Being from south India, when I got the seat in NIT, Bhopal I was kind of scared about the north Indian culture, traditions, food, spoken language and socialization with the north Indian people.
I am from Andhra Pradesh, so Telugu is our 1st language but we also have Hindi as 2nd language till 10th class. So, I was familiar with written Hindi language and locally spoken Hindi language. It took only 1 semester for me to speak original Hindi (not fluent but good). But the more I learned Hindi, the more I was socializing with other people. Apart from food and language, everything is almost the same.
I have always wondered what is holding these multi-lingual states together. The answer is, cultures, traditions, festivals, Epics, Vedas, etc. that we have been following since the Vedic period is holding us very firmly together. India is the only country that withstood her culture, traditions, etc even after 1000 years of conquests if it wasn’t for cultures, traditions, festivals, Epics, Vedas, etc our country would have been 30 countries by now. If we also have a common language it will hold us forever.
Learning Hindi not only strengthens the country’s unity but also helps the individuals personally and helps to see a wider picture of the country. We get to study know more about the country’s people, agriculture, traditions, economic situations, etc.
Suppose if a North Indian who doesn’t speak English visits Meenakshi Temple (Madurai) and doesn’t have the clue to how to reach and query you, do you simply ignore him? If ignored, Is that how our ancestors told us to treat the guests (ATITHI DEVO BHAVA)? No, right? Even if you want to visit Kashi Vishwanath Temple (Varanasi) and has no clue, you have to communicate with local people in Hindi.
What I am trying to say is, we don’t lose anything by learning Hindi, but it only bonds and strengths us. It will forever remove the idea of north India vs south India but makes us realize ‘we all are Indians’. North and south is just the geographical idea, not the people divider, this myth has been created by some politically motivated people for their political party gains.
I still don’t understand how is Hindi going to affect the state and the people. People are falling into the trap of political party’s vote-bank politics. They are only stopping people from development particularly youth who has to migrate to other places in case of job postings. Most of the youth confessing that they want to learn Hindi but some states are rejecting the 3-language formula.
