Being an Indian residing in a foreign country, I am sick and tired of being asked why I don't speak Hindi. I am not really annoyed with non-Indians asking me this question, but mostly with 'North Indians' who go on and on about why everyone in India needs to learn Hindi. And their ill-informed reason that Hindi is our national language drives me crazy. Now, lets set the record straight once and for all. Hindi is NOT our national language and if that is your argument then tell me, should we all be learning all the 22 or so official languages? Utter bull crap. Oh, and "life will be a lot easier if you learn Hindi, you can communicate with people from other states." Oh really? Why don't you travel to the south for a change and try to converse in Hindi, lets see how far that takes you. If these people are half as patriotic as they claim, they should all learn one South Indian language (like someone suggested). Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are also part of India, just in case you didn't know. Those of you who still are in this dream world where everything Indian is Bollywood, please read this .
12 comments:
India does NOT have a National Language
Part XVII of the constitution:
This part 17, defines an OFFICIAL language, NOT a national language.
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17.html
Article 345: This gives the State govt., power to decide its own "OFFICIAL LANGUAGE"
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17345.html
Article 343: This defines Hindi in devangari script and English to be the "OFFICIAL LANGUAGES" of union govt.
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17343.html
DIFFERENCE between National and Official Language:
NATIONAL LANGUAGE: Defines the people of the nation, culture, history.
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: A language that is used for official communication
While a National language by default can become the Official language, an Official language has to be APPROVED legally to become the National language.
All languages spoken in India, starting from the most populous to the least are our national languages, because all of them define the people of this nation, culture and their history collectively.
India has NO LEGALLY DEFINED NATIONAL LANGUAGES ONLY 23 OFFICIAL languages as per the constitution.
http://vetri-vel.blogspot.com/2006/12/india-does-not-have-national-language.html
you can find more info on language imposition in this blog.
Thanks for your comment anonymous, this is EXACTLY what I've been trying to drill into people's heads!
oh boy still ur pet peeve huh woman :)
anyways wat else is up at ur end
machan......... namma aaluma nee.... ivununga racha enga ponalum vida matengudu
I completely agree with you. Being a Kannadiga I do not speak Hindi. I can speak in Telugu, Tamil fulently than in Hindi. If any one asks me why you do not speak Hindi I say that it is not our language.
I request non-hindi people be it Tamil,Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Assam, Oriya to come out of this false propaganda of Hindi speaking people that Hinidi is the national Language. No where in our Constitution it is mentioned that Hindi is the National Lanugage. It is just one of the Official lanuages of our country, as other lanuages of the state.
Even though I am a Hindu I do not speak Hindi. Please note the real lanuage of Hindus is Sanskrit not Hindi!
Well written dude. You just reflected my feelings that I myself had when I met with my fellow Hindi speaking Indians. You won't believe the level of ignorance that these hindi speaking people carry with them :o
Instead of getting irritated it would be nice if you could just educate the "ignorant" mass about the reality...till a couple of days back, I didn't know about this fact... in schools we have been taught that Hindi is the national language and hence the misconception...
^^
I did try to educate as much as I could...but I was met with reprisals and angry looks. I am not saying that everybody is stubborn... but its really tough to deal with them.
Excellent Explanation.......The same i do everyday i meet a North Indian...who just simply asks an idiotic questiion. Y don u learn Hindi
Instead of fighting on HINDI.. I would sincerely request people from different states promoting there regional languages to keep Hindi/English as part of the curriculum.. I agree, Hindi is not National Language but given first priority as an Official language.. AND plzzzzzzzz do not say that it's North indian who asked you about hindi... This just divides us... even people from west and east don't understand southern regional languages and vice versa...
Heart-to-heart and the first Anomynous,
Excellent job! I am a Marathi who is fluent at Hindi. However, that is simply by choice. Had someone tried to force Hindi on me, I would never ever have learned it at all. To me, that wouldn't have been any different than the East India Company's slow progress into the Indian soil.
Anyways, I am glad that you guys are tying to make it crystal clear that Hindi is not our National Language... but just one of the 23 official languages. Leave the politics of power aside, but this probably is what Raj Thakre is trying to educate Maharashtrians at this time. Hope nobody tries to impose Hindi upon others.
I completely agree with you all. As one of our anonymous friend I am also Marathi and I am quite fluent at Hindi. But I believe it should be one's choice to choose which languages he wants to learn than forcing it by any law and by stupid-narrow-minded (SNM) people.
I do respect all the local languages and I try to learn the language they speak in the area I am living. Making one language compulsory for global(and here global covers only North India - By again SNM people) growth is shit! If one wants/likes to learn then its fine. But nobody should force it!
By the way, not all north Indians think this way, though majority does. I get surprised when even few Marathi's think the same SNM way.
On the other side, I heard (from local friends of mine from chennai) that TN gov has removed subject 'Hindi' from language electives for schools. I find it SNM action too. (If at all its true) If one who is staying in TN wants to learn Hindi cause of his interest (or any other reason), he should at least have option to choose the language. [Plz notice I am not asking to make Hindi as mandatory language in school, but optional] I also heard they have French as an option but not Hindi! If you consider MH state board, it has lot more than 100 languages as options spanning all over world and that includes Indian languages too.
Just a thought! I think everybody should be open to all languages and it should be personal choice to decide what languages he wants to learn.
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