‘English being favoured over Hindi’

Today, September 14, is celebrated as Hindi Diwas. The Constitution of India adopted Hindi in Devanagri script as the official language of the union under Article (343) in 1950. It was incorporated in the meeting of the constituent assembly held from September 12-14.

Mahatma Gandhi had stated, “The national language of the country is the language which is understood by the majority of people.” It was envisaged as the thread that would link people to one another and the common language of communication.

“English language has never been a part of our Constitution. It is not among the 22 national languages. Citizens of India should respect Hindi,” says Dr Ram Gopal Singh, professor at the Hindi department of Gujarat Vidyapith.

While Hindi is the official language and is also the second most widely spoken language in the world after Mandarin there are serious threats to the language feels, Sudha Singh, head of the department and professor at MB Patel College.

“All regional languages are facing a threat. It is believed that English medium students are brighter and more efficient than Hindi medium students, which I feel is not true. The mother tongue should come first, then the national language and lastly the international language,” she says.

“Only 6-7 % of people are English speaking in India. The government has given too much importance to this minority. They get all the opportunities. Adivasis suffer the most because of this,” she adds.

Hindi speaking regions contain A (majority Hindi speaking regions) - 100% use of Hindi, B (partially Hindi speaking states) - 70% use of Hindi and C (north east, south India) - 50% use of Hindi. There are 17 main dialects in Hindi. The language was born around 1000 AD. Pakistan, Mauritius, Surinam and Trinidad have Hindi speaking people.