NATION MUST ACCEPT A NATIONAL LANGUAGE

Mukesh Devrari

Can Hindi be our national language? Sometimes people in North India wonder whether South Indians especially people in Tamil Nadu hate Hindi because of their love for their mother tongue or their hatred for Hindi is based on their new found love for English.

During the raj, British experts on South Asia used to teach newly recruited civil servants before deploying them on actual service that India is not a country. It is a loosely tied nation which could exist as one unit only because of the British Empire. Tamil Nadu and Himanchal Pradesh are more different from each other than Poland and Britain. India is ethnically and linguistically more diverse than Europe. Chinese still believe India is not a nation. It is too diverse to be a nation and loosely tied by the Hindu religion.  

English became the Trojan horse for India, initially, it was gifted but its actual purpose was to destroy India culturally. If India has any culture at all. There is no point in repeating the whole story. The role and impact of language on thought creation and processing is mostly underestimated because our common sense does not work as effectively as we would like to believe. Language can be considered as part of hegemonic design of the dominant group. It can be part of cultural imperialism. 

Nobody is forcing Hindi on any part of India, but it should be accepted as link language, because it actually is. In the absence of our own language Indian culture now is like a cross between western value system and ability of Hinduism to imbibe western ideals within the broader frame of Hinduism. In short, as the mule is a cross between a horse and donkey. Indian culture is a cross between western values and Hindu belief system. 

Modi government issued an order to government officials to use Hindi on social media to share the schemes and policies of the government. What is hegemonic in it? Is it that big deal as being made out of it? Is it a nefarious design of the people of cow belt to teach Hindi to Bengalis or Tamils? Almost all the languages in India have their origin in Sanskrit and perhaps Hindi represents the elements from all the regional languages. No other regional language is best suited to replace it.

Knowing good English is in no way a barrier in learning Hindi and any other regional language with it. If the Israelis can use Hebrew and English with equal efficacy. Why cannot North Indians learn English and Hindi both apart from their dialect and regional language?   

The very mention of the word Hindi gets a very adverse reaction from South India which spreads a lot of ill-will and compels others to think. It seems northeasterners, south Indians, Kashmiris or people of cow belt don't want to live in a single nation. If this country cannot even compromise on the need to have one Indian language to connect and unify the country. Then, it is better for us to chart our own ways and dismantle and break this nation into pieces.  

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