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
Article 343 of the Constitution states that the official language of the Union (India) shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.
That sums it up, HINDI is our country's national language. It's fine if you don't want to learn it, but people should not be hated just because they speak Hindi. Why single out people from Lucknow, there are other cities in North India.
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 01:48 )
srivastava, hindi in devangari script and english are the OFFICIAL languages @ the centre.
Besides that there are around 21 other OFFICIALS languages that are recognised.
THERE is NO national language - ONLY 23 Official languages.
( Posted by arun on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 08:28 )
It was the mistake of a few politicians to make Hindi the national language of India in the first place. Hindi is the language of the BIMARU states and not of the rest of India. As regards its literary merit, it can hardly match up to Sanskrit, Urdu, Tamil or even Bengali. As someone who was educated in a Kendriya Vidyalaya, I still cannot get over the fact that I missed out studying the finer nuances of my mother tongue. There are many like me who find it difficult to relate to the society around them as 1)we don't know our mother tongue 2)we suffer from deep identity crisis 3)we cannot relate to Hindi speaking culture as well. Just because one non-native speaker speaks Hindi does not necessarily mean that that person can willingly accept all that there can be in the dominant culture. I certainly do not find Bollywood pornography any more appealing that the finer nuances of the Tirukkural.
You are quite arrogant in assuming that Hindi is liked by all Indians. If East Pakistanis could rise up in arms against West Pakistanis over the imposition of Urdu, if Chechnyans can still maintain their language even after the repeated imposition of Russian language and culture, then I don't see why not the forceful imposition of Hindi would not lead to the eventual break up of India (which may not necessarily be a bad thing). Repealing Article 343 of the Constitution and remove Hindi as a national language might prevent that from happening.
Since we adopt western lifestyles almost unconsciously, I am not really averse to the idea of accepting English as a national language. Imperialism of the English is far more acceptable than Hindi imperialism. While the former can help us to get jobs and find a place in the world order, the latter can only be at the cost of our self-respect, identity and dignity.
Remove Hindi as the national language if India is to progress in this century.
( Posted by A VICTIM OF HINDI IMPERIALISM on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 03:08 )
You sum it up. " I don't see why not the forceful imposition of Hindi would not lead to the eventual break up of India (which may not necessarily be a bad thing).... Herein lies the difference. Hindi unites, while you fanatics divide.
( Posted by Jago on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 09:13 )
Huh? Break up the country into pieces and then keep on spending on your army rather than on educationa and health. Where regions like EU and ASEAN are moving towards integration taking cue from big countries like India and China....only a insane fanatic can talk about partition!
( Posted by Saurabh A on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 09:23 )
If opposition to Hindi is fanaticism, god help this country
( Posted by Overthefence on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 19:20 )
Puneet
I m perfectly agree with the bloogeer tht if we really want to be part of this global village then we have to be ample our panorama and that is the way we can hve success.. if we still be in the same state as a lot r in we can not represent ourselves anywhere in this world.. as we r out of india and here we only belive in presenting us as indians whose official language is hindi as well as working english too..
it does not make any bloody sense to present urself as tamil,gujrati,punjabi etc.
i m totally agree to promote hindi as our national language and i m in that process too.
we hve respect for all but at least outside india we cant or better to say we shoudn't..
( Posted: Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 01:36 )
Abhishek
Actually its not Hindi, but Hindustani that is hated by non-gangetic people. Hindustani is a mixture of Urdu & Hindi.
Nobody will have a problem if the Hindi as spoken in the serial Mahabharata is spoken, because it is so close to Sanskrit, the root of most Indian languages.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 23:09 )
gautam
Are we not being hyprocrites. Whether they be Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian or any other they speak only their language whereever they are. It is only us who feel unless we are conversant in English we may be termed as backward. the world is forced to develop their softwares and ytansact with them in their language being the forces they are to reckon with. the day we get the same feeling and pride we would also be in the same status. The world cannot afford to ignore India. the Britishers have successfully created divisions amongst us by successfully removing Sanskrit from our mainfiold. Why don't the so called Hindi boycotting states give up Sanskrit also? They need it in all their relegious ceremonies. Our rich heritage and culture lies unbundeld for the common man due lack of knowledge of sanskrit. We are not a unified nation due to lack of a common language. Instead of fighting over language let us pledge to fight over corruption, development and justice for all
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 22:44 )
Vasanth
Hindi People who migrate to non-hindi area have to learn language of that area. Then these kind of hatered will reduce.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 22:44 )
Ultimator
Its becuase they was NOTHING called Hindi lets say 50 years back, the Hindu Fundamentalists aka Brahmis wanted to control othe rpopulation of India and they Hijacked Urdu and wrote it in Devanagari peppering few words of Sanskrit and called it Hindi,as use it as yet another tool to subjugate the inferior castes of Hindusim.
Obviously when you try to impose something on others inorder to subjugate them under the guise of "National Language" there are bound to be reactions. Obciously
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 22:42 )
This is a unbelievable hypothesis. Sanskrit was the traditional language, and the language of the masses was Prakrit during the buddist era. Urdu is the language of the invaders of the country and invariable their words were mixed with the local dilects to form hindi and not the other way around. Its unbelivable how the post independence Macaulay's Children have manipulated ancient Hindu greatness to seem inferior to the invaders. And today we are so brainwashed that we think anything hindu is fascist and there are those who believe that Islamic rule actually united the current country of India when it was already done by Asoka and the Guptas.
( Posted by mahesh on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 09:26 )
Arif Syed
I thought this was interesting read. This is not meant to be prejudicial. Think wide, broad and open. would be interesting to see responses to this. Does this mean that the Hindi speaking northerners are immigrants to the Indian Union? and which could imply that sanskrit is a foreign language to India?
Published in an Indian Newspaper recently: Lower castes genetically closer Hyderabad, Jan. 14: People belonging to lower castes are genetically closer to tribal groups than they are to upper castes, a study conducted by the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has discovered. Experts from the CCMB believe that this finding adds credence to the theory that lower castes emerged from tribal populations. A senior scientist at the centre, Dr Kumarasamy Thangaraj, said the origin of the caste system in India has been the subject of heated debate among anthropologists and historians.
Many of them had suggested that the caste system began with the arrival of speakers of Indo-European languages from Central Asia about 3,500 years ago. “However, there has been no consensus on this so far,” he added.
In the latest study, CCMB scientists analysed the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA of three tribal populations of southern India and compared the results with the available data from across the Indian subcontinent. They did not find any significant difference in mitochondrial DNA among Indian tribal and caste populations. On the other hand, the study of the Y-chromosome lineage revealed distinct distribution patterns among caste and tribal populations. “The paternal lineage of Indian lower castes shows closer affinity to the tribal populations than to upper castes,” said Dr Thangaraj.
A significant aspect of the study is that its Y-SNP data provides compelling genetic evidence for the tribal origin of the lower caste populations. It gives substance to the theory that lower caste groups may have emerged from hierarchical divisions existing w
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 22:37 )
vipin
The thoughts of the writer brings in the front once again the national dilemma of a lost or rather confused identity. So every time someone asks who I am, the answer is I am a Tamil(ethnic identity), or a hindu or muslim(religious identity) or a bengali or bihari or a kashmiri( regional identity). Where is the Indian in all this? Huh .. nowhere. Now for the intellectual benefit of the writer, while it is debatable that which language is more important than which other language in India, it becomes of utmost importance to have a national language. Means, cmon, imagine a country without a national language, how ridiculous? I would not prefer Hindi over any other lang even if I am more comfortable in Hindi but Mr can you give me a language which we can adopt as a national lang. Which can be understood without difficulty in all the places of India and spoken so that If I go to bengal or bihar or tamilnadu or karnataka I dont have to use English in which I am quite comfortable but am quite ashamed to used in my own country just to communicate, to express. I hope you would understand my emotions. In other words it is called patriotism, a seemingly ugly word these days, but which binds a nation even after all the diversity.
The other option that we always have is that we again get separated on the basis of these boundaries that we have in mind. What is the need. India was a dream of one person, Vallabh bhai patel. Maybe, he was selfish enough to intiate the integration of all the states in one country just to get the title Lauhpurush. Oh, how ashamed he would be of our incomptencies. We have not been able to sort out the national language in 50 years. Kudos to indecisive indians.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 21:29 )
First of all, I would like to correct the blogger.. yes hindi is a official language and so are 17+/- others.. that doesnt make them all our national languages.. hindi has the same status as the rest of the languages in India and thats how it shud be.. giving hindi primary importance over languages which have been around for 1000s of yrs would be sheer ignorance..
i am a tamilian who has working knowledge of hindi, but refrain from speaking it as much as possible.. it would take more than 100s of yrs to forget the atrocities which have been committed by the hindi babus from the 20's to the 80's...
and vipin if u want a national language which integrates all of us.. i would rather go with sanskrit... honestly i dont mind english as a mode of communication.. i have many friends in the north and they dont seem to mind it aswell.. its the same question we have asked b4.. do we need a big door flap for the big dog (english) and a small door flap for the small dog (hindi) .. it seems a whole lot sensible for both of them to use the same big door flap... u talk about patriotism.. then stop eating biryani (persians bought it over).. stop wearing jeans.. stop buying brands.. use coconut oil not gel.. do not use umbrella.. do not watch movies.. (movies weren't invented by us..).. its a lot easier said than done mate.. please re-evaluate ur stance with a much more broader outlook..
( Posted by Karthik on Monday , January 15, 2007 at 23:23 )
Well, I find myself supporting you on the national language being Sanskrit. Again, I emphasize that Sanskrit is not important what is important is a one language which can be understood and spoken throughout India. Other brilliant idea is of learning a second indian language which many of the people proposed and this is marvelous since in any case we do learn english. So as a 2ndary lang one should be able to choose from prominent languages from other parts of country. And certainly, it would be a crime not to preserve tamil or kannanda or punjabi, the literature and lang of 1000 or more yrs. So spread it thru 2ndary lang. What is the harm! What I would contest is the whole idea of separatism, of since we faced atrocity we shall not forget it, even in this modern age. This is a politician's stand. Where is the end of it?? How many times it has to be repeated before we say.. enough, now it is okay.
Even if I am not aware of most of it, some things are better forgiven and forgotten.
And patriotism is love and devotion for one's country , of being proud of one's own country. Yeah, I do prefer Raymond over Levis, VIP over a samsonite, coconut water over pepsi and a pulsar over a unicorn but more than that I like the idea which is India and which was made possible by Patel.
( Posted by vipin on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 03:27 )
"i am a tamilian who has working knowledge of hindi, but refrain from speaking it as much as possible.. it would take more than 100s of yrs to forget the atrocities which have been committed by the hindi babus from the 20's to the 80's... "
Coudnt help myself laughing on reading this...lol! Just remind me which launguage are you writing this...oh is this English...and guess who brought English to India???...and they were so friendly and good towards 'Indians'...werent they??? Think before you write Mr.!
( Posted by Saurabh A on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 09:06 )
I do not think it is fair to blame and boycott a language due to the wrong doings of people who speak the language. In such a case English should not even be thought about keeping in mind the attrocties, loot and bifurcation of our social/cultural fabric done by them.
( Posted by gautam on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 08:39 )
To Vipin,
Ahh.. I see you are one of those who potray urself as unbiased but are biased from the inside.. why should I give my language a secondary status compared to Hindi.. I believe a working knowledge of hindi is more than enough for me to survive and I know whatever I need to know.. forcing it upon us or trying to enforce it in anyway.. will bring back the 70's when a lot of blood was spilt over this very question... I dont mind hindi being made optional.. but in the name of national integration forcing everyone to follow one doctrine is unacceptable.. and by the way according to the 2001 census.. only 33% of India knows hindi.. so wat happens to the rest 66% who doesnt ... (the above is verifiable fact...) I have as much love as u have for this country .. probably more.. but I do not need to learn hindi to prove my love...
To Saurabh..
English wasn't forces upon us unlike hindi.. so we took up English to counteract the central govt in the 70's.. i have no regrets regarding it.. The east india company tried to force western clothes upon us.. but what do we wear these days..?? do u roam around in khadi my friend.. again please use ur grey-cells a bit more before answering..
We tamilians prefer English to Hindi anyday.. and fortunately for us we speak it much better aswell... atleast we can forgive the English who were from a different country and who wanted to make profit.. their hostile attitude is understandable... but when our own so-called country-men criticise and discriminate us on the basis of our mother-tongue.. well then there is a limit to everything...
Yes I am a tamizhian and I prefer English to hindi.. which I believe is lesser among the two evils...
( Posted by Karthik on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 13:05 )
Bravo! Well said.
( Posted by Overthefence on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 19:13 )
You gotta read it properly fella. What I said was that a Hindite can get Tamil, Kannada as 2ndary lang and a Tamilian can get hindi, marathi, malyalam as 2ndary lang. Since it is better to learn to coexist rather than keep fighting. And for your better information, English was forced upon you and me since we were slaves for 200 years. And it doesnot change by your saying that you have started to like the taste of it and you have taken it of your own volition. It was not choosen by you in any case. Had that been the case half of India would be speaking french or spanish by now. Hindi is not dependent on non-hindi populace and the same applies to other languages too. But nothing gives anyone a right to dislike people just on the basis of language and contribute to the chauvinistic ideas of a few. you do it, other would do it too. Again, where is the end.
( Posted by vipin on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 13:32 )
I am ok with it.. as I have said before, I have learnt hindi in school and I do have enough knowledge to understand what is being said.. so as per u.. I and many others like me in the South have already set examples for ur three (SI, English, hindi) language theory.. now will the North reciprocate.. will u convince our brothers in the North to take up Tamil/any other SI language as a secondary language in school.. Will u advocate ur own children to do so..???
And English was not forced upon us as much as Hindi was.. Infact the English officers learnt the local languages when they were in different parts on India.. This is again a recorded fact..
and yes I did choose to study English.. I could have discontinued at any point in time.. but why didn't I.. bcos of the Economic benefits.. wat Economic Benefits do I attain if I learn hindi.. answer is NONE... Right now, knowing English is the gateway to better life.. not hindi.. so why choose the smaller dog.. when I can have the bigger dog..??
Everybody here has given enough reasons for hating the hindi populace.. but if u choose to ignore the same.. i cannot help u..
its very simple.. India belongs to "Indians".. not "Hindians"... once you ppl begin to understand this.. we will begin to respect u.. until then.. this fued (unfortunate though it may be) continues...
( Posted by Karthik on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 15:10 )
But about making hindi the national language.. forget it.. it wont happen.. I would rather that sanskrit was the national language.. either that or let the chinese invade us and make mandarin or cantonese the national language.. but not hindi..
I am sorry but thats the way it is.. I may not hate hindi.. infact i believe its a beautiful language (lets not compare tamil and hindi.. tamil is genius in itself.. hindi cannot even aspire to reach the greatness of the former.. considering there are no notable literary works in hindi..).. but the hatred which has been created goes deep and most of the northies attitude in the past 50odd yrs has not been very encouraging.. we tamilians do carry grudges specially when someone has harmed our integrity by attacking our language...
and as for this being anti-indian.. would you call APJ Abdul Kalam anti-indian.. he doesnt know hindi.. but today if we are a nuclear power and a military power.. it has to be attributed to him...
( Posted by Karthik on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 15:22 )
jateen
I do'nt find it disturbing to learn new language. I am Maharashtrian but come from that part which was earlier in MP. So its come naturally in our mouths.It is also proven fact that children who know more languages are generally found more brilliant than others.So either learn Hindi if you are from South India or learn any southern language if you are from North.It will help to increase your brilliance.We are Indians so be remain like that only.....
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 21:26 )
Sushmita
I speak Hindi fluently although I am not from a Hindi speaking state. I have no hatred for Hindi or any other language - I love to learn new languages. But what is disturbing is this superior feeling that many people from the Hindi speaking states exhibit. I have never heard anybody complement the fluent Hindi of a person from a non Hindi state. But many of my friends who speak with an accent are constantly ridiculed.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 20:31 )
CONTD... Being a doctorate, he dfinitely knows English. But due to his fanatism he always replied me in Hindi, sort of humiliating me. From that day I made it a point whenever some Hindi speaking person asks me for info I always answer in English if he looks educated, otherwise in the local language. Such blokes are impediments to national integration.
( Posted by babuds on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 00:56 )
I agree. Why should non-native Hindi speakers be expected to know perfect Hindi? This attitude is particularly prevalent in cities in Maharashtra such as Nagpur which has a large population of Hindi speakers. And the dominance of Bollywood has helped strengthen this superiority complex of Hindi speaking people. Just because Hindi is the national language does not mean that it should be standard by which speakers of other languages should be judged. Personally, I don't think Hindi is in any way superior to regional languages like Marathi or Tamil or Bengali. Quite simply, native Hindi speakers should understand that India is a country of many languages, and that they should give due respect to regional languages also.
( Posted by Anjan on Monday , January 15, 2007 at 23:37 )
When two native Hindi speakers speak in Hindi, it is considered an acceptable practice. But when I speak to a fellow Tamilian in tamil, people ask me to shift to Hindi. I actually tell them to mind their own business and make it a point to speak to my tamil friends in Tamil
( Posted by Overthefence on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 19:17 )
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