Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Hindi is not India's National Language

After 24 years of my existence, today I got to know that Hindi is not India's National Language. This comes as a shock to me and I wonder how many people do not know it.

Some people might say that how does it matter?

We do not need Hindi to unite us

And so many other things but the point is I did not know it and so many others did not know it as well.

If Hindi is not our National Language then what is our National Language, effectively, India does not have any National Language.

English and Hindi are two official languages of our country.

See the following links to surprise you.

Wikipedia | Wikipedia2 | Times of India | WikiAnswers

P.S: I am trying to find the exact clause in the constitution, will update if I find it.

11 comments:

Redbaron said...

http://www.languageinindia.com/april2002/constitutionofindia.html

http://www.languageinindia.com/april2002/officiallanguagesact.html

Sir shayad inse madad mile.

During early days of free India, people wanted Hindi to be the official language of the country. But southern states asked for 10 years so that they may accordingly adjust. That ten years period has since been extended as u will find in above links. However, there are only two official languages - Hindi and English (as secondary official language) for the UNION oF INDIA. States can designate their own official language(marathi for maharashtra etc.). As a central govt. employee it is mandatory for u to know Hindi. In my department, there are compulsory classes for people who have had no schooling in Hindi beyond fifth standard and only when they pass the course are they awarded increments. India being such a huge land, it is neither possible nor advisable to have a single 'national' language. Having an official language in itself may be considered equivalent to national language since it is in that language only that the official work of nation is transacted.

Tarun Goel said...

Dearest Dheeraj Thanks for the links
Let me start from your point itself
You said increment is not given unless test it cleared, forcing someone to do smthng new at an age of 20+ years is always difficult. However, force someone to do it at an early age and you will never knoe when it starts running in your blood. I want a common language not because I love Hindi[yes I do] but because it is the only possible solution to keep and see India as a whole.

Diversity in Integrity or whatever fuck it is is no more true, it has become an act of foolishness and people also take it for granted ki regional hai to achha hai

Need of common language is advisable and must so that I feel not like an alien in my country when I go to other regions other than my state.
Regards

Ricky said...

my view is a bit different ... i want to ask one thing that why hindi ?sometimes it comes in my mind that people who made d constitution were best in copypasting ...they saw ok national game of england is cricket so we shud have a national game which should not be cricket ..let it be hockey ..even when every second person in india is crazy about cricket and it is much more popular than any other game .secondly language ..we shud have some national language wich shud nt be of our opressors i.e so english can't be our national language no matter today every 2nd person wants to be fluent in english ...even fr impressing girls ppl need english ...hindi shayari ko to bandiyan bhi bhav ni deti ..so instead of fighting fr hindi we shud c wat is demand of time ..coz after all its not only that we have to deal wid only our countrymen but we have to deal wid whole wrld now ..and we can impose hindi on our ppl ...we can't force the whole wrld ....so learn hindi speak hindi njoy but itna bhi dil se na lagao ki ye zid hi ban jaye aur sirf hindi hi reh jao ....

Bhargavi said...

got me there !! i didnt know that hindi wasnt our national lang either !

PNA said...

Isn't it difficult to talk about a National Language in India, where there are so many different lanugages (with scripts/without scripts/some only spoken). Knowing a language is not enough, we should also know to speak, write and understand in it. So most of us learn Hindi and English in school, but the use of it is also important.

@ricky rules: Cricket is just a recent influence after 83 World cup. Before that we were a hockey loving country... may be we could add cricket too as the national sport

vimmuuu said...

I knew it long ago and even had a debate with Smita on this; she still says Hindi is the national language. I hope she read this post and opens her eyes wide !!!!! :D :D :D

Ankesh said...

Even I got to know dis yesterday only.. was shocked after my 23 years of belief was shattered :( :-D

Madhuri Kunisetty said...

LOL........who cares!

Sharma, Nishit said...

I owe my thanks to Booze for giving me insight into this...one day after boozing me and hemant had a bet that Hindi is our national language or not...ur point is absolutely valid that we need to hv a common language understood by every indian citizen so that nobody feels alienated...carry on with ur investigation and start a campaign to include Hindi as compulsory language in Kindergarten itself ;)

Sharma, Nishit said...

@maddy u hvn't lived in any other region apart frm south india that's why u r saying 'who cares' but 1 really cares when standing betweem 2 Tullu or tamil guys, u feel like hitting them on their head...who knws they might be abusing u infront of u ;)

Unknown said...

Yes it is true that India does not have any national language. Many people, specially from non Hindi speaking zones also suggest that we do not need a national language. So, do we really need a national language? I think we do. There must have been debate in the past that whether Hindi should be made national language or not but somehow it was made the official language. A national language should be something in which people can communicate no matter wherever in India they live. Some people say that English is a language in which you can communicate no matter where in India you are. I am sad that's not true. It is impractical to think that people in so many villages, mind that India still has a majority living in villages, can understand and communicate in English better than in Hindi. Knowing letters from "A" to "Z" is far from being communicating. Hindi is the only language using which you can communicate to people in almost all of the states in India. Unlike English it was originated in India. In a country such as ours politicians will always create issues so as to make a particular section of people think that it is necessary to get paranoid. That is a only reason because of which Hindi was not made the national language as it gives one useless issue to politicians to separate a particular section and use them as their vote banks. Growth, development and recognition of a language which binds or can bind a nation completely is an inherent need. Those who say there should not be any national language in India might think that people should communicate to those in their own regions but that creates a limitation. Hindi is twined to the history of India more than any other language and it is a fact. That is why there should be a national language and that language should only be Hindi.