BJP: Hunting with Hindi and running with regional languages

Opposition to Hindi is more political than realistic?

Tamil Nadu (TN) has been opposing Hindi as the sole national language since the 1960s and this has helped DMK keep national parties in check politically in TN. AIADMK, an offshoot of DMK, the main opposition party in TN, inherited this policy. Almost all the political parties in TN are strong opponents of Hindi as the sole national language.

India accepted English as a link language indefinitely since Independence, though as an interim arrangement. Congress in the 1960s and BJP recently, have been trying to make Hindi the sole national language, terminating the use of English as a link language, and have been meeting with stiff opposition from TN.

BJP has been trying to come up with direct and indirect methods to accomplish its objective. Some of its top leaders (including Amit Shah, but not Modi) talked about it; the Central government put up some name boards and milestones in TN prominently in Hindi; it has been posting Hindi-speaking staff at Class 3 & 4 levels across India incl TN. The political parties in TN have been opposing these strongly.

Though opposition to Hindi from other non-Hindi speaking states was more muted in the past, their opposition has started becoming sharper and more vociferous, not only because they will be affected if Hindi were made the sole national language eliminating English as a link language, but also as an opportunity to hit out at the Modi government.

BJP spokespersons argue that they stand for use of vernacular languages in education, employment, and other realms, and they only oppose the use of English in India as we are no longer a British colony, and TN should have no objection to this.

In the absence of any other language to link the nation in respect of all communication and information, they appear to believe that Hindi will become the ‘de facto’ sole national-cum-link language. BJP appears to believe that ultimately all states will come around to accepting Hindi.

BJP thinks opposition to Hindi from TN and other non-Hindi-speaking states is only an emotional issue. Either it fails to realize that this move will also affect the livelihoods of people, esp the poor, in these states very substantially, favoring the people from Hindi-speaking states (as performance in their examinations or on their government jobs doesn’t require them to learn any language other than their own, whereas those from non-Hindi speaking states have to learn Hindi apart from their own language, creating a significant handicap for the latter ‘ab initio’), or it doesn’t care. I hope it’s former and not the latter.

Already, the Central government has been posting employees from other states to TN and other non-Hindi speaking states, even for jobs in Class 3 & 4 levels, which are the levels at which these employees come into direct contact with the general public.

Though employees from outside the state are expected to have a working knowledge of the local language, and towards this, they are supposed to have passed relevant examinations in the local language, the ground reality appears to be otherwise. Either these examinations don’t really test their language skills adequately or these candidates are able to pass these examinations somehow (?).

And on top of it, when the government says knowledge of English is not required in such staff, it will only lead to very strong discontent among the locals.

A counter clerk in a post office or railway station, or an immigration counter staff at the airport who can’t speak fluently in the local language will surely irritate the locals. If a counter clerk in Delhi, Bihar, or UP were a Tamilian who can’t speak Hindi fluently and who doesn’t know English either, how well would the locals tolerate it?

The fairest rule should be that Class 3 and 4 level jobs in Central government should be filled by locals.

TN and other states opposing Hindi as the sole national language want English to continue as a link language (and not Hindi) between their states and the Centre forever. Claiming that the Central government is trying to promote the use of vernacular languages more vigorously within the state in education is no alternative to this. Even making it compulsory for students from non-Hindi states to learn a South Indian language is no solution. This will be seen as an obfuscation of the issues.

Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, who is a supporter of the Modi government, has also been saying in many interviews that this is an ill-advised move. He says when India was divided into linguistic states, it was an unstated contract that all states and their local languages will have equal status, and no language can be favored over the others, even on the basis of a higher percentage of people speaking the language or multiple states speaking the language.

If Hindi is a passport to North India, English is a passport to the world. Just because we got liberated from the British, we don’t have to throw away everything they left behind. Did we demolish the infrastructure they built?

The Central government should give up any plans to make changes in the current language policy which is working well. This will not only continue to help in better national integration but also give better chance for BJP in non-Hindi-speaking states.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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Ganesan S

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