When there is a consistent, chauvinistic imposition of a language on a population that doesn’t speak it, the resentment bubbles up against such action every now and again. There has long been the mistaken impression that Hindi is the national language when it is not (it is merely one of the official languages of the country). And then there is the expectation that all Indians should know Hindi – simply because Hindi is the mother tongue of many Indians and the second language of many more. Recently actor Ajay Devgn got into a war of words with actor Sudeep who works largely in Kannada films about this. And now even Biharis are pointing out that the language largely spoken in the state is Maithili. #StopHindiImposition they are saying
Actor Kichcha Sudeep reportedly made a comment about Hindi not being the national language which is why Bollywood is struggling and now making pan-Indian movies. It isn't clear what he meant by this, but Ajay Devgn felt compelled to respond via this tweet (screenshot above). There is an obvious inaccuracy there – while Hindi may be Devgn’s mother tongue, it isn't the national language.
This is because India doesn’t have a national language. India has many official languages; of which Hindi and English are most commonly used as link languages in the country. About 43% of the Indian population speaks Hindi, but Hindi is the mother tongue of only about 26% of the Indian population. Hindi is spoken by many people whose mother tongue may be Gujarati, Punjabi, Bhojpuri and so on. In spite of the fact that so many Indians can and do speak Hindi, a majority of Indians in fact do not speak Hindi; particular in the southern states.
As Sudeep says here in his tweet, “what'd the situation be if my response was typed in Kannada”. Devgn expects people to know his mother tongue, but is he also familiar with all of the other mother tongues in India? Sudeep seems to imply here, that if so many people have bothered to learn Hindi, that is out of choice; that a language cannot be imposed on non-speakers. A fair point.
IAS officer Awanish Sharan tweeted this image of Darbhanga Airport, pointing out some spelling errors and lamenting the poor condition of the Hindi language. The spelling and grammar pedantry notwithstanding, this started another debate about Hindi Imposition.
Responses to the tweet pointed out that the notice simply spelt the words the way they are pronounced in that part of the country. One commentator pointed out that Maithili is the language spoken in that part of Bihar. Even states that we think of as ‘Hindi speaking’, actually have their own rich linguistic traditions which people are proud of and want to preserve. A commentator also pointed out that the notice shouldn’t have been in Hindi but in Maithili (a language that has its own script).
The fact is that the imposition of Hindi has led to the slow death of many other regional languages. Braj, Awadhi, Rajasthani, Bafeli, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, Maithili, Chattisgari, Garhwali, Haryanvi, Kanauji, Kumauni, Magadhi & Marwari are described as ‘pre-Hindi’ languages. However, these are losing out to the hegemony of Hindi and its homogenising impact. The linguistic chauvinism we see around us today also has to do with the Savarkarite ideological strand that sought to promote the Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan trifecta.
There have been events and programs celebrating and promoting Hindi since the 1950s. Government employees are encouraged to participate in essay writing and Hindi typing competitions, thus incentivising the use of this language. Conversely, regional languages are not similarly pushed or promoted. TV and radio were also largely dominated by Hindi till regional language channels made space for themselves. In states like Tamil Nadu, Hindi imposition has long been a political issue that the people have rallied around. The argument is that for the people of Kerala and TN, Hindi is as alien as, say, Tamil or Malayalam is for someone from Uttar Pradesh. If the person from UP is not required to learn a southern language, why should the reverse be an expectation?
So if #StopHindiImposition is found to be trending every now and then, this is because this is an unresolved issue. There are many who feel that languages should not depend upon sheer numbers of speakers to remain alive; nor should political patronage decide what tongue will thrive while others languish in obscurity before dying out.
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