The classes have ended, exams out of the way, and the course is completed.
I see out of my apartment window aimlessly and all I see in the car park is four cars .The apartment complex, which until last week was bubbly with activity, is suddenly abandoned place. Its summer time and all the students have left for home. Boredom is hitting me hard I have a month to kill before I move. I have so much time to kill. Therefore, I thought I would restart blogging.
What do I blog about? IPL, Rahul Dravid hhmmmm…What about blogging about one of my favorite topics, whether every Indian (read hard core Tamils like me) should know Hindi, which is the so-called National Language.
Why is their so much criticism of Tamils? Why are we branded as being regional (Tamil first and Indians next)? Why are we considered as people who are so against the spread of Hindi? Actually the number of Hindi and Arabic speaking people in
"If Hindi were to become the official language of
Why should even road signs along highways in Tamil Nadu come with Hindi signs? If there are signs in English and Tamil is not that enough. Why should every government office in TamilNadu have signs in Hindi? It is absurd. The Tamil signs are there for the locals. For all the others we have the signs in English. It is not possible for signs in everybody’s language. It is impractical to post signs in hundreds of languages. English has evolved as the international language. No one expects to find signs in Tamil Nadu in Chinese, in German, in Vietnamese, in Nepalese, in Telugu or in Bengali ... Then why a special superior privilege for Hindi people?
Why do people want Hindi to be forced upon us? What have we lost just because we do not speak Hindi? Tamil Nadu has the highest level of urbanization, is the second most industrialized state in the country. We have not suffered politically or socially. Our culture is still intact. There are industrial and IT parks everywhere. Dell, BMW, Nokia, and Hyundai just to name a few MNCs are filling up their coffers fast.
Why is our patriotism questioned because we cannot speak Hindi? Tamil is one of the oldest languages (in fact it is now been declared as a classical language) which evolved independently in a script totally Devanagri languages.
It hurts when IIFA and Global Indian Film Awards (GIFA) only honor Bollywood films and artistes. How can ‘India’ be used only when only Hindi speaking artistes get their due share or does the Hindi film fraternity consider itself equivalent to the Indian film industry. There are more sensible movies that come out in Marathi, Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam than in Hindi. The Hindi imposition has reached to dizzy heights. An educated American (includes Indian kids in America) thinks Hindi is the only Indian language and there is no mention of the famous Bharathiyar ,Kattaboman and other South Indian freedom fighters in the history text books. I read about how the Congress Party was started in Std.8, how the Congress Party evolved in Standard 9 and how Congress Party and Gandhi helped India get freedom in Standard 10.
I do not want Tamil to be made the National language of
Do not try to force Hindi upon us. That is all what I am saying. People will learn Hindi if it is required.
Thamizhan enru sollada thalai nimirinthu nillada
(Raise your head high and be a proud Tamil)
4 comments:
You mentioned Tamil, Hindi and the role of English. What the world needs is a second language for everyone. Have you ever looked at Esperanto, a language designed to bring people from different countries together?
You might be surprised to learn that Esperanto has an extensive indigenous culture and an original literature to rival that of many ethnic tongues. Naturally it didn't start out that way, but when you have such a large community speaking a common language for such a long time, it's probably inevitable that culture will emerge. People around the world use Esperanto every day for everything from childrearing to religious worship to technical manuals to travel guides.
Take a look at www.esperanto.net
Mr.Tamizhan,
While your points about tamils being looked down upon is extremely well taken, I think learning hindi wont do much harm to you either. After all, we are Indians, and no language is superior or inferior to another. Well written article though!
well the irony is that you are making your points over hindi, but have written this post in english.
why are we ready to accept english? why not make such a row over english as well. why is the maximum selling daily in india a English one?
you have some valid points regarding the IIFA awards harish, but you cannot compare the quality of films that are taken to cater to the masses with the ones taken for a minority.
Quoting wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India
"In effect, there are "official languages" at the state and center level but no one "national language".
So do not worry. The points that you are making are those of any minorities in any community.
and it is highly necessary we potray a better front to the world. tourism is a huge contributor to the economy da. There are so many countries that survive on tourism. so i am not demanding that we should have english signs. hindi sign boards help us maintain our identity and at the same time provides a single medium of understanding for a foreigner.
Population of UP alone is 3 times TN da. So imagine the number of hindi speakers. first we have to sort the problem at the global front da.
we learn english to make money and interact with the western culture da. there are so many indians who learn french and japaneese. why not learn hindi? atleast for the sake of brotherhood and fraternity.
its shameful when we indians sit in an international crowd and end up speaking in english.
tamizha tamizha song in tamil... when it was dubbed in hindi became... " Bharat humko jaan se pyaara hai"..
so hope you get the picture.
i shall stop here... more offline :)
Hey Harish,
Sorry to disappoint you pal but here is a part of the constitution
PART XVII
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
CHAPTER I.- LANGUAGE OF THE UNION
343. Official language of the Union.
1. The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.
2. Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement: Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union.
3. Notwithstanding anything in this article, Parliament may by law provide for the use, after the said period of fifteen years, of-
4.
1. the English language, or
2. the Devanagari form of numerals, for such purposes as may be specified in the law.
PART XVII
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
CHAPTER I.- LANGUAGE OF THE UNION
344. Commission and Committee of Parliament on official language.-
1. The President shall, at the expiration of five years from the commencement of this Constitution and thereafter at the expiration of ten years from such commencement, by order constitute a Commission which shall consist of a Chairman and such other members representing the different languages specified in the Eighth Schedule as the President may appoint, and the order shall define the procedure to be followed by the Commission.
2. It shall be the duty of the Commission to make recommendations to the President as to-
3.
1. the progressive use of the Hindi language for the official purposes of the Union;
2. restrictions on the use of the English language for all or any of the official purposes of the Union;
3. the language to be used for all or any of the purposes mentioned in article 348;
4. the form of numerals to be used for any one or more specified purposes of the Union;
5. any other matter referred to the Commission by the President as regards the official language of the Union and the language for communication between the Union and a State or between one State and another and their use.
4. In making their recommendations under clause (2), the Commission shall have due regard to the industrial, cultural and scientific advancement of India, and the just claims and the interests of persons belonging to the non-Hindi speaking areas in regard to the public services.
5. There shall be constituted a Committee consisting of thirty members, of whom twenty shall be members of the House of the People and ten shall be members of the Council of States to be elected respectively by the members of the House of the People and the members of the Council of States in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.
6. It shall be the duty of the Committee to examine the recommendations of the Commission constituted under clause (1) and to report to the President their opinion thereon.
7. Notwithstanding anything in article 343, the President may, after consideration of the report referred to in clause (5), issue directions in accordance with the whole or any part of that report.
PART XVII
CHAPTER II.-REGIONAL LANGUAGES
345. Official language or languages of a State.-
Subject to the provisions of articles 346 and 347, the Legislature of a State may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State:
Provided that, until the Legislature of the State otherwise provides by law, the English language shall continue to be used for those official purposes within the State for which it was being used immediately before the commencement of this Constitution.
346. Official language for communication between one State and another or between a State and the Union.-
The language for the time being authorised for use in the Union for official purposes shall be the official language for communication between one State and another State and between a State and the Union:
Provided that if two or more States agree that the Hindi language should be the official language for communication between such States, that language may be used for such communication.
347. Special provision relating to language spoken by a section of the population of a State.-
On a demand being made in that behalf the President may, if he is satisfied that a substantial proportion of the population of a State desire the use of any language spoken by them to be recognised by that State, direct that such language shall also be officially recognised throughout that State or any part thereof for such purpose as he may specify.
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