Public Forum
New Delhi, 2 July 2014
Linguistic Chauvinism
PUTTING CART BEFORE HORSE
By Chanchal Chauhan
Social networking websites are the buzzwords in the
corridors of power. Specially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly
gave directions last month to his Ministers to open their respective Ministries
accounts on sites like Twitter and Facebook and supervise them. Further, they
should inform about major decisions taken on their Twitter accounts.
This is not all. He asked his colleagues to use Hindi on the
social networking platforms, followed by another move to encourage linguistic
chauvinism in the Central Secretariat. Towards that end, a circular announced Rs
2000 prize to two employees who do their official work mostly in Hindi. True,
this diktat is not new as it has been the practice with all previous Governments
to promote Hindi as the official language. A ritual which signifies nothing.
Predictably, the Prime Minister’s linguistic chauvinism to
use Hindi led to a furore and was criticised by those who thought it was an
affront to our tradition of unity in diversity.
Till, the Government clarified the order was only for Hindi-speaking States.
Recall, during our freedom struggle some leaders gave the slogan
of ‘Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan’ whereby Hindi came to be treated as our national
language in the Constitution. Notwithstanding, the slogan ignored the ground
reality that India
is a multi-lingual, multi-national and multi-cultural country boasting of plurality
and unity in diversity.
During the initial years, Hindi chauvinism led to riots and
protests in many regions. The NDAII clarification has averted a similar
situation in areas which are sensitive to imposition of Hindi specially officers
who work at the Centre. Pertinently, there is a big chunk of officials in Ministries
who come from South India and imposition of Hindi
would jeopardise their work and efficiency, leading to chaos.
One can understand the problem faced by many Ministers who
might not be the well-versed in English or like Modi prefer to communicate in
Hindi. But the moot point is: Will the use of Hindi in file work and reports
not be equally problematic for those who do not understand Hindi? Perhaps, even
Hindi scholars might find the language used in Ministries difficult to decipher?
Also, Ministries reports on websites might not be seen?
As it stands, the budgetary allocation for Hindi is spent only
on translation of reports, letters and answers to Parliamentary questions. Additionally,
there is a ‘Central Hindi Directorate’ which spends huge amounts on Hindi as
every Ministry uses English in work. Thus, orders to use Hindi cannot help till
it does not address this fundamental problem as it does more harm than good.
Arguably, one needs a sensible approach to the Hindi usage question.
Notably, the Central Government gets representation from across the country in
various languages and people should get replies from the Centre in the same language.
But this is not done. So, instead of having ‘Hindi units’ in each Ministry,
there should be a ‘Translation unit’ comprising translators in all Indian
languages whereby people do not feel their language is discriminated against.
Besides, basic information, orders etc. should also be
available in all languages. Ministers and officials not well-versed in English
should be asked to learn the language instead of wasting money on teaching
Hindi to them. Also, the practice of spending Government money on prizes for
Hindi books or celebrating the ‘Hindi week’ should stop.
Furthermore, one should not ignore that English has become
the part of every day work of a large number of people given it is a necessary
tool for learning the latest technology required for jobs in India and abroad. Consequently,
English usage has turned Hindi as useless to get jobs. Therefore, one should
look at the problem from this angle, not from an emotional or chauvinistic
outlook.
Importantly, across the country many private English
teaching shops are mushrooming to meet the surge of people wanting to master
the language. Why can’t our Ministers learn English to perform their duties
efficiently? Why is the Government putting the cart before the horse?
A cursory look at the status of Hindi and other regional
languages at any university underscores that while brilliant students opt for
professional streams like medical, business management, engineering, computer
science, information technology etc, the second rung choose commerce, economics
or English and the laggards pick Hindi, Sanskrit or another language.
Likewise, those who opt for Hindi-medium face the problem of
books in subjects, papers and hardly find any relevant material in Hindi while English
students get the latest matter in libraries and Internet. Our Hindi ‘chauvinists’
have not addressed this problem.
Significantly, Hindi has still to evolve into a standard
language specially in keyboards as different keyboards pose a problem as do
‘fonts’ which are not inter-changeable unlike English keyboard which has a
universal pattern and fonts can be converted easily. Resulting, in the huge budgetary
allocation going down the drain. Perhaps, Hindi chauvinists are unaware of these
technical problems and therefore indulge in ‘slogan-mongering’ to make Hindi the
official language at the Centre.
Not a few assert as the BJP got only 31% votes, its
Government at the Centre does not reflect the majority choice. Similarly, Hindi
too is not representative of a majority as many in ‘Hindi speaking’ areas too
do not speak it preferring their bhasha.
Be it Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Haryanvi etc and want recognition of their
mother-tongue.
Clearly, Hindi is not the language of a ‘nationality’ per se
as is the case with foreign languages which espouse the country’s literature
and culture. Obviously, Hindi has still to go extra miles to evolve as the
national language as there are no short cuts and neither can official orders
make it so.
All in all, our leaders should exercise restrain and understand this
ground reality. Instead, they should work on promises of ushering ‘acchhe din’ for the common man who is hit
by sky-rocketing prices, hike in rail fare, gas and petrol-diesel despite crude
oil prices falling in international markets leading to higher transportation
costs, electricity and essential commodities. ---- INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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