What Did They Mean by 'Public'?

During the late 18th and the early 19th centuries, the Hindi literati tried to lay down general principles and norms for Sanskritised Hindi which alone was to be Indian Hindi. For others, writing off old rules and beliefs and treading new paths was possible and desirable. The normative view prevailed and Hindi, which had the potential of becoming a unifying language, instead became an exclusivist language.