MY LAND : MY LANGUAGE

Swami Vivekananda once said “The soil of India is my highest heaven”. Today, I do not know how many are of same opinion, in this materialistic world, where professionalism and individualism is found everywhere and in almost all.
Individuals are acquiring Green Card and feeling proud in getting abroad job placements.

Recently, I was watching NDTV and discussion was on language issues prevailing in India. The debate was what should be the link language of India. Some said English, some Hindi and some supported regional language.
I wished to be part of that debate to put my thoughts but that remained wish only.
So through this blog, I decided to put my thoughts to fulfill my wish but in other way.


Frankly speaking I was aware that as per our constitution Hindi is the national language of India till the MNS of the Maharashtra raised the language issue.
The question was raised on the nationality of the Hindi language. Several letters were circulating as chain mail which proved that Hindi is not the national language of India. It’s only the official language.
I also did some R&D on the same but I do not want to copy and paste the same thing here and to make you think about happenings in the history on the language.

Let’s talk about today and tomorrow only. Even though Hindi is not the national language of India, but International community is very well aware that several languages are spoken in India but Hindi is the national language here. Recently when Manmohan Singh visited US, then Barrack Obama welcomed him in Hindi “Aapka Sugat (Swagat) hai”. The world knows Hindi as the national language of India.
Yes, I admit that we should preserve and promote the heritage and culture of the place where we are born. If I were a Bengali, Marathi or Tamil, I would have given importance to the heritage of the state.
But, our first identity is that we are Indian first and then anything else. So to eradicate hatred among us Indians on the basis of language, the best solution in my opinion is summarized in below 3 points.

1. International language

Our Former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam once asked a 14 year old girl in Hyderabad about her dream. She replied “I want to live in a developed India”. Yes I too want to see India as the most powerful and peaceful nation of the world. We have to rock throughout the world.
English is the language with which we can communicate to the world.
We have accepted English as one of the official language because we have not to restrict ourselves rather we have to compete globally in every field. Today there are so many MNC companies in India only because India has largest number of people with English as the working language. I will not be wrong if I say that today this language gives bread and butter to many Indians.
Many times I have heard that English should be made as the national language but in doing so we will make comprise on our identity only for the sheer purpose of bread and butter. We should definitely know to write and speak fluent English because this will only come as a link language for the success on international platform may be on business, education etc. Every child in India should be taught English in their school as an international language.

2.National Language

What is national language…? A language which has connection with people and represents the national identity.
I agree that Hindi does not have any ancestral connection with the people of some states. I will say that India was actually born in 1947.Before this we all know how much divided we were and on which grounds. Moreover if we go and dig in to the past, I am sure there will be so many stuffs on which we can start fighting.
As per our constitution we do not have any language as our national language. But does this mean that we should not have any identity on the basis of national language.
So, shall we sit and do brainstorming that what should be our national language out of so many languages spoken in our country? If we go for this then in my opinion a big vote bank politics will start without any result. This may also lead to riots and hatred among us.
Today I find that Hindi is the only language which is spoken and understood by maximum Indians. This helps as link language among us. It is understood among the international community that here Hindi is our national language (example cited above). It is seen that even the people of different southern state communicate in Hindi or English. The Bollywood is very well penetrated in each part of India. So I want to say that instead of fighting and arguing and taking fresh decision on this we should accept Hindi as our national language.

3. Regional Language

After independence, the state boundaries were redrawn viewing language as an important, although by no means the sole factor. Other factors such as economic viability and geographical realities were taken in to account.
As I said above that we have the duty to preserve and promote the heritage prevailing throughout India. We all should think for the development of each and every state. Today people of some of the states are afraid that excessive migration from other states leads to the deterition of their infrastructure and culture and in some way this seems correct observing the burden on metropolitan cities.
So the question is how this should be addressed.
If we are moving for job from one city to another city then this becomes our responsibility to think for the city’s development also. As most of us who are working in Banglore, Pune or Bomaby do our job, came back to home, on weekend enjoy with friends in Pub, Disco, watching movies etc and take leave to celebrate the festivals in their native place .
I mean to say that we should also take part in the development and social work wherever we go. We should also cast our vote their to choose good leaders( If we have stayed in any state of India for more than 6 months then we are eligible to cast our vote their even if we do not have the voter card from that state. Have a cup of tea and visit www.jaagore.com. ) . If we find any infrastructure problem like dugs on the road, poor bridge then instead of depending on the locals only we should also report to the concerned department. We should also participate in the local festivals not only by watching but taking initiatives also. There are more we can do. These are just some general things.
This is the only way we can preserve our vast culture and avoid hatred among us based on linguistic ground. We should also try to learn the language of the place where we are staying because existence of different languages and dialects is also the uniqueness of our nation. Every language should be respected. None of the language should be forgotten.
We already have the system of three languages in our education system for each state.

It is we only who have to bring the change and move forward to make our beloved nation shine in the eyes of the world.