[The Prime Minister has
been showered with praises for speaking in Hindi (not even his mother tongue)
to his international counterparts and diplomats. Lately, the government kicked
up a controversy by ordering bureaucrats to promote usage of Hindi in social
media. By the time the PMO came out with a clarification saying it applied to
only Hindi-speaking states, the speculation had already taken place. The common
resisters to Hindi had already spoken and the opposition had cautioned the
government on this move. Old arguments and debates around Hindi as a national
language propped up again with newspaper articles and blog posts refreshing
bitter memories from History which are so non-Indian in spirit.]
My mother responds
differently when I call her Amma, from when I call her Mommy.
My father softens and forgives my follies faster when I apologise in Telugu
rather than when I put up a straight face and say “Sorry”. He
believes me more when I say “inkepudu cheyanu” (I won’t do it again).
Not just normal conversation, even swearing in one’s own language gives higher
satisfaction to temper and ego than swearing in English. Like how we say it in
the Hyderabadi lingo- “Khaali peeli dimakh kharab math karo” (Don’t
irritate me).
Language is something
we deal with every day, every hour, and it’s obvious we’d want to choose the
language we are most comfortable with. As Kailash Kher rightly puts it, no
other language can exude the magic of emotions that our mother tongue can.
“No one can deny it’s beginning to impose
Hindi against one’s wish. This would be seen as an attempt to treat non-Hindi
speakers as second-class citizens,” television channels quoted DMK chief
M Karunanidhi.
The Prime Minister has
been showered with praises for speaking in Hindi (not even his mother tongue)
to his international counterparts and diplomats. Lately, the government kicked
up a controversy by ordering bureaucrats to promote usage of Hindi in social
media. By the time the PMO came out with a clarification saying it applied to
only Hindi-speaking states, the speculation had already taken place. The common
resisters to Hindi had already spoken and the opposition had cautioned the
government on this move. Old arguments and debates around Hindi as a national
language propped up again with newspaper articles and blog posts refreshing
bitter memories from History which are so non-Indian in spirit.
Difference between
Official Language and National Language:
Anybody with a vague
idea of Indian culture would concretely assume Hindi to be the national
language of India, Hindi being so mainstream. It is easy to mistake official
language as national language, because the work in various government offices
is done in Hindi and non-Hindi speaking states have to translate all bills,
documents and orders in to Hindi. Does India have a national language? Hindi
and English are official languages in India and we do not have a national
language. According to the Greenberg’s diversity index,
India stands 3rd in the world in language diversity. For a hugely multicultural
and multilingual country like ours it is impractical and partial to declare any
one language as its lingua franca (reasons irrespective).
The National Language
Debate in History:
It was not easy for
the framers of our constitution to debate over the official language issue. In
their speeches in the Constituent Assembly, various leaders had equated
official language with national language in their thoughts and words. The
debate was very heated up with open intolerance towards other languages such as
Urdu. Some had proposed Hindustani to be declared the official and national
language, but Hindustani would again see Urdu flourish which was vociferously opposed
by few. Majority of them were debating strongly for Hindi to be used for all
procedures in the government, completely weighing out the number of other
dialects and native languages spoken by the variable demography in India. The
leaders had taken for granted that majority people have accepted and understand
Hindi. But, in the house there were other voices who opposed the move. Violent
anti-Hindi agitations had already taken place in Tamil Nadu from 1937-40 lead
by Periyar and Justice Party, and in 1946-50 lead by Dravida Kazhagam.
Fortunately, we had some intellectually sound and fair leaders like Shyama
Prasad Mukherji, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru
and Dr. Rajendra Prasad who rightly comprehended that promoting Hindi at the
national level will lead to coercion and forceful imposition on non-Hindi
speaking population. In 1950, the Constituent Assembly passed a resolution
which declared both Hindi and English as official languages of India and that
English should be replaced with Hindi after 15 years, meanwhile the state would
work towards progress of Hindi. But, in the later years it was amended that
English shall continue to be used in future for all official purposes.
“According to the 2001 Census, 42 crore people speak or understand
Hindi all over India. But, only 25 crore declared Hindi as their mother tongue.
8.5 crore people speak Bengali, 7.5 crore people speak Telugu, 7 crore speak
Marathi and 6 crore speak Tamil. 5 crore speak Urdu, 4.6 crore speak Gujarati,
4 crore speak Kannada, 3.5 crore speak Malayalam, 3.3 crore speak Oriya, 3
crore speak Punjabi, 1.5 crore speak Assamese, 64 lakh speak Santhali and 55
lakh speak Kashmiri languages.”- Source
Hindi Hegemony:
During the freedom
movement, great leaders who campaigned throughout British India and princely
states addressed the masses mostly in Hindi and its dialects. Today in India,
power, politics and language cannot be studied separately. Promoting Hindi is
now a political agenda than a constitutional obligation. Our turf with wanting
to replace English with an Indian language for daily conversations and
procedures has brought up a new Hindi-versus-other-Indian-languages debate.
Domination of one
language is not a thing of today. In the past, Sanskrit was a language which
was class confined and proved unaffordable and undeserving for lower-caste
groups. This model has been passed on to contemporary India with Hindi on the
pedestal. Why this comparison? There is an undeniable notion of prejudice
against people who do not understand Hindi, which creates a need for people to
learn Hindi, just what people hailing from rural areas in South and North East
India face. The Hindi film industry has committed lot of disservice and insult
towards south Indians by stereotyping their language, food and culture and made
a mockery out of how South Indians speak Hindi and English. The Hindi-Wallahs
for quite some time bore this general perception that every Indian living
beyond the Vindhya Ranges spoke only Tamil thus collectively terming them as
Madarasi. No wonder the north-south divide is so deep. The movie 2-States could
have otherwise been an equally entertaining movie for people in south. Hindi
today is held in supreme status than any other language in India because of
widespread media and cinema in that language.
English Hegemony:
We Indians have always
had a strange obsession with becoming ‘angrez’. Parents feel
proud when their children speak a few sentences in English in front of their
guests. Parents make number of sacrifices, put in extra effort and send their
children to English medium schools. A sense of grandeur and prestige is
attached to this language of merchants. English is associated with development
and progress. Our grandparents feel sad and helpless on how we youth and
children aren’t proud of speaking our mother tongue. We are not much familiar
with the literature in our mother tongue and we know about the same in English.
English has definitely
been the immeasurable advantage to India in global platforms and employment
sector. It has been the one common medium in India to connect people of
different cultures and dialects. Education is imparted largely in English and
students who could not afford English at school level are forced to master it
later. Higher education being in English, it is next to impossible to think of
doing away with it. China today is trying to catch up with India on English.
Having said that, it is equally true that there also nations close to us which
are running towards becoming developed nations without adopting English as a
main course in their education programs, I am hinting towards Japan and China.
These are countries which are extremely respectful of their language and
culture.
Native Language
Neglected:
The bilingual approach
by our constitution and government has lead to native languages suffering
neglect. At early stages of education, for kids to learn, it is easy if they
are taught in their mother tongue. The language which is first spoken to them
by parents and family will be easy for them to associate with and helps in fast
learning and grasping. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is interpretation of
study material from English to Native languages. Whether school or higher
education it is not always possible to find exact expressions in certain
languages to explain concepts in technical subjects. They will have to come
across English terms for which basic knowledge of English is required.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his
head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” ‒Nelson Mandela
In 1964, Kothari
Commission on Education had recommended a 3-language formula in the wake of
protests from non-Hindi speaking states. According to this, non-Hindi speaking
states will have to be taught languages in this order: Local Language- English-
Hindi and Hindi speaking areas will be taught, Hindi- English-
Local Language.
“You can never understand one language until you understand at least
two.” ‒Geoffrey
Willans
Have you ever observed
how Hindi cinema enjoys a wide audience from across the country? When it comes
to cinema in regional languages it is only confined to the respective states.
How many from the Hindi belt or to that matter any of us in the country have
made any attempt to learn other Indian languages or watch movies in other languages?
While some are making an attempt to learn Hindi at least to follow popular
reality shows such as Big Boss. The exchange of art and culture is
only way here. Popular Hindi TV serials such as ‘Balika-Vadhu’, ‘Iss
pyaar ko kya nam du?’ ‘Bade Ache Lagte Hain’ etc. are being dubbed to
regional languages. Recently, in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Telugu TV
serial artists and producers protested on the issue claiming that their
livelihood was being put at stake.
Language and Culture:
“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people
come from and where they are going.” ‒Rita Mae Brown
The bottom line of the
age long debate is that imposing one language on others would mean imposing a
culture, a form of imperialism. There is no harm in being proud of one’s own
language, but also on the other side, disrespecting one’s language is
synonymous to disrespecting one’s culture. Hating people only because they
speak a different tongue is no less than any hate crime. Why do people learn
new languages? – because they need them. These days people migrate from their
states and settle in other cities for job purposes, and learning the local
language becomes an immediate necessity to survive in a new place. Don’t we
feel the familiarity with people from other cities once we start to learn their
language, a community feeling develops automatically, we get to know their
culture, food and lifestyle inherently; it is a mutual learning process.
I have come across
people who argue saying languages have a pre-determined standard in the way
they should be written or spoken, but languages do not stop evolving. New
dialects keep emerging throughout the years, they develop into a more broken
down and simplified manner. 50 years from now we shouldn’t be surprised if new
dialects of existing languages make way into the list of languages in the
constitution. The government should set up committees for each language in the
respective states for promotion, propaganda and preservation of native and
regional languages and number of other rear dialects spoken by Adivasis. We are
a country where the mother tongue keeps changing from district to district and
state to state, the benefits of a multilingual culture are many and we should
harness and treasure this diversity of tongue. In the same light, you may wish
to sign this petition
which appeals to the Prime Minister to make all the languages listed in the 8th
Schedule of our constitution as official languages. This ends the debate in the
most positive way.
