Accepting Hindi as
National Language
Every Nation has its own communication
language. No controversy has erupted in any Nation on language, because of
solitary existence of a particular language. However, in India it is a long
time controversy on Official, National and Link language. If we have a look at
Ancient Indian History, one can safely conclude without any controversy that
Sanskrit was the Link language among the Kingdoms in India. However, this
status seemed changed in the later years. The change in the status of a Link
language was the co-happening of the Rulers. As such the Link language was
coterminous with a particular ruler of a region. This was the reason that sometime
Sanskrit, other time Pali and sometime Prakrit languages dominated and became
Link language as per the choice of the Ruler. To be more explicit, the Rulers
who followed Jainism or Buddhism adopted Pali or Prakrit as their Link
language, whereas the followers of Sanatana Dharma i.e. Shaiva, Vaishnava,
Shakta, Ganapatya and Saura traditions of worship preferred Sanskrit, though
they promoted other languages also. Thus, this language controversy is not new
to India, but a dead old issue of our country. When India became independent, the
leaders were in a dilemma on the issue which language was to be made the
communication language of India. Later, when the opinion poll was conducted,
the then President of India cast his vote in favour of Hindi, why and how he
cast his vote in four of Hindi is a different story, from then onwards Hindi
became the communication language of India. Now, Hindi is widely spoken by the
most of the people and understood almost by every Indian, thanks to motion
films and various media. This circumstance led the Government to make Hindi as
Official Language of the Nation. Here it is to be noted that Hindi is
recognized only as Official Language and not as National language by the
Constitution. The leaders of yesteryears made a provision that as long as Hindi
is accepted by all the States or people of India, English will continue to be
the communication as well official language of India. Over 65 attentive and
conscientious years of democracy has lapsed, still we adopt English as our
communication language. This cannot be digested by any Nationalist. Hence, it
is time to wind up English once for all and think of a viable, practicable and
acceptable alternative. As this is a sensitive issue as far as the Indian
States are concerned, one cannot take a hasty decision and impose a language on
the federal States. Moreover, language is interconnected with the culture of
the people and represents their Heritage. As it touches the Heart, and makes a
human emotional and violent, if anything adverse happened to his language on
which human has developed his attachment as if an attachment with a baby or
mother.
However, these arguments on a
language are true as far as human-links with the language, but it should not be
the same with the foreign language - English that is an alien instrument
brought by the business class later imposed by the British rulers in India. In
that case, we Indians must have the same soft-corner and respect towards all
the foreign languages that were imposed by British, French, and Dutch etc.,
which dominated India in whatever way and whatever proportion of area they
ruled. As rulers they imposed English and other languages on us and made us to
feel that Education could only be possible through their language. This sort of
psychic imposing yielded them the result they desired. Among them, the British
succeeded in imposing English on us by affecting cognitive, affective and
psycho-motor domains of the mass psyche of India. We also behaved as they
wished as if we were hypnotized. As long as they ruled India, there was no
issue on language, as the official language English was inescapably imposed on
us. We were, due to more conscious about our subordination or our attitude
towards the British could not raise the language issue and kept quite till
independence. But when India became independent, we started our quarrel and clashed
against one language or the other. There was no forcing implement or imposing
fearlessness among our leaders or rulers that made us to raise our voice against
or for a language. The leaders thought in anticipation of resistance or a strong
and persistent struggle on the language of communication, unanimously decided
on behalf of Indian people the continuance of English as Link language till all
the States accept Hindi and Hindi become capable of being the Link language.
This wrong decision taken at that time complicated the issue further and made
it to be the strong political weapon in the hands of the language fanatics and
politicians. The States like Tamilnadu, Paschim Bengal, North Eastern States
and Jammu & Kashmir etc., resisted the decision. It is true to some extent,
in Jammu & Kashmir the local languages Dogri , Kashmiri and dialects are
almost at the verge of extinction because of the domination and over-croaching
nature of Hindi. Of course, beyond doubt the language Urdu also contributed to
this factor. The people of Tamilnadu also fear that accepting a National
language other than English will make Tamil wiped out or extinct. Of course,
the politicians make the issue more complicated and inject the feeling of
hatred against Hindi in them. Just as repeatedly told lie makes one to believe,
if the politicians talk about and against a common Indian Link language, the
people are forced to believe and a sizable population come to streets and
agitate. This attitude prevents the
Union Government from taking any decision on this issue. Of course, the
decision on a Link language had to be taken at the time of independence or at
the time of passing the Indian Constitution, in which our leaders of
yesteryears utterly failed. As a result this is being confronted by us. In
Tamilnadu, during Anti-Hindi agitation several youngsters sacrificed their
lives. Though in other States, this kind of agitation never took place, the
extremity of Anti-Hindi mood could well be perceived.
At thia crucial juncture, what
the Union Government could do is not to trigger the feeling of the people or
even the politicians of the Non-Hindi speaking States and make them start an
Anti-Hindi movement afresh. At the same time, the Government that means the
persons who hold the position of governing, particularly the Ministers should
mind their language and do not make such statements which provoke the people.
Even one life goes on this issue that would harm smooth governing. The Union
Government should approach in a polite and slow phase without hurting the
feeling of the people, till the people of all the States voluntarily accept
Hindi as Link language, till then the existing arrangement be continued.
Another solution to this issue is giving a serious thought of making Sanskrit
as Link language which would not face that much resistance among the most of
the States except Tamilnadu that could be tackled in a phased manner and
convincingly. As Sanskrit being the language of not any particular State and
being used from Himalayas to Kanyakumari in performing all rituals, as such
being a neutral and common language, it deserves the status of Link language
and could be easily adopted by the Union Government with lesser efforts and
with less opposition and resistance.
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