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
I guess its time to rise above our petty linguistic concerns and work together for the greater good of the nation.I do agree that the current incidents retrace our progress but we have to work together to narrow this gulf.Moreover the actual paradox is that inspite of having so many "guardians-of-language" in India, we have hardly any development to boast of.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 20:16 )
salil
Just as Non Hindi speaking people have Hindi forced on them in school, the hindi speaking states should learn a major southern eastern western languages. This will accord equal status to all languages.Hindi should not be made official language in nationalised banks also.No language should be given preference other than English at Central level and the respective Local language with English at State level.Otherwise Hindi takes on a colonial flavour.Just as much non hindi speakers accept the idea of diversity of India the hindi speakers should also show the same respect for other Indian languages.An interesting thought. Can a person from India's ethnic minorities eg. North Eastern states be accepted as Indian PM.Will the states with larger number of MPs allow this to happen.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 20:11 )
Devegowda? Manmohan Singh? Narsimha Rao?
Guess they are not from the hindi speaking land?
( Posted by Saurabh A on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 09:20 )
Yes An Assamese or A Manipuri or a Nagaland person should be made as Prime minister /President of India.
Sure South Indian MPs- Tamils, Telegus,Malayalam,Kannada,Tulu MPs will support this...
What happen to Sangma ? the Hindi congress people cleverlly eliminated him...Really he is a good person to represent the NorthEastern states !
( Posted by Sen on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 18:55 )
bharat
Language should not be a barrier separating indians. After all we are same in all other aspects. Castiests, narrow minded, uneducated, poor and communal. If we understand this common virtue that we share, i am sure language will not be an issue. God only knows how this potpouri of stupidity has survived 60 years. History repeats itself, it is said, may be future will see again the formation of small princely states where the stupidity of a particular region can gloat over the superior culture, language and traditions of their communities. In 2006, if there's a country moribund with vices and idiotic traditions in the name of culture it's India.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 18:49 )
Rahul
After blood on hand this topic makes sense. Good try to hide the sin of ULFA. ULFA is a murderer, its no more about language its about blood of innocent poor people who were murdered in cold blood. They have blood on their hand. In Andhra or Tamil Nadu or Kerela or Maharashtra there may be concern about protecting regional language and I being from Hindi heartland I support such concern but they are not spilling blood on the street for language where as ULFA is spilling blood. Do you get it? Please don’t try to hide ULFA among good people. Humanity is above language. Once again only ULFA is spilling blood for language why this guy is trying to project as if Marathis and Tamils are also killing innocent people for language. Futile effort.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 18:48 )
I don't think Rahul is fair in his assessment of the subject. The topic is solely about linguistic divergence and the gulf that exist between different linguistic groups. It seems you have chosen to vent all your anger on the author simply because his name sounds Assamese. I am also a Bihari, and this time around it has been our strength that we have stood calm on the face of such gruesome murders. This has brought the Assamese politicians to their knees now. Let's not carry this bad blood to the streets.
( Posted by Vivek on Monday , January 15, 2007 at 19:11 )
Biharis always react aggressively when one points out their mistakes. Remember, how they all went after Rajdeep for his blog --- Maharashtra: The New Bihar. Sudhar jao..
( Posted by Vishnu vardhan on Monday , January 15, 2007 at 19:31 )
I guess, someone else here is becoming too agressive here. It may not bother you that 100 lives are taken to prove a point, but you should justify it in this tone. Just remember if everyone starts killing everyone just because of a language issue, you wouldnot have many people left to speak any laguage. Simply put, hatred and killing are no solution and one should be sympathetic for those killed.
( Posted by vipin on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 08:52 )
pk
the fact that others are able to learn Hindi is because its easiest langauge. but it becomes tough for Hindi speaking ppl to learn other langauages as they are tough to learn. But the fact is that state of Hindi is same as any other language in India. English is ruling the country and we all will have to accept the fact. stop targeting each other langauge and accept the fact that english is our bread and butter. After another 50 years there will be no fight as there will be no Hindi, tamil, Malyalam or bangla. engligh will rule the country.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 18:28 )
I don wish to start an argument but I have felt tamil is the easiest.I have learned hindi from my second std and have lived in the northern states ,so I speak pretty decent hindi.It took me nearly 1-1.5 years to be able to handle hindi really well.Tamil on the other hand I could learn it in 4 months.The alphabets are minimal and word count also is minimal.That may be one of the reasons.
( Posted by Sooraj on Monday , January 15, 2007 at 19:31 )
Great joke by Sooraj..... !!
Tamil is easiest to learn ???? ...... I still can't stop laughing.....hahahahaaaaa
( Posted by All abt this ! on Monday , January 15, 2007 at 20:38 )
yup wanna learn tamil ? even u cud do it mate.so very easy
( Posted by Sooraj on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 16:15 )
subha
Sanskrit should have been made the national language. As of now, the Hindi belt finds no necessity to learn any other language, whereas the non Hindi speaking belts learn English for jobs, Hindi because of silly government decision, mother tongue because it is necessary and Sanskrit where someone needs to understand the ancient culture of our country. The Hindiites however, if you say 'How are you?', they say, hen ji, theek hain, aap kaise hain, aapko hindi aati hai??
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 18:23 )
Yes...Sanskrit should have been made the national language. In 1947-48, there was a move to make Sanskrit the national language.But then some politicians of those days with their short sighted move vetoed against Sanskrit. If Sanskrit had been made the national language much of the problems would not have been there.
Let us hope that Sanskrit regains its prime place.
( Posted by Vishvaksenah on Monday , January 15, 2007 at 18:38 )
Some languages are dead. Sanskrit was one of them. Sanskrit was never a peoples language. It cant be made a national language, unless a dictator like Hitler takes over the country and passes a law that sanskrit be made national language.
( Posted by babuds on Tuesday , January 16, 2007 at 00:46 )
Sanskrit is good as dead language, except for those elite class who learn so called scared texts.
I would suggest English replace Hindi as national langauage.
( Posted by Vasanth on Monday , January 15, 2007 at 22:47 )
vask
The only criteria of choosing hindi as national language is sheer numbers. so what i propose is lets make RAT a national animal instead of TIGER and CROW a national bird instead of PEAKOCK. IN my opinion RAT, CROW and HINDI are equal in their status.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 18:01 )
Sir, your attitude actually summarizes all that is wrong. Its not a question of numbers. Its a question of whats easy and what is used by most people.If you look closely Hindi in its true form is no ones mother toungue. Its variation of hindi, numerous dialects that rule even in the Hindi speaking states. But then again if at all there could be a language that had a chance to be a common language, it was hindi. Personally speaking i respect all languages and all people and wouldnt mind if telugu or tamil or oriya or marathi was made the national language. I would gladly learn it. But the issue is these languages would be acceptable to only few. Tamils wont like if kannada was given more importance or oriya or marathi for that matter. The only solution is to accept the common denominator without getting prejudiced. People expect other people to know hindi because its the national language and not because hindi speaking people have a superiority complex.
( Posted by Ravi on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 01:05 )
monu rajan
india is divided by lots of factors,language being one.we're not ancient india.there never was an ancient indian country as such.so when we decided in 1947 that all the princely states would be part of a larger entity that is greater than the sum of its parts, we were going in for a compromise,an adjustment, an eclecticism.so india is hindi,malayalam,tamil,telugu,oriya,kannada,marathi,gujarati,mizo,english at the same time.
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 17:32 )
khuman
The answer to your question will lie in the past history of India as sub-continent.India as a country is an integration of many princely independent state who had their own history and culture.It is an very difficult,diverse integration so obviously there will instances of many violation.It'll take another 100 years for everyone to accept Hindi or India whole heatedly.:(
( Posted: Monday , January 15, 2007 at 17:29 )
Amit
no point saying this dude...why is that these hated hindi ppl..welcome everyone in hindi heartland...just coz they dont have this my laungage feeling...its like my mouther tounge...feeling...if others start feeling this that would surley solve problem...rather than killing inoccent poor ppl...trying to run their life in their own country as they think...rather than devide by laungages...long live india.
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