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
Dear Mr Bijoi sankar,the reason for hindi haters is other, than what u have seemingly thought to have understood.what you say regarding "islanding of hindi speaking people wherever they go" i deny it coz if u have noticed it appropriately then its the tendency of everyone who all migrate from there origins. U can say that hindi people migrate in more numbers and are able to easily find each other and they do remain together just for the reason of maintaining the identity. thats the thing what every person would try to do. If u go to any country outside INDIA,tell me wont you try to find some indian besides you,and wont you be over-joyed that u found someone from ur place?wont u be close to that person and on top of that u will still try to adapt to the settings of that country? Thats my point dear,understand the human psycology.there might b more deeper reasons then what u presume to be.
( Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 20:25 )
siddharth sikka
It is pitifull to see some comments belittling languages and people of north or south, history tells us that the indian states were created on linguistic basis more than any other criteria. The only reason that hindi was given special provision is because that amongst all the other 16 national languages it is spoken by more people in india but unfortunately the majority of the states were in north india. In a country with such diversity as ours it would have made perfect sense that one language could have become the national language not for anything but just to have better communication, but the politicians found a new agenda to pit one language against the other. The reason that the people from the north do not learn the southern language ( which i believe that many do pick up)is because in all the north indian states hindi is spoken widely to their is hardly any cross language exchange while in the southern states people speak a variety of langauges therefore the people there pick up these languages easily. Some pointed out that all north indian should learn a south indian language which i am fine with but the point is a language is learnt in order to communicate and it will be tough to decide which one to learn as they are not very widespread. I would still say people from the north who reside in the south for various purposes should try to learn the languages of these states and also the culture so that any bias against such states. Also i would implore people to stop belittling languages as they are ways to very effective communication. In the same vein i would also say that hindi shouldnt be not made compulsory but it should be made voluntary so that effective communication could be fostered all over the country. I personally belong to delhi and reside in bangalore, i have picked up and kannada and telegu and enjoy using colloqial and slangs in both languages with my friends and they in turn enjoy using hindi. Its just a matter of how you open your mind.
( Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 20:22 )
suresh v iyengar
It is better to have one langauge . it should be only english for all official communication.
( Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 19:51 )
Ashish
Its very unfortunate that India is full of "Hindi Haters" even though most of people will agree that Hindi is a common bond and medium of communication among people of different states.As citizens of this great nation, we should not engage ourselves in supressing the nation language and centre government must make sure that nobody should be allowed to do so.
Jai Hind Jai Hindi
( Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 19:31 )
Dear Ashish,
Again and again the same mistake is repeated. Hindi is not our national language. Please refer Article 343 - 344.
( Posted by Hakku on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 20:07 )
What is the definition of National Language??? There is NO such National Language in India because India is pluralistic soceity. This definition holds true for one country, one language that people of the country speaks... If we have 2 or more languages spoken by a significant minority or majority, we cannot have a SINGLE NATIONAL LANGUAGE.
"centre government must make sure that nobody should be allowed to do so" ---> It is Government's duty to encourage learning of Mother Tongue and provide medium to learn other languages on their OWN WILL...
( Posted by venkat on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 19:55 )
mbc
I am working in a central government Institute. We have one junior hindi officer. Sometime back he gave one form to fill up on hindi skill. I can speak hindi (ok not pure hindi) and even I can read and write it as I learnt Sanskrit in my school. After sometimes Hindi officer asked to give hindi examination organized by some government agency. So I started to read some small book given by our library. Later I did not participate in exam because I did not find it necessary as I have working knowledge on hindi. I do not know whether giving examination is compulsory or not. But there is some juice, if one people, whose mother tongue is not hindi, pass examination then he will get hike in arrear.
If it is compulsory, which I will find out in near future, then I will say that central government is forcing me, not only to learn hindi, also to be qualified as an official hindi speaking people. This is the way hindi is being spread throughout India and other language are getting suppress. But I also think that this is inevitable due to modern era of communication
( Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 19:08 )
Rahul
I agree with Vinod's comment only Hindi and English will survive rest all irritating noise and Scribbling will die with time. Jealous people no body is forcing Hindi on you. You don’t like Hindi don’t speak it.
( Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 18:21 )
Who are you to decide which would survive and which would not???
You are saying "No one is forcing Hindi on you?" Then how come, this hindi hatred ?? Is this magic??
Whatever be the Globalization, Modernization, one's mother tongue is dear to him. We are humans and we have not developed any special effects to land in US on day 1 to attack our Mother Tongue. Goto Germany, Japan.. see what they are doing? They teach everything in mother tongue...Still they are modernized...
Guys, Please don't compare what happened in Assam to other states? People don't kill other for language. It is ULFA's handiwork to terrorize people... If they get a chance, they would attack Assamese people also
( Posted by venkat on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 19:24 )
You also know Hindi that is why it will survive :)
( Posted by Rahul on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 20:46 )
Sourabh
I LOVE HINDI...
Hindi is a medium which I use to communicate with my Pakistani neighbor. It helps me reach out to other Pakistanis and Bangladeshi's residing in Singapore. The language helps me break ice sooner. English did not have the same effect when I tried. And unfortunately they don't understand TAMIL.
What we mean by saying is southerners discriminate against Hindi by banning the use of Hindi and Hindi movies in their respective states.
Guys on this Blog, let's have a vote. 3 choices I LOVE HINDI I HATE HINDI I LOVE TAMIL
Please note none in this blog...North Indians included..none have said that they hate Tamil. So dear southerners stop this blatant criticism of Hindi. Blend into this culture pot..which is...INDIA.
( Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 18:15 )
Sorry no three choices, Let us have one more choice..
1)I LOVE HINDI 2)I HATE HINDI 3)I LOVE TAMIL 4)I NEED TO UNDERSTAND HINDI TO INTERACT WITH NORTH INDIANS IN "NORTH INDIA" OR IN AREAS WHERE THEY ARE IN "MAJORITY". (IF I HAVE A CHANCE TO GO THERE)
My Choices 3,4 because I love my Mother tongue than any language and I need to understand Hindi if I have a chance to be in an area where my Northi Friends live..
Now, I think you understand what we mean.. We don't hate Hindi but we love Tamil... There is difference between "We love hindi" and "We love hindi and should assist North Indian Friends in Tamil Nadu only in Hindi". People in Tamil nadu (if they don't have opportunity to visit North india.. why should they learn Hindi????)
( Posted by venkat on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 19:29 )
Why only Tamil people hates Hindi? I found in this forum people of Tamil origin think they don't need Hindi.
My dear friend do you know apart from English..Hindi language is spoken by Arab people with so many Indians working there. Do you know effect of Hindi cinema throughout the world.
Who knows Tamil rather than Tamilians....I donot think aprat from you people anybody knows tamil. However I do beleive if you want to reside in SOUTHERN PART of India specially in Chennai, it is better to learn Tamil.
I am not against Tamil language but the way you people are comparing, it is not the right way.
( Posted by KK on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 20:47 )
Tamil is the official language in India,Singapore and Malaysia.Now lets talk abt Hindi.
( Posted by psj on Thursday , January 18, 2007 at 20:23 )
dd, why is this reference to arab ppl. are they gods?? or is working in an arab country anything to feel extremely proud of??
( Posted by Tamil Iyer on Thursday , January 18, 2007 at 20:10 )
In the world there is growing interest in India. Hindi cinema is taking this opportunity to grow. bollywood is cheating the rest of world. Why do they call it IIFA when it is actually IHFA(International hindi film awards).
( Posted by Rational on Monday , January 22, 2007 at 20:36 )
the debate is not between hindi and tamil. bijoi is talkin of the hatred for hindi speakers amongst anyone non hindi be it even the bengalis, or any of the seven sister states or even the southern states. so what is this between tamil and hindi?? i guess some of the readers are a bit disoriented.
( Posted by supriya on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 19:51 )
Hakku
In the article,‘Hindi speakers simply refuse to learn the language of the land when they migrate’ is pertinent.In a place like Bangalore it hardly matters because people here can survive with Hindi,Kannada,Tamil,Telugu and Malayalam. Learning a new language happens with either interest or hard circumstances.This has no relation with the age of a language.In that case ENGLISH is very young compared to many languages in Europe but is accepted by most of the countries worldwide.Now the question is how interested you are.I am from Bangalore and I see rarely any North Indian speaking Kannada or at least giving a try (Now the same people show aspiration in learning French if they are in France).I am taking Bangalore as an example because this is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in India and the IT capital of India.In one of the messages I have read one gentleman saying that Mumbai is very cosmopolitan.But my question is do the people there understand these many languages like in Bangalore.I am not going to the roots of discrimination or have no intentions in starting a new debate on inter state dislikes,but all South Indians are coined by the term ‘Madrasis’ by people in Mumbai generally and North India as a whole.Even lack of interest is shown to identify from which state a particular individual is from.In Mumbai lot of violence and attacks on South Indians happened and the story continues.But rarely you find similar incidents in Bangalore where lot of Northies stay.So these differ in the perspectives of different communities and how open a particular community is. The French rarely speak in English.But is India like France;certainly not,we are in a big country with lot of languages,communities and states.Rather imposing Hindi as a common language it is acceptable to consider English as the national language and each state should initiate in teaching their mother tongue,at least during primary education.This is an initiative that that each parent has to take.
( Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 18:14 )
SV
I disagree with the author over the point that Andhra Pradesh is a state that discriminates aginst Hindi.
Having lived for over 20 years over here, though not a native I still don't know Telugu for everyone speaks Hindi here be it Hyderabad, Vishakapatnam or Nizamabad. Not once have I faced discrimination for not knowing the state language nor have met anyone so.
In fact Hyderabad is well know for it's casual, slang Hyderabadi Hindi.
It is this personal fact which I know is true but been shown in another light that makes me raise the question of the authenticity or intensity of the other facts mentioned by the author.
( Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 18:01 )
Just to add to my posting, I am Gujarati by the way.
( Posted by SV on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 18:08 )
Anand
Is your comments Assam to Andhra only a rhyming word? Just for your Info.. Though journalists and reporters are expected to about indian geopolitical regional groups of India, alas such standard is not maintained anymore, They seem to know more of International affairs. Anyways, Telangana i come is 10 districts and almost 50% of AP with boundaries to MP, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Karnataka. Hindi is well understood and imbibed into language most parts. Hyderabad and surrounding areas where only language spoken by all was Hindi-Urdu-Telugu the deccani language until recent times with unwarranted virus type influx from Andhra region. Telangana movement, i hope will bring back our old glory.
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