It is customary for a bunch us of desi Gators to meet up daily at midnight to socialize over some hot chai and cookies, and some of us have become very good pals. The discussion on my last post got really heated last night, with passions flaring up and heating the chai further.
I'd like to clrify certain things here and comment on a few things-
1) I am NOT anti-hindi. I speak with many of my friends in the language. I believe Hindi must be spoken by all to have a common medium of communication. All I am opposed to is making the laguage compulsory in schools and denying people the lawful freedom of choice prescribed in our constitution.
2)People will learn Hindi if there is a need to. Tams that have settled in the north or do business in the north are highly conversant in Hindi. It ends up being a survival tool which they acquire in due course of time
3) For 60 years after Independence, the south, especially Tamil Nadu, hasn't suffered politically, culturally, socially or economically as a resullt of not speaking Hindi. If anything, the rowdy politics aside, TN is a prosperous and thriving economy, and contributes greatly to the welfare of the country.
To quote from a Government of India census-
Tamil Nadu has the highest level of urbanisation (43.86%) in India, accounting for 6% of India’s total population and 9.6% of the urban population. and is the second most industrialised state in India.Services contributes to 45% of the economic activity in the state, followed by manufacturing at 34% and agriculture at 21%. Government is the major investor in the state with 51% of total investments, followed by private Indian investors at 29.9% and foreign private investors at 14.9%. Tamil Nadu has a network of about 110 industrial parks and estates offering developed plots with supporting infrastructure. Also, the state government is promoting other industrial parks like Rubber Park, Apparel Parks, Floriculture Park, TICEL Park for Biotechnology, Siruseri IT Park, and Agro Export Zones among others.
If anything, we have BMW, Nokia, Dell, Flextronics, Saint Gobain, Hyundai, TVS and so on, continuing to succesfully do business with a people in their native tongue, . Where in the union do you see IT businesses flourishing the way they do in the south?
4)Migration from the north continues happening in TN. Personally too, my immediate circle of friends is composed of Punjabis, Marwaris and UPites. Many of my friends, 25 years after being here, can't speak the local language- which I think is weird.
5)If the same yardstick is to be applied to religion, lets have Islam and Christianity as secondary religions in our country, considering that 80% of the country has different gods and a different way of life. There wont be any communal tension.
6) Leave India the way She is. Her beauty lies in her diversity.
வாழ்க தமிழ், வளர்க தமிழ்.
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14 comments:
hey deepak this blog of your reminds me of our discussion at krishna house.
The rift due to language is evident in the fact that you refer to people of the union moving to different parts of the country as immigration.
There is a fallacy in argument presented by you. The economic development neither belongs to Tamils alone nor was it caused by the non-imposement hindi. On the other hand, it is a common problem for any body from northern India, who is contributing to the IT revolution, to talk to a local shop keeper in Tamil Nadu. Same was true for people you pointed out trying to go for jobs in North India during mid-80's and even now. Hence I donot find any mistake in Hindi being compulsory in school curriculums. When you can say at length to a small child about the importance of learning mathematics to check grocery store bills, I donot see why the you are so prejudiced against Hindi being taught in schools.
Your point about religions is an unnecessary point, irrelevant to the current discussion. Please remember that you wanted to give arguments against hindi being taught compulsorily in school just like math, science, history, english, the person's native language. You donot teach religion in school.
Dude! If learning maths did not affect diversity, learning an extra language will not.
I still donot understand what is unconstitutional in it.
I expected a more erudite response from Sid...I dint say TN was well off coz they dont spk Hindi. I only said not speaking hasnt affected us.....I am for a unifying language, which I think oughta be Hindi, but in a free state, the government deciding what junta studies is an infringement of basic liberties.....
NO WHERE.......NOWHERE in the CBSE is physics, chem or maths, or english compulsory...It is just that we see only engineers around us, and they end up doing these courses to get into techskool
The CBSE offers other courses in many vocational stream..u choose your language, and choose your subjects. We were in one of the better schools in the city and were cut off from what was happening....
NOTHING..except activities that drastically alter lives of ppl, like economic crimes, sexual crimes or murders can be banned. language is a matter of choice. Everywhere , including the EU and the Unied States..there is no one national language. coz, if you do that, ur alienating a people..
theres a dirty perception that people tht cant spk hindi are lesser indian thatn those that cant, with voices calling for denying them rights to jobs ..
what the heck??
Jai Hind
kya ho raha hai ye..
Aur kuch kam nahi bacha kya?
I ask the people who say .. "Hindi is spoken by most people in India".. whether they count Oriya, Rajasthani, Bihari, Marathi, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Bengali and the host of north eastern languages.. as "hindi". Would they be able to make themselves understood in Hindi in those places ?
I think i stand a better chance with english these days.
First I ask the author what was not erudite in my response to his toothless points. I am sorry to say that using adjectives do not count as a point with you dude.
Well, I am talking about introducing hindi in lower classes. But you draw comparisons to subjects taught in 9th and above. Even Maths is a choice in classes eleven and twelve. The point made is to equip children with some necessities to face the environment.
Vocational courses are offered at a much later stage when people have finished with basic skills.
Again ur argument of USA and EU are fraught with fallacies. USA as a nation teaches English in school. You have written GRE and Toefl dude. European union is a mixture of nations and not a single nation.
It cannot be compared to India.
Lastly one gentle man argued that
"I ask the people who say .. "Hindi is spoken by most people in India".. whether they count Oriya, Rajasthani, Bihari, Marathi, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Bengali and the host of north eastern languages.. as "hindi". Would they be able to make themselves understood in Hindi in those places ?"
I ask you in return is it not eloquently telling you that hindi taught in schools is a way of solving this problem.
Also, does the author mean to tell just because people perceive it dirty if you dont speak hindi, children should not be taught what could perceivably be a basic skill?
Sidd..
It's a case of a horse being taken to the water....You show the horse what YOU think is right, while the horse has its own survival instincts.. It's very clear that the people of the south are comfortable without Hindi. They seem to be doing just as well, and are as Indian as you and I are..
In the US, everyone has been speaking English here from ever since the country was founded. People wishing to lead a good life end up learning English-BUT IT IS NEVER FORCED ON THEM. Though it is constitutionally written that people wishing to be citizens of the US need speak English, there are so many people that become citizens here, but still cant speak the language( many Hispanic and Western Indian people). Is it FORCED on them?? They end up learning it on their own, don't they? And English is taught because the majority in ALL parts of the country UNIFORMLY( Hawaii included) speak English...does the same apply to India?? Not everywhere in India
is Hindi spoken( most certainly not in the south, where the languages and their script have evolved independent of Devanagari languages, all of which are closely related)
It still beats me how Hindi is a BASIC(as you put it) skill in south India...The south still sends people to top Government positions , to the IAS etc. Once they go there, survival instincts take over and people end up learning Hindi. Until then, it is just not needed. It's also a case where people aren't adversely affected because they cant speak Hindi.
Many ethnic languages are spoken in the US, and hence, keeping in mind sensitivity issues, English was never made the sole national language. This argument applies to India as well, all the more because most languages are spoken in specific regions, and are considered the primary symbols of identity of a people.
As for the analogy I drew between the US and India, the US is a melting pot, much like ours. The constitution is framed in English, because the founding fathers spoke only English.STILL- Considering that people were from diverse cultures, English was never made the national language.
What pisses me off is a chauvinism that Hindi HAS to be taught at schools across India. Putting forth the arguments that I have presented above, We simply don't HAVE to learn it unless there is a grave necessity, which I don't see in the south. And when there is no requirement, and babus in Delhi think perceive an artificial requirement and force it down your throat, people have a reason to be mad.
If theres any one language that people in all parts of the country are better off learning, its English. We are talking of a globalized world today . Lets not bother ourselves learning too many languages. If Hindi has to be imposed, all people not speaking the local language MUST be made to learn the language at school...if Hindi is needed to survive in all parts of India, Tamil is needed for survival in Tamilnad, and by forcing it on people the government will be doing them a favor by teaching them a BASIC skill( I am not saying this - this is not my argument) Northies still continue living in TN, and many still dont know the language. Are they FORCED to learn it??
And as a last question-what is this whole unification thing??? Do u mean to say India is not united?? Is India just a landmass of different people waiting to tear apart because they speak different languages?? If u think so, present your arguments in favor of Hindi as a unification tool. If not, accede that Hindi is not a must in primary school in all parts of the country....my dad knows Hindi.
contdd... My dad knows Hindi, he learned it because he moved north for a small while. He wouldn't have had to otherwise. For as long as he was in the South he didn't know Hindi, and he didn't need to know your BASIC skill. He was still a corporate hi-flier( and mind you, he had rather humble beginnings, and hence any arguments that he did what he did because he came from an educated background stand defeated at the outset)
and I sincerely apologize for using the term IMMIGRATION within the country in the post...it should have been MIGRATION instead.... It was an erroneous usage of words. Kindly excuse
Some comments have been deleted coz I feel they got too heated ..pointless. I am not the serious type, and matters of such serious nature make me hard for me to feel like myself :)... Better posts next time onwards
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