On my views about the Hindi Chauvinists... Read first what Ramachandra Guha has to say...
Hindi Chauvinism
Hindi Against India
Glory to the Great Nation!!!
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Well, that's how life is... Full of catches.
10 comments:
This is a shame that even after 60 years of Independence that people from South have difficulty in accepting Hindi as the Rashtra Bhaasha. I have read the article of Ram Guha, and find it by far the most bogus of his write ups. being a law student and a studying sociology for two semesters I know what Mr. Guha writes about. As somebody from bengal (and if you have read the Constituent Assembly Debates) this is to inform you that Bengali lost narrowly to Hindi froom being the National Language. And we people in Bengal have no regrets for that, 'cause Hindi very rightfully is the Rashtra Bhaasha. It has an easy script and a convinient way of communicating. Even Subhash Chandra Bose has endorsed Hindi as National language in the early 1930s. This should be stopped.
Art 345 gives every state to select its own OFFICIAL lang,
Art 343 defines english and hindi in devangari script to be the OFFICIAL langs of the union govt
India has a total of 23 OFFICIAL langs - NO national lang.
@trivial,
bengalis have accepted hinid so Tamils have to accept is a pretty dumb logic - its not a national lang - mebbe the bengalis have to understand that.
BTW, dont beat the same issue about one nation - one language.
'coz it was the same attitude that led to the sinhala imposition on SL tamils in 1956 and urdu imposition on the b'deshis that led to civil war in the respective cases.
We must promote ALL Indian languages as well as english becuase English is a neutral language .
otherwise we should replace English with a NEUTRAL language like Prakrit.
Here are some objections against Hindi
1.You cannot take the language of one state and promote it as the national
language. This is the opinion of many people I have spoken to.
It creates an artificial politically induced lopsided development . (I will give you an example shortly )
Tomorrow if we have only Hindi medium schools throughout India , people from 4 hindi speaking states
due to their natural fluency in the language will get higher marks than me. Plus I have to learn an additional
language (Telegu) (which he doesn't) for which I have to sacrifice another subject . This is a double advantage
for a hindi speaker and a double disadvantage for a non-hindi speaker. Within years , people from 4 states will
take away all the Engineering and Medical seats and all jobs if the private sector is forced to operate in Hindi .
This will happen right from Kashmir to kanyakumari. This is not based on merit but a politically engineered differentiation.
This is the end of the day for merit based education in India.
I do agree that English is difficult but it is equally difficult for everybody. That is the point here.
The only problem is that English creates an urban rural divide, but the onus to solve this rests with
the state government. Many states like Karnataka and andhra have already taken steps to
solve this. Where's the legal remedy if you take the language of one state and allow it
to replace English ? This is a perfect recipe for disaster and can even wipe out other
languages in the long run
.
Otherwise create a new neutral language.
2. Another danger of having one language as the national language are that is encourages
one linguistic group to believe that they are superior to others and are always
in a position to take over the rest of the country. They are also forced
to live in a fools paradise -as a written language Hindi is anyway dead outside the
Hindi speaking states.So, what's the point?
Some people want to make hindi an international language. If we make Assamese an
international language, we have to make it a national language first. What happens
to all other Indian languages then?
3. Can you show me any other non-hindi speaking state which accepts Hindi as one of the official
languages of the state ? None. If tomorrow , West Bengal opens Hindi medium schools in every village
in Bengal , half of Bihar will be in Bengal . That is the end of Bengali culture which even the British or
the Muslims and the british did not touch. We cannot allow the language of one state to replace English as this would undermine
the spirit of the Indian constitution.
Similarly if the the state goverment of Andhra pradesh opens Hindi medium schools in
Vijayawada , it has to open Gujarathi and Marathi medium schools also. That is why
no state government in India allows schools in any language other than the local
language plus English. On what basis should Hindi medium schools be allowed in Vijayawada
and not Malayalam medium schools ? Based on the law of numbers ?
Again, Hindi is the "official language" of the Central government . in Andhra Pradesh,
for example, only Telegu, urdu and English have been given official status .So doesn't
Hindi undermine the federal spirit of the Indian constitution again ? Education is not even a
central subject as per the indian constitution.
4.Can you also show me one hindi sign board anywhere in India outside a Hindi speaking state?
I have yet to come across one in my entire life except in a central government office.
5. Again can you show me one private sector company in India which operates in Hindi ?
The private sector considers Hindi to be another regional language like kannada - period.
So , why force it on the private sector ?
6.Finally, even if you try to spread keep spreading hindi, human nature being what it is,
the chances are that it will fail.So what is the point in spreading it at all if you are ultimately not
successful?
Alternatively , you may teach basic Hindi / Hinglish in every state as a spoken language
either in the English script or in the script of the local language, since we do
need one spoken colloquial throught the country.Let us remember only unity in diversity
integrates India in the long run. Hinglish (eg Kal 7'0' clock 100% aaungaa ,sir ) is the local dialect
in many states because it is very simple to learn , but it has no legal status or a written form anywhere.
7. No upto date sociologist will accept the theory that a country needs one national language to stay
united. However Hindi will become one of the countries most important lingua francas in
the long run based on the law of demand and supply.
WHAT WE NEED TO DO
The greatness of India is its Unity in Diversity . Follow a unity in Diversity
model . Examples countries following this model are
(a) Switzerland
(b) Singapore
(c) Canada
Each state can select link languages based on popular demand (English and Hindi may be)
and compensate other languages for the loss in other ways - spend more money on other
languages since Hindi has already spread and will continue to do so based on the law of
demand and supply. Only Unity in Diversity sustains National
integration in the long run. You can check out the Switzerland model if you want. You
might also want to know how Unity in Diversity helped Canada from disintegrating.
The Unified Rajbhasha Model was required before liberalization but now common sense
would only indicate based on experience everywhere that a unity in diversity model
is more appropriate.
Take this oft-repeated statement
"Over centralization destroyed India, now liberalization
is reuniting India"
Here is one model you might want to adopt since Hindi has already spread.
The following is my suggestion:
Amend the constitution and
(a) Make all Indian languages National languages as a token of acknowledgement of
the rich diversity of the sub-continent and the
equality of all cultures
(b) Declare English as the recommended Official link language (But leave the choice
to the states)
(c) some states can choose Hindi as a cultural link language if required.
* Hindi enables poorer people across India to communicate with each other since 40% of
Indians speak Hindi versus 5% english , but that is about it : as a
written language hindi is already dead outside of the Hindi belt. In my opinion
people need to learn the mother tongue first followed by English and Basic Hindi
(optional). Hindi is is mainly useful the wholesale , retail trade and the
entertainment industry and for some amount of emotional bonding. It not only imposes
load on some states but gives more preferences for 4 states with repsect to
job) and some states States , of course get to
decide their own cultural policy . This
includes
(a) Role of the mother tongue
(b) Role of English
(c) Role of Hindi
(d) Role of other Regional languages
This will ensure that the local culture gets first preference.
We need to encourage a Unity in Diversity model . I however support a basic knowledge
of ONE Indian language throughout the country
i.e Hindi (as English requires a formal education). It but let the realization come
voluntarily, let it not be imposed. Ideally
a neutral language such a spoken Prakrit
would have been better but now that Hindi has already spread
throughout most of India , it will keep spreading based on the Law of supply and
demand .We can no longer avoid it.
Several formulas are also available to judge
languages based on Historical significance,
Cultural importance, uniqueness, number of speakers etc ( A lot
of research has been done of this in the
past few years and while maintianing
national integration, such formulas can help
determine the budget spend on other Indian
languages). Dilopmas such as
1. master of all Indian languages
2. Master of Classical indian languages
3. Master of South indian languages
4. Master of Sanksrit, Gujarati, Hindi etc
5. Master of North eastern languages
can be awarded by the central government. Members of each language group can be represented
in a new body that is created to promote Indian languages.This will also give a place
to people from all language groups at the central government and promote national unity.
Alternatively , the centre need not promote any language. Leave it to the states.
This model is followed in the European union. However, certain Central government
organizations like the Indian army can use Hindi as one of their working languages.
Anonymous,
Youre write up was amazing..
You can put it as a separate blog.
and give a reference to the link
who told you that Hindi is the national language of India?
It is an official language like English. That's it.
Tamil people in south India are very proud of their own language. They speak Tamil for the last 2100 years. You cant now ask them to learn Hindi.
South Indians chose English as medium language to communicate with others. But people in North are stuck with Hindi.
India is a home for hundreds of native languages. You cant just pick one language (hindi) randomly and say that its the national language to all Indians.
English Ever, Hindi Never
friends,
there should be a single language to communicate in a country,
that doesn't mean that local language should not be taught,
but problem is that all other languages are being spoken by less number of people than if you compare it to Hindi speakers,
Hindi speakers are more than 41% of Indian population,
i agree with anonymous (that's me too) Hindi / Hindustani / hinglish could be used for communication only, or could be taught in their own local language or in English, as most people does on internet.
lets take example of USSR, all 15 countries had their own languages, but the accepted the Russian as national language coz that was the language of larger number of people, i dont think i should explain the sucessful developements of ussr over usa, people may not aware of that ussr was decades ahead of usa's techonology (we are aware of usa's technology only bcoz of english, european made a380 nd they proud of it, hv u ever heard Antonov225, just search on google, u heard concord, then type Topalov160 on google and compare them, i have long list, we are not aware of russians becoz of limitations on media and awareness of russian language).
and now after collapse u can see how are all 15 countries treated, only russia is in taken as super power, non other is in g8 countries, after collapse all are working in their own local languages, their culture has not been changed, their language is still alive,
russia is still 7 times of india, and have many local languages, but russian is acceptable in complete russia, they never fight for language.
china have much more local languages than india, and what they speak? English ? you know.
and now you may know the status of china, china competes usa, and after 45 years chinese gdp would be almost double of usa's,
50 years back, chinese were decade back to indian technology, even before 30 years there were few cars in china, now there may be no home in the world where chinese products are not used, chinese/russian/german/japanese etc learns english for their own sake, for business purpose. they teach everything in own language so that talent would not go out of country,
my friends how many people in your knowledge who studied here, and now working abroad, many of your friends may be doing this, its because they learn t english,
38% of Doctors in America are Indians.
12% of Scientists in America are Indians.
36% of NASA employees are Indians. 34% of MICROSOFT employees are Indians. 28% of IBM employees are Indians. 17% of INTEL employees are ndians.
13% of XEROX employees are Indians.
You may know some of these facts. These facts were recently published in a German Magazine, which deals with WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.
if they were not went out india must be ahead where we are now.
let me tell u the personal experience, 5-6 months back i was on business tour of tamilnadu, i was in chennai, I had to visit a company, i was not able to tell the same to a autorikshaw driver, he doesnt know the english nor hindi, is there any way how we can communicate, but he was very helpful person though,
same day i was asking for hotel to a group of 2-3 people, they were not able to understand english and hindi too, you cannot imagine how i was feeling that time, educated people can communicate in english, what will u do with rest of them.
i used to study in central school, there were defence personals children, i had 2-3 south indain friends and now i have 1 south indian friend too he is from kerla, he teaches his local language to his son, i asked him why r u teaching him your language as he is only 3-4 years, he told me hindi is very easy comparing to his local language, he can learn easily later,
hindi is spoken in every state of india, j&K,punjab,hp,uk,haryana,raj,gujrat,up,bihar,bangal,meghalaya(i dont know about far east, i hav to study)jharkhand,orissa,maharastra,rest i dont know, coz in our company i make calls to every state i listed and they speak in hindi when i speak, even with people of chennai, and banglore i talked in hindi,
and when any other local language in india is used out of the state there may be hardly any body who can understand.
friends i guess you can understand hindi,
thats why hindi should be the national language, english will create the gap between urban and rural as you told and also not good for growth
sorry its tupolev 144 not topalov160
its 16 mar 2010 today,
get a times of india and see the data
more than 550m ppl speak hindi in india only, english is by 125m (including hindi spkr too) third position is for bangoli with 90m,
rest each languages are about 50m-60m,
hindi is being used second spoken language for communication in every indian state after the local language, you can see the data
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