Daily Times

Arunav Kaul has written an article India Doesn’t Need Hindi to Unify the Masses, published in thewire.in. Here is my response:

First of all, I am against imposition of Hindi. This is the age of democracy, and in a democracy nothing should be imposed. People should be persuaded, not coerced. In fact, it was the attempt by some short-sighted north Indian politicians in the 1960s that set off a reaction in the south, particularly in Tamil Nadu where Hindi was already spreading due to Hindi films and the Hindi Prachar Sabha, and then Tamilians stopped learning Hindi. But that is past history and one should now look ahead.

Secondly, I have always said that all Indians must learn English, as almost all scientific knowledge as well as other knowledge is only in English. If one goes to an engineering or medical college all the books are in English. This is the age of science. Should we have no scientists, engineers, doctors?

Thirdly I am in favour of simple Hindi called Hindustani, spoken by the common man, and not the Sanskrit-ised (klisht) Hindi of literary people.

That having being said, I wish to refute Mr Kaul.

The truth is that Hindi, in its simplified form, Hindustani or khariboli, is already the language of the nation. It is the mother tongue of people in several states and Union territories of the UP, Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Haryana and Andaman Islands. It is also spoken in many states that have some other language as the mother tongue – the Punjab, Kashmir, West Bengal, Telengana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Orissa and the north eastern states. It is known to many people even in south India. Pakistanis too speak Hindi, though they call it Urdu; when I speak to my Pakistani friends we speak in Hindi.

I do not regard Hindi to be superior to other Indian languages. Tamil, for instance, has a very rich and ancient literature, of which Tamilians are rightly proud. All regional languages should be further developed and supported by the state. For instance, I supported the demand of Tamilians to make Tamil a court language in Madras High Court under Article 348(2) of the Constitution and Section 7 of the Official Languages Act, and I said the same for high courts in other non-Hindi states.

But the truth is that Hindi is spoken by about 15 times more people than Tamil. I am a Kashmiri, but my ancestors migrated from Kashmir about 200 years ago, and we forgot the Kashmiri language, which is totally different from Hindi. My wife can speak Kashmiri because her ancestors remained behind in Kashmir. Some of my wife’s relatives suggested I learn Kashmiri, but I replied of what practical use would that be? Kashmiri is only spoken in the Kashmir valley, whereas Hindi is spoken almost all over India.

The truth is that Hindi, in its simplified form, Hindustani or khariboli, is already the language of the nation

So to Tamilians who say that North Indians should learn Tamil I say that while I have no objection – in fact, I personally did a Tamil diploma course when I was a student of the Allahabad University in 1963-65, and I joined the Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu in 1967-68 to do a one year diploma course in spoken Tamil – the truth is that Tamil is spoken only in Tamil Nadu, so of what practical use will it be for north Indians (other than those who have settled in Tamil Nadu ) to learn it?

I have often appealed to Tamilians and others to voluntarily learn Hindi, without giving up Tamil, in their own interest, although I am against its imposition; they face a lot of difficulty when they come out of Tamil Nadu if they do not know Hindi. Once I said this in a speech I gave in the Anna University in Chennai. A professor in the audience got up and said English is already the link language of India, so why should Tamilians learn Hindi. I replied that only the elite in India, who are 10 per cent or less of the population, know English. If a Tamilian came to Delhi, he will have a lot of difficulty if he does not know Hindi. Most taxi and auto drivers in north Indian cities, and many shopkeepers do not know English.

Before concluding, I would like to narrate two incidents, both of which occurred when I was the chief justice of the Madras High Court (2004-2005 ). Once I went to a shop in Madurai, and heard the Tamilian shopkeeper speaking to a customer in Hindi. I was surprised, and asked him, “Eppadi ungalukku evalavu nalla Hindi teriyum?” (How do you know such good Hindi?). He replied in Tamil that while politicians have their agendas, he had to do business.

The second incident happened when I was invited to a function in Gulbarga in Karnataka. To attend that I flew from Chennai to Hyderabad, from where I went by taxi to Gulbarga. En route I heard a professor of the Gulbarga University, who had come to Hyderabad to escort me, speaking to the taxi driver in Hindi. I was surprised, since both of them were south Indians, and I asked the professor why they were speaking in Hindi. He replied that his mother tongue was Kannada, and the taxi driver’s mother tongue was Telugu, but both knew Hindi. So that was the only language in which they could communicate as the taxi driver did not know English.

Hindi, therefore, is already the link language of India, and those who do not know it should learn it. That will contribute to national integration.

The writer is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India