during the Mughal era, and administrators at that time had to learn these languages. However, he added that in the current era, Urdu and Persian words are often misunderstood or misinterpreted, which often leads to delays in justice.Currently, a range of Urdu and Persian words are commonly used in police functioning. These include terms such as Roznamcha, Istgasa, Muzrim, Waqeel, Gawaah, Sazaa, Sazaa-e-Yafta, Dafaa, Chashmadeed, Mouka Muaayna, Qatal, Gunaah, Munsif, Kotwaal, Sazaa-e-Maut, Kachahari, and Khajanchi. The minister said, “In such a situation, I myself thought that now new technology has come and Urdu is also disappearing from our common spoken language, so we should simplify the words so that the common man can understand them.”The minister claimed that prioritising Hindi in administrative language would improve accessibility to legal documents, government orders, and police records. “Using Hindi words instead of Urdu/Persian will make it easier for citizens to understand government notices, directives and schemes, which help in establishing better communication between the police administration and the general public,” the letter mentioned.Minister Bedham also said that many students preparing for competitive examinations in Rajasthan do not study Urdu as a third language, due to which they face inconvenience in using Urdu and Persian vocabulary when recruited into the police. He said, “Urdu and Persian are not a part of competitions in today’s time. So when the candidates selected in the police force become sub-inspectors, SPs, they do not understand the meaning of many words.”Due to the lack of knowledge of Urdu and Persian among policemen and the general public, the meaning is often distorted, which leads to delays in securing justice. Last year too, the BJP government had pushed for replacing Urdu words used in police terminology with Hindi.
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