Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Controversy over Hindi imposition' that was published in Newsband

Controversy over Hindi imposition

The language issue has acquired disproportionate importance. The ruling party is embarking on its second innings with a huge mandate. It does not have much of a presence in South India, barring Karnataka. It does not want trouble with southern States, especially Tamil Nadu.

The newly unveiled draft National Education Policy to mandatory teaching of Hindi in all States was withdrawn following an outcry from political leaders in Tamil Nadu.

The gist of the original sentence in the draft NEP was that in Hindi-speaking States they continued to study Hindi, English and one other Indian language of their choice, and those in non-Hindi-speaking States would study their regional language, besides Hindi and English. The revised draft merely says students may change one or more of their three languages in Grade 6 or 7.

The Constitution had adopted Hindi as the official language, with English also as an official language. Language is primarily a utilitarian tool. While acquisition of additional tools can indeed be beneficial, compulsory learning should be limited to one’s mother tongue and English as the language that provides access to global knowledge and as a link language within India.

The three language policy is totally good but the problem is that some politicians and parties of south find this type of policy as a political tool. The problem is not the people of those states. The people are keen to learn Hindi as a communicating language for the pan India and the whole population do not understand the English to communicate with each other.

Not learning Hindi as a language under political pressure is detrimental to the long term interest of Tamil students who cannot find all the jobs in TN and have to move out to other parts of India. All TN schools must provide opportunities to learn Tamil, English and Hindi to enable the students to learn Hindi if they wish. If a young IAS aspirant studies only Tamil and English and when posted outside TN in any northern state, he will feel handicapped due to lack of knowledge of Hindi. Imposition is not at all desirable but opportunities should not be blocked due to political activism.

How does a Tamilan converse with a Gujarati? Or a Malayalee with a Bengali? The permutations of the crisscross of India's language mosaic are endless. Hindi is an easy way to end the confusion.  A simple, practical knowledge of Hindi is what the center should have aimed for with persuasion and incentives - not imposition.

This is a political reality. In principle the understanding of HIndi by all citizens of India is a laudable objective. The lack of communication between the elites who have little knowledge of the language spoken by the majority has led to the current situation where the gullible masses are led into a garden path of past glory.

No attempt is being made to strengthen the institutions like the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha to carry the knowledge of Hindi to the masses. That is sad!