DELHI- The City of Thousand Whispers

The cosmopolitan city of Delhi seldom receives any praise. It is fast-paced, crowded, polluted, and not really the safest place to live in. However, in addition to the excess noise and pollution, the city also has an abundance of history. After all, every nook and cranny of this city has a tale to tell. Delhi is a city born of a thousand others, a place where numerous dynasties were both made and decimated; It’s a city bustling with millions of people with their own distinct ideas, cultures, languages, and perceptions. It’s the city of thousand whispers.

Delhi is a city older than even the famed and historic: Baba Azam. There has been not one but several iterations of Delhi throughout history: the fabled Indraprastha, Tughlqabad, Firozabad, Jahanpanah, Shahjahanabad, and then the city we know today, Dili.

Ask anyone: What’s the lingua franca of Delhi? they’ll undoubtedly say Hindi, which is by far the most spoken language in the city and a common thread tying speakers of a thousand different languages from all across the globe. However, in addition to Hindi, several other languages together form the city’s vernacular and the best way to identify them is by taking a quick glance at the chaurahas of the city.

On these intersections, all the destinations and routes are inscribed in four different languages: Hindi, English, Punjabi, and Urdu, which are the four most spoken languages in the city.

This might come as a surprise but the language of pre-partition Delhi was neither Hindi nor Urdu, it was the language many called Hindustani. This city vernacular borrowed heavily from both the regional dialects of India and the Persian and Arabic languages.

Sadly, due to the conscious efforts of the British, the language was split into two: Hindi and Urdu, as a part of their divide and rule policy. While Hindi today is the city’s easiest conversation starter, Urdu has endured the ravages of time and communalism and is spoken by hundreds of thousands across the city.

Urdu, once called the Zaban-e-Dehli, was popularized in pre-partition and Mughal India through marketplace interactions, discussions at the royal karkhanas of kings, and at the shrines of Sufi saints. The language can still be traced to several pockets of Delhi, such as the Urdu Bazar at the heart of Old Delhi.

The Punjabi language came to this city alongside millions of people from West Punjab and surrounding areas during the partition period. The influx of migrants had doubled the city’s entire populace and this Hindustani and Urdu-speaking city slowly became a center of Punjabi culture. The nationwide migrations to Delhi during and following 1947 transformed Delhi into the city it is today. That meant that the kebab lovers of this city now had a new obsession- Butter Chicken, which interestingly is an invention of a migrant to Delhi.

This capital city of India was also the country's capital during a good part of the British era and various regimes preceding it. When British India’s capital was shifted from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911, thousands from the Bengal and Madras presidencies shifted to the newly established capital and brought their own languages and culture to the mix.

English was once the language of the elite and a status symbol of sorts known to only a few. However, today, it is the lingua franca of modern Delhi and is being made accessible to all through education and popular use. This language of customer care interactions and mass media adorns every second advertising banner, news bulletin, poster, and billboard in the city.

Languages from all across North India continue to seep into the city’s language diaspora as people move to the urban center in the hopes of better work opportunities and lifestyles.

Delhi, in spite of all its flaws, is a city with its own peculiar charm. While Hindi and English are two languages that can help one navigate this metropolitan hub, there are many others you can learn and understand to truly soak in the city's flavor.

The linguistic diversity and heterogeneity of the capital city are often not given the credit it's due. Delhiites can often be seen romanticizing their lives with Urdu songs playing in the background, humming ghazals, dancing to the beats of Punjabi pop hits, and using their mother tongues as often as they can.