What is Bhojpuri ? (JNU University)

Bhojpuri is one of the recognized national languages of Nepal and has official status in Fiji as Fiji Hindi. It is also a recognized language in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and Mauritius. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Pakistan, Jamaica, Belize, other parts of the Caribbean and South Africa. variant of Bhojpuri of the Indo-Surinamese people is also referred to as Sarnami Hindustani, Sarnami Hindi or just Sarnami and has experienced considerable Sranan Tongo Creole and Dutch lexical influence.
Most Indians in Suriname know Bhojpuri. In Mauritius a dialect of Bhojpuri remains in use, and it is locally called Bojpury.Day-to-day usage of the language in Mauritius is dropping and today , it is spoken by less than 5% of the population, according to latest census.In India, about 40 million people still speak Bhojpuri.
Bhojpuri was historically written in Kaithi scripts, but since 1894, Devanagari has served as the primary script. Kaithi script was used for administrative purposes in the Mughal era for writing Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Maithili, Urdu, Magahi and Hindi from at least the 16th century up to the first decade of the 20th century.

Government gazetteers report that Kaithi was used in a few districts of Bihar through the 1960s. Bhojpuri residents of India, who signed up and moved as indentured labour in Africa and the Caribbean colonies of the British Empire in 19th century and early 20th century, used Kaithi as well as Devanagari scripts.
By 1894, official texts in Bihar were written in Kaithi and Devanagari. At present almost all Bhojpuri texts are written in Devanagari even in the overseas islands where Bhojpuri is spoken. For example, in Mauritius, both Kaithi and Devanagari scripts have been in use since the arrival of Bhojpuri people from India. The Kathi script was considered informal in Mauritius, with the structure of Kaithi similar to Devanagari (spelled Devanagri in Mauritius). In modern Mauritius, Bhojpuri script is Devanagari.

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