Hindi is our mother tongue, we know that but ever noticed what common language we all speak..?The answer is surprisingly English! Yes it is..!!Okay you don't believe me..Fine..But you will..after you finish reading this post!!
India is a multilingual country with some 347 languages respectively.India is not so a big piece of land yet it's southern part is totally different from it's northern part and the same goes for it's eastern part and western part in terms of customs, religion followed, way of living and language spoken.Travel to any part of India and you will come to know the unity of the culturally diversified nation by the warm hosting spirit in every resident of the country but the sight of our mother tongue being neglected by it's people only leaves a gloomy impression on one's mind, atleast me! Ever thought what's the common language that you can communicate with throughout the nation? Ever noticed that it was English that made you communicate with a common man on the road or the cashier of a supermarket in the part of the nation other than where you belong to!
A few days back I was travelling to Kolkata,the first business capital of the Britisher's in India, a city still intact with the scent of the culture and sophistication that Britisher's brought with them, when they first landed at Calicut. Bengali is the local language of the place, no wonder, but the language with which I was able to communicate with the locals in the streets and the market was..English and not Hindi !They all knew Hindi but not better than English.!! Surprised?? Don't be!! Because there is much more for you to know about the common language being spoken in India.
Hindi is taught at the primary level in the schools along with the additional foreign language ,taken as mandatory language to be studied by every Indian,Ever thought why we are taught English and why not any other Indian language?Ofcourse sanskrit might be coming to your mind right now but still that too is taught till class eight ! or class tenth to be precise if you opt it for Hindi! Okay English is popular and spoken in most of the foreign countries but does that mean that we should keep our mother tongue at par? The article is not about scolding people for the usage of English but it's about why not use Hindi as the common language to communicate in the part of the world where it is respected as the national language!
The article is not about abandoning the usage of English, it's about using Hindi equally with English. In the present society we all judge others by how fluently one can speak English, by the excellent vocabulary he/she possess and how able that person is when it comes to writing, but ever thought why Hindi is never considered from the same point of view? Why is it not that the high elite clas considers speaking Hindi a respected act rather than a taboo in their official and social gatherings. Why is that one has to be a good speaker in English no matter how much knowledge he holds for his mother tongue! Why is that one's perfection in English leads to judging one's family status,knowldge and sometimes even you oen status! I guess it's high time that we, the youth of the nation should pay attention in bringing back the lost glory, pride and respect of our mother tongue,Hindi, because as said by some political leader( forgive me for not remembering the name I am really bad at politics) "The power of the nation lies in the hands of the youth ".We can always have a command over any other language we feel like learning but at the cost of losing the knowledge of our mother tongue because that would be unfair, not only to the language, we were born to be proud of, but also to one's pride and dignity !
It doesn't matter what's correct, What matters is what's right ! and I guess the right thing in the present scenario is to leave no stone unturned to return Hindi it's lost pride!
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6 comments:
That's a nice one and a real eyeopener.
i don’t deny with u.. That is the real time scenario but this scenario exists in all cities not in all villages... India is a nation with lot of villages.. Still now its in our hand to safe guard our languages... it could be hindi or tamil or whatever... but the decision is not in our hands.. its with the politicians... all these languages can be safe guarded through education systems in Indian languages... i mean u can make degree programs like B.tech in tamil/hindi... still now we don’t have technical degree in tamil.. I dono abt hindi… that will make ppl to use the languages for research papers and slowly the dominating English will move away.. its similar to how Germans still make there home language alive even though they are so close to the English empire.. All degrees are available in German.. u can get laptops in german… In India did u get any laptops only with hindi/tamil?? If they offer also we are not interested to purchases, this is the truth… because we cant live without English, it gives us food and wealth.. I mean it offers us lot of jobs :) … soon our nation will surpass US and get a name.. u knw wat is that?? The country with highest English speaking population in the world :)…. India the great :)
Sabhi ko Namastey
I am impressed by the intense discussions and debate.
Well said Madeeswer!
English is a basic requirement to study in any good college or even to do a job in any company or industry. The life we live is pretty English. Why? Well the terminology used in our books is english, be it Engineering books, or Commerce books etc. Most of the appliances we use in our very own homes are denoted by their English names, like refrigerator or fridge, laptops, sink, almirah, etc. I mean who knows the Hindi word for Cricket(India's favourite game), trains, Shirts we wear etc.
Their are LOADS of examples to say that "We cannot live without English, specially the urban youth". How would it sound if the announcements made at railway stations are in pure Hindi..."sabhi yatrigan dhyan de, patiala se amritsar jaane waali LAUH PATH GAMINI pratham platform pe padhar rahi hai". Oops "platform" is a English word with no Hindi translation.
Well while reading about Hindi vs English here, I remembered few incidents of my 1st year of Engg here at MIT. In 1st year we were taught not by the Proffesors but by their assistant professors. These guys try there level best to communicate with us in English but everytime they spoke their HORRIBLE English in funny accents, we laughed harder and harder.
One of those teachers were "Asst. Prof. Nirmal"..
His pet dailogue was:-
"please open windows, let the airforce come inside !!!!"
@Rishab:
I totally object your comments.
In Tamil Nadu, they will use pure Tamil to communicate in railway stations. I never saw any one laughing because of that. Even though you support so much for English, still now in Australia if they want to chase you out of train then they will push you out. They never mind whether you got an English degree in Oxford or Harvard University. The only place where we will get full respect is India. So pay full respect to our nation and its assets (national languages). I agree, today the food might be given to us by English. But this life is given to us only by Indian people and its languages. You might wonder now what Indian languages does to you??? During freedom struggle every one doesn’t know English other than few, so Indian languages played a key role for communication between freedom fighters. All the freedom you have now inclusive of commenting this blog is given to u by our Indian languages. So pay full respect to it. Speaking English is similar to how child speaks. We will start speaking English with lots and lots of mistake and later we will get corrected. It applies for me, you and every one, even for the English men. I really appreciate Asst. Prof. Nirmal guts to speak in front of the people who don’t deserve him and tease him a lot.
Hats Off to you Nirmal….
Yes, correctly.
That's a nice one and a real eyeopener.
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