No national language?
Your newspaper has been mentioning Hindi as the “national language”. I would like to point out that India does not have a national language and Hindi is just one of the regional languages. Neither the Constitution of India nor Indian law specifies a national language. Article 343 of the constitution specifies that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.
—K Muralidhara, via email
II
I have been quite amused by the enormous reactions on the internet — mainly from NRIs — objecting to Hindi being mentioned as the “national language” when it is only an “official language”. For years, in casual speech Hindi has been called the “national language” (“rashtra bhasha”) and we must admit, whichever part of India we are from, that both Hindi and English are used the most by people who travel to different regions of India and may not know the local language. It seems we are quibbling. It is true that India has many wonderful languages — not all of them are listed — and we must respect them all. But we cannot deny that the government has been promoting Hindi and the very popularity of the products of the Hindi film industry shows how, “unofficially”, Hindi is practically our lingua franca. It is sad that we are returning to language
chauvinism for narrow political ends.
— Reema Barua, Mumbai
Cosmopolitan Mumbai
Aroon Tikekar’s ‘Poisoning Minds’ (DNA, November 13) was generally well balanced. There may not be many things to be said in favour of Abu Azmi, but in the recent imbroglio, it would be unjust to blame him for being provocative. Which self respecting person would meekly bow to a ‘request (?)’ with ‘threat of dire consequences’ if not complied with; especially when he was on to do something which is fully justifiable by law and the Constitution?Had he read his oath in Marathi he would have helped boost the morale of the ones who had issued the diktat. Honestly, even before the Bal or Raj wave, we (born in Mahrashtra and educated in Marathi) used to start a conversation in Hindi, when we wanted to speak with an unknown person we met on streets of Mumbai. It was a cosmopolitan city then and so is it now even after it became a part of the Marathi state. Let us not curb the freedom of Indian citizens to live peacefully anywhere in the country as long as he or she is not in any way harming other citizens or
encroaching on their rights.
—Virag Gokhale, Mumbai
Wrong stand
Recently we witnessed ugly scenes in the Maharashtra Assembly over the language issue (‘MNS-Azmi rivalry goes a long way’, DNA, November 10). The root cause of the controversy was the disrespect shown by Abu Azmi for Marathi. When a person aspires to be a representative of the people in a state he should be familiar with the state language. Constitutionally Abu Azmi has not erred in taking the oath in Hindi but he has certainly shown disrespect for Marathi and he has been living in Maharashtra for two and a half decades! The three-language formula must be uniformly implemented in all the states in India. The Hindi speaking states must also learn a third Indian language besides Hindi and English. Sanskrit is a good option for a third language as it is the mother of almost all Indian languages.
—Shreeram Paranjpe, via email
Unfair guest lists
I endorse the views of Nandini Ramnath about recently concluded MAMI Fest (‘Out of focus’, DNA, November 11). However, I would like to ask a question. Why should the inaugural or closing functions including the announcement of awards remain confined to only Bollywood or VIPs who were not even part of the audience for the showcased films at the festival and exclude those who were the registered audience?If MAMI wishes to involve Bollywood, there are other ways to do it.
—Mohan Siroya, Mumbai
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