Among a plethora of diversities that we have in our country, the most prominent one is in the area of language. Countries have one language called National language and the language of business. But our country has the distinction of English being the language of business in most of the States and the Centre Hindi is the maximally spoken and written language. Then we have regional languages, some of these categorized as State languages. This is a confused and conflicting phenomenon. The Constitution determines Hindi as the official language while maximum of transaction is conducted in English. This serious divergence in regard to approach to linguistic problem has not been helpful. Additionally in some states people are very sensitive about language and firmly resent imposition of Hindi as official language. Even demonstrations have also taken place in the context of this controversy.
This has to be resolved and tempers have to be contained. English language is our heritage from the colonial rule. The freedom stalwarts could not do away with this language, and they were very right in not doing so. English opened the window upon us of fast developing science, technology and modern knowledge. Without this instrument we would have lagged far behind. Therefore any prejudice against English is misplaced and regressive. But at the same time since it is not our mother tongue, we need to develop the most popular and commonly spoken language in the country which is Hindi. It is rather myopic to associate it with northern India and then suppose that Hindi is being imposed on southern states. It has to be said that in Europe, people usually speak at least three languages besides their own and then it does not mean any disservice to the mother tongue.
It is wrong to associate Hindi with Hindus as is done in some cases. The word Hind is the Arabicized of Sindh of Sanskrit. The Muslim historians gave our country the name of Hafta Hindu instead of its Vedic name of Sapta Sindhu meaning the land of Seven Rivers. From Sindh it corrupted into Hind meaning the country where seven rivers flowed. Greek historian Herodotus gave the name Indus to Sindh from which India has been derived and used by western historians. What we mean to say is that Hindi historically and etymologically connotes the language of the people of Hind. It never connotes the language of the Hindus which, certainly from all evidence in hand is Sanskrit corrupted into Samskrit by Muslim historians. As such the people of the South should have no prejudice against Hindi as the language of the people of this country. Of course they have developed local language under various influences and there is constitutional protection to regional languages as well which will remain intact.
The President has made a bold and decisive statement by saying that Hindi has a special place among 21 existing languages of India because it is spoken, understood and written by maximum number of Indians. Tagore very rightly called it the ocean into which all stream flowed. Hindi has been derived from Sanskrit so have other languages been derived from the same source. But because it became popular among most of Indians it assumed special status which needs to be further supported and promoted.
But the President has been very right in warning that if we want to popularize Hindi and make it intelligible to ordinary people, then it must be simple in syntax. A very genuine complaint of non Hindi speaking people has been that soon after independence; Hindi fanatics stuffed this simple language with heavy, cumbersome and unintelligible Sanskrit phraseology and made it more of a riddle than a language. It was sheer prejudice and obsession and as such did not work. Therefore, if we want to popularize Hindi we must bear in mind that the more simple a language the more popular and richer it is. Take up any world class newspaper like Washington Post or New York Times or Times London, you will find their language so simple as a student of tenth class will have no difficulty in understanding what the writer wants to convey. The beauty and strength of a language is in its simplicity and direct impact. Therefore, the Hindi scholars in this country shall have to rise to the occasion and dismantle the aura of high sounding phraseology of modern Hindi. At the same time, hundreds of words of other languages especially English and Urdu and Bengali that have become so common that we unconsciously use them in our dialogue should be included in modern Hindi lexicon. These should not be subjected to purge. Additionally, the President has very wisely hinted at popularizing of Hindi website and use of Hindi in internet and mobile services. These steps will greatly popularize Hindi and a day will come when this language will become the great cementing force among the people in the length and breadth of the country.
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