The modern literary language of Hindi is the state language of the Indian Union, spoken by over 500 million people in India and some other countries.Hindi belongs to the Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages.

The concept of Hindi unites a group of related Hindi languages, whose literary representative, as well as the official language of the Indian Union, the paper and electronic press, is the modern literary language of Hindi. It is also the official language of business communication of all ten Hindi-speaking states of India.

The Hindi language has passed a long and complex path of development, which is divided into several stages that have left a mark on the phonetic and grammatical structure of the language, as well as its vocabulary.

The early period (from the 10th to the 12th centuries), during which Indian rulers stood in power in Northern India.Early middle period (from XII to XVI centuries.), Or the period of the Turks.The late middle period (from the 16th to the 19th centuries), or the reign of the Great Moguls, in the middle of which the conquest of India by Europeans began.

The modern period, which is divided into two subperiods: 
- since the beginning of the XIX century. and until India gained independence in 1947; 
- from the moment of gaining independence to the present time.

The modern literary language of Hindi as a language of negotiation originated in the historical area of ​​the Kuru, in the Delhi-Meeratha region (Miruta). This language is called kauravi, i.e. belonging to the Kuru area. Being at the junction of several Hindi languages, kauravi absorbed elements of such languages ​​as braj, bangaroo, Punjabi.Becoming the language of everyday communication of a large and politically important area, kauravi received another name - Khari pain, i.e. "Normalized, or correct speech."

Since the XI century. The conquering Muslims began to penetrate into India, founded in the 13th century. Delhi Sultanate. Islam became the state religion, and the Persian language - the official language of the Sultanate. Among the Muslim rulers and the Muslim nobility were highly educated people who created various literary works not only in Persian, but also in the local language of kauravi / khari pain. The largest poet of that time was Amir Khusro (1253 - 1325). He called this local language the language of Hindavi, i.e. language of people living east of the Indy River.In Sanskrit, the name of this river sounded like Sindhu, which as a result of phonetic changes was transformed into the word "Hindu". This word was called the locality, lying to the east of the Indus River, and then - and the entire territory of India. The word itself over time began to be pronounced like a hind. After a while, a long vowel appeared at the end of the word, and the word began to sound like Hindi, i.e. India. The local language spoken in Delhi and the surrounding areas was called zaban-e-Hindi, i.e. "The language of India". In the end, the word zaban ceased to be used, and the language began to be called simply Hindi.

At the beginning of the middle period of the development of the modern literary language of Hindi, a peculiar dialect begins to form, representing a certain mixture of Hindi / Khari pain and Persian vocabulary. The appearance of this dialect was associated with the emergence of a synthesis of Hindu and Muslim cultures. Keeping the main vocabulary and grammatical structure of Khari pain, the new dialect has significantly enlarged the vocabulary with both special Persian vocabulary and vocabulary reflecting the everyday and religious realities of the Muslim state.This dialect was originally called, like the local language, Hindavi.

Over time, Hindavi begins to spread to other parts of India. This was promoted by the policy of Muslim conquerors, expanding the sphere of their influence. On the other hand, the spread of Hindavi is connected with the general Indian movement of bhakti (the "devotees of God" movement), whose preachers, along with local languages, used Hindavi. The Persianized form of Hindavi was gradually mastered by both aliens and local Muslims; Indians who accepted Islam.

At the turn of the early and late period of development, poetry in Hindawi (Khari pain) moves to the north of South India, which is associated with the conquest of the Muslim ruler in the Dean. Here, Hindavi (Khari pain) is further developed by expanding its vocabulary through Arabic and Persian vocabulary. In this case, Hindavi begins to be systematically written in Arabic script. Unlike the northern Hindawi (Khari pain), which used the ancient Indian alphabet devanagari, this language with its Arabic graphics was called dakhini ("southern language"). Over time, the dakhini becomes the recognized language of communication and the leading literary language of the northern regions of the Deccan.

Hindavi continues to develop in North India, especially at the Great Mughal court. He absorbed a sufficient number of Arabic and Persian vocabulary, which became an integral part of his vocabulary. At the same time, works were created using both the graph - devanagari and Arabic.

During the aggressive campaigns in the Dean in the XVII century. Hindavi again penetrates to the south. To distinguish this "alien" language and the local language of dakhini, the Hindavi began to be called "zaban-e-urdu-e-mualla", the so-called "zaban-e-urdu-e-mualla". language of the Shah camp. After a while this language was given a shortened name - Urdu. The northern Hindawi, or Urdu, for many reasons drove out the Dakhini and became the only literary language of the Deccan. Since the northern Hindawi (Urdu) and the Dhakhini were variants of the same language, the transition from literary creation from one language to another was not particularly difficult.Therefore, after an insignificant period of time after the conquest of the Dean, poets appeared there, creating works in northern Hindavi (Urdu).

Thus, in place of the Persian language, which has receded into the background, came the actual Indian language in two written forms. By the end of the XVIII century. The pessianized form of Hindi, i.e. Urdu, becomes the only language spoken by Indian Muslims in North India (except Bengal) and takes the place of the second official language of the Mughal Empire. The British, by the middle of the XVIII century. Strongly established in India, began to pursue their language policy. The collapse of the empire of the Great Moguls and the strengthening of the positions of the British laid the foundation for the modern period of the development of the literary language of Hindi. Seeking to enlist the support not only of the Muslim community, but also of the Hindu community, which constituted the majority of the population of Northern India, the British, along with Urdu, began to encourage Hindi in every possible way. In addition, they believed,

The beginning of the modern period in the development of the modern literary language of Hindi is usually associated with the activity of the Christian College at Fort William in Calcutta, which by the beginning of the 19th century became the political and economic center of British expansion in India. It was there that several works appeared (in both graphs), of which the most famous are Premessagar (The Ocean of Love) Lallu Ji Lala (1803) and Bagh o Bahar (The Garden and Spring) Mir Amman (1802) The word "Hindi" for the modern literary language was steadily used by the English, as evidenced by the names of various works published at the beginning of the XIX century.

The modern period of Hindi development is characterized by the strengthening of its Persianized form, i. Urdu. In 1837 Urdu was recognized as the language of judicial institutions, i. in fact, became the official language, supplanting finally the Persian language. At that time, Hindi with the devanagari script was not ready to become an official language, since the Muslim administration of the Great Mogul Empire dominated the country until 1859, and all special terminology was borrowed from Arabic and Persian languages.

Hindi continued to develop, as evidenced by the beginning of the publication of newspapers and magazines in this language. Systematic printed publications in Hindi began to appear at the beginning of the XX century.

The intensive development of Hindi begins after India attains independence, i.e. in the second half of XX century.The Indian Constitution (1950) proclaims Hindi with the script of Devanagari the state language of the Indian Union.

In the twentieth century, the modern literary language of Hindi becomes the subject of teaching and learning. The first Hindi branch was opened in 1919 in Kolkata. Now in India, more than 60 universities, where teaching is conducted in Hindi.

Hindi plays the role of the language of interethnic (interethnic) communication in the Hindi-speaking area, is the main literary language.

Currently, the word Hindi is understood:

in the broadest sense of the word - 23 Hindi languages, which are the native languages ​​of the inhabitants of the Hindi-speaking area;

in the narrow sense of the word - the modern literary language of Hindi.

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