Talking of the English Hangover
“First get Local and then go GLOBAL”
What is our national language
‘today’? Is it really Hindi? Well if we think precisely, it’s not.
Hindi is the official
language of India but we treat Hindi as an inferior language.In today’s fast
growing environment where everything is moving towards western culture at a
high pace then of course, why not our language.
I was standing in a queue at
McDonalds yesterday, when a man in “kurta pyjama” came over there.
Everybody was giving their
orders with their different accents in English but he was the only one who said
in Hindi. Everyone near to him was stunned as if he has said some other
planet’s language.
There is a concept made up in
today’s people minds, “the one who is communicating in English is the only one
who is ably mannered or, in professionalism the one who is behaving like an
Englishmen is the one who is most impeccable. Today in every field English
language is beating our mother language terribly.
It’s true that for business
we all need an intermediate language like English. “Globalization” is a
required one but should we leave “nationalization” for this? People blow the
horn of English saying that it is the global language and it’s a way to communicate
with the world but I have a question here that if people cannot communicate
with their own people then what is the use of communicating with the world. If
I don't know the mode of communication with my fellow countrymen then I think
it’s utterly useless to think of communicating with the entire world. I agree
that English is a global language but “first Get LOCAL and then GO GLOBAL”!!
Why do we feel smugness
inside us when we are communicating in English? Why in restaurants or good
hotels etc. we ignore Hindi? Does it describe us as illiterates?
Is it not like we are again
making ourselves slaves under British culture? Even our whole constitution is based
on the British constitution. What is the use of having Hindi as a subject in
schools when we are not ready to accept it nationally? It’s very traumatic and
painful see that the language which was once used as a national language and is
the sole and heart of our huge literature and culture is waning this way.
There are many countries like
Finland, Germany with less than half a size of India but are still using their
own native languages and are doing pretty well. And what is the use of such a
rich literature or diversity of languages in India when we have to use another
foreign language. Even if we go on statistics and studies English is a much
more complex language than Hindi. On the other hand, Hindi is a beautifully
crafted language which is much easy to read and understand than English and
thus its rich texture and vast literature deserves to be respected.
I know it’s a small effort
from my side to change a rampant issue which has acquired our nation, but atleast
in our country we need to give first preference to that what is ours.
