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Dr. Subramanian Swamy while celebrating Hindu Unity Day in US made the following comment:
He also suggested that Sanskrit, not Hindi, to be made the link language of India as it connects Indians to their past.
I have studied Sanskrit for 5 years and studied in Hindi medium school for 10 years and I can safely say that neither are link language of India. English for all practical purposes is the link language and I see no reason to discontinue it. This is our strength in the global economy enabling us to steal some business from China because of our language ability.
Hindi can not be a link language because there is much opposition to it not only in South but also Eastern India. Plus, they have Sanskritized Hindi so much that even I have difficulty understanding it, what about people who have minimum education in this language.
Sanskrit is a great language but I doubt if it ever was a speaking language. This is a great language to learn to get access to lot of ancient Indian wisdom, tradition and literature but nothing beyond that.
It is time to bring “Hindustani” back, which is an easy to understand language that have words that can be understood by both Hindi and Urdu speakers. Broaden its horizon by introducing words from local language and I am sure most of Indians even non-Hindi and non-Urdu speakers will prefer it over Hindi or Urdu.
Since Hindustani is associated with ganga-jamni tehzeeb and belongs to people of India, no one can associate it with any religion and tradition. It represents best of the Indian tradition and truly represent a modern India. Hindustani, as a language belongs to the people of India and can be linked to the bazars and streets of India.
This language can be officially in all the major scripts of India including roman. With software tools available it is not that difficult to convert one script to another.
Hindustani can also be given an international push and it can find lot of people who are willing to list it as one of the language that they speak. This will give English a run for its money, Hindustani TV channels, radio programs, and movies can win lot of converts not only in South Asia, but West Asia, Europe and US. This can be a big opportunity for India to have a great influence on a large number of world population fitting perfectly well with India’s aspirations for the future.
{ 31 comments }
Hindustani is already India’s unofficial link language despite what anybody might think. I have not seen anyone speaking shudh hindi or chaste urdu except in DD news programs.
I do not know from where Dr. Swamy came up with the idea of Sanskrit as the link language. I have studied Sanskrit till 10th standard and I do not doubt its capabilities as a language. What I seriously doubt though is Dr. Swamy’s mental balance. Despite its ancient tradition, how many native Sanskrit speakers we have in India? From where are we going to get qualified teachers and funds to train 1 billion people in Sanskrit? How much time we will need for this? And why do we need at all to start this monumental acrobatics when there are already viable alternatives available and obvious to anyone with a basic intelligence?
On the same reasons I do not think that English can ever be a link language in India except for a minority elite. We need to keep English for higher education and Sanskrit for our heritage. However, the only language that has a potential to become a link language in India is hindi (with broad based vocabulary support from other languages).
I think this is one issue where Indian muslims have taken lead over other communities. Almost every Indian muslim whether born in Kashmir or Kaniyakumari understands and uses hindi (I mean “real” hindi; not some non-existing version of hindi) as his link language. it is the majority community that is hopelessly fractured on this issue to have any meaningful solution.
Sorry for posting Off Topic, but can someone tell me if and how I can contact the writers of indianmuslims.in to request them to write/blog on a particular topic over here at indianmuslims.in? I’m interested on the opinions of the authors and the visitors in general on certain topic. Is there any other major blog (in English
) that primarily deals with Muslims?
Thanks! And sorry again for the OT nature of this post.
Anon:
Please send me a mail at mohib.ahmad[at]gmail.com.
Thanks!
The opposition to Hindi in the south has receded in recent years, at least amongst common people if not politicians. It is mostly driven by economic and practical considerations – there is greater mobility of people and a greater need to commmunicate with people who might not know one’s mother tongue or English for that matter. India will remain a country of many tongues for the forseeable future, but a large (and increasing) proportion of the country uses Hindi as a means to communicate.
Thus, I agree with Asad. Over time, the knowledge of English is increasing, but as of now, it is a link language only for official purposes and amongst the elite for non-official purposes. Otherwise, Hindi is pretty much the link language for the rest of the country. Whether we call it Hindustani or Urdu, the language remains the same (and most people refer to it as Hindi – so that is most likely to be the name it will continue to be known as).
Asad, try introducing this idea of Hindi as an official language in the south and see how far you get. (kashif, same for Hindustani.) I’m not sure that English is a “minority elitist” language, and even if it is, so what? The practical reality is that English is the language widely used – whether it be economics or science, and anyone who chooses to not learn English does so at his own peril, and probably limits his choices in life.
Also, I don’t really understand this idea to promote one single language at the cost of another one, or for that matter, this idea to impose one language on entire India. If you want to talk about national unity, why not propose teaching Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Kannada etc. in Northern states? The more languages we learn, the better. Instead of Hindustani or English, why not Hindustani and English? Why limit oneself?
Asad, in your knowledge, does Dr. Swamy have a pattern of making such statements, or is your assessment based on this single issue?
Dear Kashif,
There is a link language. You are writing in it.
All the stuff about it being foreign and all is irrelevant. Either you want a link language or you want cultural domination. In India you can’t have both.
Btw, most people outside the Hindi-speaking regions don’t even know the difference between Hindi and Hindustani. So it doesn’t matter.
[quote post="338"]does Dr. Swamy have a pattern of making such statements, or is your assessment based on this single issue?[/quote]
Dr Swamy is a fickle minded politician, when he speaks he does only to gain fame, his has demonstrated his fickle mind many times, as an example he was quoted urging people not be brainwashed by RSS propaganda in 1998, while recently he has started writing for the same RSS propaganda mouthpiece’ Organizer’. So the credibility of the man is highly questionable.
I can safely assume that this meeting of ‘Hindu Unity Day’ which Kashif is referring to would have a large South Indian audience which prompted Swamy to hit out at Hindi (remember he is a Tamil Brahmin himself)
@Amit
[quote post="338"]Also, I don’t really understand this idea to promote one single language at the cost of another one, or for that matter, this idea to impose one language on entire India.[/quote]
There is no question of promoting one language at the cost of other. A link language is a bridge, not an imposition.
Tell me if an Oriya peasant meets his counterpart from Andhra, which language is most likely to act as a bridge between the two? English? Oriya? Telugu? Or do you mean to suggest that there is no need for an Oriya peasant to talk to a Telugu one?
@Nitin
[quote post="338"]Dear Kashif,
There is a link language. You are writing in it.[/quote]
OK. Use this link next time to communicate in a village in Jharkhand or Malabar or Singhgadh.
English has served us well as a link language but when half the population of India is still illiterate we need a language that Indians can learn relatively easily and able to have the necessary communication skills to communicate with most of the Indians.
South Indians and Eastern Indians will never accept Hindi because firstly, they associate it with North Indian domination, secondly, they think their language is far superior.
What I am arguing here is to bring “Hindustani” back. Don’t tell me that it is same as Hindi and Urdu. Read any Hindi newspaper and you will know that it is not what a common man can understand. Same goes for Urdu, these two languages have grown apart since partition and it is best to leave them alone to grow and prosper.
What I am arguing for a simpler language which is more spoken than written and read, it may not be literary language in the beginning but a language which can be spoken and understood by most Indians that they can learn from cultural instruments available to them.
By using Bollywood, TV channels, and radio we can teach most of Indians to speak “Hindustani” this will bring down the barrier of language that we have.
English, Hindi and other language can continue to be the official language. But a common spoken language will go a long way towards bringing Indians closer to each other.
Spoken Hindi is the same as what you are referring to as Hindustani. It is referred to as Hindi and not Hindustani by ordinary people and will continue to be so, whatever semantic jugglery one may do. The Hindi film industry also uses Hindustani for the most part but will remain the Hindi film industry.
Also, the “southern” opposition to Hindi was limited to Tamil Nadu and even that is going away. I am from Tamil Nadu, by the way and every time I go back home to Chennai, I am surprised by the larger and larger proportion of people who speak Hindi (at least a little bit). The politicians are behind the curve as usual, but the people are learning Hindi for practical reasons.
Well, when northerners talk about a single language (link or whatever), how do you think it comes across to a southerner? Sure, there’s a difference of opinion among southerners (not all are en masse against Hindi) but I’d prefer any talk of a link language be initiated by the southern states rather than the northern ones, even though I grew up in the north and don’t know any southern language. Anyone who talks about a link language but is not willing to learn the other language is taking the easy way out and expects others to do the hard work. You feel like linking to a farmer from Orissa, then simple – you learn Oriya.
IMO that’s how we contribute to national unity. Maybe your example will prompt that Oriyan farmer or others to learn Hindi or have his kids do the same.
My solution is simple: have classes in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Bengali etc. in primary and middle schools in the northern states – every student should pick one regional language and learn it (even if it is at conversational level), along with Hindi and English. It’s proven that humans can pick up languages easily when kids. Then we can talk about Hindi/Hindustani as a link language for the entire country.
I have no idea how often this happens in real life to justify a national link language. I’d think that if those peasants have something useful to exchange, they will find an intermediary who knows both languages and can act as an interpreter between the two. Also, English can easily be the common language as can be Hindi/Hindustani.
I’ve heard about some southerners who didn’t know/learn Hindi but ended up working in the north, and not knowing the language affected them adversely and made them dependent. When more people realize that it is practical to learn Hindi, then they will. But, it has to come from them.
I find it ironic that we all are communicating with each other in English, yet some of us are talking about Hindustani/Hindi as the link language. It comes across as “yes, we know English, but others should learn a different link language.” Why this antipathy towards English as a link language when learning the language will open more doors is something I don’t understand. That’s all.
[quote post="338"]Spoken Hindi is the same as what you are referring to as Hindustani.[/quote]True, Girish. But how much resources does government provide for promotion of this language? What gets patronage as the link language is something that I myself cannot understand despite being born in a Hindi-speaking area. I think we have wasted tremendous resources to promote a ‘national’ language that no one speaks. Had we been pragmatic, we would have allocated our resources for the language that actually exists.
A part of reluctance against simplifying Hindi comes from political reasons. Any word that has roots going into the “dark” 1000 years of Indian history, needs to be purged and replaced with a “purer” word having its roots in 3000 BC. This has given rise to a language that no one speaks, yet is promoted as national language.
[quote post="338"]Almost every Indian muslim whether born in Kashmir or Kaniyakumari understands and uses hindi as his link language[/quote]
We do believe that and hope for that but many Bengali, Assamese and South Indian Muslims (esp from Kerela and Tamil Nadu) do not have any knowledge of Urdu/Hindi.
[quote post="338"]I have no idea how often this happens in real life to justify a national link language. I’d think that if those peasants have something useful to exchange, they will find an intermediary who knows both languages and can act as an interpreter between the two.[/quote]
Exactly. There is no sense to this argument- real communication rarely takes place at the laborer/peasant level across states. That only occurs among the educated classes who usually will communicate in English. Similarly when a Malayalee moves to Mumbai, they have to learn bambaiya hindi to survive, just as others moving to other cities in Maharashtra will have to learn Marathi to communicate. Why force any language on anyone else?
I am deeply puzzled and dissapointed with some instances on moderation on my comments. Thier was a piece I wrote borrowed from the link provided on the blog for an article by a pakistani journalist. While you can allow that you cannot allow if I replicate the same. In another incidence I quoted findings from the International Affairs & Human Rights Council about the Gujrat Episode. The same was blocked again. I try to present facts to argue better and if you keep blocking such facts and truth then I dont know what is the purpose of any debate. I spend hours on researching and trying to get some qualitative debate and you waste no time in nipping it. Hopefully you will prove me wrong in my future posts.
Asad:
Language politics has been unnecessary and wasteful. What is shameful is that we mirrored what our illustrious neighbors to the west did – they moved the language away to a highly persianized and arabized language that is quite unlike the Urdu I know in many respects. And we moved Hindi towards a previously non-existent language (although to a lesser extent). What any other country did was its business but we failed to realize that doing what we did was counterproductive.
In some respects, the opposition of the Tamil politicians in the 60s (which was the only obstacle at that time to the imposition of Hindi nationwide) was a welcome development. The problem is that while their argument against imposition was correct, their attempts to force Tamil and block Hindi to even willing learners was not. Fortunately, such arguments do not get public support any more.
Imposition of any language is wrong. But over time, English and Hindi have jointly emerged as the link languages. English as the link language amongst the educated elite and in Government circles. Hindi as the link language for other people. And no – it is not true that those who have mobility across states know English in any case. There are millions of migrant laborers and workers across the country who cannot speak a word of English – from farm laborers to construction workers to chowkidaars to truck drivers to….. For communication amongst these people (and even with the educated English-speaking folks), English is not a viable link language. Their numbers far exceed by several orders of magnitude the people who can converse in English. Thus, without imposition, Hindi is the link language that large numbers of people in non-Hindi speaking states use for basic levels of communication.
Achal:
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If your idea of bringing a sense of ‘qualitative debate’ is to promote Sangh parivar propoganda and hate ideology, then we don’t allow it here.
Cheers!
Girish, what you mention about the Tamil politicians in 60s and Hindi issue is what I’ve heard too. The effort/idea to impose Hindi resulted in a reaction to not learn Hindi at all.
I guess I want to question and challenge this idea of one national language as being essential to national unity. Given India’s diversity and the world we live in, is that practical? Is it possible without imposing it? And, why can’t a country have two different national languages and still be a united country? Is it written somewhere that there has to be only one national language? I also want to focus on the younger generation when talking about languages, because let’s admit it, not very many adults in India will make the effort to learn a new language unless and until it’s necessary for survival (with the exception of adult literacy programs in rural areas). That’s my perception, but I’m willing to correct it if others know better.
So, are we talking about teaching illiterate adults, or children in schools, or literate adults who don’t know Hindi, or all of them? Who are the target audience for this national/link language?
(so many questions)
I’m not saying that people and India as a country won’t benefit if everyone learns Hindi (ends) – I think it’ll be a positive step – but I want to spend some time discussing the means.
Asad,
Try speaking your Hindi/Hindustani in a town or village near Madurai, Kannur or Imphal.
A link language is not necessarily the mother tongue of the majority, but one which the majorities in the minorities are able to converse in.
” Plus, they have Sanskritized Hindi so much that even I have difficulty understanding it, what about people who have minimum education in this language.”
Hindus never complained about “Urdutization” of hindi. because we think it is part of culture.
[quote post="338"]Hindus never complained about “Urdutization� of hindi. because we think it is part of culture.[/quote]
Don’t tell me Raolin! There is a whole department whose job is to come up with archaic word replacements for common urdu words used in hindi. If today we find DD Samachar difficult to understand, it is not for nothing.
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