FTN: Diversity unites India, but not Hindi

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE: Panelists agreed that regional language activists opposed to Hindi existed in every state.

              

Ads by Google

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Related Stories

• 4 MNS MLAs suspended for attacking Abu Azmi

• MNS says it will apologise to Assembly but not Abu Azmi

• Shiv Sena slams MNS' violent protests

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

  

A day after Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi was slapped by MNS members in the Maharashtra Assembly for taking the oath in Hindi, his Mumbai store was stoned by the Shiv Sena. Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar says parties like the MNS should be banned.

Anti-Hindi sentiments have had a long history in India and regional language activists opposed to Hindi exist in almost every Indian state. But the preeminence of Hindi is being challenged whereas English is seen as aspirational.

And that brings us to the question of the day that was asked on CNN-IBN show: Is Hindi acceptable to all Indians as the national language?

On the panel of experts to debate the issue were DMK MP MK Kanimozhi, MP and SP leader Virendra Bhatia, actor Darshan V Jariwalla and CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai.

BREAKING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER

Opening the debate, DMK's Kanimozhi whose party has vociferously defended Tamil language and has been in the forefront of anti-Hindi agitations said, "I definitely think that people's representatives should be able to speak the language of the state. But nobody can accept what happened in the Maharashtra Assembly simply because one cannot take law into their hands."

Speaking about the anti-Hindi agitation that has been on since 1930s in Tamil Nadu, she added, "DMK is not against the Hindi language. We are against imposing a language on the state. DMK's stand is that there are so many other languages and hence there should be more official languages of the country. I can't speak Hindi but I am no less an Indian than anybody else."

In South India, English is a much more unifying factor than Hindi. While in the north it has been seen that parties like the Samajwadi party have an anti-English, pro-Hindi stand.

"We are not opposed to any regional language," SP leader Virendra Bhatia said.

"But we are against imposing English on us. English is spoken by only 8 per cent of people in India while Hindi is the language of communication used by more than 50 per cent Indians. English is the language of the elite class. Regional languages are more important," he added.

Then why did SP leader Abu Azmi, who was elected in Maharashtra, not take his oath in Marathi?

To which Bhatia said, "If there is a provision in the Constitution to take oath in Hindi and other languages then why this opposition? I am against forcing anybody to take oath in a particular language."

LANGUAGE IMPERIALISM

Actor Darshan V Jariwalla said that when he speaks Marathi no one can tell that he is a Gujarati. "I am not against Hindi but yes the pre-dominance of Hindi has been a topic of debate for years. We are a plural society and so we must have as many languages as possible," he said.

Rajdeep Sardesai explained the essence of Mumbai. "Mumbai has always been a city of multi-lingual identity," he said.

"The arrival of Hindi in Mumbai as a dominant language on the street as been in the last 20 years because of the migration that has come from UP and Bihar. However, Hindi is not alien. Bollywood has existed for years. In fact it was Raj Thackeray who got Michael Jackson to Mumbai a decade ago. English is seen as aspirational. All the MNS leaders send their children to English medium schools. So this language war is just a political battle. Forty years ago Bal Thackeray had waged a war against Tamilians, now the battle is with the Hindi-speaking migrants," he reasoned.

Has an MLA in Tamil Nadu Assembly taken an oath in Hindi?