On the Government's order for giving priority to Hindi on official social media

Indians must cherish their polyglot identity

(My comments on promotion of Hindi,  in DNA, Page-4, 24 June 2014)

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?pgNo=4&edcode=820040&eddate=2014-6-24

The present hullabaloo over the alleged imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi socio-cultural groups has generated unwarranted controversy. The new government is merely trying to promote Hindi which is also the state language (Raj Basha) and this is a significant move since social media is making inroads and covering a substantial section of our society.   India has moved ahead and the movement for statehood on linguistic basis has now ironically transformed into statehood based on regional distinctness rather than linguistic homogeneity as vindicated by the Telangana movement. Every nation seeks to have a link language and Hindi is spoken by a substantial section and the exception to it has been the Northeast and Tamilnadu in the south. While other southern states have benefitted by the three language policy, the linguistic sub nationalism remains an easy political tool of convenience, in the political spectrum of Tamilnadu.

This issue must be addressed in a holistic manner lest a sense of second class citizenship emerges based on the linguistic affiliation, as perceived by some, about through the depiction of ethnic Marathi, Tamil or Bengali speakers, in the Mumbai based Hindi films. The central government at the same time must ensure promotion of languages like Marathi, Tamil and Telugu in the north, through kendriya vidyalayas, in order to promote our rich cultural heritage and polyglot identity. Moreover in an age of IT revolution no state in the world can afford to impose any language.