The real script behind the call for Hindi-India

About 2,000 years ago, the famous author Tholkappiyar TolkappiyamSaid that poetic words can be distributed into four types: Ayyarcol, Thyrisol, Thesacol and Vadasol. Of these, ‘Vadasol’, words from the northern languages, “become eligible to be used in Tamil when they adopt Tamil phonetics except for their northern phonetics”.

Since ancient times, sensitivity to language differences has almost been the core of the Dravidian self-hood. Prakrit speakers had a similar sensitivity in ancient times. It was in this one Prakrit that Mahavira presented his teachings in the sixth century BCE. Eighteen century later, Acharya Hemachandra, a prominent Jain scholar, poet, mathematician and philosopher composed his Desinammala, a treatise on the importance of Prakrit words used in Gujarat of his time against those of Sanskrit. In the process he embodied the Gujarati language. Mahatma Gandhi, who defined the idea of ​​selfishness for India in Hind Swaraj (1909), chose to write this iconic book in Gujarati. Therefore, language sensitivity has been a feature of selfishness in the case of every Indian language.

clarity in the constitution

It would be unreasonable to expect a contemporary Indian to know about 2,000 years old Tolkappiyam or a nine-century old Desinammala, But would it be too much to expect to know about the constitution adopted by the republic seven decades ago? The Constitution states two things very clearly. One, India, is a ‘Union of States’; And second, the official language used for communication between the states shall be the language which has been in use at the time of the adoption of the constitution. The move from English to Hindi can happen only if the language article clearly states ‘two or more states agree to this change’. Article 344(4) provides for a ‘Committee consisting of thirty members’, ‘twenty’ from Parliament and ‘ten’ from State Legislatures to protect the provisions of language.

The functions and scope of the committee as laid down by the Constitution are further clarified by the practice of language distribution as a subject between the two ministries, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) and the Ministry of Home Affairs. In terms of language, the scope of the Ministry of Human Resource Development extends to education and promotion of cultural expression. The scope of the Home Ministry extends to safeguarding the relations of the states with the ‘Union’, protecting the linguistic rights of linguistic minorities and promoting Hindi. The last of these, the Constitution says, should be ‘without interference from other languages’.

data on language decline

There are two important questions for the Home Ministry and its Hindi Language Committee which must be properly understood in the light of the provisions of the Constitution: ‘Has Hindi seen any growth during the last seven decades? And, if there is such an increase, does it interfere with the development of other scheduled languages?”

editorial | No language bar: Hindi and ‘other’ states

There is quite a story to tell using census data. in 2011, Number of Hindi speakers 43.63% of the total population, with a total of 52.83 crore speakers. In 1971, this number was 20.27 crores, which was 36.99% of the total population. The growth in proportion to the population between 2001 and 2011 was 2.6%. The next most spoken language, Bengali, – the first being Hindi – has shown negative growth. It was spoken by 8.30% of Indians in 1991, by 8.11% in 2001 and by 8.03% in 2011. Telugu, which fell from 7.87% in 1991 to 7.19% in 2001 and 6.70% in 2011, is a similar story.

It is no different for Marathi either: 7.45% (1991), 6.99% (2001) and 6.86% (2011). Tamil, which is the oldest surviving language in the country, should have received at least some attention from the Home Ministry. But the truth is that it is no different from Bangla, Telugu and Marathi. Tamil recorded 6.32% of the total population in 1991, 5.91% in 2001 and 5.70% in 2011. The only major language showing decadal growth (though small) was Gujarati. And the only minor yet scheduled language showing good growth was Sanskrit. The 2021 census, when conducted, will be another count of languages ​​in the country. And for reasons that are very clear, the position of all languages ​​in the Eighth Schedule – except Hindi and Sanskrit, and perhaps Gujarati – would have worsened. In this context, the Parliamentary Committee on Promotion of Hindi should have expressed concern about the decline of Indian languages ​​except Hindi and the lack of development of Sanskrit, which has ceased to be a living language since the ninth century.

The development of Hindi is more imaginary

If all other languages ​​show a relatively low decline, why is Hindi showing steady growth? The 52.83 crore speakers of Hindi (as recorded in 2011) included not only speakers of ‘Hindi’ but also speakers of more than 50 other languages. Bhojpuri, which was claimed by more than five crore speakers, and as evidenced by its increasing visibility in its cinema, literature, newspaper, song, theater and publishing industries, is placed within Hindi. Most languages ​​of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand have also been pushed into the Hindi package. Even the Pawari language (spoken mainly in parts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh) is characterized as ‘Hindi’, ignoring the fact that most Pawari speakers speak Hindi almost exclusively. Don’t understand.

Thus the story of the development of Hindi is quite fictional. Had these other languages ​​not been included under Hindi in the census, the number of Hindi speakers would have dropped to around 39 crore, – just a little less than 32% of the total population in 2011 – and not much different from other languages. Looked. Scheduled languages. The committee should also have looked at making the census data for Hindi more realistic.

The data is far more true for English speakers. There are a total of 3,88,793 Indians (2,59,678 males and 1,29,115 females) who speak English according to the 2011 census. Compare this with the least spoken of the scheduled languages, Manipuri, with 17.61 lakh speakers, and Bodo with 14.82 lakh speakers. No further comment required; These figures are nothing to be proud of.

other languages ​​shine

Hindi is a beautiful language, as is the case with any other language, big or small in the world. Hindi cinema has brought some fame and some foreign exchange to India. Hindi literature is rich and it takes pride when it is mentioned. Yet, it is also true that among the languages ​​included in the Eighth Schedule, it comes in minor languages.

On the other hand, Tamil, Kannada, Kashmiri, Marathi, Oriya, Sindhi, Nepali and Assamese have a much longer/older history. Even as languages ​​of knowledge, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi (with their abundance of encyclopedias and historical literature), easily outnumber Hindi. A language develops slowly and cannot be forced to grow by issuing ordinances.

more politics, economy

If all the knowledge related to the history of Hindi, the multilingualism of India, the federal structure of India and the issue of language sensitivity in many states has directed the committee and the Rajbhasha Samiti to accept linguistic realism, then what is it that inspired Home Minister Amit Shah will suddenly call for Hindi-India, The ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of Hindi-Hindu nationalism is perhaps not what inspired the Home Minister’s Hindi statement. It cannot even be from the idea of ​​majority democracy of the Bharatiya Janata Party that has inspired it. Hindi speakers in the country do not make up the linguistic majority, despite the increased figure of 52 crore against the 121 crore put up by the 2011 Census.

The fact remains that 69 crore (even in 2011 census) were non-Hindi speakers. In that sense, it was not and cannot be the majority language of India. It is quite possible that Mr Shah’s effort to inflame Hindi pride is needed as a balm for the huge unemployment that plagues the youth in the Hindi belt, a region very crucial for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Still, the Home Minister has overlooked the fact that portraying English as an anti-national entity, while portraying Pakistan as a threat to security operations for Hindu mobilization, no longer serves to mobilize Hindi-speaking people. Will do It makes for utterly bad semantics and an absurd linguistics. Above all, it indulges in anti-union politics. Does India need them?

GN Dewey is the editor-in-chief of The People’s Linguistic Survey of India