22 languages. Many dialects:

June 24/2014: The nation called India has 22 languages recognized by the Union government. We are surely not counting those innumerable dialects like Rajasthani, Bhojpuri or Kosali in this list.

Recently the central government’s directive to give prominence to Hindi in governmental functioning and postings on social media stirred a hornets’ nest. Protests, vociferous at that are fully justified. It is not only a question of dissent being integral to democracy. India is known to be a country with perse cultures and languages. That is the intrinsic beauty of this nation. Unfortunately, there are today but only a few who are willing to accept this wonderful nation as it is. The desire to ‘unify’ is a latent and obvious desire to squelch persity.

The Central government has responded to this anti Hindi uproar by saying there would be no change in the present scenario, but it did so only after it found the issue was snowballing into a major controversy.

The government has made it clear it has no intention of imposing Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states, and wants promotion of all Indian languages on an equal footing. However, all are not convinced. Prima facie, the move is part of a larger game. After promising the moon to the populace, Narendra Modi has succeeded in ascending the throne of the Chief Executive of this country. Climbing up may now seem easier then holding on to the bridle of a bucking bronco! According to the 2001 Census, some 42.20 crore people used Hindi as a language of communication. However, the same study showed only 25.79 crore used it as a mother language, thus implying that many people used the language in its true form.

The Official Language Department of the ministry of Home Affairs now claims this circular was issued on 27 May last, a day after the Modi government was sworn in. A natural question arises as to why this urgency on the part of the government to take up such a sensitive issue on a priority basis. Set against the fact that about 60 per cent of Indians speak a language other than Hindi, the push for Hindi has no democratic credentials. The fact that each of the other regional languages form the mother tongue of less than 10 per cent of the population deserves not only consideration but also protection. It is also a fact that the number of those speaking Hindi is showing a steady decline over last four decades. Those speaking Hindi are certainly a minority and that is more the reason why it should not be imposed on the rest of the country.

The Official Languages Act introduced in 1963 and incorporated in the Constitution state that all communications from a Central government ministry to a non Hindi speaking state or Union Territory Region’C’ shall be in English. It also guarantees that English shall be used for purposes of communication between the Union and States that have not adopted Hindi as the official language. We are aware that many Oriyas will scream in favor of Hindi to prove they are worthy of being used as servants by Hindi speaking people. That they do not have any love or respect towards their own mother language is evident by their such rhetoric. The argument put forward by Dravid Kazhagam leadership that if Hindi will be made the national language simply because a large number of people use it then the crow, usually seen in large numbers, should also be designated the national bird would sound justified now.

Promotion of Hindi as National Language is a bad idea as it will grow only at the cost of all other regional languages. Hindi cannot grow while other languages flourish. While social media is increasingly being accessed by the educated segments of the population across the world, there is no sense in limiting Indians to a language that would block them from access by the rest of the world. Let us not forget what China, a nation that many of us love to show as an example for everything good, has done in recent times. It has been encouraging its youth to learn English in its desire to rapidly take over the commercial environment globally. In such a scenario, Hindi would be of no help to those who do not understand it, mainly those from the four Southern states, Orissa, and the North East as a whole where people use their native tongues as also English to a great extent. A Central government that represents the hopes and aspirations of the people across the country cannot afford to be imposing a language on those who do not understand it.

There are reasonable doubts and worries among large sections of the people that the Narendra Modi government will sooner or later come up with its chauvinistic agenda associated with the Hindutva forces. The language issue is one such example that this new government is using, along with Article 370 to pert attention from key issues such as national security, population explosion, environment protection, farmers’ plight, food inflation and the well being of non resident Indians.

Prime Minister Modi may be comfortable with Hindi, and may even have problems with English. But, sensitive matters like the language issue need be handled with a broader frame of mind.