DNA Special: How tolerant is Hindi language?

Today is Hindi Day and on this occasion, we will ask you whether Hindi is your mother tongue or is it only a language for you?

On this day in the year 1949, the Constituent Assembly accepted Hindi as the official language of India. Many times, people consider official language and national language to be the same, but there is no mention of national language in the Constitution of India. Article 343 of the Constitution states that the official language of the country shall be Hindi and the script Devanagari.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that just as English is spoken in Britain and all the work is done in English, similarly, Hindi should get the respect of the national language in our country. But this dream of Mahatma Gandhi has not been fulfilled till date. The British left our country, but the English language never left.

Although the journey of the Hindi language is 3,500 years old, today the Hindi language we write and speak, its age is not much. It is only 120 years old. Hindi is a language that developed after thousands of years. And it changed itself according to each period. So, those who are not able to update themselves with time can learn a lot from the Hindi language.

Hindi is considered an easy form of the Sanskrit language. In Sanatan Dharma, the beginning of written language is considered from Rigveda. This language was Sanskrit. And this is from 1500 BC. The epics Ramayana and Mahabharata were also written in the Sanskrit language in around 1000 BC. The expansion and influence of the culture grew over time, but by 500 BC, Apabhramsa began, which meant another simplified form of the Sanskrit language.

The first Hindi work, Khuman Raso, took shape in the 10th century, in which the story of Rawal Khuman, the king of Chittor, took shape. After this, in the 13th century, the first popular poet of Hindi Khari Boli, Amir Khusro, wrote many riddles and songs in Persian and Hindi. But, in the 18th century, Bharatendu Harishchandra laid the foundation of the Hindi language we write and speak today.

For this, he was also called the father of modern Hindi literature. From the year 1900, the trend of the use of today's Hindi language increased and all the major freedom movements that took place, this language gave voice to them.

This simplicity and gentleness of the Hindi language also made it tolerant. In India, the Hindi language was also spoken mixed with the Urdu language and people made a habit of speaking Hindi along with English. For example, people have made a habit of saying good morning and good night. And 'dinak' was replaced by the Urdu word 'tarikh'. And 'mitra' was surpassed by another word of Urdu language 'yaar'.

It was the tolerance of Hindi that there was also a non-cooperation movement against the British government in India and a Khilafat movement. When India became independent on 15 August 1947, the first Prime Minister of the country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, gave his speech only in English, which is still recorded in the pages of history under the name of A Tryst With Destiny. Think, after getting independence from the British, speech was given in English itself.

The Constitution of our country is also originally written in the English language, where the word India has been used hundreds of times. At the beginning of the Constitution of India it is written - India, that is Bharat. This makes it seem as if the word India has been given more prominence.

Due to this inferiority complex towards the Hindi language, the famous satirist Harishankar Parsai once said that “On the day of Hindi Divas… Hindi speakers tell other Hindi speakers to speak in Hindi.” This is the biggest truth of the people of our country.

According to a study, 90 per cent of the people in our country, who do not know how to speak English, sign in English. Behind this is the inferiority complex towards Hindi, as well as the fault of the system. In many works even today, signature means to write one's name in English language and thumbprint means Hindi speaking people. This situation is also when Hindi is the third largest language spoken in the whole world.

In the first place is the English language, which is spoken by 135 crore people worldwide. Second is the Mandarin language of China, which is spoken by 120 million people. Hindi is in third place, which is spoken by 75 crore people. Spanish with 54 crore people on the fourth and Arabic language with about 28 crore people is at the fifth place.

According to the 2011 census, in India, about 53 crore people could speak and write in Hindi. Whereas in 2001, only 41 crore people could write or read in Hindi. In the year 2014, only 12 crore people read Hindi newspapers. But today, the number of people reading Hindi newspapers in the country has gone up to 18.60 million.

According to a study by Google, by the end of this year, the number of people using Hindi on the Internet in India will exceed those using English. This number would be around 38 per cent.

These figures indicate the bright future of the Hindi language, but it is also true that Hindi is the mother tongue of crores of people in India, but its current status is that of just a language. And the biggest reason for this is that the Hindi language has not become the language of the job till date.

There will be no greater paradox on Hindi Diwas than this. Today, many people used the English language to wish Hindi Divas. But the High Commissioner of Britain to India and the Ambassador of Germany have greeted the people of India on Hindi Day today. After this, you too will be free from the burden of the English language. And you will like that the British, who ruled India for 200 years, are wishing India on this occasion in Hindi language.