Hindi Speaking Crow:

Nov 20/2013: Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India never was one big happy country. Kings and monarchs ruled their little or big kingdoms in their very own unique style, thereby creating very many little countries. The British empire, in it's colonisation craze, redefined the geographical boundaries of this sub-continent in the way that we know today. India is probably the only country in the world that has survived as a united entity despite humongous differences in language, religion, culture, ethnicity, food habits and practises in its various states and regions. And still somehow, oddly enough, everything stays glued together, more or less. In this respect it can be said that regional politics has succeeded in binding a fissiparious union by building on these persities. Although efforts to pide the nation have been a constant reality the moment it was born in the present shape on the 15th of August 1947, modern day India also is preview to similar mindsets within and without the country. The very existence of the thought of India is not only an irritant to many forces beyond the borders but also to inpiduals and groups who have been born in this country and benefitted from everything that is Indian. This is probably the only country where sedition and talks of pision are tolerated with unnecessary magnanimity. This is the reason certain groups and inpiduals have managed to survive in public life whereas in any other country they would have been immediately sentenced to the gallows.

Before anyone can jump to a conclusion that all this is being said to indicate one of the most unfortunate political figures of current times, Narendra Modi as being pisive on religious issues, we wish to halt that thought. Though not equally exposed as Modi in thoughts of fragmenting the Union, there are people like Mulayam Singh Yadav who are equally, if not more, dangerous and abhor-able. Let it be reiterated that after coming to power in Uttar Pradesh and propping his son Akhilesh in the chair of the Chief Minister, Mulayam and his Samajwadi Party have managed to create more than a hundred odd big and small riots within the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Mulayam Singh is a senior politician and a highly successful one at that. He is no fool. His word has been the last word in Uttar Pradesh politics for many years and more than ideology, it is his shrewdness that held him aloft in the state’s politics. Which is why his recent call for a ban on English in Parliament should not be viewed lightly. The call, made at a function to felicitate people involved in Hindi promotion in his constituency, should at best be seen as another of his negative acts intended to damage everyone and the whole country to solely benefit himself. By this pronunciation, Mulayam is obviously trying to enlarge his base from the confines of Uttar Pradesh to envelope the entire Hindi speaking 'cow belt'. This could be a desperate ploy of another Prime Ministerial aspirant to project himself before the 2014 elections as a larger than life entity.

Millions of people in this country do not speak Hindi. Even in a state like Orissa, partly bordering the Hindi belt, there are many who are not totally conversant with that language. If one takes a close look, there is no single connecting language for the whole sub-continent. This is what makes our reliance on English imperative. When a leader like Mulayam dares to say that English should be banned in Parliament, his chauvinistic and anti-national sentiments are clearly evident.

When an honourable Member of Parliament speaks in Hindi, an excellent translation system in the House works to reproduce the speech simultaneously in English, and vice versa. The system is so efficient that one would wonder whether the translation came first and the original speech next. It will never be viable to translate a Hindi speech simultaneously into all Indian languages, all of whose representatives sit and participate in the debates. Therefore, this pro-Hindi sentiment expressed by Mulayam has a dangerous twist to it. It is an indication of creating an exclusivity which is totally unwarranted at this stage of Indian history.

In saying so, at one level, Mulayam has proven himself to be one who is not in tune with the times; and by this utterance, he has further alienated himself from large parts of the country, and from sensible people from even the Hindi belt. Many would see the call as no more than a devious act and this from a politician who aspires to be the Prime Minister of the country.

Fact is, till some 20 years ago, there were a whole lot of people who subscribed to the theory of abolition of English from all walks of life in this country, including in the education field. Mulayam, of course, was one among those in the forefront of such a campaign. Age and experience should have put some sense into the minds of these campaigners. For, the world, as also India, has changed a lot in the past 20 years. The arrival of computer and internet, that networked the world into one, has played only a small, but significant, role in this change. The whole lot of white collar job opportunities that are coming up in this country, including in Uttar Pradesh, are the exclusive preserves of those who have proven themselves to be proficient in English. Country after country, city after city, where white collar jobs are concentrated, are testimony to this fact. Mulayam Singh chose an English-medium college in the South to educate his son, Akhilesh, before he sent him to Australia for higher education, much before he was made the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. What a leader preaches, he is expected to practise in his life as well; especially as people are watching leaders under a microscope.

Clearly, a leader who is accused of instigating religion-based rioting in his state to expand his vote base, is now sowing seeds of disintegration in a much wider context. A Dravida Kazhagam leader had once said that if Hindi is to be adopted as the national language because the largest number of people speak it, then with the same logic, the crow should be made the national bird. And why not? This argument may seem perfectly logical to quite a few people.

Whether one likes it or not, English today is the language of the globe. Even the French, who hated English to the core, have of late been changing their tune. The Chinese, who once detested English, are now eagerly giving their youngsters crash courses in English. It is not necessary to sail against the wind or swim against the tide just for the convenience of an inpidual. In a world of which we all are a part, that is increasingly becoming inter-dependent, seeking a ban on a language that is the main medium of communication all across, is pure blasphemy.