HINDI: NATIONAL LANGUAGE?


                                         Image by Harish Sharma from Pixabay 

                                                                




14th September is celebrated as the Hindi Day. The Indian constitution, in 1950, declared Hindi in Devanagari script as the official language of the union. But Hindi still stands as a second fiddle. It is often looked upon as an optional language in the government offices, especially in the Eastern and Southern states of the country. Instead, the foreign language English gets undue preference. Not to mention that even those areas where officials are adept in Hindi, they prefer to use English for all official conversations.
 

Even after completion of 73 years of Independence, repeated instructions of the Ministry of Home Affairs and several criteria set for the offices categorized as A, B and C, most of them do not meet the standards, when it comes to the directional use of Hindi. A major reason behind this is the mindset, wherein officials believe that flaunting English on files will make them superior and respectable in the eyes of those who know only Hindi. Why does use of Hindi for conversation makes anyone feel lesser in intellect and power? 
 
 
How come English penetrated our lives so much that, today it symbolizes better education, better culture and better intellect. It has come to be highly prevalent in administration, judiciary, education and even for literary purposes in India. It is expected that people in government jobs, irrespective of the state he/she belongs to, should be aware of the fact that Hindi is the most common language of our country but many do not know this. Even if they do, they refrain from acknowledging it. And due to our choice to live in denial, English continues to act as an indispensable ‘link’ language.
 

If we delve deeper in the article 343, of the constitution, we will know that it has always accepted Hindi (written in Devanagari script) along with English to be the official language of the union i.e. Government of India. The Indian Constitution already emphasizes on the use of Hindi as the connecting language of the country, but it seems the people are not ready to accept it. In my view, the time has come when Hindi should take its lead position and be declared as the primary official language of India.
 
In India 43.5 percent of the population speak in Hindi. What is the problem in making Hindi as the national language of India? The Vice President, Mr. Naidu said in June, 2017 that "Hindi is our national language and it is impossible for India to progress without Hindi. It is unfortunate that everyone is after English medium I want the nation to discuss, promote and learn our mother languages more and at the same time learn Hindi as well".
 
 
 
 
Also, there is a difference between a national language and an official language. While a national language would have a patriotic and nationalistic identity, an official language is one which is designated for communication at the official level. It is high time we acknowledge the two need and identify the issues that stops people from using Hindi as official language. Why are we so biased towards English? English was the language of the rulers in India and as a colonial subject we had no other choice but to learn English. There is no issue in knowing more than one language. In fact, more the merrier but why not have the same respect for a language born from our soil?
 
 
No language in India is conferred with the status of being a national language and we are still to get there. Gujarat High Court did observe once that majority of people in India have accepted Hindi as a national language, but there is nothing on record to suggest that any provision has been made or order issued declaring Hindi as a national language of the country. We definitely need one. National language is a driving force behind unity of the nation's people, and makes them distinct from other nations – provided you give your language respect. A national language represents the national identity of a country. It is considered as the preferred source of communication at every level and Hindi does provide that comfort. Instead of looking upon it, we should own it up with more respect.
 
The governments in power have often said that 'Hindi' is the national language of India. In 2018, the Ministry of Human Resource Development issued directives to all the central universities to implement Hindi as a compulsory course in the bachelor programmes. But all these efforts made so far have not been enough to ignite the love and pride for Hindi. The government should imbibe the spirit of action of the State of Israel.
 
 
 
When the State of Israel was formed in 1948, the government viewed Hebrew as the de facto official language and initiated a melting pot policy, where every immigrant was required to study Hebrew and often adopt a Hebrew surname. This was a significant achievement for the Zionist movement, which sought to establish Hebrew as the national language of the Jewish people and discouraged the use of other Jewish languages.
 
 
Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle had described Hindi as national language and called for its adoption. He suggested that Hindi may be developed as a link language. He perceived that it was necessary to make Hindi as people’s language by borrowing and blending expressions, words and idioms from other Indian languages. Secondly, he had also said that more attention was required to preserve and propagate “what we have in Hindi literature, but also to build upon the literacy treasure.”
 
 
It is true that the current government has been making efforts to promote Hindi. New schemes are being implemented annually to give a fresh impetus to the use and spread of Hindi in the ministries and departments. Every Ministry and department has an OLIC, TOLIC, Advisory Committees, various Parliamentary Committees and its role is only to promote Hindi but the result is not satisfying. But this is’t enough. We have a long way to go.
 
 
 
When the question arises whether Hindi should be our national language or not, it should not be decided on the basis of regional sentiments. Rather, it should be taken into account on the basis of ONE NATION, ONE FLAG, ONE LANGUAGE. Keeping this in view, Hindi does make a strong contender as national language because a large part of the country speaks, writes and understands Hindi. In fact, in a democracy it is the will of the majority and not a minority that has to prevail. Also, with Hindi being chosen, it will not lessen the aura of any other regional language but will give more strength to our diversity.
 
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