In Hindi raj, linguistic equality is an impossible dream

While the Indian Union celebrated the transfer of power from London to New Delhi this year (called independence in these parts of the world), the twitter hashtag #StopHindiImposition started trending among the all India top 5. Such an act, ‘especially’ on August 15 was termed by some as ‘anti-national’. From when did asking for linguistic equality and fighting against non-consensual imposition of something become an anti-national act, unless being patriotic and being for Hindi imposition are same?

Wasn’t precisely this right to protest unilateral impositions on 15th August 1947, or so we were told?

Freedom also means no one should have advantage or discrimination in any sphere of life, because of his or her mother-tongue. There are a million things that a non-Hindi mother-tongue person cannot do in mother-tongue in the Indian Union. This becomes starker as we go down the socio-economic ladder.

One can’t write to parliamentary committees in their mother-tongue (thus cutting out majority of people from the legislative process), can’t expect public sector banks to provide forms, documents and ATM choices in their mother-tongue even in their own states and areas, can’t expect air-plane safety announcements in Bengali or Nagamese in flights between Bengal and Nagaland, can’t argue in their courts in their mother tongue in non-Hindi states, can’t take competitive exams like IIT, IAS and other ‘national’ exams in their mother-tongue, can’t expect Income Tax website in mother tongues of majority of tax-payers, can’t expect a Malayali central government or PSU employee to be paid cash incentives to learn Bengali and not Hindi (hence non-Hindi speakers fund the cash-incentive based promotion and learning of Hindi — clearly an Odiya learning Tamil won’t link anyone or result in ‘national integration’!), can’t expect Kannada signage in trains and metros of Delhi (Hindi signs exist everywhere in Namma Metro of Bengaluru, a city where Hindi isn’t even among the top 3 most spoken languages in the city), can’t expect that most CISF-CRPF-RPF-Army-BSF posted in West Bengal will speak and understand the language of non-Hindi locals, can’t expect government adverts about Clean India, Green India, and Make in India in Telugu to be in newspapers and billboards of Hindi regions (while the reverse is true), can’t expect someone to ‘break into’ their non-Hindi mother-tongue in English language TV channels, can’t expect government websites that cater to the poorest (like MNREGA) offering information in regional languages or government TV channels that cater to farmers (like Kisan TV) to have anything in non-Hindi mother tongue (as Mohammed Shafi says, farmers of non-Hindi states have real challenges to overcome. Let’s not include ‘learning Hindi’ and ridicule them). The list goes on. 

If you are discriminated on the basis of your mother-tongue, are you independent or free? The answer is no. Who rules over you then? Well, those who oppose linguistic equality and hence want to continue the discrimination against your mother-tongue, that is, against your mother, you and your coming generations till your kind gives in to this discrimination as ‘normal’ and also considers New Delhi-sponsored promotion of a particular language ‘normal’. If you learn to speak, think, write and feel in that imposed language, can sing Hindi antakshari and dance to Bollywood tunes to feel included among ‘cosmopolitan’ friends in Mumbai, NCR and in Bengaluru, you will become the kind of citizen New Delhi wants you to be.

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