oppn parties Hindi Should be Promoted, Not Imposed

News Snippets

  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
  • Re goes down to 84.76 against the USD but ends flat after RBI intervenes
  • Sin goods like tobacco, cigarettes and soft drinks likely to face 35% GST in the post-compensation cess era
  • Bank credit growth slows to 11% (20.6% last year) with retail oans also showing a slowdown
  • Stock markets continue their winning streak on Tuesday: Sensex jumps 597 points to 80845 and Nifty gains 181 points to 24457
  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
Australia thrassh India in the 4th Test, dim their chances of making the WTC finals, Rohit, Virat and Rahul fail once again
oppn parties
Hindi Should be Promoted, Not Imposed

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2017-04-21 08:46:41

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
In 2011, a parliamentary panel had recommended many measures that could be undertaken to make Hindi the preferred official language of governance. Some of these measures were sane and non-coercive. Others were akin to imposition. The NDA government has now decided to implement some of these measures in a bid to elevate the status of Hindi.

There can be no doubt that Hindi (along with various dialects that have close similarity to it) is the language spoken by a large majority of the population in the so-called cow belt of India. It is also equally true that area-wise, a larger portion of India speaks languages other than Hindi, although Hindi is gaining popularity in these areas solely because the youth is moving out of their states for education and jobs. But still, making children learn Hindi by force in schools (although it is better than making them learn Sanskrit) is coercion and is not the right way to popularize Hindi.

The worst part is that the politicians and officers mandated to enforce the Hindi rule send their children to elite English medium schools. In West Bengal, the comrades decreed that English will be taught in government schools from Class 5 onwards. Most of them sent their children to convent schools in Kolkata and some even elsewhere, in India or even abroad. English is the language which parents want their children to learn since it adds value to life when one seeks a job or becomes an entrepreneur, more so in the age when the world is becoming a smaller place.

The thought that a single language joins the nation is a fallacy as many small European nations have two or three official languages. India’s rich literature owes its bounty to writers who expressed themselves in their mother tongues. Imagine Tagore, or the great Tamil writers, writing in Hindi. Those who wish to learn Hindi willingly must be incentivized. Those who do not want to learn it should never be forced or penalized. If the government imposes Hindi, it will antagonize a large section of the population. Instead, it should create facilities for learning Hindi and provide the option in schools. After that market forces would determine who chooses to learn it.