Monday 29 March 2010

why India does not and should not have A national language

When the constitution was drafted, Hindi and English were chosen to be Central Government's official language.It was hoped that in due time State's will ratify Hindi into their main stream and one day
Hindi will be made the only official language of India thus removing English.
Meanwhile State's were to use their State official regional language plus in English if and where
required for communication with Central Government.

It is a common misconception that India has a National language. It does not. And for the people who claim that official language is National Language.. .Well then we have two of them :)

The very reason the unique idea of India ,- the kaleidoscope, a theoretical oneness became a reality is because we were under a foreign invasion for more than two centuries. And thats how we came to imbibe their language.
This has been a land which always accepted various languages, religions, culture from outside its borders.
The Census report of India ,1961 reported a total of 1652 mother tongues.
A colleague from neighbouring country known for its beautiful chain of Islands, once observed me speak in English to a person who came from another part of India. Later he asked why we are not conversing in our national language,Hindi. Then I gave him the brief which forms the top part of this post.
He further asked why have we not chosen a language which is not foreign, I was told how nicely
his country decided on a language of their own(a language not from the then Capital) and declared it as national language and eradicated the foreign language from their psyche thus removing any trace of been under a foreign influence.
It is a achievement truly.
Then I told him how It will not happen as last few decades each regional language has grown deeply
into our minds and political greed would not allow that to happen and I told him it should not happen.
He looked surprised at my stand.

I am not against Hindi per se. I am against the very notion to tie this great kaleidoscope that we call India to one language.Diversity is so immense and stratified a person from a state wouldn't know much about his own state's tradition at the other end when it comes to customs.
We became physically united India because of one language which has propelled us to many spheres in terms of wealth creation in IT world and other places of gloablised job market.So let it bridge where we are handicapped by not knowing the state's regional language. We have fundamentalists in all sector,be it religion or language. But we are here aren't we as India still. The idea of India is in minds of people. Going to hinterlands of Andhra is same for me as going to Yantian port in china to buy things. But I don't feel alien when am in Andhra. Its this concept of India that makes it possible.What we need is institutions run by State's where one could go and learn regional language like people learn Spanish, French etc., Wouldn't it be great when we can speak as many regional languages as possible.

I learn simple 'thank you's' in regional languages and I use it while I converse with people in States I visit .Am not linguistically talented, but am trying. It was hard suddenly to say Dhanyavadha / nandri/ nanni instead of thanks.. but am trying and slowly achieving it.

I am truly happy for such a unity possible in my colleague's country and am truly happy such a unity is not necessary to be united at this great cradle we call India.

We have long way to go when we can say all our citizen enjoy the benefits of independent united India, else we would not have more than 13 states affected by naxalism today.

But if there is one thing that we do not need is a National language.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's time to write something mild ;-)

-avan

Deepti said...

Nice!!!! This is so true

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