IMPOSITION OF HINDI IN INDIA
For a Tamilian by name Iyengar as
fore-fathers stayed there some times, an Andhrite by birth and a Chhattisgarhi
by brought up, at least two languages came as birth assets - One Telugu as
mother tongue and Hindi the language of childhood vicinity. Though sometimes it
feel ashamed but fact is of having a better command on Hindi than Telugu. The
place of stay Bilaspur in Chattisgarh is largest revenue earning division in
Indian Railways for quite many years. It used to be the second Head quarters of
the South Eastern Railway having just an
overnight journey both sides to and fro Howrah ( Calcutta – where the HQ was
stationed). Therefore many of Bengalis from Calcutta preferred Bilaspur to any
other place for a transfer out of Calcutta. That made Bilaspur Rich in Bengalis
and it resulted such that almost 70 % population of Bilaspur Railway settlement
(then Bilaspur was mostly railway settlement only- rest came very late) were
comfortable in Bengali. So whoever is having a little inclination to learn,
picked up Bengali – writing and reading also. During the life’s service span
moved places for father’s transfers in Railways’ job and own transfers , picked
up Gujarati, Assamese, Punjabi languages but failed to pick up speaking Marathi
though reads and understands it. Therefore represent a complete Indian. But the
fact of being more comfortable in HINDI language than any one other remains
even today. During schooling I learnt Hindi literature also. First degree is in
Hindi medium and professional course is in English medium. It is just because Engineering wasn’t taught
in Hindi medium then. This is a general
description about a student brought up at Bilaspur ( CG) which I am.
Now the question is imposition of Hindi in
India. I have already mentioned regarding my command on Hindi and my affection
to languages. But when it comes to official language … I get confused that how
confused are we on this subject. Let me put up in this way.
We have –
1.
National
Language.
2.
Mother
tongue
3.
Regional
languages
4.
State
language
5.
Rashtra
Bhasha
6.
Rajya
Bhasha
7.
Languages
in 8th schedule of constitution
8.
Rajbhasha.
I am surprised to
know while referring to Hindi many people (including Hindi speaking
population) calls it Rashtra Bhasha. If my understanding is correct –
There was/is no language in India as Rashtra Bhasha. Yes, attempts were
made by many including Mahatma Gandhi to install Hindi as Rashtra Bhasha
– but never succeeded. This Rashtra Bhasha is referred by
many as National Language. Ahmedabad high had to deliver a
judgment to the effect that there is no national language on the records in
INDIA.
Rajya Bhasha, state languages,
Regional Language or Rashtra Bhashayen are the phrases used for
the languages listed in 8th schedule of our constitution. By
which all of them mean that these are the languages which are spoken
within the states, in our country. Here they refer “region” for “states”
only. So they are the same.
In one letter
published in “Raj Bhasha Bharati” magazine of Hindi sachivalaya in 1995, I
learnt about “Rashtra Bhashayen” written by then Home minister for “languages
in the 8th schedule of constitution”. So Rashtra Bhasha and
national language are non-existent. Rajya Bhasha (yen), Regional languages,
state languages, Rashtra Bhashayen and 8th schedule of constitution
are one.
With this rest are -
Mother tongue which is individualistic, Rajbhasha is official language of the
union of India as per the constitution.
Summarily we have –
Rajbhasha and languages in 8th schedule of constitution. Mother
tongue has nothing to do with Indians as a group it is person specific.
A question is raked
up many a times why should India not have Hindi as a Common official language.
There are numerous opinions for and against it. Let me list them one by one as
known to be and discuss in my view.
In Favour
1.
Hindi
is spoken by most of our countrymen. One says less than 1/6th of our
population and other say 41%. The question is, what are the basic postulates
based on which these figures are arrived at. Hindi speaking means … in my case,
am I added to speaking population? I think yes. Because I speak Hindi. But on
the other hand my name must have been there in non Hindi speaking population
going by mother tongue. Even today my organization treats me non- Hindi
speaking and forced me for Hindi exams – Prabodh, Praveen and Pragya. I could
escape first two but had to appear for Pragya. The fact that my articles about Hindi
and in Hindi get published in magazines and news papers doesn’t carry any
weight here. Even the in-house Hindi magazine of our organization publishes my Hindi
poetry since 1984. Can’t help this attitude. Those who want favourable count
take me as Hindi speaking and those who want against count me as non- Hindi
speaking. So there is basic difference on the postulates of making a survey. If
you say Hindi speaking then you should consider me speaking all other languages
I know and if this is done you will find a sum of this much more than the
thrice the population of this country , because many people know there
languages for their survival.
2.
Hindi
is the language which can be understood across the length and breadth of this
country. This is again biased for forcing Hindi. I have my self faced issued
regarding this in Chennai. At Railway reservation counter I was told no room
but on sending a Tamilian classmate we all 27 boys got Air-conditioned two tier
accommodation from Chennai to Bangalore in the same train same day on the same
travelling authorities. What is the use
of knowing Hindi there where you will be penalised for exhibiting that you know
Hindi?
3.
Hindi
is fifth largest spoken language in the world. This argument it seems is against
Hindi. Why not go for English then which is still more spoken in the world. Why
limit to Hindi the 5th largest??? – why we should be satisfied with
the 5th largest spoken language and not the largest spoken language
it self is the question here???
4.
It
would be difficult to use Hindi at the initial stages but later it would be
matter of pride. So will be with any other language but the intent of pride in
question is point of argument.
5.
It
is surprising that people love to embrace a foreign language English but fail
to do so with our own language. Yes it is so practically but reasons are
different and arguments are different.
6.
Some
think a country should follow one of its languages. In the process feel that
India needs to follow Hindi. Why Hindi? Is the question here? How is one
zeroing down to Hindi.
7.
There
is a group which agrees not to have a snap-change to Hindi. Let us do it step by step – but let us first
agree on HINDI. Let all know for sure that no language forget about Hindi can
be snap imposed on any society… it will grind to halt causing uncalled for
chaotic situation.
8.
English
is a foreign language and needs to be replaced.
Going by similar lines Hindi is foreign for south Indians. Why should
they learn Hindi??? Is the counter argument.
9.
Hindi
is official language of INDIA. But the fact remains that officially – English
is secondary official language of INDIA even as on date. One can check this
from Official Language act 1963 updated till today.
10.
Official language is important for administrative purposes. Enforcing it into
daily life is another one.
11.
Some say while under British rule we had swadeshi andolan and when we are
independent we are embracing English language. Yes, under British rule we were compelled,
so rebuffed but now we are embracing for our benefits and requirements in
different arena of life.
Against
1.
India
is a multilingual country and imposing a language on whole population would be
undemocratic.
2.
Unity
in Diversity is India’s Identity and it clearly reflects our rich and diverse
culture & heritage presenting Unity in diversity. This is our unique
identity.
3.
A child born to a Maharashtrian family staying
at Gujarat family will learn first Marathi and then Gujarati. Hindi will be a
later compulsion on joining schools. So the child will have stronger Gujarati
than Hindi.
4.
We
are able to attract software companies/ BPOs only because of our command and
knowledge on English. So is the case with IT, medical and economic sectors.
5.
Language
is part of the culture and by imposing Hindi as official language we are
forcing people to accept another culture than theirs. Do we have a right for
it??? And why should they accept?
6.
I
want to learn Hindi too, but I hate the attitude of people who think Hindi is
somehow greater than my language.
7.
For
the sake of knowledge English is far more useful and worthy compared to Hindi.
Naturally English will have preference over Hindi.
10.
Some say make Hindi compulsory in schools, then what? What % of our population
attends to the schools? Those in non Hindi belt will remain cut – off even
then. Any remedy thought on it?
11.
Why can’t India have more than one official language? Hating English is also a
kind of linguistic chauvinism.
12. Hindi
is your language not mine. My mother tongue is my language. How Hindi gets
priority over my language?
13. The feeling that a common
language/religion/culture will unite us is incorrect rather this is thinking
keeping us divided. Unless we learn and practice to respect mutually we can’t
be united.
14.
Standard Hindi is the official language of union of India. What is Standard Hindi?
15.
It is not practical for an average Indian to learn three languages to juggle
with - Mother tongue, Official language of union and a global language – for
greater economical incentive, which is English now. Naturally one will tend to
corner with English.
16.
If imposed forcefully the results as in 1956 in Srilanka – it resulted into
civil war and in 1965 in India there were massive riots in Tamilnadu, which
also changed political equations there.
17.
People from India travelling across the globe for various purposes need English
as an essential tool for communication. The service sector in India is existing
because of English is their language
Following are two
very good logics provided against the imposition of Hindi --
I learnt my mother
tongue to communicate with, understand and go along my family members and
relatives and also nearby society.
Basically I don’t need to learn any other language than my Mother
tongue. But all the knowledge is not available in my mother tongue. So to
acquire knowledge and in order to get acquainted with the people having
knowledge in the field of my interest and also to learn from the knowledge
library, I have to learn the suitable language and in this case most suitable
language is English – which is worldwide and full of resources for knowledge in
any subject. Almost all the IT business is in English. 80-90 % of the worldwide
jobs are for English speaking people.
Another explanation
says - Telugu existed even at 300BC and earlier signs of Hindustani appeared in
7th century A.D. Even Tamil is ancient to Hindi/Hindustani. And
these Hindi speaking/ favouring people try to say it is better than our
language.
I am in the process
of studying these arguments seriously to come to a conclusion of their standing
and convincing myself how true and relevant they are. Once settled with the
subject I shall be posting back my findings on this blog on a future date.
M.R.Iyengar.
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