Hindi is NOT the same as Indian!

For many years now, I have come across Hindi-speaking North Indians brazenly declaring that Hindi being the Indian national language, should be spoken by all Indians. This of course, is primarily directed towards South Indians and in particular, Malayalees and Tamilians. I thought this chauvinism was restricted to the not-so well informed. But today, I came across the blog of a very respected friend alluding to this argument. And thus, I decided to revive my defunct blog and to give vent to my angst.

People should understand that Hindi is not the Indian official language in the same sense of English being England's official language. It is not even the native language of a majority of Indians, Wikipedia puts the percentage of Indian Hindi speakers at 40%. It stands as the official language, merely for the sake of convenience of this large and, I'm sorry to say, linguistically arrogant population. Hindi is to India what the six official languages of the UN are to the world. As Hindi isn't one, Hindi speakers will surely agree that one needn't speak one of the six to be a loyal 'world citizen'.

Contemporary standardized Hindi is a very, very new language. Even if one includes the numerous similar dialects, Hindi literature is only about 600 years old. Why should Tamil, with literature dating back 2 millenia, be subservient to this upstart language? That is, why should Hindi be a superior sine-qua-non 'national language'? Indeed, why should be Tamilians learn to speak any other language unless they themselves want to?

It is not at all difficult to see that Hindi is a completely alien language to most in Southern India. It belongs to a different language school and is linguistically poles apart. It has absolutely no historical or cultural connections to the people. This being so, to expect South Indians to speak Hindi betrays an ignorant and insensitive mindset.

Speaking of historical and cultural connections, English has had a much greater role due to the 2 odd centuries of British rule, and due to the wide changes they brought about. Besides, it gives connectivity to a much larger linguistic world. South Indians prefer learning English and even that is out of their own volition, and not to conform with some other group of people. As CN Annadurai famously said, Tamilians don't need a larger door to the world and a smaller door to North India. The same door can do for both.

North Indians travellers to the south who complain of difficulties in communication should understand that it is much much more difficult for a South Indian to learn an alien language. Being Indian does not entitle one to unconstrained conversation anywhere in the country.

The fundamental point is that of India being a federation - a federation of peoples voluntarily forming a union upholding democracy and secularism. Religious majoritarianism has no place in our secular configuration. In exactly the same way, this Hindi-bullying is anathema to our system. The freedom to learn or not learn a language is very much a birthright. The greatness of India lies not in its size, but in its diversity. Let us try to keep India that way.