A diminishing mother language

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.