Let us stop hitting below the [Hindi] belt

Why do we blame the Hindi belt for pulling down India’s progress? Let us pause here and try to reason. Till very recently government of India refused to accept most of the indigenous languages of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as independent languages. They were merely considered to be dialects of Hindi. How preposterous is that? One of them, Bhojpuri, has an estimated number of 170 million speakers. Even if we take that as an exaggeration we are at least left with 100 million people with Bhojpuri as their first language within India! Linguists unequivocally agree that Bhojpuri is a language on its own and should not be considered as a dialect of Hindi. Is this the only language which has been sidelined? Nopes, the list is too long to put on here. Magahi is another such language with rich heritage. It is supposed to be the direct descendent of Magadhi Prakrit – the language of Gautama Buddha. Once again government of India refused to accept this language (which by all means needs to be preserved) as an independent one and once again listing it with Hindi. Why are we so unfair to the speakers of these languages? As Professor Paul R Brass (University of Washington) quotes in one of his books when talking about Maithili (yet another Bihari language) “the wolf of Hindi want[s] to swallow the whole of the language of north Bihar”.
Let us try to reason out now. Imagine someone born for illiterate parents and speaks a very colloquial dialect or slang of a language at home. If this kid goes to school where the medium of instruction is in the formal written form of the language would you think that this kid has got any chance of doing well? We all know about the curriculum in India. It is no way easy at all. If this is with different dialects now imagine a kid born in a Bhojpuri family and going to school where the medium of instruction is Hindi. By refusing to accept their language as anything authentic, their right to be educated in their mother-tongue has been refused. How do we expect someone from the lower socioeconomic family to do well when he/she is denied such right? They are left with choice of either giving up their mother tongue or stay behind. So much for the largest democracy!
We refuse to accept their language, we impose another language on them, refuse to give them quality education, call them as “Hindi belt” when they are not and above all mock and beat them up! I am deliberately using the personal pronoun “WE” since its time that we take collective responsibility for the state of affairs out there. How long is this Hindi imposition going to be continued? We all know that this is unfair. Probably the largest rumour ever to be spread in modern times would be that Hindi is the national language of India. How many times have I heard people telling me this! One even went to the extent of claiming that someone who doesn’t know “Hindi- the national language of India” cannot be considered Indian. I had to reply back that someone who doesn’t know that Hindi is not the national language of India should be ashamed of himself/herself for not knowing what the constitution states. Funnily enough the constitution states that all bills and acts passed should be in English (which will be considered as the acceptable version) and all other language versions will be mere translations.
I see no good coming out of Hindi being imposed on the citizens of India. However sweet the language might be, how can it be forced on people immorally? Tell me honestly, can India do well if we give up English? We definitely need English to communicate with other countries. English language is our window to the rest of the world. Do we need one language for us to communicate within India and another one to communicate with the world? Like Annadurai questioned, “Do we need a big door for a big dog and a small door for a small dog? Can’t the small dog use the big door as well?” Even nations like China who traditionally do not speak English are opening up themselves to the language but we have been walking backwards for half a century banking on Hindi. Is this the state of affairs we want to leave behind after our generation? Remember that we do not inherit the earth from our parents, but we borrow it from our children. It is our foremost duty to make sure that we are clear of our conscience the kind of world we let the children live. Is the condescending attitude towards the so called “Hindi belt” going to continue? To start with we should stop calling it the Hindi belt.

Have we crossed all borders to keep borders in place?

To be honest with you, I do not know how to start. You always need a good “punch-line” to grab the attention of the reader. I have none. I’m not trying to play the game of claiming I don’t have a hook to pull and use that claim as the hook. Honestly! So let me get to the point straight. Whats up with all these borders? Seriously, why do we need them? Are we still hunter gatherers who are too scared that the neighbouring tribe will consume-off all our food sources? Are we trying to keep the others off from our women and children? If they want to and work towards it, they will get them all with borders in place too. The American TV soaps will do that anyways.
By having borders in place we along with our brilliant ancestors have bred all animosities as possible between all people. Have borders prevented man killing man (and women alike)? Whats with the refugee thing and seeking asylum? Why can’t people feeling unsafe in a place just move to other and feel at home? Why are we still not civilised enough to unite all mankind? Are we not social animals? It looks very much like we are more animal-like than being social enough.
If India opens up its borders to Pakistan, one might say, will bring in all the terrorists in – to quote an example. But aren’t they getting in anyways? At least when you open up you will have more people gushing in seeking fresh pastures and people can see that the ones on the other side are not any different.
We might not be ready yet for this utopian dream, but I wholeheartedly feel that we should be working or at least thinking towards this end – the end that will bring all mankind together. It is heart aching to see us still going on with separatist ideologies. I can see no difference between the separatists within a country from a so called patriotic nationalists. It is high time we stop this madness and work towards the goal of being children of the universe.