Of Bharatiya passion and “phirangi” thoughts…
Aditi Goyal from Bharat Uday Mission recently wrote this essay – worth a read.
Some excerpts below:
“About 3 days prior to a national holiday – the independence day of India – I along with my desi phirangs thought of being patriotic and decided that all of us will converse in Hindi, the national language of India for a week. To hell with a week we hardly could converse in Hindi without using a single English word and formed a new language popularly recognized as “Hinglish”.
…It is indeed astonishing that most of us are gradually losing pride in our own national language (and amongst)…the so-called “elite” class (those who) choose not to speak in this overrated language i.e. English are looked down upon.
Our big shots in Bollywood industry who are earning arabs and kharabs of moolah because of this golden egg laying hen – Hindi – surprisingly never come and say thanks in Hindi during the Oscars of India “the Filmfare Awards”.
…lets discuss…the situation in our own schools and colleges where students not well versed with the English language are labelled as “gautis” and “vernis”.
…I do not say we should just stop speaking English altogether and adopt Hindi for everything but what I want to convey is that we should not forget our roots and our national language our uniqueness, the language of Indians, “Hindi” because Indianess just doesn’t come from hoisting a flag twice a year and singing the national anthem daily, it is something that has to come from within.
In the end to put the icing on the cake, though I am very sure that everyone would not be convinced by my arguments and the biggest question mark – why is this article in English? the reason is, this article is intended towards those who wouldn’t give a freaking trash to glance over a Hindi article….
…which reminded me of something else that I had written a while back: “Deprivation’s real cause: English“.
In that post, I wrote that one of the “dreams” I have is to have a piece of software that could translate this blog in Hindi and Indian regional languages so that more people can access it and read it.
I could of course choose to blog in Hindi but there are numerous practical difficulties (keyboard layout/ my Hindi typing speed etc) a podcast may be a viable ideabut I have not tried it yet.
Which brings me to Lokmanch – the newly launched Hindi news portal… I highly recommend it for anyone and everyone who is conversant with Hindi and wants to feel the pulse of the “real India” (the one hidden behind the LCD TV sets and latest Ford models). I was fortunate to meet Shashi Singh and Amitabh Tripathi (the brains behind the portal) a few days back and I wish them every success in their endeavour…we need more like them.
.
UPDATE:
Hindi is not the *national* language but the *official* language of India. Please see my comment dated 2nd Jan ’08 below. Thanks
Image courtesy: Wikipedia
Ati uttam! Jaisa ki aap ko udyat hai, main kai pradeshon mein reh kar badi hui hoon. Atah, main kaafi achchhi Hindi bol aur likh sakti hoon. Mera ek malayali dost mujhe kehta tha – baat kar, samachar mat padh! Aap kalpana kar sakte hain ki meri Hindi uss ki samajh se kitni door thi!
Bhasha ki apne aap mein koi keemat nahin hai, sivaay iss ke ki hum bhasha ke madhyam se apne vichaar vyakt karte hain. Bhasha sthir bhi nahin hai; vishwa ki sabse sundar aur aadhunik bhashayen nirantar naye samaantar karti rehti hain. Mera vishwas hai ki Hindi ke liye yeh niyam alag nahin hai; sadiyon se Hindi ki badhat kai tarah ke saanskritik aur aitihaasik prabhaavon ke kaaran hui hai. Hindi duniya ki sabse vaigyanik bhasha bhi hai. Jahan tak main jaanti hoon, duniya mein aur kisi bhasha ki varnmala Hindi ki tarah nahin hai, jahan aksharon ke varg humen ingit karte hon ki akshar gale mein kahan se bole jaate hain!
Yadyapi Aditi ke iraade nek hain, mujhe vishwaas hai ki agar hum vaartalaap karen, to shayad usse meri aadhe se zyada baaten sanajh nahin aayengi. Yeh kehna kathin hai ki log Hindi iss liye nahin samajhte ki bolte nahin hain; ya phir bolte iss liye nahin ki samajhte nahin hain. Angrezi ko laanchhan dena kewal adhuri kahani batata hai…
For those not conversant or patient enough:
Very good. As you know, I grew up in several states in India. Ergo, I can speak and write Hindi very well. However a malayali friend of mine often used to exhort me to speak, not to read news. So you can imagine how hard some of the things I said were for him to fathom.
In itself, language has no value, except that people express their thoughts using it as medium. Language is also not an unchanging entity; the most beautiful and modern languages in the world constantly absorb new things. I believe this rule does not change for Hindi; over the centuries, Hindi has evolved through many kinds of cultural and historical influences. Hindi is also the world’s most scientific language. As far as I know, no other language in the world organises its alphabet by where the sounds originate.
Although Aditi means well. I am confident that she will not understand half of what I say, were we to chat in Hindi. It is hard to say whether people do not speak Hindi, because they do not know enough or the other way round. Blaming English for it however is only part of the story.
“Indianess just doesnt come from hoisting a flag twice a year and singing the national anthem daily, it is something that has to come from within.”
I agree with the sentiment, but except for the status accorded it in the Constitution, Hindi is not the only way to be Indian. The Constitution also recognises 26 or so other languages and in my experience. Most South Indians, Bengalis, Marathis, Punjabis take pride in and speak their language regularly. Only URBAN Hindi-speakers are unique in not knowing their own tongue well enough. Go venture into UP, MP, Bihar or even Rajasthan – Hindi is alive and well and thriving…
Shefaly,
Dhanyawaad…ek chhote se pratyuttar mein bahut saari acchi baatein likhne ke liye.
Aaj thoda vyast hun atah ek do din mein inke baare mein thoda soch kar likhne ka prayatn karunga.
*** For non-Hindi speakers ***
Thanks for getting in a lot of good ideas in your response.
I am little busy today but will write more in a day or two.
Your Eagerness and curiousity is our strength.
I agree with this topic and comments by all.
Also I do feel that It’s nothing wrong to be fluent in many languages. It is a proud and draws admiration . But in case of India, English has become the symbol of status. Majority of class in India thinks; only english can make us look educated and well mannered. Those who lack this status are look down upon, and are treated as inferior class. There is an existing discrimination because of English in many sectors of daily life. I see behaviour of this so called English speaking class as more of a dumb (inferior complexity) class. Why this discrimination? It all depends on one’s interest in literature or becoming multilinguistic, definitely its not a symbol of status or to show one’s superiority over others. I wish people work more to change their complexes.
Shefaly:
Tippani ke liye dhanyawaad, paruntu mein aap se thoda sa asahmat hun…Aap likhti hain ki “bhaasha ki apne app mein koi kimat nahin hai”. Mere vichar mein Bhaasha ka sanskriti
se pragadh sambandh hai. Doosre shabdon mein kahun to bhaasha hamari sanskriti aur sabhyata ka pratibimb hai – inki chhavi hai. Mujhe bhay hai ki hum is dharohar ko dhire
dhire bhula rahein hain aur mera sanket kewal hindi nahin parantu saari bharatiya bhashaaon ki or hai.
Aapne age likha hai ki “bhashaa sthir bhi nahin hai” – ye bilkul thik hai – sthir rahni bhi nahin chaahiye – paruntu pragati aur badlaav ka arth yeh to nahin ki hum bhaasha ki aisi
khichdi bana dein jiska anand na angrezi bolne waale utha payein na hi hindi bolne waale?
Samasya angrezi bhaasha ki bhi nahin balki angrezi manskita ki hai…udaharan ke liye, hindi athva anya bharatiya bhashein bolne waalon ko kum buddhiman athwa dehati samajhna
ya, hindi va anya bhaashaaon ko apne aap mein hi heen samajhna.
Ant mein ek baat aur…hindi ki aaj jo paristhiti hai uske liye hamari filmein bhi thodi doshi hai – jin mein hindi shabdon ka prayog nirantar ghat-ta hi ja raha hai.
Vaise yeh to sach mein vichar karne waali baat hai ki “log Hindi iss liye nahin samajhte ki bolte nahin hain; ya phir bolte iss liye nahin ki samajhte nahin hain”!
Mein pratyuttar ki pratiksha karunga.
Anya pathak bhi krupaya tippani karein.
Indian: Thanks for the comment. You have rightly said that theres “nothing wrong to be fluent in many languages”. The problem is the “mentality”/attitude that assumed all non-English speakers are somehow inferior, incapable or uneducated.
P.S. My mother tongue is not Hindi.
Shantanu, I know your mother tongue is not Hindi
As you know, my first language was the same as your mother tongue, although my mother tongue is Hindi. That, in my experience, is very good preparation for speaking a purer form of Hindi than speaking UP-style Hindi which has much Urdu and Pharsi mixed in it.
Jyon ki bhasha sanskriti ka pratimbimb hain, lekin sanskriti ka maapdand kya hai? Sahitya? Sangeet? Yeh sab bhi antatah vichar or bhawnayen hee to vyakt karte hain. Agar yeh abhivyakti band ho jaye, to bhasha kiss tarah jeevit rahegi? Mera vichar hai ki agar vichar ya bhawna vyakt karne ke liye bhasha ka upyog band ho jaye, to bhasha dheere-dheere mar hee jayegi. *
Aap ki tippani, ki samasya angrezi mansikata kee hai, bilkul sahi hai. Main uss ko angrezi nahin ghulam-mansikta kehti hoon. Mera kehna yeh tha ki abhi bhi Hindi bolne wale pradeshon mein adhiktar jan bahut achchhi Hindi bolte hain; kewal shehri log hee hain, jinki Hindi ka bhi Ram malik aur jinki Angrezi to tauba-tauba..
Aap ka kehna ki chalchitra ka bhi prabhav pada hai bhi theek hai. Hindi chalchitra ke geet aaj kal ek angrezi sunai dene wale tareeke se gaaye ja rahe hain, jise sun kar mujhe hansi zyada aati hai aur anand kum hota hai..
Mera vichar hai ki gharon mein aur vidyalayon mein Hindi ki neenv theek se nahin padti. Phir jo ped ugta hai woh daanvadol hee rahta hai. Atah ye samasya bahut goodh hai aur kewal ek ya do cheezen badalne se shayad itna prabhav na pade.. Shayad mera drishtikon nirasha se bhara hua hai, lekin mera vichar hai ki pariwaron aur shikshakon ke abhav mein Hindi shayad kaafi bhugat rahi hai…
* Mark Abley’s book ‘Spoken Here’ chronicles several dying languages incl one from Eastern India which is so rich and expressive it has words for things such as ‘falling unknowingly into the well’.
Shefaly: Mera “PS: My mother tongue…” wala comment tumhare liye nahin balki is liye likhaa thaa ki koi pathak yeh post padh kar mujhe “Hindi-bhashi”/ “North-Indian” fanatic na samajh baithe.
Aur ek baat, drishtikon mein niraasha bhale hi ho, vicharon mein aasha mat chhodnaa.
there is one technical error.
hindi is not national language of India. Its a lie
Dear Srikanth,
Thanks for your comment. I will dig out some more information on this – in particular, whether Hindi is a “national” language or an “official” language.
As an aside, unlike what is commonly believed, English is not one of the original “18 official languages”.
At the time the Constituion was adopted, it was decided that English would continue to be used for a period of 15 years for all official purposes.
However, in 1967, it was given the status of an “associate additional official language”.
Thanks Sir, to be back on the roll. I was missing the great excahnges on this blog. UH!
I feel that Indianess arises not out of speaking an Indian language but being what you are. If you feel any infradig at talking your mothertongue it is one’s fault and not that of English.
Let us learn to respect ourselves as people of Bharath, First, and I am sure we will feel more Indian in a very shortwhile.
If one feels superior because one is able to talk in English and the other is not then the fault lies with the person not knowing English, and that is because he is unable to convey to the other person that he is an Individual and he feels language is only a means of communication and nothing extraordinary about it.
Regards,
vck
@vck: Thanks for your comment and I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment that:
“Let us learn to respect ourselves as people of Bharath”
***
@ srikanth_telegu: You are right. My research appears to suggest that Hindi is *not* a national language but the “official” language of India.
It appears that India has no “national” language at all.
For additional references, please have a look at these sites:
http://rajbhasha.nic.in/ and
http://www.languageinindia.com/april2002/constitutionofindia.html
Note that the 18 regional languages are the “regional official languages”
Here is a well-researched piece on national and official languages in India.
Thi confirms what I had discovered before: India has no “national” language at all.
http://india.targetgenx.com/2007/10/14/you-think-you-know-what-indias-national-language-is/
The Constitution does have a special provision for Hindi though:
Article 351:It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.
*** COMMENT COMBINED ***
Yes, the addled thinking by good-intentioned people like Aditi Goyal is exactly what leads to the situation we are currently seeing in Maharashtra.
The South of India is never going to accept Hindi as the national language as they see it as a colonising one of “Uttar Bharatiyas”.
In that context, if English turns out to be unifying language of India, how is that bad?
***
Also, from a practical perspective, I have observed that people, in general, are very hypocritical when it comes to commenting on language. They will also say how they take pride in their mother tongue, etc and then send their children to only English medium schools.
It is a travesty and tragedy of India that the poor are the UNWILLING upholders of the mother tongue LOBBY of this country. They are forced to send their children to the free municipal or state schools, which are only in the local language medium. Then these poor children are unable to compete when it comes to national level education. And, their families can not afford to send them to English medium schools.
I have long been a proponent of the idea that we should have state schools as 50% English medium and 50% in the regional language. Let the parents decide where they want to send their kids – and once the data is in, keep adjusting the percentage.
And, for all those on this blog and elsewhere waxing eloquently about pride in your own language, etc – SHOW ME THE MONEY – SEND YOUR OWN KIDS TO A REGIONAL LANGUAGE SCHOOL OR YOUR MOTHER TONGUE and then come and blather about linguistic pride, etc
Hindi is spoken by most of Indians.
Just to be respectful to majority, we could start speaking Hindi.
Just as when people come to USA or UK, they start speaking English because English is language of majority there.
http://indiaview.wordpress.com/
visited U.
Aditi, its like you got into my mind and stole the thoughts !! Full marks to you my friend…
Rajnigandha
Let’s ask Mata Roma about her “phirangi” thoughts too … and how the Catholic organisation Opus Dei (God’s Work) is using her for God’s Work in India:
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-51510.html
I liked this “Mata Roma”.
kafi achhi baaten is blog ke madhyam se aap log preshit karte hain. Padh kar achha laga. Aap sabhi mahanubhavon ko hindi ko badhava dene ke liye dhanyavaad. Main madhya pradesh ke rewa jile ka rehne wala hoon tatha bhartiya sena me adhikari hoon. Sena me aaj bhi british kaal ka pradurbhav hai aur hindi ko wo samman nahi milta. Mujhe yaad hai, kaise ek baar mujhe mere ek senior officer ne ek conference ke dauran hindi me kuch baat kehne par tok diya tha aur mujhe kaha ki speak in english, jabki halat ye hai ke das saal pehle tak yahi sab log hindi me rache base the jo ab officer ban kar angreji ki naseehat de rahe hain.
Jahan tak mujhe pata hai ki hindi bharat ki rashtrabhasha to nahi par rajbhasha jaroor hai.
Dhanyavaad.
राहुल,
टिपण्णी के लिए धन्यवाद.. आशा है आगे भी इस ब्लॉग पर आपके विचार पढने को मिलेंगे
This is an interesting discussion.
>
Sanskrit, Tamil are classical languages. There was no Hindi, it’s a khichdi language. No linguistic purity. If you start talking pure and pure Hindi, it would be Sanskrit.
But what is being spoken is mix of Sanskrit, Farsi, Urdu.
>> Response to S. M. Bawa
Comparing the Indian situation to the US, UK is ignorace, or arroagance at worst.
The Tamils, Telugus, Kannadiga, Malayalis, Bengalis, Oriyas, or Marathis have not migrated to a Hindi speaking country. They have inhabited this land, developed the culture, propagated the languages, dance forms, lifestyle, templestyles. They have ruled as Kings and spread the culture too.
The bigger the land, bigger is the difference. You are comparing to UK, but a good comparison would be Europe to India. Since India is bigger and diverse like Europe. They all have different languages and they are flourishing without enforcing a language on one another.
We should adapt a model of “Jaisa desh waisa bhesh and bhasha”.
If you are living in Punjab learn punjabi, if in Maharashtra learn Marathi, or Tamil in Tamil Nadu.
If you respect local culture you will be respected for your culture too. No linguistic arrogance please.
I find it very surprising that Hindis are the stupidest and most arrogant people in India, wanting others living in South to learn Hindi, while they are the ones who should learn Marathi, Kannada, Telugu or Tamil if they want to move to Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad.
I understand you have worst politics in your states, but the parents can teach them Tamil, Marathi, Telugu, Kannada with a view to get jobs and livelihood in the South.
You are not so proud of Hindi that you would rather die speaking Hindi in your own state than learn another language and survive in another state.
Vande Mataram. Vande Bharatam.
Baby-steps towards personal (and national ) change:
1)Dump the English books-read books in Sanskrit/Hindi/mothertongue only.
2)Pickup and read local language newspapers; then slowly graduate toeards them
3)Wear Indian dresses with a tilak at least once a week- watch the facial expressions of your acquaintances.
4)Read R.C.Majumdars’s books on Indian History and History of the Indian Freedom struggle
5)Pickup Gita Press (Gorakhpur) books and read them in an Indian language.
6) When you pray, change over to completely Byharatiya dresses.
7) Pick up words in Indian languages that you don’t know and find out their meaning.
Shantanu,
This post is too dated and I noticed it today only.
“I highly recommend it for anyone and everyone who is conversant with Hindi and wants to feel the pulse of the “real India”” – There is a reason for some people to be genuinely offended with this sentence. What does that suppose to mean? People like me, who happens to talk in our regional language, are not “real India”, really??? Hindi has it’s place, this is the most spoken language in India. When one is living in North India for long, Hindi fluency is necessary and that is how it should be.
But there are problems. I have seen Hindi fanaticism among North Indians and felt shame when I did not find any genuine respect to their language in them. One example: how many times did you find two educated North-Indians conversing in pure Hindi? How many times did you hear Northy wives telling their children not to converse in Dehati (as if urban Hindi with liberal usage of American English words is a badge of honor)? Compare this when two Tamils or Kannadigas or Bengalis speak between themselves. They almost always speak in their native. In each of their native lands, you would find institutes dedicated in language research and communities back literature written in regional languages or cinemas made in regional languages. How many Northy today read Premchand, in Hindi? I have read several Premchand’s novels translated in Bangla and some of south Indian writer’s work translated in English. How many literary works in regional languages get translated in Hindi? These are honest questions. I am not even going to mention those urban youths who keep discussing in Hinglish but find it difficult to construct a grammatically correct sentence in either Hindi or English.
A language fanaticism or blame game would not help any Indian. Neither would a back-door policy of cultural imperialism. In India, we formed states according to dominant language groups and felt that our job is done. Almost all of these languages came down from a single mother language and research must be done on how these languages evolved and diverted from Sanskrit. Only that knowledge would help us in reconciling the differences we have in our individual languages and similarities would help us learn and function in partially in other states even without a proper course in the languages. If we love our languages, we have to ensure that they live with dignity they deserve and allow others to live with the dignity.
@ Sid: Hurried response…more later….
Re. “I highly recommend it for anyone and everyone who is conversant with Hindi and wants to feel the pulse of the “real India””
I think I was not very clear what I meant when I wrote the sentence.
The sentence referred to “Lokmanch” a news portal that was launched a few years ago. What I meant was that the portal covered news-stories that were routinely ignored by (English) MSM and highlighted issues that were more pertinent to the common man; hence the reference to “real India”.
This of course does not mean that the only “real India” is the one that speaks Hindi. Not at all.
I hope that clears the air. Apologies for any misunderstanding…
As for the rest of your questions, I am in broad agreement…and yes, the state of research in Sanskrit (or resources dedicated to studying the language) is pathetic…thanks to supreme indifference from the powers that be.
If we love our languages, we have to ensure that they live with dignity they deserve and allow others to live with the dignity.
Well said.
Yes, it does clear the air.
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