If u r planning to write your national level competitive exams(Civil services etc.), u can do so either in English or in hindi. Why hindi, may I ask? Why not in all the regional languages? Doen’t hindi give an undue advantage to hindi speaking people ? For a non-hindi speaking person it is just too much to ask for. First learn English to communicate with the world, then learn hindi to communicate to your fellow citizens. Then, if after all that learning, you have some spare time, handle the syllabus of the respective exams. What the fuk. That, my dear hindi-zindabad brigade, is called imposition. A shameless, bias and hegemonistic imposition.
That we, non-hindi people can write an exam in English, is something that we should thank out stars for. In 1950, when The Constitution was enacted, it was decided that hindi and English would be the 2 official languages till 1965, after which, hindi would be the only official language. Again, what the fuk. Expectedly, thanks largely to the South, another “freedom” struggle started in the “free” India. Only this time around, against the “hegemony” of hindi and its fanboys. It was then, Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then PM, realized the enormity of the stupidity and retained english. Today, we are stealing a march from the Yellow men, largely because of that movement.
One more thing that the hindi-zindabad brigade should understand - mother tongue is not a “small” matter. In fact it is so big, that it has, in the past, enraged an entire country and led to its demise and birth of a new one. It is so sensitive, that even a dead language has been brought to life and made a country’s national language. So people who think this is just another issue, should first, start to love their own mother tongue. Then, and only then, you would realize what and why, we, non-hindi speakers are saying what we are saying.
Having said all of that, I still have something else to say, which might sound contrary to my stand. I live in Kolkata, which is completely over run by non-bengalis. I, personally don’t have a problem with that. Kolkata is after all a metropolitan city. But has that in any way hijacked the Bengali culture in any way. NO. Not a tiny bit. We still love our Tagore, Bankim, Sharatchandra, Sukumar Ray (father of Satyajit Ray) and modern writers like Sunil Ganguli, Joy Goswami etc., our Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Gautam Ghosh, our “macher jhol” (fish curry), “rosogolla”, misti doi etc. Believe me, hindi hasn’t been able to scratch a bit. And I don’t think it ever will. In fact influx of foreign culture is very much welcome – cause it may, if treated intelligently, enriches the existing one.
This is what I completely fail to understand about South. I support their stance against hindi, but I just can’t bring myself to support the reasons, i.e. hijacking of culture. Surely tamil culture is anything but brittle. It has survived thousands of years, not for no reason. I don’t support “imposition of hindi”, (mind you not the language “hindi”) because it goes against propriety, against the freedom of choice and, if I may, against the very premise of “unity in diversity”. But I just can’t accept the logic that speaking hindi will ruin my culture.
As with certain other members, who do not understand, the difference between something that is “constitutionally” national and something that is “perceived as” national, or for that matter, why something is constitutionally recognized as “national”, you have a long, long road ahead. Keep walking.