D. C. Sharma
For the last many years, some people have been arguing that Hindi should take the place of English. Come September and these people celebrate Hindi Day with gusto. To mark this day, programmes are organised, poems and songs in Hindi are recited, and every year fresh schemes and plans are made to elevate Hindi to the status of English. Once the festivities are over, their passion cools down like water freezing into an ice cube. These votaries of Hindi are enthusiastic about sending their wards to study in English-medium schools. Deep down they know that theere is no alternative to this international language that has been popular throughout the globe for centuries.
The reasons that go in favour of English are many. English is the only language that virtually helps to build the personality of a learner on a sound footing, making him confident. In 1995, I went from Kangra for training in English communicative skills to the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. I preferred to speak in Hindi to the well-dressed peon standing at the gate as I asked for directions to reach the hostel where I was staying. I had to cut a sorry figure as the peon asked me in absolutely fluent English to repeat my request only in English if I wanted to know the details. Such is the value of English even in India, one could not help wondering while entering the portals of that premier English institute. Leave alone give suitable equivalents of technical words in Hindi, even words of common use are not that comprehensive and readily available in Hindi as they are in English.
Is it not easier and impressive to call a rail van as “train” in English rather than calling it “loh path gamini” in Hindi? Even labourers today prefer to use the word “shirt” rather than kameez. Some of those who talk in favour of using Hindi, instead of English, opine that the accent of Indians is not authentic and is not equivalent to that of the English. What is the answer, when they are asked, “Is the accent of all Hindi-speaking people the same?” One cannot disagree with the fact that even the accent of all those whose mother tongue is English is not the same. The standard pronunciation of English, which is known as the received pronunciation, is spoken only in the South of London. Similarly, the accent of those who use English in Ireland and in Scotland is not similar to those who speak English in England. So different is the accent of Americans, Canadians and even Indians. This is so because our vocal chords get developed differently as per the frequent use of our mother tongue. But that doesn't mean that we are inferior when it comes to speaking and making use of English. There is no lack of examples of how Indians speak more correct English than even some English gentlemen do! Then why feel inferior, and why lose the benefits of learning, speaking and using English as a language?
Then there also instances when those those who start writing in Hindi very soon lose that initial zeal when they find that those writing in English are more visible, while those who write in Hindi have a limited reach. Didn't Indian writers like RK Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and Khushwant Singh make a mark and win fame? Are not so many of Indian journalists, writing and editing in English, doing an extraordinary job in India as well?
Doesn't a Damocles' sword hang above the heads of those who write and get published in Hindi when they find that there is bias even in the Hindi-writing world? Even good writers feel shortchanged and awards do go often to the undeserving ones, usually to the ones who have political hooks.
It is only then that those who are taken in by the vows to propagate Hindi discover that those who profess to elevate Hindi are actually elevating their own selves rather than the language which they praise as their mother tongue. These advocates swear by Hindi and pretend how they wish it could be used in offices throughout the length and breadth of the nation.
There is no doubt that we Indians too have sufficient worth and rare potential and that India surely deserves the rightful place to be a great nation. What, then, is the hitch? The only hitch is that in a roundabout manner, sincere and hard- working people are made to languish by shrewd politicians (though all of them can't be called shrewd). People become weak, miserable and feel at a disadvantage on account of their unfulfilled longings and simply keep on pining.
To grind their own axe, politicians only entice their target and throw baits, sometimes in the shape of developing Hindi, and sometimes in the shape of providing them better jobs, and sometimes even enticing them that their party and their government alone can give them security or provide welfare and betterment. Actually the goal is just to seek attention and the intention of these votaries of a particluar cause is simply to draw crowds.
That is how politicians virtually build vote banks by posing to be true to the nation. They are actually misleading people in the garb of patriotism and professing love for the “mother tongue.”
The practically proved truth is that there is certainly no alternative to English language. English alone can go a long way in serving all the purposes in every field of knowledge and activity. Otherwise, why should there be massive enrolment of students in English-medium schools?
The writer is a psychologist, based in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.