History of Hindi and other regional languages and their degradation
Hindi and even other regional languages have seen their worst time ever during last few decades post independence. Few millennia back, Sanksrit was the major language spoken across India. A common language has many benefits for the nation, which would come later in this article. With time, newer derivations of Sankrit came into being. More and more languages developed and further foreign invasions also affected the flavour of India languages.
During the British rule, British introduced English in India. Many scholars and highly acclaimed writers, who primarily wrote in their mother tongues, developed a whole lot of literature and poetry which sounded great ideas to the Indian public and fueled Indian revolution in a big way.
After independence, it was debated to length to make Hindi as the sole national language. However, due to protest by some non-Hindi speaking states, it was decided to temporarily retain English for official purposes until at least 1965. By the end of this period, however, opposition from non-Hindi states was still too strong to have Hindi declared the sole language. With this in mind, the English Language Amendment Bill declared English to be an associate language "until such time as all non-Hindi States had agreed to its being dropped." This has never occurred.
Although English was considered an associate language, with time it has transformed itself into the main language and the elite find it flashy to adopt it at the cost of their mother tongue. The general opinion is that its an international language, thus knowing it is important. It is, and it would really be a great thing if more and more Indians know English, however it shouldn't be at the cost of our own languages, which define our own existence and our originality, which I would try to explain later.
Since I have attained maturity I have only seen an obsession in people with English. People would want their kids to say 'water' instead of 'paani' and would shun them if they do so. let them learn both. Even I also grew with that quest for learning English and didn't care anything about it. However my perception changed post a discussion with a Senior Scientist from CSIR, Delhi. Here I would like to share some of knowledge that I got from that discussion and some of my secondary research afterwards.
PM's speech in Hindi in UN
Only now Hindi has again captured the main space after PM's speech in Hindi at UN. Many people have started asking whether it was a right step or not? Most of the people have welcomed that with the reason that many Indians understand Hindi as well his his being comfortable in the same. Let me take you a little deeper.
The problem
As many of us know that India has been a culturally, morally and economically a very strong country until 1850 (if you don't, you need to first read a little more, you may start with this What are some of the most mind-blowing facts about India? ). Post this period, India was ruined badly by the British, they strategically killed Indian flourishing businesses by taxing them heavily (mind it, railways was not a generous effort of theirs as is generally propagated by many elite, rather Indian goods were heavily taxed to discourage their transport and railways was primarily used for quick movement of british forces in India and propagation of imported goods in India while India had plenty of indigenous goods; Economy of Permanance, J C Kumarappa), forced many famines in India by pushing in farming of commercial crops in place of crops that were suitable based on season and type of soil etc (How the British Empire Starved Millions of Indians - And Why It Is Still Important Today); looted India badly and destroyed India in many other ways, most importantly by killing the spirit of majority of Indians, only because we were treated no more than second class citizens inside our country and were considered just a working class to serve their superior white race. Generations of slavery in India filled in us with a great sense of inferiority, something which we are still not able to overcome. It was only around this time that English education was introduced in India, in order to create Indian clerks (not visionaries and IASs and reformers of course! Indianization of our Education: Is it taking us back in time? Or may be not.). Prior to that the Education in India was delivered through regional languages or Sanksrit and Hindi. Mind it, it was a modern education covering almost all subjects as we learn today including science and technology, astronomy, chemistry, biology, mathematics, medicine (ayurveda, homeopathy, unani etc) and many more subjects (please go to above given link to know more about this).
Since people had a common language (regional or hindi), it ensured a greater connect between people. Most of the literature, including revolutionary material like books, pamphlets etc, were prepared in these languages only. Most notable revolutionary freedom fighters wither wrote their inspiring texts in regional languages or in Hindi (may it be Bankim Chand's Chhaterjee's Anandmath or Gitanjali or Bhagat Singh's literature and many others). It is also noteworthy that much of India's original internationally acclaimed literature has been written in writer's native language. The primary reason for that is that one can best express themselves in their mother tongue only. One of the peculiar property of our brain is that irrespective of any new language that we learn, our mind gets trained to think and analyse every information in the mother tongue only, and that's the reason why it is called so.
Here one may argue that even although one may think and do necessary critical analysis inside one's mind in their mother tongue, why can't another language be used to express it as its mere the issue of translation? Three points to answer that;
First, even if it is true, it's a highly inefficient way which would consume thrice the time since our mind has to do two additional tasks: listen, translate,analyse, translate and then express. Why not speak out the original thought process in plain original language in which our mind processes the information.
Second, The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:In its extreme form, it implies: that people who speak different languages can never share the same reality, and this in turn implies that a perfect translation from one language to another is impossible. Another extreme version of the same implies: that language determines culture and the two are interchangeable: language is culture and culture is language. Now it gets a little more clear that its more than mere a translation. It starts defining our culture. Do we really need to leave behind our rich culture (yes, it is) and follow other ones, which on the contrary, are seeking refuge under ours! Is it wise to lose our identity as a country that paved the way for spiritual enlightenment, contentment and fulfillment; a life beyond materialistic pleasures but in pleasures of fellow human beings. I don't really consider it a wise, informedchoice.
Third, What is the use of speaking a language which half of the world (only 355 million people have English as their first language, source: List of countries by English-speaking population, while 366 million have Hindi as theirs: List of languages by number of native speakers in India) doesn't understand and neither 95% Indians (please think beyond Quora members, only 5% males and 3% females are fluent in English in India, source: Page on ncaer.org).
Since people had a common language (regional or hindi), it ensured a greater connect between people. Most of the literature, including revolutionary material like books, pamphlets etc, were prepared in these languages only. Most notable revolutionary freedom fighters wither wrote their inspiring texts in regional languages or in Hindi (may it be Bankim Chand's Chhaterjee's Anandmath or Gitanjali or Bhagat Singh's literature and many others). It is also noteworthy that much of India's original internationally acclaimed literature has been written in writer's native language. The primary reason for that is that one can best express themselves in their mother tongue only. One of the peculiar property of our brain is that irrespective of any new language that we learn, our mind gets trained to think and analyse every information in the mother tongue only, and that's the reason why it is called so.
Here one may argue that even although one may think and do necessary critical analysis inside one's mind in their mother tongue, why can't another language be used to express it as its mere the issue of translation? Three points to answer that;
First, even if it is true, it's a highly inefficient way which would consume thrice the time since our mind has to do two additional tasks: listen, translate,analyse, translate and then express. Why not speak out the original thought process in plain original language in which our mind processes the information.
Second, The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:In its extreme form, it implies: that people who speak different languages can never share the same reality, and this in turn implies that a perfect translation from one language to another is impossible. Another extreme version of the same implies: that language determines culture and the two are interchangeable: language is culture and culture is language. Now it gets a little more clear that its more than mere a translation. It starts defining our culture. Do we really need to leave behind our rich culture (yes, it is) and follow other ones, which on the contrary, are seeking refuge under ours! Is it wise to lose our identity as a country that paved the way for spiritual enlightenment, contentment and fulfillment; a life beyond materialistic pleasures but in pleasures of fellow human beings. I don't really consider it a wise, informedchoice.
Third, What is the use of speaking a language which half of the world (only 355 million people have English as their first language, source: List of countries by English-speaking population, while 366 million have Hindi as theirs: List of languages by number of native speakers in India) doesn't understand and neither 95% Indians (please think beyond Quora members, only 5% males and 3% females are fluent in English in India, source: Page on ncaer.org).
Impacts
One of the main issue that it has raised is the segmentation of our society. English have become a status symbol. People who are great in their domains, but not so in English, are looked down (Believe me, I've met in-numerous such people who have immense knowledge and experience of the level of 0.1% of India, but are very humble in their outlook). This has created a wide divide in our society in terms of communication gap between different sections of society. Is it healthy?
Even this isn't the major problem this has posed.
A common, understandable, unified language can only instill the sense of belonging-ness. Language is much-much more than mere a means of communication. Have your ever noticed how beautifully we can connect with anyone, just by saying a few words in their language? Have you ever noticed how you trust anyone speaking your language in a far off place, even Indians and Pakistanis abroad live as good friends generally because our dialects are quite similar.
Just imagine if the english translation of Jana-Gana-Mann can really bring goosebumps in your body, or the english translation of Vande Mataram can really make you feel that spirit of Nationalism? Neither can the translation of ' मेरे देश की धरती '
A deep wide gap has been created in the passage of information from the government, bureaucracy or other institutions to the general non english fluent public. Whom are we appeasing, of what use is a discussion of a high level if it can't reach that man from Gandhiji's Talisman?
Can you think that more than 90% of public of this nation has lived through their ages not making any sense of direct messages of these governments? They are only relied on the translators, biased newspapers, doubtful media for their perception of the government? And you expect them to make an informed decision in elections? How can they?
It is important to note here that the best examples of countries with highest level of public nationalism are Germany, France, Japan, Russia and China, all of which where people keep their national ego upright by using their mother tongue primarily in all their education and profession as well and they do great. By this example, it is sure that it is doable and if it is possible with languages that were formed few thousand years back or so, then definitely the earliest organised and most advanced language of sanskrit and its derivatives can definitely do that very effectively.
Lastly, whenever we talk about lack of scientific research in our country, we always focus on funds and resources. However, one another aspect is that as earlier mentioned, our brain processes information in our mother tongue. An important correlation here is the ALL above mentioned countries, but china, appear in the top ten countries with highest Nobel prizes in Science. (Even China has 4 in Sciences)
This is an important indicator that how critical thinking in one's mother tongue can ease the process of research in Basic Sciences. Just remember how many people find the abstract rote learning meaningless right from schools and keep on cramming even till their graduation. The reason is that although part of them can understand English well, still they fail to relate with the subject subconsciously (I believe some French or German Psychologist would be able to explain my feelings technically). So they end up just looking at boring terms and numbers and formulas, and just strive to pass.
bring out that original spirit in hindi (please do listen it once now, with that recognition in your mind towards the nation's soldier and nation's farmer). What I am trying to say is that, because of this second language becoming our first language, most of the educated class, or the working and ruling class in our country have lost their nationalism. (Have you ever noticed that rural people or people from humble background do still get moved by the very mention of Nationalist or Social messages?) Unfortunately, this little 'educated' class happens to be the trend setter and policy maker class of this country, which takes all necessary steps to increase the spread of English language in India, which is although good, but it should stay at its place of second language. This issue is now being visible in the moral degradation of our society, corruption, crime and other social evils.
(Remember? First page of every school book)
Why Chose Hindi at international events?
It's extremely important to maintain the country's pride at such International events. Such a step, does inspire country's each and every individual to feel connected and feel the pride of their language sounding in the corridors of world powers. All of this works wonders subconsciously, as it did even this time. Let that last man standing also feel the same pride and share the same knowledge as any other one in the country.
Only because few of us spoke Hindi in India, most of the international software companies started supporting it. Just imagine if leader of our nation starts speaking so in international forums, the kind of changes that may follow. The demand of Hindi translators all across globe would increase. Companies that want to do business in India will need to require quality translators and language experts. Imagine the no. of jobs that may increase. Imagine the revival these dying regional and national languages may get. Presently hardly any documentaries, informative videos etc are available online in Hindi. How many people can really utilise this IT boom to enhance their worldview and expand their knowledge in absence of that? Just imagine if more videos are translated to Hindi online, including online courses, how much boost our education will get, how much boost our skill development will get, how much boost our IQ will get. It's a Billion+ strong force waiting for that click. Just imagine with such limited resources and only a bunch of our professionals, can take India to this level, the kind of force this untapped potential Billion+ workforce can do coupled with necessary skills and information.
Our PM chose deliberately to speak in Hindi, because he's aware of this untapped potential. Because Economics and Trades now define the power in world, and we have the biggest market of the world, we need not bow down in front of anyone. We need to set our own terms and let the world follow them here.
Lastly my humble request, bring back Hindi in our daily life. Atleast, talk in Hindi with people who know Hindi, don't feel ashamed of the same. Hone your Hindi writing skills as well. I will be waiting for your letters in Hindi!
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