J2RE can't run on Windows 2000 Hindi locale

On a Win 2000, with Hindi enabled as default locale, installed Merlin b64, run Font2DTest, the following exception is thrown (this is mark copy/paste from dos promp window), same with other demo programs.

J:\\jdk1.4\\demo\\jfc\\Font2DTest>java -jar Font2DTest.jar\par
Exception in thread "main" j a v a . l a n g . E x c e p t i o n I n I n i t i a\par
 l i z e r E r r o r\par
 C a u s e d b y : j a v a . l a n g . N u l l P o i n t e r E x c e p t i o\par
 n\par
         a t j a v a . i o . W i n 3 2 F i l e S y s t e m . n o r m a l i z e\par
 ( U n k n o w n S o u r c e )\par
         a t j a v a . i o . W i n 3 2 F i l e S y s t e m . g e t U s e r P a\par
 t h ( U n k n o w n S o u r c e )\par
         a t j a v a . i o . W i n 3 2 F i l e S y s t e m . r e s o l v e ( U\par
 n k n o w n S o u r c e )\par
         a t j a v a . i o . F i l e . g e t C a n o n i c a l P a t h ( U n k\par
 n o w n S o u r c e )\par
         a t j a v a . l a n g . C l a s s L o a d e r . l o a d L i b r a r y\par
 0 ( U n k n o w n S o u r c e )\par
         a t j a v a . l a n g . C l a s s L o a d e r . l o a d L i b r a r y\par
 ( U n k n o w n S o u r c e )\par
         a t j a v a . l a n g . R u n t i m e . l o a d L i b r a r y 0 ( U n\par
 k n o w n S o u r c e )\par
         a t j a v a . l a n g . S y s t e m . l o a d L i b r a r y ( U n k n\par
 o w n S o u r c e )\par
         a t s u n . s e c u r i t y . a c t i o n . L o a d L i b r a r y A c\par
 t i o n . r u n ( U n k n o w n S o u r c e )\par
         a t j a v a . s e c u r i t y . A c c e s s C o n t r o l l e r . d o\par
 P r i v i l e g e d ( N a t i v e M e t h o d )\par
         a t j a v a . u t i l . z i p . Z i p F i l e . < c l i n i t > ( U n\par
 k n o w n S o u r c e )\par
\par

When doing "java -version", this is what displayed:

J:\\jdk1.4\\demo\\jfc\\Font2DTest>java -version\par
  a v a v e r s i o n " 1 . 4 . 0 - b e t a "\par
 J a v a ( T M ) 2 R u n t i m e E n v i r o n m e n t , S t a n d a r d\par
   E d i t i o n ( b u i l d 1 . 4 . 0 - b e t a - b 6 4 )\par
 n u l l ( b u i l d n u l l , m i x e d m o d e )\par
\par