Zee JLF 2018 | English is no longer the elites' language, says Satyanand Nirupam

"Hindi began as the language of the masses, the bazaar. You can't make it the rajbhasha; it won't work - people will not use words that they aren't used to, or find difficult. For instance, no one uses abhiyanta for anything but the official nameplates, everyone says engineer."

Journalist and author Vineet Kumar's assertion laid the ground for a heated debate on the state of Hindi today, titled "Hindi medium: Language and Elitism", on the concluding day of ZeeJLF.

English, said editor and author Satyanand Nirupam, was no longer the language of the elite, even the waiters and call centre employees spoke the language.

Avinash Das, Bollywood scriptwriter, spoke about how in Hindi films, the language of communication was English, but that it was changing with the people with a Hindi background such as Vishal Bhardwaj, Irshad Kamil, etc.