Art & Culture

Sorry, Twitter. Trolling Bridgerton Season 2 for Hindustani language is wrong

Ishita SrivastavaMarch 29, 2022 | 18:37 IST

Bridgerton Season 2, finally, released on March 25 and made viewers all over the world fall in love with Kate Sharma and Anthony Bridgerton's slow-burn love story. But it seems like Indian viewers are not all that happy with how the Sharma family is represented; particularly with the languages the younger sister, Edwina Sharma, can speak. 

Set in 1815 London, the Regency-era drama tracks the stories of the 8 Bridgerton siblings and their journey to finding their soulmates. The show is based on Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series, but creaters of the show have taken the liberty to stray a little from the books, multiple times.

One such change is the Sharma family. In the books, the Sharma family is actually known as the Sheffield family. Making the show inclusive was the reason why the creators decided to make such a drastic change to the storyline.

In an attempt to ensure that they accurately represent the Sharma family's Indian heritage, viewers see Kate tell Lady Danbury in Episode 1: Capital R Rake, that Edwina can speak both Marathi and Hindustani. 

Photo: Netflix

On hearing this particular dialogue, netizens exploded on Twitter and went on long rants about how 'Hindustani' is not a language, but an identity.

Here is what some of them said: 

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After reading Twitter's passionate emotions and thoughts about the dialogue, we decided to do a little research. 

Now, hold your breath, Outraged Twitter: Hindustani is, or was, indeed a language. Pre-Independence (you know, the same era the show is actually based in), Hindustani was widely spoken in India, in multiple dialects.

Hindustani is the mother of both Hindi and Urdu. When Hindustani was spoken with Persian words in Muslim areas (pre-Independence Pakistan), the dialect came to be known as Urdu. When Hindustani was spoken with Devanagari or Sanskrit-origin words, the dialect came to be known as Hindi. 

Since the Sultanate times, Persian speakers came in large numbers to Northern India, and since Persian came to be the court language, the locals spoke in their own regional dialects.

The adoption of a common language between speakers of different languages is known as lingua franca. In this case, a mixture of Persian and local North Indian dialects became the lingua franca of the then Hindustan and came to be known as Hindustani. 

Hindustani easily became the most naturally developed language in Northern India. Hindi and Urdu became the two streams of Hindustani spoken in the country.

Looks like Twitter, the all-knowing, all-understanding Twitter got something wrong this time around.

Last updated: March 29, 2022 | 19:06
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