This is one old article I wrote for some reason. I do not consider myself to be sentimentally attached to what I mean through this, and well you are open to judge me...behind my back :). So here is the stuff:
Hindi , and the Cool factor
"...just look at her, she speaks in Hindi (girls giggling)" goes a Ponds Ad. The Ad shows the better of the Hindi speaking protagonist over others. But what more a non-dwindling fact or let me put it as an issue is the other side, - the instance being the Ad - is how speaking in a language like Hindi, which is first in line as our National language makes the speaker a seemingly laughing stock. This is a common observation in the urban Indian society. Clearly the comparision is with English, which is undoubtedly the international and official language, thanks or no thanks to Imperialism. But the question here is not about Hindi competing, but about the way it is being presented and its justification.
The constitution of India (Article 343) recognises Hindi as the official language of India. Hindi is also the main language in many states of India such as Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal/ Uttarakhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Himachal Pradesh. It is spoken by more than 437 million people in the world. The other dialects of Hindi are Brajbhasha, Bundeli, Awadhi, Marwari, Maithili, Bhojpuri, to name only a few.
And yet there is this satirizing of the people trying covetably to follow their roots rather then faking themselves up with something "cool"-er. English and Hindi are both official languages in India with more or less equal usage over the nation. To be precise, its English that is less known in the real India. The point is we are proud of diverse cultures of India. But we are divided when we talk about India. We like to speak ourselves more like South Indian, North Indian, etc. we must seen as United rather than divided by our many castes and cultures. Otherwise one day all natural language of India will die and foreign language and culture will rule us. And to survive this, and among themselves, Indians need a strong language to communicate. Hindi is one such language which is strong in a lot of negotiable features.
Continuing with the Hindi satire, there's one Youtube clip over the internet of Lalu Prasad Yadav delivering a speech over a Parliamentary session, in Hindi. He is being interrupted by a fellow member and asked to continue in English. Yadav's endeavour with broken English gets him in an embarassing position of getting chuckled at. Whist he had every right to do the same in Hindi, he's stopped. And thus goes a big blow to an official Indian language by an official one of the west. It is true that Hindi as a National language is often resisted by the non-Hindi speaking belt of India especially of the South. But to have a national language there has to be one from our own culture. Apart from the many Indian languages with rich backgrounds Hindi is special.
The Indo-Aryan language of India. Hindi is the second most spoken language in the world, after Chinese. About 500 million people speak Hindi, in India and abroad, and the total number of people who can understand the language may be 800 million. Hindi being the National Language of India has its roots in the classical Sanskrit language.It is effectively a continuation of Hindustani, which developed from Khari Boli, the speech of certain classes and districts in Delhi affiliated with the Mughal court in the 16th-18th centuries. The language acquired its current form over many centuries, and numerous dialectical variations still exist. Like Sanskrit, Hindi is written in the Dev Nagari script, which is common to several other Indian languages as well. Much of the vocabulary of Hindi comes from Sanskrit, though Hindi also has a special relationship with Urdu. Their grammar and much of their vocabulary are virtually identical. Linguists think of Hindi and Urdu as the same language, the difference being that Hindi is written in Devanagari and draws vocabulary from Sanskrit, while Urdu is written in Persian script and draws on Persian and Arabic. The separation is largely a political one; before the partition of India into India and Pakistan, spoken Hindi and Urdu were considered the same language, Hindustani.
At the informal level the use of Hindi has been growing, even among non-native speakers. Hindi is often used if the speakers in question hail from different linguistic provinces, especially if they belong to a social stratum that has not accessed a very good English education, and often even otherwise. Hindi movies have been playing a substantial role in popularizing the language all over the country. Popular Hindi TV serials do the same today. Seeing the popularity of Hindi, BBC World Service started News in Hindi in 1940. The language of media is becoming more inclusive of Hindi words. Several FM radio channels have opened new avenues for Hindi presentation. In fact, there is big demand for those who can creatively use Hindi language for communications.
But what is the point? Even after knowing or not knowing the illustrious features of Hindi, the satire will go on, till the tree of pure Indian culture is dislodged from its roots and alien shrubs grow over. Speaking for the fans of "No Hindi as our National Language" club, it is true that that there are about ten other legalized official language. But for an Indian to survive in another part of India, knowing English just won't help. Experience it and you know you have to know Hindi. And for the other "club", in promoting Hindi for the purpose, there have been a lot of loopholes starting from Jawahar Lal Nehru's efforts as prime minister to nationalizing Hindi. There is this 'Hindi Diwas' as a part of the promotion. But seemingly enough the lectures are delivered in English, quite a height of irony. Even in the IITs, the premier technological centers of India, the irony shows every time. It is justified if people prefer English over Hindi, but not when the later is pushed back rather hard. In states like Orissa, shops with and around Hindi hoardings are crushed down. This gets worse in places like Mizoram (figuratively and currently the highest literate state) and Nagaland where Hindi movies are banned, and violence pops in the name of Hindi. This makes a rather disturbing scenario, as if its not India we are talking about, and I would mean "tell me about it"- about places like what. These are heavier problems. But what is more ridiculous then the lighter versions of this, which takes me back to the satiring side of it. With a whole lot of Americanism, if not Europeanism, thrown in, the generation is trying to be compatible with their self defined versions of being cool. And not speaking Hindi (more appropriately applicable for the Hindi speaking "cool" people) is definitely be one step. My opinion is exactly in contradiction.
