Will it be good to have a National Language in India?

People may use the term Rashtra Bhasha  without realising but legally it is not our National language . Of course it is the most spoken language in India and is used as an official language  for the purpose of official use in government offices not spoken language , if that was the case Hindi will have to be learnt by all across India which is not so now..It is learnt as a 3rd language in all southern states and im TN , not even that !

True. Another aspect is that a National Language should unite the country. Hindi doesn't have that quality. Because this side of Vindhya doesn't use Hindi and the mostly used languages are Dravidian languages.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

When has Hindi been declared an official language of India? I am not aware of the fact, if anyone has more information, do share the link here. Except that it is spoken in more than one states which is not the case with other languages, it is believed to be official but as far as I know, it is not.

As far as Usha's topic is concerned, I think the safest bet would be English language and not Hindi as English is far more widely spoken and understood in the southern and I think, Northeastern states.

 

Kalyani both English and Hindi have been accepted as Official language...I give the paragraph which throws some light on the subject !

t the Constituent Assembly while discussing the Language Formula noticed the recommendation of the Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights, which recommended the formula as per which, “Hindustani, written either in Devanagari or the Persian script at the option of the citizen, shall, as the national language, be the first official language of the Union. English shall be the second official language for such period as the Union may, by law, determine.”

However, in the constitution, Hindi was declared as an official language and not a national language.

The court in its order said Part XVII of the Constitution deals with Official Language. Under Article 343, official language of the Union has been prescribed, which includes Hindi in Devanagari script and English.

The link I have already given in my post earlier ..

All languages printed on currency notes and given in our constitution are national languages. There is no need to decklare any one language as national language. However if it is considered necessary, Hindi and Tamil both be accoded status of national language. 

You mean the languages in eighth schedule ?

States within India have the liberty and powers to specify their own official language(s) through legislation and therefore there are more than 20 officially recognized languages in India,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_with_official_status_in_India

Nothing against Tamil, but why declare it a national language?

I did not say Tamil should be declared as official language. The post asks you to come up with your suggestions with reasons..

There are other members also participating in the forum and one of them suggested Tamil, so I want to know if he can say more about his suggestion. I will wait for his response when he chooses to do so.

Hindi cannot be and will never be, the National language of India.  When a language is declared a National language in India, it has to be appreciated that the language will have equal, but not more than, equal importance, than any other language of India.  

However, the Hindi politicians, who were always self-centered like the late Charan Singh and the now incorrigible Mulayam Singh Yadav, want Hindi to totally replace English, everywhere.  Though this a stupid suggestion, they have always been advocating just this, even while sending their own children to study in the best of schools and colleges, abroad, in English. 

For example, can Hindi be the first language of all communication and instruction, in West Bengal or Orissa?  So, does this mean that the Bengali or Oriyan languages are inferior?  Will this lead to unity among people? Obviously not.  

The Hindiwallahs want Hindi, because it is their mother tongue.  Nothing more, nothing less. At the moment, Hindi is only one of the National languages, alongside other National languages.  

So, the only solution is that there should be a three language formula, where everyone will study English, Hindi and their own mother tongue.  The mother tongue should be the medium of instruction where Hindi is not the State language.  In the Hindi States, they should learn English and another Indian language compulsorily.

But this is easier said than done, as the Hindiwallahs, with all their narrow mindedness, want to study only in Hindi, and ensure that English is driven out of the country, conveniently forgetting the fact that the entire IT industry, and some of the world's best doctors and scientists and lwayers were from India, only because they knew English very well. 

Hindi is of course, more widely spoken than any other language, but it can, and will never substitute other Indian languages and English.  Even if some Hindi poltician now tries to remove English, he will face his waterloo in no time.

Hindi is basically India's official language, it's because the number of Hindi speaking people is higher than any other language speaking people in our country. The central government has opted Hindi for its official purpose. Somehow, it has been interpreted that Hindi is our national language but constitutionally that's absolutely wrong.  

Though my mother tongue is Bangla, English is my academic language, still I would prefer Hindi to be the national language of India. It's because From my childhood I had studied Hindi in school and certainly it served as the best communicative language with my friends because a very few students were Bengali and English was always considered to be a foreign language. Thus, now when I am fully conversant in all the three languages I have mentioned above then I am not ready to learn any new language. For me, Hindi suits the best because it's the language for the majority of Indians.

Majority may understand Hindi to some extent, but majority do not speak Hindi. Entire Southern India speak in their own languages but not Hindi.

In my humble opinion a common national language is not possible at this stage but the need of the hour is to go on as per need of the area. The best we can do is make some Indian languages optional in different parts of the states like we can give students an option to learn an extra language of their choice. I think people in North can learn Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or Malayalam. Likewise in South, East and West can opt for an extra language but making any language a national language will only make it controversial. So we should leave the choice on people to how do the like to adjust rather than making anything compulsory.  

Well every one has agreed to Hindi being most widely used in the country. That sort of sums it up. Even the states where Hindi is not commonly used people are able to understand and  and to some extent speak even if not fluently. I too am from a state(WB) where Hindi Is not predominantly used but is understood by most people. I agree that the choice, if at all required to make , Is a tough one because sentiments are attached to one's mother tongue. So, best Is to look at the language understood by majority. Owing to transferable jobs,  I have stayed In varous states since my childhood. I couldn't have chosen to use my mother tongue In every state I went to. Nor was it possible to learn the language native to a particular state every time we shifted.English of course was the medium of instruction as well as communication In the schools and colleges but there has to be one Indian language which the locals understand. Hindi Is understood In most places. Only some places In the South ,communication was difficult If one did not know the local language.No one has ever said Hindi Is superior to the regional languages. All of us are proud of our mother tongue and literature. But the language which Is most widely used can be accepted as a common language alongside our mother tongue and English.

Yes, of-course every country have their national language then why should not in our country. I am totally agree with ram in our country caste problem which is major issue. But we all and government need to focus on it and it will definitely help to our nation and nation people. Most os the country using their own national language not giving importance to English but we all are just want to learn this foreign at any cost by giving huge amount of fees. It is not right we all need to protect Hindi, and to make it national language.

vijay wrote:

Nothing against Tamil, but why declare it a national language?

 

Hindi- North India and Tamil- South India.  Giving status of national language to both will indicate national unity/ integration. 

Gulshan Kumar Ajmani wrote:

vijay wrote:

Nothing against Tamil, but why declare it a national language?

 

Hindi- North India and Tamil- South India.  Giving status of national language to both will indicate national unity/ integration. 

But the truth is Tamil no way connected with Malayalam spoken in Kerala, Kannada in Karnataka and Telugu in AP and Telangana.

 

Gulshan Kumar Ajmani wrote:

vijay wrote:

Nothing against Tamil, but why declare it a national language?

 

Hindi- North India and Tamil- South India.  Giving status of national language to both will indicate national unity/ integration. 

 

Why particularly Tamil, why not Kannada, Telugu or Malayalam? They are all spoken in different states ..

Yes many are not aware of this fact. They are under the impression, the entire south speaks " Madrasi language." There is no language called Madrasi language.

One reason that Hindi would be declared as National Language is that most of the words used in this language match with the many words used in different languages in different states or parts of India. Also the format of this language is similar to most languages of India. So it is better to declare Hindi as National language than any other language in India.