Being an Indian I accept Hindi as our national language. But that doesn’t stop me from asking why only Hindi was considered to be the national language of this country, when there are so many languages spoken by people living in different parts of the country. Are not these Indian languages as important as Hindi is? So I feel each language should be given equal importance.
I know there should be a common language for communication and all that, but seriously how many people coming from different parts of the country converse in Hindi? What were the criteria for choosing Hindi as our national language? As far as I know it is not the most widely spoken language. Anyway, I am not a person who would criticize someone for making Hindi as the national language, nor I’d disagree. Personally I’d find it hard to communicate with someone in Hindi. Though I’d Hindi as one of my subjects in school, there never was a situation where I’d have to use Hindi for communication. I mean I could do away with bits-and-pieces of Hindi.
I am just trying to analyze the facts that may or may not be the reasons for making such a decision. Did they want to push Hindi down the throats of non-Hindi speaking population? They wanted to prove their might? I know all these are negative and may not be correct from any angle and it’d be bad on my part to think on these terms. What makes me wonder in those lines is the fact that Sanskrit being the oldest language and Sanskrit being the language spoken by almost everyone in this country before the invasion of foreigners and Sanskrit being the most grammatically correct language and Sanskrit being the language which has its influence on all the languages and with so many other reasons still was not considered to be the language representing India! Why was Sanskrit sidelined? People say it’s a difficult language; it’d not have been so difficult if we had Sanskrit as one of the main language in schools and in 60 years there would have been so many people communicating in this great language. Other stupid reason, that I can think of, for not giving Sanskrit the respect it deserve is the stereotype that’s been attached to it as the language spoken by upper class people of India! Give me a break, why would people want to associate a language with a particular class of people? I had a poem in High School which had this line- “ Bharathi Iykytha Sadhakam Samskrutham” (Unity among Indians can be achieved through Sanskrit)- and people talk all kinds of unnecessary crap about the language! There are so many things I’ve to learn about this language and I have great respects for the language and one day I’m sure I’ll be able to fluently speak this language.
Saying all these I’m not trying to say that I’m against Hindi or any other language. I’ve all the respect for Hindi as well and I feel proud that I know Hindi along with other languages and I’m sure I’d be able to fluently speak in Hindi too in the future. I just wish people at least give little respect to the Sanskrit language and encourage young children to learn the language at school. Sanskrit doesn’t need our help but we need Sanskrit to understand so many things. Sanskrit has so many unknown (unknown to us-ignorant people) gems and richness and knowledge which would help us in a great deal.
I know there should be a common language for communication and all that, but seriously how many people coming from different parts of the country converse in Hindi? What were the criteria for choosing Hindi as our national language? As far as I know it is not the most widely spoken language. Anyway, I am not a person who would criticize someone for making Hindi as the national language, nor I’d disagree. Personally I’d find it hard to communicate with someone in Hindi. Though I’d Hindi as one of my subjects in school, there never was a situation where I’d have to use Hindi for communication. I mean I could do away with bits-and-pieces of Hindi.
I am just trying to analyze the facts that may or may not be the reasons for making such a decision. Did they want to push Hindi down the throats of non-Hindi speaking population? They wanted to prove their might? I know all these are negative and may not be correct from any angle and it’d be bad on my part to think on these terms. What makes me wonder in those lines is the fact that Sanskrit being the oldest language and Sanskrit being the language spoken by almost everyone in this country before the invasion of foreigners and Sanskrit being the most grammatically correct language and Sanskrit being the language which has its influence on all the languages and with so many other reasons still was not considered to be the language representing India! Why was Sanskrit sidelined? People say it’s a difficult language; it’d not have been so difficult if we had Sanskrit as one of the main language in schools and in 60 years there would have been so many people communicating in this great language. Other stupid reason, that I can think of, for not giving Sanskrit the respect it deserve is the stereotype that’s been attached to it as the language spoken by upper class people of India! Give me a break, why would people want to associate a language with a particular class of people? I had a poem in High School which had this line- “ Bharathi Iykytha Sadhakam Samskrutham” (Unity among Indians can be achieved through Sanskrit)- and people talk all kinds of unnecessary crap about the language! There are so many things I’ve to learn about this language and I have great respects for the language and one day I’m sure I’ll be able to fluently speak this language.
Saying all these I’m not trying to say that I’m against Hindi or any other language. I’ve all the respect for Hindi as well and I feel proud that I know Hindi along with other languages and I’m sure I’d be able to fluently speak in Hindi too in the future. I just wish people at least give little respect to the Sanskrit language and encourage young children to learn the language at school. Sanskrit doesn’t need our help but we need Sanskrit to understand so many things. Sanskrit has so many unknown (unknown to us-ignorant people) gems and richness and knowledge which would help us in a great deal.
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