Very recently I have come across a post forwarded on Facebook by one of my friends with a bold title saying Stop Imposing Hindi. Mind you this friend of mine hails from Tamil Nadu, where Hindi is not a compulsory language in school. He was very adamant about the movement, which has been started since way back to not make Hindi compulsory for schools and colleges and he was not backing down now.
To quickly understand what my friend was saying, I found the right articles with respect to that particular subject and found that what my friend was saying was indeed true. There has been stiff resistance to include Hindi as a compulsory language in school and college curriculum citing amongst other things the inability of the child to decide what he wants to learn, that regional languages should be given importance and other far fetched thoughts!
There was also a lot cry raised over the HRD’s directive to schools and colleges to make Hindi compulsory which was later found to be a fake news.
For all these arguments one needs to understand the need for a common National language to unite rather than blame the Central government for what it is supposed to do. India is one of the most vibrant cultures with varied linguistic diaspora. Yes there is internet and yes there is now the social media which connects people but the ideas get lost if the medium of communication is patchy.
I hail from Telangana and luckily for me Hindi was my second language in school. I can tell you how easy it was for me to travel across India and use a medium of language well understood by most and make my travel that much more happier. And there is another aspect that also needs to be taken into consideration, is there a harm to the child by learning another language?
Believe me the child will thank you for making him fluent in a language other than his own mother tongue. And if the so called propaganda machinery of these narratives can answer the one question I asked with a Yes, then please go ahead and protest the inclusion of Hindi in the curriculum.
There are lots of stereotypes played in Politics and media which might paint it as us vs them. North Indians vs South Indians. Telangana vs AP. Tamilnadu vs Karnataka. And lots of other even hurtful stereotypes portrayed about North Indians in South India and South Indians in North India. If at all there is one thing that we should learn from our history it is that this was the same technique used, in subjugating and ruling us, by the British.
Do we once again fall into this trap and get divided or do we say enough and believe that we all are Indians and the division is only in the eyes of those liberals who try to influence us?
