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Wednesday, October 15, 2008

now, it's about hindi

Earlier, it wasn't it. I was only talking about Tamil pride or rather the lack of it.
Then mumbaigirl made an interesting comment on my post. After all, it's not the national language. It is one of the official languages.
I know Hindi haters -- but I ain't one of those. I am too fascinated by languages and communication to dislike any language. Least of all something that has lent itself to so much modernisation and slangs. much like English really.
what I have a problem with is that the Hindi-speakers expect the whole country to prostrate before it and them.
yes, TN fought tooth and nail against imposition of Hindi. but even then, Tamil was never made compulsory at schools in the state. Kannada is compulsory in Karnataka, Marathi in Maharashtra...
What I don't understand is that why the whole country has to adhere to a language, just because those to whom it is the first language can't be bothered to adapt?
You can manage with English in Madras, and most parts of TN. Can we say the same of UP or MP or Bihar?
It seems like the states that have moved on continue to be penalised for the backwardness of the rest.
The representation in Lok Sabha for instance is one MP per X population. So those states that paid no heed to population control form our majority representation... do I need to add that they are also ill educated and ill behaved?
Just take a look at the LS State wise list.
Why do states like Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, TN, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana (all with excellent social indicators and/or industrial growth, contributing largely to the overall development of the country) have fewer representation than Bihar, Uttar Pradesh...
So the minority law makers from the first set of states are up against the rather repressive majority bunch from the latter set.
Shouldn't there be a reward for development.
Now back to lingo:
The language we choose to embrace is our personal choice. There can't be a government stricture on that. Neither can there be social pressure from the bullies.
Those smart enough will know what language to choose to survive.
So if your livelihood is in Delhi, you bloody well will learn Hindi, if it's in Mumbai, you will learn Mumbaiya or Marathi, and if it has to be in the south or anywhere else in the country or most parts of the world, you have no choice but to learn English.

And another point: Those of us who have made an attempt to speak or converse in Hindi are mocked for our accent (in English as well). How does an addition of ‘yaar’ or ‘chalo’ to an already grammatically incorrect English sentence make their accent better?

Accents are the universal truth. Your mother tongue or first language is bound to affect the way you speak any other language. Be it Tamil, Malayalam, German or Russian.
The important thing is communication -- to be understood. The rest doesn't matter.

2 comments:

Pollux aka Paps said...

V: just today met with someone who has arrived here recently - & she says TN altho, the last state to do so, has done it. made tamizh compulsary in schools...
be that as it may be, language chauvinism has and will continue to get my goat.

btw, have been reading and enjoying all yoru posts, sorry ihaven't been able to comment till now...

Teesu (very very Indian, very very good) said...

Much as I always want to be a live and let live person, I have my own bee in my bonnet about the Hindi accent in English as spoken by North Indians. ANNNOYING accent. So nobody had better make any fun of MY Tamil accent.