Language slavery is the largest of all other slaves. Whichever countries in the world have been freed from subordination, they have done the first thing to remove the bundle of linguistic slavery from their heads. This work has been done by Lenin in Russia, Kamal Pasha in Turkey, Sukarno in Indonesia and dozens of small countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. But as linguistic hypocrisy continues in India, it is not seen anywhere else. India is the only country in the slavery countries until the first half of the twentieth century, which, even after 7 decades of its independence, is more enslaved than any existing slave country at the level of language.
What can be more unfortunate and ridiculous is that the judgments in the Supreme Court and the High Court are pronounced in English, which is not generally understood by the litigants, because the foreign language is something that the justice is judged. That whatever decision is taken should be understood by the plaintiff. But what happens is that their lawyers only tell the plaintiffs whether they have lost or won the case. In this connection, a petition was also filed in the Supreme Court a few years ago, demanding that Hindi be made the official language of court work instead of English. On this petition, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the central government and wanted to know its side. The government responded by throwing a ball in the court of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court dismissed the petition.
The question is not just about the functioning of the judiciary, English horoscope is sitting in all government and semi-government departments and other areas of public life. The fact is that whenever there is a voice to give Hindi or other Indian languages their right, then the ruling class of the country i.e. bureaucrats, people belonging to corporate sector, elite politicians and some bad-tempered English intellectuals are badly disturbed. Arise. They see a threat to the dominance of their beloved language. This section tries to prove that English is the contact language of the country and without it the work of the country cannot work.
This shameless argument is made with brazenness that if an atmosphere of hatred for English is created then this country will be broken. While the reality is that the supporters of Hindi and Indian languages are not opposed to English, they are merely seeking to end the dominance of English in various fields of folk life. But those who speak Hindi or other Indian languages against English are seen with hikrat in the same way as black people are seen in many European countries. It is a kind of linguistic racism.
Actually, the question is not only about Hindi, but about the self-respect and respect of the entire Indian languages. At the same time, this issue related to the honor of the constitution. No other country in the world is as ignorant and contempt of the Constitution in India. Hindi was made the official language in the constitution and it was said that gradually English should be removed from government work, but even after the constitution has been implemented, it has been almost 7 decades, but during this time any government has replaced Hindi with English as per the constitution’s instructions. There was no concerted effort towards setting up. As a result, the status of English grew in every sphere of public life along with legislature, executive and judiciary.
It is unfortunate of our country that even after more than 7 decades of independence, we in India are not free in terms of language. Despite the status of Hindi in the Constitution, Hindi could not get its proper place in independent India. Moreover, Hindi could not find the place which was provided to us by the leaders of our national movement and the makers of the Constitution.
According to the intention of our constitution, Hindi should have become the language of the Union i.e. the Union Government in 1965 itself, but before that there was a slight disturbance against Hindi in one or two states of the South, then the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru Had given this historical assurance that Hindi will not be imposed on anyone. It has been more than 5 decades since Nehru passed away, but the answer to this question has not been found till date that Hindi may not be imposed but why is English being imposed on the country? The question is also why English has remained patrani till now and why is Hindi mourning its plight to become a maid?
From Nehru’s time to the present, no matter whether or not, the story is that the question of language has been put in the basement of politics. Those who raised the question of respect for Hindi or Indian languages, such as Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, were ridiculed either by being seen from Hikrat or by looking back. Now the situation has become such that no one is going to raise voice at the political level to get Hindi its rightful place. The common functioning of almost all political parties is also in English.
Even the question of saving Hindi and other Indian languages never comes under the purview of the concern of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its other siblings of the Sangh Parivar, who are ‘concerned’ day and night about Indian culture. Overall, the question of Hindi has completely disappeared from the agenda of all political parties. For all politicians, Hindi has become a language of mere sloganeering and speeches i.e. election campaign and vote seeking.
Overall, the politics of returning Hindi to its lost status is now completely over. It has now been replaced by Hindi sentimentality. This sentiment is comforting Hindi speakers and Hindi lovers on the lines of ‘she morni kabhi to aayegi’ that at some point of time Hindi will be deaf. This sentimentalism emerges completely in its inferiority of gimmicks such as the World Hindi Conferences from government resources, in which some politicians with so-called literary instincts, some bureaucrats and some jugadoo litterateurs and journalists who enter the corridors of power government money. But the trip abroad comes flat.
The ethos of the government, semi-governmental and non-governmental institutions that have been set up to oppose the English and to make Hindi its lost place, the behavior of the people rises less than the smell of smell and smell. Somewhere there is insignificance, somewhere there is a lack of vision and somewhere there is a shortage of positions and money. Actually, all these institutions are like flies and mosquitoes buzzing on the pus of wounds of Hindi. But leaving the pus filled and smelly wounds open, nothing can be done by flushing out flies and mosquitoes.
The need is that Hindi-speaking and Hindi lovers will feel the pain of this wound in their heart. Only with this pain can any such program be formed or any such movement can be born, which can give Hindi its real and natural place. No one should forget to believe that Hindi will gain its lost identity due to the current selfishness and power-based politics.
No one should also misunderstand that if not today then tomorrow the country will have to accept the glory and importance of Hindi. The devastating storm of globalization and marketism in the field of economy is flowing in the country at this time, in it not only Hindi, other Indian languages will fly like dry leaves and those who worry about these languages will be made completely jester. (The views / analysis expressed in this article are personal to the author. The facts and views / analysis contained herein are not those of ‘Webdunia’ and ‘Webdunia’ does not take any responsibility for this.)
