Chennai: The launch of the super-luxury convertible ‘Dawn’ from the Rolls-Royce family the other day was a grand affair, as expected. The city’s glitterati were present in full strength, greeting each other, shaking hands, exchanging smiles and name cards. A few gawked at the glamorous navy blue Dawn, clicking photos and selfies endlessly.
Amid all those many voices, some excited and some soft, there was one from my scribe tribe comment that Hindi being the ‘national’ language of India must be learned by all. “Just to be sure that you can get along anywhere in the country,” he said, to stress his point.
I was not amused, not because I am a Malayali, but because my friend from the media was factually wrong. Hindi is an official language, along with 20 other Indian languages; besides English being the popular link language. But then, many do believe that Hindi holds the prime position prescribed by the Indian Constitution as the sole national language.
Article 343 of the Constitution states that ‘the official language of the Union is Hindi in the Devanagari script. English language shall be continued to be used along with Hindi for all official purposes.’
Mind you, the Constitution says Hindi is the official language, along with English. Nowhere is it mentioned that it is the national language. Only some of our netas have done so and countering that robustly, several among our thalaivars have held violent protests, burnt buses and tarred the Hindi name boards on Central government offices in non-Hindi states.
The poor babus in these Central offices have a morning ritual to perform—they must write on the display board outside, at the entrance, a word-for-the-day and a quote in Hindi with its English translation.
That’s their way of spreading Hindi among the ‘illiterates.’ And did you notice how these netas, during their political rallies in this Dravidian state, pause for applause from the audience after saying ‘vanakkam’ at the beginning of their Hindi speeches?
Amid all this propaganda for Hindi—official and unofficial—my media friend can be forgiven for declaring Hindi as our national language. P.S.: I love Hindi and use it a lot even here in Chennai as I spent most of my childhood in Indore.
