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

The reason for Hindi words matching with other languages is all of them are born from Sanskrit. But in South India the languages used are born from Dravidian languages.

I have my doubts that Indians would ever agree to any one language as National Language but it will become another reason for infighting. Let the state governments decide which language they chose for governmental work and how they manage with center government. 

@ Rambabau The reason for Hindi words matching with other languages is all of them are born from Sanskrit. But in South India the languages used are born from Dravidian languages.

 Personally, I have no issues with Hindi being chosen as the National language since it spoken by the majority of people across India and it makes sense to have a language that is spoken and understood by the majority to be  chosen as the National Language. However, I have my own doubts whether the south Indian states would agree to that ..

I still remember the anti Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu. I don' think Southern sates accept Hindi as National language.

rambabu wrote:

I still remember the anti Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu. I don' think Southern sates accept Hindi as National language.

 

Don't you remember the same scenes in Mumbai under Sena? So why ask for more trouble which is bound to abort in any case.

suni51 wrote:

rambabu wrote:

I still remember the anti Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu. I don' think Southern sates accept Hindi as National language.

 

Don't you remember the same scenes in Mumbai under Sena? So why ask for more trouble which is bound to abort in any case.

Im not asking for trouble. I said in the context of language rivalries. Just now I heard the news that usage of Telugu has been abolished in TN.

 

now tell me how one can think of national language?

 

Some have rightly questioned why Tamil only should represent south. I feel that Tamil is most significant language of south. My idea is that Hindi is from North and Tamil from south.  There are many other languages in North also apart from various variants of Hindi itself.  There can be a consensus on Hindi of North and Tamil of south. If no consnsus, better to avoid making any language as national.  Let all Indianlanguages be consideredas national. any wayEnglish and Hindi are central govt oficial languages. 

Fair enough.  Just now i heard Telugu has been abolished completely for all practical purposes by the TamiNadu government. Telugus form 37% of the TN's population. In this scenario of language rivalries, it is better to follow what you said. Let all the languages be National level status.

Karnataka was very liberal with languages so much so that Kannadigas learnt tamil and telugu to speak with people from those states but it became such a practice that noone was willing to reciprocate by learnin Kannada while living in the state  and that's how Vatal Nagrag and others began to stand firm that anyone coming to live here shd have a working knowledge of Kannada and some other measures...Earlier Karnatak would have agreed to have Hindi as National language but of late I see them becoming as firm in their stand against that..At the same time having Hindi as the National language is probably more agreeable that Tamil ..

" Speak and write in Odiya . Else quit the state" was once the attitude in Odisha when I lived there. I don't know the present condition. I left Odisha long ago. Before the Bifurcation of AP, the present CM of Telangana used to shout in all his meetings at the top of his voice, " Andhra wallah Bhago."

This is the mood of almost all the states in the country. Now in this scenario think of having a National Language for this country?

Before Independence, Britishers used English as a major language so that they can easily understand what is going on in the country. In all offices, English was used to complete the work. But after Independence, Hindi was declared as official language. In 1950 it was decided that the use of English will be ended by 1965. But as in south Hindi is not understood by most of the people, in 1963 it was decided to continue with both English and Hindi.

As we know if we go outside India or we want to communicate with foreign people we have to use English, so English is gaining its ground while Hindi is loosing its ground in our country.

English is considered as International language. It's a Global means of communication. Many countries , where in English is not understood also prefer English.

rambabu wrote:

English is considered as International language. It's a Global means of communication. Many countries , where in English is not understood also prefer English.

That's why English is preferred over Hindi, also we are getting many jobs from other countries who like their work to be complete in English. Many BPO's, private companies who deal with foreign countries seek for people who can communicate well in English. So for job purpose also people prefer English over Hindi.   

Manoj Kumar Lamba wrote:

Before Independence, Britishers used English as a major language so that they can easily understand what is going on in the country. In all offices, English was used to complete the work. But after Independence, Hindi was declared as official language. In 1950 it was decided that the use of English will be ended by 1965. But as in south Hindi is not understood by most of the people, in 1963 it was decided to continue with both English and Hindi.

As we know if we go outside India or we want to communicate with foreign people we have to use English, so English is gaining its ground while Hindi is loosing its ground in our country.

In Places like Europe and Japan one cannot get by with English because they stick to their language ! However, in all those countries ruled by the British meaning commonwealth countries and in America and Canada English is the only language spoken although they may have other languages which will be a minority.

However, it was different with India since we already had fully developed languages and scripts in different regions and they were all being used extensively by people inspite of the influence of English language. 

Manoj Kumar Lamba wrote:

rambabu wrote:

English is considered as International language. It's a Global means of communication. Many countries , where in English is not understood also prefer English.

That's why English is preferred over Hindi, also we are getting many jobs from other countries who like their work to be complete in English. Many BPO's, private companies who deal with foreign countries seek for people who can communicate well in English. So for job purpose also people prefer English over Hindi.   

For the same reason, many countries including China, prefer Indian IT experts because of their abilities to communicate in English

 

usha manohar wrote:

Manoj Kumar Lamba wrote:

Before Independence, Britishers used English as a major language so that they can easily understand what is going on in the country. In all offices, English was used to complete the work. But after Independence, Hindi was declared as official language. In 1950 it was decided that the use of English will be ended by 1965. But as in south Hindi is not understood by most of the people, in 1963 it was decided to continue with both English and Hindi.

As we know if we go outside India or we want to communicate with foreign people we have to use English, so English is gaining its ground while Hindi is loosing its ground in our country.

In Places like Europe and Japan one cannot get by with English because they stick to their language ! However, in all those countries ruled by the British meaning commonwealth countries and in America and Canada English is the only language spoken although they may have other languages which will be a minority.

However, it was different with India since we already had fully developed languages and scripts in different regions and they were all being used extensively by people inspite of the influence of English language. 

Though majority of people speak Hindi in India, but to show them self as superior many of people add English words in Hindi. Now days in metro cities, people use English to show their status. You may have seen people talking in English to English without using Hindi words but how many people you have seen speaking in pure Hindi in your area?

Manoj Kumar Lamba wrote:

usha manohar wrote:

Manoj Kumar Lamba wrote:

Before Independence, Britishers used English as a major language so that they can easily understand what is going on in the country. In all offices, English was used to complete the work. But after Independence, Hindi was declared as official language. In 1950 it was decided that the use of English will be ended by 1965. But as in south Hindi is not understood by most of the people, in 1963 it was decided to continue with both English and Hindi.

As we know if we go outside India or we want to communicate with foreign people we have to use English, so English is gaining its ground while Hindi is loosing its ground in our country.

In Places like Europe and Japan one cannot get by with English because they stick to their language ! However, in all those countries ruled by the British meaning commonwealth countries and in America and Canada English is the only language spoken although they may have other languages which will be a minority.

However, it was different with India since we already had fully developed languages and scripts in different regions and they were all being used extensively by people inspite of the influence of English language. 

Though majority of people speak Hindi in India, but show them self as superior many of people add English words in Hindi. Now days in metro cities, people use English to show their status. You may have seen people talking in English to English without using Hindi words but how many people you have seen speaking in pure Hindi in your are?

 

Since Hindi is not spoken in my city I cannot say for sure but I do know that Kannada my state language is being viewed with pride now and Kannadigas prefer to speak in Kannada inspite of being fluent in English, that is because the language had taken a beating because of influx of other languages from neighboring states.I welcome this trend and I speak only in Kannada to people within my state and only if the person genuinely does not know Kannada , then I speak in English but I also feel that when you go to any state and want to work there , you have to have a working knowledge of the state language, it shows that you respect their language , also it makes life easier for you.

Working knowledge in the language, where outsiders live is essential for their own good while dealing in day to chores. Rather, the people of the state will be happy to hear he state language even if its broken. My elder daughter who lives in Bengaluru and her children are very fluent in Kannada.

rambabu wrote:

Working knowledge in the language, where outsiders live is essential for their own good while dealing in day to chores. Rather, the people of the state will be happy to hear he state language even if its broken. My elder daughter who lives in Bengaluru and her children are very fluent in Kannada.

 

Yes now people from other states do speak in Kannada because they have realised that it is better to do so, even then you see some speaking in their own language and asking you, don't you know Hindi or Malayalam ? That really puts you off !

Whether one agrees or not English has become the de facto national language of India. Within the country there is so much of opposition to an Indian language being chosen as a national language that no Indian language will ever be accepted as a national language. It is true that Hindi is the most widely spoken Indian language, and yet it is resisted. So other less spoken languages do not stand a chance. Till about 1000 AD or so Sanskrit was use as a pan India language. It gave way to farsi or Persian  language with the coming of Muslims esp the Moghuls. The British rule replaced it with English and it continues till today. It has rightly been said that India is a land of nearly 650 languages united by a foreign language. Let us accept No use  being parochial about one's language when others do not understand it. In France the French do not reply to you if you ask in English even if they know English. What is the sadistic pleasure derived from such behaviour? If someone does not know Kannadigaor Telugu or Tamil or Malayalam or Punjabi etc language ,should it be first tested that he really does not know and then he is replied to in English or Hindi. Let us accept English as an official national language of India and not be hypocritical about it. As national language it will be taught in all schools equally all over the country