Why is Hindi India's national language?
This question on The Sunday Times of India in its question-answer column called 'Open Space' made me curious enough to find out if the questioner, presumably a young student, has any links... Read The Article
Many of the moderate non-hindi speakers also resist imposition of hindi because of the arrogance shown by Hindi speaking people towards other indian languages claiming that hindi is the national language. they are completely ignorant of the facts. They donot know that All the 16 major indian languages are conferred the status of National Language by the Constitution. Recently even Bhojpuri is also added to this list.Only difference is that hindi along with english is given the status of official language for the purpose of administrative communication with union government (not for the administration of state governments). so their claim that non-hindi speaking people are not respecting the national language only shows their ignorance about their country. they donot even know that there 4 major languages in south india. for most of them any thing south of vindhyas is Madarasi. And they talk about natonal language and Patriotism! Good joke!
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:42 )
Sougata Mukherjee
The question is "If not Hindi then What???" English could have been a better alternative (Since it gives a level playing field for all language) but I dont think we can achieve that in next 100 years....
The vast majority of people living outside their native land needs to have a language for communication...
Agreed it gives the Hindi speaking population an unfair advantage but we have to live with that....
I being a bengali had gone through tremendous problem in Chennai since I don't know Tamil.
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:12 )
Hi I agreee ! But When i was in Assam for 1 year , I could able to pick some basic words like 'Ki Khabar', Cha Kahbo ! ' while discussing offical matters in English...
So there would not be any issue if a person adopts the local language soon !
regards
( Posted by Sen on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 18:25 )
Dude, you being a bengali (I assume since you write Sen) picked up only 'ki khobor' or 'cha khaboo' from the assamese language??? Either you are feeding us a load of bull or are a little weak on the top floor.
( Posted by Sameer on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 12:47 )
1) English can be made the "link language"
2) All the regional languages will be promoted within each state where it is official language
3) The minority languages in each state can be promoted by the center !
4) with better understanding of the differences in language, ppl will be willing to help out - else, if you are going to meet ppl like me in Chennai/TN, I would act as if I never learnt english :)
( Posted by arun on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 04:34 )
Overthefence
I am pained at some of the comments of Hindi speakers. For the record, I speak Hindi more fluently than Tamil, my mother tongue. I also speak Kannada, which I learned when I lived in Bangalore. I haven't seen most of my Hindi speaking friends even attempting to learn my language, despite living in Chennai for years. Contrast this with the large Gujarati, Malayali, Telugu or Kannada population in Tamil Nadu. These communities speak Tamil as well as locals; you will not be able to distinguish a telugu gentleman from the way he speaks Tamil. This despite the fact that our languages are markedly different, well except to the Hindi belt. For most people in the North, it is taken as a right that everyone should speak the language they understand, irrespective of the location. I had a friend, when I lived in Haryana, who after a pilgrimage to Rameswaram, complained very indignantly that inability of tamils to speak Hindi means that he can't communicate when in Tamil Nadu. When I asked him why an auto driver or for that matter a vegetable vendor in Chennai needs Hindi, when every one around speaks Tamil, he actually asked why should not every one speak Hindi. That to me is either a) arrogance or b) stupidity
As a nation, we should realize that diversity is our strength. You can't make us all Hindi speakers or for that matter English or tamil speakers. Let us learn to live with all the different languages. The guy who needs to learn another language, will learn it for his own sake. Let us not use our numerical strength to force others. It has never worked and never will
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:10 )
Well said my dear.
( Posted by Selvalingam on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 17:06 )
suhas
Love it or leave it . HINDI is the only option for national language status. ANY other language would u suggest? I am a south indian but an indian first so learnt hindi afterall i learnt english a language totally not mine then why not hindi my motherland language??
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:05 )
Sanskrit - at least it's a civilized language...
( Posted by Hrishi on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 17:14 )
sanskrit even i support but the so called secularists wont agree i guess
( Posted by suhas on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 13:59 )
hindi does NOT have an "exclusive command" over India or patriotism !
( Posted by arun on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 04:35 )
Sanskrit is dead man, so we can't make it national language.
We can consider Tamil as National language because of the following reasons:
1. Oldest language of India, - It is assumed that the language of Indus vally civilization is a Dravidian language. 2. Only living classical language. 3. Having great past history and rich culture. 4. Still young and energitic.
( Posted by Rajan on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 17:38 )
if i say tamil is dead, (as its only in tn)u wud get angry am i right?
in india no language is dead including sanskrit.
thats india for u. unity in diversity..
if u cross the border of tn, ur tamil wont help.
respect all languages and act according to situation.
( Posted by sudarshan on Monday , January 22, 2007 at 18:42 )
Defenitely I'll not get angry if you say Tamil is dead, rather I would laugh, because Tamil is still alive and active and spoken world wide by morethan 10 crore people.
Tamil is national language of Singapore, Malaysia and Srilanka. And Tamil is Classical language of India. So if you say Tamil is dead, then I'll think your a mad and laugh at you.
( Posted by Rajan on Tuesday , January 23, 2007 at 21:37 )
Again I'm telling, Sanskrit is dead.
Because in histroy it has never been a people's language. It is just a language of one particular community.
I'm respecting all languages even it is dead, but I have to tell the fact. Tamil is there all over the world in all countries. It is national language of Singapore, Malaysia and Srilanka.
I
( Posted by Rajan on Tuesday , January 23, 2007 at 21:06 )
may be u dont know sanskrit and hindi .ok accepted that tamil is alive. but within tamilnadu and in singapore and malaysia, srilanka.
but if u cross the border ur tamil wont help. sankrit may be dead for u. not for me.. prob with tamils is they dont show interest in learning other languages.
go to an mnc in tamilnadu and speak in pure tamil. if u want to stick to tamil.
( Posted by sudarshan on Monday , January 29, 2007 at 12:50 )
We never said we'll not learn any language otherthan Tamil, but we'll learn other languages based on the need and environment.
It is unnecessary to learn Hindi who is going to work in abroad or work in TN. It is useless to learn Sanskrit because it is not people's language. So don't try to impose your languages on us.
If a Tamil goes and work in North India, then he must learn Hindi, like that a North Indian comes and working in Tamil Nadu, then he must learn Tamil. That is our stand.
Come and see all the MNCs in Chennai, you'll see 90% of unofficial communications happening in Tamil only, for official English only.
Tamils encourage and learn other languages, thats why Tamil community is speareded all over the world in all the countries. But we never accept any impostion and never give up our great classical Tamil.
( Posted by Rajan on Monday , January 29, 2007 at 20:48 )
Nimit Kumar
I was attending IJCAI 2007 (www.ijcai-07.org) at Hyderabad. The conference was inaugarated by the AP CM - Y.V. Chandrashekhara Reddy. He shamelessly made a statement with an equally contemptuous tone - "we now have a hindi to telugu speech converter. for those who may not know hindi is 'supposedly' our national language". The audience was mostly foreigners. This is the sad state of this country. Disgusting, if not anything else.
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:04 )
my dear nimit hindi is not our national language.it has only been conferred the official language status because of the strong lobby.by the way not knowing hindi is atleast not as bad as not knowing the AP cm's name its not chandrasekhara reddy its ys rajasekhara reddy.whos being shameless!
( Posted by ravi on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 18:55 )
Boss Nimit,
Do you know what the official language of Andhra Pradesh is? Do you at least know which state Hyderabad is in?
This is the problem with the Hindiwallas. "Usko Hindi BHI nahin aata" is the usual complaint. They have no idea that the languages down south are much older and richer than Hindi. And they don't even know that there are at least three other major languages in the south, namely Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Their idea of the South is dark-skinned people living in "Madraas" and speaking Tamil.
Crazy stuff!
( Posted by Amar on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 20:02 )
Hey Ravi,
There was never a lobby that made Hindi as the offcial language. Please understand that the freedom struggle was in its full force mainly in the northern belts of India. All the majot political events and freedom fighters have been from that belt. With due respect to Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bengal. That's the reason Hindi speaking gained momentum. Southern India never witnessed any major freedom movement. I might be ignorant, but after reading Indian History for so many years, I am yet to know of a freedom fighter from South India. No doubt that southern India's contribution too has been great in terms of educated class in the government service.
( Posted by Sourabh on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 11:18 )
Absurd!.
If you don't know history please keep ur mouth shut. Freedom struggle was started way back in 18th Century by great warriors like Hyder Ali, Tippu Sultan, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Marthanda Verma.
The hindi chauvanist attitude even reflects in the education system of North India. When the children in South India are taught about Jansi Rani Lakshmi Bhai, the children in North India were never thought about Hyder Ali, Marudanayagam who started fighting the Brits 18th Century itself.
( Posted by NA on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 14:39 )
look who's talking!! just because they had a translator whats shameless in that. instead the fact that they had a translator must be appreciated. and you donot even know who the cheif minister is and u could be contemptuous enough to write a comment on a subject whose name u dint even bother to know. wow a round of applause for ur bravery.to speak a person must be knowledgeable. empty vessels make more noice!!
( Posted by supriya on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 02:19 )
perian
iam a native tamil speaker.the constituent assembly which granted official status to hindi(that too by a margin of only one vote made by babu rajendra prasad, chairman of official language committee)failed to confer co-official language status to other major languages including tamil i,e the privilege of using them together with hindi and english in their respective region. it merely pushed those languages to state govts. which are endowed with very less power and money by the constitution regarding this matter.this made/makes non-hindi speakers to suspect the inner motive of hindi people.even in britain,speakers of welsch,gaelic and scottish fight vigorously against english.in srilanka, tamils were marginalised a lot when sinhala was made as official.east pakistan,though muslim like west pakistan fought against latter and segregated as bangladesh due to urdu imposition and suppression of bengali language by west pakistani rulers.once upon a time tamil was parallel to sanskrit.when compared to its antiquity,continuous literary tradition for 2000 years and literary output, hindi is no where else near. these hindi folks fail to understand others problems. they have an unfound superiority complex and aggressive mentality over others.mere number count can't make up every thing.language is also a part of one's identity and linked to one's self-respect as like religion .Hindi as national official language definitely gives undue advantage to its cow-belt speakers in central govt exams,interviews,jobs,communication, education,entertainment, business etc in non-hindi speaking regions.punjabi, marathi and kannada have lost already and tamil, bengali, telugu etc are in line to lose. this is some sort of colonialism.this leads to resentment among other language people.Even in national film awards presentation, bitterness prevails in the people of non hindi films. So this is a time bomb waiting to explode unless equal care is given to all languages constitutionally.
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 15:59 )
Ramrajvi
by the way, can anyone over here tell me whether hindi id imposed in any non hindi speaking states. as far as i know it is treated as an option at secondary school level. i.e. u can either learn ur mother toungue or hindi after passing out from primary education. so why is there such a hue and cry over hindi being the national language(which it is not).
dont link up migration issues with ligual pollution/dilution od a non hindi speaking state.
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 14:44 )
well, I really think the author's concerns are genuine. I found this particular blog of boyofbias at blogspot really really fascinating as it is the perspective of an andhraite in this regard.u can also check it out.
( Posted by Don on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 15:47 )
you can NOT get promotion in a central govt institute without knowing hindi
A non-hindi in another non-hindi state (working for a central research institute), say a Tamil in B'lore will be forced to learn hindi - if at all there is a language, he should learn it should be kannada not hindi !!
This is an example of imposition.
( Posted by arun on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 04:38 )
Indo Aryan
… continued .. Agreed, tamil is a official language in Srilanka and singapore, but who speaks it there other than tamilians? Does any chinese speaks tamil in singapore?I met many Singhalies in Gulf, they doesn't know even a one word of tamil. So what is the use of the status as “official language”. Just on PAPER?The fact remains the same,Tamil will never get an acceptance as a neutral language as Hindi got.
TAMIL HAS BEEN SURVIWED FOR SO LONG JUST BECAUSE OF THE HINDI HATRED,SO THE DAY THEY STOP HATING HINDI, TAMIL WILL BE KILLED.
SO WHETHER OR NOT IT IS OFFICIAL/NATIONAL LANGUAGE, HINDI IS GOING TO BE SPOKEN AROUND THE WORLD, ACROSS THE CULTURS. AND THAT IS THE BUETY OF HINDI. DOES ANY OTHER INDIAN LANGUAGE HAS IT?
PS : I request, CNN-IBN admin, to post my comment.Many anti hindi posts here (particularly posted by tamilians) hurts me.This is just a reply to these post and nothing else.
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 14:39 )
Sir,
No linguistic expert will accept your blabbering that Tamil has the influence of Sanskrit. For an instance the grammar of Sanskrit (Vyakarana)is said to be composed in the 5th Century BC by Panini. But historians don't have concrete evidence to zero in on the exact date of Tholkappiyam ( The bible of Tamil Grammar). Besides this there is no clue about the author of the book. This will explain that how old is the tamil language.
Historians still have not found the answer for the question " Which is the older language Tamil or Sanskrit?". If you are not sure about the facts better keep silent.
( Posted by NA on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 15:11 )
"But historians don't have concrete evidence to zero in on the exact date of Tholkappiyam ( The bible of Tamil Grammar). Besides this there is no clue about the author of the book. This will explain that how old is the tamil language. " @NA ---------- Because , claim of tamil older than sanskrit is false.
Anyway, you havn't answered any of my question, i repeat --- NO ANSWER ? Can tamilians change their sanskrit names? Can they stop celebrating north indian festivals like "Rakhi"? Why hindi movies are making more business in south than in any other part of the country. In chennai hindi movies are on the top on box office chart? Today tamil has completely lost their "number system" , "calander " and many more things to English , but surprisingly they are happy with that. At least Indian languages like gujrati, marathi still uses their "number system", "calendar" etc in day-to-day life.
( Posted by Indo Aryan on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 15:31 )
Futile arguments by a half baked mind. the fusion of religion happened and many aspects got mixed for example, lord siva and his sons are more revered in south than in north. the exact genesis of lord shiva was from tamil scriptures. would all non-tamilians remove variants of shiva's name from their names. it doesnt matter what happened in the past. the point is, tamil is as old as sanskrit and no word in tamil is similar to sanskrit. the literature is vast and iam sure u have no idea how vast it is. and why are u fighting for hindi? its nothing but sancritised urdu. it evolved in AD, respect other languages, thats what we from south are asking. hindi cannot be imposed upon us. Our languages have more depth and history than hindi. if you could just take a peek at tamil or kannada literature you will be amazed at the achievements.
( Posted by Brijesh on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:06 )
You are now diverted to Tamil and now not considering any other regional language. This itself shows that a language spoken by 5.5 Million people is talked about more which shows the power of our language. Tamil is the mother of all dravidian languages. Hindi films do run in Chennai like other regional languages since its a cosmopliton city and the revenue is not as good as other southern states.
Tamil film industry has produced more number of genuiouses. U can simply take GURU as an example. A film with all southern technicians not knowing Hindi well is doing magic in box office and all the bollywood peoples acceped their technical capability.
Tamil has its own calendar. Even now if u look into any marriage invitation u can see the tamil dates. Why u are speaking abt Sanskrit when the language is not into existence. This also shows Tamil is supeior even if u hail sanskrit its not now a spoken languahe in any place. We dont want to make our views petinat to India by learning Hindia nd leaving English. English is the window to our Global World.
Tamil is rich in culture and tradition. I can say that no other cities in India is as conservative to Chennai. We are the blend of tradition and modern culture not loosing all to the western craze.
U have BBC Tamil. Do u have any other regional language in BBC?
If u say that Tamil is completely lost means why u are bothered. U bother since its existing with fame.
( Posted by Selva on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 15:59 )
@Tamilians I can expect only a lame excuses from tamilians. Your history is vague, because you do not have any history. You people have started writing it now without any proper evidences. You might provide few evidences to prove tamil a oldest dravidian language and might even say all other south indian languages (kannada, telugu,malyalam )are derived from it. But the rest of south india will give you more evidences of their languages not derived from tamil.South indians history is all about confusion and does not have any consistency. On the contrary, our languages (hindi,bengali,marathi,gujarati etc) are all derived from sanskrit , a indo aryan language and there are enough evidence found in indus valley civilization, the oldest civilization on the earth ,which exist 5000 years BC.
( Posted by Indo Aryan on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:13 )
The below are datas taken From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tamil ( தமிழ் tamiḻ ) is a classical language and the oldest of the Dravidian language family. It is also the Dravidian language with the oldest extant literature. Spoken predominantly by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore, it has smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. As of 1996, it was the eighteenth most spoken language, with over 74 million speakers worldwide. It is one of the official languages of India, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
Tamil is one of the South Indian languages belonging to the Dravidian family. It has a long and large amount of recorded history. THOKAPPIYAM is the earliest written record available in Tamil. "THOLKAPPIYAM is a monumental work of Tamil which deals with the Science of language and literature mainly and thereby gives a partial picture of the Tamil Nadu of its age." (Preface to THOLKAPIYAM by Dr. S. Ilakkuvanar.) Scholars, Western and Western oriented Tamils, pay only passing attention to prehistoric connections from Tamil literature. Tamil literary, epigraphical and archeological sources exist, according to many Tamils , only for about the past 2000 years. From the frequent use of 'enpa - enpanAr' - "so they said" in THOLKAPPIYAM, among others, it can be inferred there were sophisticated grammatical and literary works in Tamil prior to THOLKAPPIYAM. The recent discovery indicating the possibility of a city lost to the sea around Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu may throw more light to establish a Tamil history recognizable beyond the Christian era. However, the age of THOLKAPPIYAM according to Dr. Ilakkuvanar, "is not later than 6th century B.C."
Also check the below url for more details http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070109110953AA0FrJk
( Posted by Selva on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 17:35 )
If u dont even know that Tamil is the mother of all dravidian languages and Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam & Tulu are dravidian languages u please keep ur mouth shut and dont write blogs. If u have heard any of these five languages some of the words will be similar and share the same meaning.
Tamil Nadu is famous for temples. Do u know that atleast. If u see the inscriptions in temple walls in the southern state u can see the carvings in Tamil. The best example is Tirupathi. The temples present in Tamil Nadu are not built nowadays. I think u will atleast beleive this. If u find time u get the details in which period the tamil Tholkappiam is written? u will come to know abt the old history of Tamil.
We have one saying
"Kal thondri man thondra kalathe valodu munthondriya mootha kudi engal thamil kudi" It says that even before the evolution of sand tamil was present.
( Posted by Selva on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 17:20 )
Tamil is not the mother of all south indian languages.... But all south Indian langaugages are derived from a common language "proto-Tamil-kannada". It splitted into two pre-Tamil and Pre-kannada, the split up of languages happened around 3000 B.C, from pre-Tamil lot of languages has split up... http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/sars238/encybrit.html
( Posted by sas on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 11:40 )
I think tamil will survive. I have travelled to so many countries and in all this countries there are commercial centres called little indias.I have only seen tamil signs and not any other indian languages.I have seen this in Paris, London ,Geneva, Munich, Colombo ,Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Toronto, etc. I dont think you can say the same about hindi or any other indian language. Correct me if I am wrong.
( Posted by sanka on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 17:29 )
What u say could be correct because even i went to Manchester & London i found the name of the dish as Madras Chicken and Madras items where Indian foods are kept in plcae. U can very well see this in ASDA(Walmart in UK) which is spread throughout UK.
( Posted by Selva on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 18:44 )
Dear friend,
Tamil language is spoken in Malaysia and Singapore because Tamilians came to these countries as labourers. London and other European countries because the Sri Lankan tamils fled Sri Lanka to avoid the unrest. Get your facts right.
( Posted by Sourabh on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 11:37 )
Sourabh, please know the fact that, the current Singapore President is "Sellapan Ramanathan" is a Tamilian. Do you think he is labourer?.
Know the below facts about Tamils and their language.
1. The current Indian Central Govt is powered by TamilNadu. 2. APJ Abdul Kalam is 3rd and current Tamil president of India and 2. Kalam and Chidambaram are 2 great scientists who made India as Nuclear Super Power. 4. LTTE - is the one only first freedom fighters in the world who owns air force. 5. Canada and French Govts are considering making Tamil as one of their official language. 6. Tamil is the only living classical language of India.
There are lot more to say, sky is the limit for that.
Know the fact before commenting on it.
( Posted by Rajan on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 18:29 )
Raja,
I think you are not getting the point on what I said. You are being too dogmatic on your views on Tamil. President Nathan is an exception. I am just giving a background on the spread of Tamil in Singapore.
Besides by saying how Tamils hae been able to get higher positions in Indian parliament goes to show that they are an integral part of Indian system and accepted and respeced by non-Tamils. Unlike people like you they don't go on promoting hatred for Hindi.
Hope you can learn from this great people.
Don't do a analysis paralysis of the facts. They are for reference.
( Posted by Sourabh on Sunday , January 21, 2007 at 14:38 )
Hi Rajan,
Some facts for you. If you want to read more let me know, I shall send them to you by email.
Indian migration to Singapore dates back to the early 19th century when Sir Stamford Raffles established Singapore as a trading post. Malaya and Singapore were sparsely populated, so the British authorities encouraged the migration of Chinese and indentured Indian labor to meet the demands of the expanding colonial economy. The largest group of Indian migrants to Malaya during the colonial period were South Indian (mainly from the Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam language communities, with the Tamils in the majority because they lived in the lands closest to Malaya). Some came as economic migrants and provided a pool of skilled and unskilled labour. A minority were well-educated entrepreneurs and professionals, many occupations being filled along caste and language lines, but the majority of those who came were recruited as 'indentured workers'.
( Posted by Sourabh on Monday , January 22, 2007 at 11:11 )
Hi Sourabh,
If you guys really accept and respect everybody in India, then make all languages as official language. And don't immpose your Hindi on others, let everybody learn the languages based on the need and interest.
You know only the 19th century history, look beyond that. First know the 9th-10th centuries and then talk about 19th century.
Have you ever heard about Chola Dynasty, which the following regions, 1. Entire India below Ganga river 2. Srilanka 3. Indonasia, Sumatra, Java Islands 4. Singapore 5. Malaysia 6. Maldives 7. Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
So, don't say we are labours in these countires, these lands are ruled by great Tamils. The people migrated there was rulers once upon a time.
Chola Kings are the one who formed world's first largest navy and conquered these lands.
If you want to know more let me know you mail id, I'll send you the richness of our culture and history.
( Posted by Sourabh on Tuesday , January 23, 2007 at 21:23 )
Hi Sourabh,
If you guys really accept and respect everybody in India, then make all languages as official language. And don't immpose your Hindi on others, let everybody learn the languages based on the need and interest.
You know only the 19th century history, look beyond that. First know the 9th-10th centuries and then talk about 19th century.
Have you ever heard about Chola Dynasty, which the following regions, 1. Entire India below Ganga river 2. Srilanka 3. Indonasia, Sumatra, Java Islands 4. Singapore 5. Malaysia 6. Maldives 7. Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
So, don't say we are labours in these countires, these lands are ruled by great Tamils. The people migrated there was rulers once upon a time.
Chola Kings are the one who formed world's first largest navy and conquered these lands.
If you want to know more let me know you mail id, I'll send you the richness of our culture and history.
( Posted by Rajan on Thursday , January 25, 2007 at 15:04 )
Indo Aryan
No one can stop hindi spreading, whatever you do , whatever arguments you make. Simply because it is the most common(Indian) language among Indians of different cultures. Every indian despite their hatred towards hindi learns it (either thru movies, or thru hindi prachar sabha or thru some other mean) consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly.Why? This question should be asked to oneself and should find out the real answer.My answer is. HINDI , INDEED IS A VERY POWERFUL LANGUAGE. and that is the reason why it is spreading.
Tamilians are suppose to be anti hindi ,anti aryan, anti sanskrit.But ironically, tamil is fully depends upon sanskrit (Indo-Aryan language) for loan words. If tamilians eliminates sanskirt words from tamil , they can not speak. They simply can not survive if decide to use ONLY TAMIL (NO ENGLISH WORDS,NO SANSKRIT WORDS).Today many tamilians greet me saying "Namaskaram" and Not by "Vannakkam". Can tamilians change their sanskrit names? Can they stop celebrating north indian festivals like "Rakhi"? Why hindi movies are making more business in south than in any other part of the country. In chennai hindi movies are on the top on box office chart? Today tamil has completely lost their "number system" , "calander " and many more things to English , but surprisingly they are happy with that. At least Indian languages like gujrati, marathi still uses their "number system", "calendar" etc in day-to-day life.
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 14:38 )
Indo Aryan Language provides a person a number of things a) cultural identity b) a national identity c) economic and professional advatage
To a Tamil, Tamil language provides the first, hindi provides the second and English provides the third. The first is an absolute essential as is the third. As far national identity, Tamils don't believe that learning Hindi is the only way of establishing my national identity. Read your history books and you will realise that a lot non Hindi speakers have contributed heavily to our national identity. President Kalam doesn't speak Hindi, do you think that he is any inferior for that? Don't attempt to denigrate Tamil, you obviously know so little of its history, thaqt you will keep making stupid comments, without ever realizing it. A had written elsewhere in this blog that langual diversity is as important an identity of the diversity of the nation. If we loose our diversity, the entire concept of a federal set up is under question.
We need to learn to live with diverse ligual groups; language for communication will be worked out by people who need to communicate.English managed to conquer and rule us for 2 centuries, despite not knowing our language, they never felt the need for all of us learning English. What is the need today for Hindi as the sole language?
( Posted by Overthefence on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:50 )
I have a simple but brutal solution for the hindi chauvinists, if you want a country with hindi as the "national language", lets have another partition !
( Posted by arun on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 04:40 )
pappu gota
Hindi is not the "rashtra baasha" but the "Rakshasha baasha" of India. You can see it for yourself here, the kind of comments/judgements it is evoking from people participating in this blog.
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 14:03 )
Yes, Rawana from south and Lord Rama was from ayodhya. So you know who is who ?
( Posted by Omkara on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 15:37 )
But who made Rawana and Ram, the same settlers(Aryans) who migrated to India from the Caspian sea area. They just named anyone who protested their entry to India as Rawana. So my dear fried please understand that there is no Rakshas or Dev.
( Posted by Vinod on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:02 )
Please stop this Aryan migration theory cooked up by British to divide India. AMT has been proved as a blatant lie long back. Please do some research on net before posting such things.
( Posted by Harsha on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 03:12 )
Pappu baba...we all know from where RAVANA came...hahaha...
( Posted by KK on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 17:42 )
why are you all behaving so cheap fighting over such trivial stuff. whats the point? see each and every culture has its own need to grow to feel protected. no wonder north or south any language be it assamese or bengali or telugu or tamil each one wants to preserve their language. so the rest of u just let them be and just respect and be tolerant of all languages and cultures. and i am sure any non hindi speakin person will learn to speak hindi if the need arises. so just stop all this crap about rakshas or ram and stop this foolish and unnecessary debate over the history of each language.
i am sure all of you have better work to do rather than fighting!!
( Posted by supriya on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 14:58 )
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