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HINDI NAHI MALUM
The experience that i have had as someone from Tamilnadu, which for many by default means i am anti-hindi, is not unique. In fact i am sure that many have had similar experiences. I have been asked so many times why we tamils hate Hindi, why we refuse to learn hindi or why don't we learn hindi. I don't really care about the politics being played out by the political parties on this, but i really see nothing sinister in not learning Hindi. But, i have had a tough time explaining to my hindi speaking brethren that not learning hindi does not mean that we are anti-hindi.
Take my own case, I did my schooling in a pretty good school in Chennai. I was offered the option of learning Hindi or Tamil along with English which was the medium of instruction. My parents reasoned, and i completely agree with their notion, that first i have to learn my mother tongue and for communicating with the rest of the world i have English. There was nothing like, i should not learn Hindi. As a matter of fact, i did take private Hindi lessons since i felt it would help if i worked in North India. Again, it was a very practical consideration that it would help me communicate if i end up working in North India.
But, once i moved to US for my graduate study, i have been asked the same line of questions over and over again. It all starts with why do you tamils not learn Hindi? I have to explain that i was given an option of choosing between Hindi and Tamil, and i chose Tamil since it was my mother tongue. The fact that tamil has a vast array literary work and is used extensively in TN validates my reasoning. Then the question becomes, why do you guys hate hindi? When i confront them to give me an example where tamil population in general being anti-hindi. The best they can come up with is the DMK anti-hindi agitation which used to happen even before i was born. The only way anyone can define the attitude of majority of tamils towards hindi is apathy - indifference. We know it is a major language spoken in the Northern parts of India (40 % of India, i suppose). But more than that no-one really keeps hating hindi. The same indifference can also be seen towards Bollywood movies. Its not that we all hate Bollywood movies, its just that we have an industry which produces equally "good(?!)" movies. Once they find me uncompromising, they of course use the Brahmastra, a question that supposedly should make me see their point.
The Brahmastra their questioning my patriotism because i don't speak hindi. I should say that most of the times it was never asked straight. It was always a little play with the words where you can see that they are trying to appeal to the patriot in me. So, the question begins with 'Hindi is our national language. You would learn a completely foreign language like English, but you wouldn't learn Hindi you National language.' I used to get really really angry when i used hear that. I came to realize later, when i have heard the same enough number of times, that this argument does not stand scrutiny. First of all, only 40% of India speaks Hindi. That means 60%, a majority does not speak hindi. Two, Indian constitution itself specifies that both Hindi and English are the official languages for the central govt. Three, there are 21 official Indian languages, so its not like Hindi alone is given some official, sacred position in the constitution. And nowadays, i don't fail to inform my friends who invoke patriotism as a reason to learn hindi, that Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. The other thing i have realized is that the people who complain the most are the ones who would come to chennai, where they know people don't speak hindi, unprepared and come out of the central station and expect everyone to understand them. They don't understand that they be a little more prepared when they go to a new place.
The point is, we indians have so many things to worry about, food, electricity, water (bigtime in chennai), school, exams, job, spouses, siblings, career etc., Nobody has the time to hate a language that they don't even know.
17 comments:
Let me begin by agreeing with you in that one should not pay too much attention to the politics involved with having Hindi as a 'national language'. I would even go to the extent of saying that every individual should have a right to choose what (s)he learns at school. If a farmer is Satara is absolutely sure that he and his family will never leave the village, learning just one language – Marathi – should be more than sufficient for them to go through an entire lifetime without too many language problems.
Most Indian states (perhaps all, except TN) require children to learn three languages – English, Hindi and the regional language of the state. So if it is a non-debatable policy among continuing TN governments that they do not want to teach Hindi (as a compulsory subject) in schools, I have no objections to it, per se. However, the point is that you learn a language because you think you are going to need it (which you correctly point out as the reason behind your learning English) when you leave your cocoon (TN/Satara/whatever). Now when a Tamilian leaves TN, unless he consciously chooses to stay only with Tamilians – which might not always be possible, he is bound to face a Hindi-speaking majority in a foreign land – both in India and abroad (I am not at all sure that the 40% you mention is anywhere close to being correct; stats and/or vocabulary seem to be way off here; anyway, I assume that you meant 40% have their mother-tongue as Hindi). Hindi-speaking population (people who have Hindi as their first or second language) is over 900 million – 3rd after Mandarin & English. This stat coupled with that fact that Tamilians leaving TN tend to look out for fellow Indians to live/socialize with, suggests that they would they would face huge inconveniences outside of Tamil Nadu or outside of a only-Tamil group of people. For example, I cannot imagine an Indian Student Organization in any foreign university celebrating an event with a Tamil movie. In rare cases it may be English, but it would a Bollywood movie for the most part.
If you laughed at the wisdom of the farmer in Satara in choosing to learn only Marathi, you should definitely question your own politicians back home. But I shall buy your arguments and reasons for Tamilians not learning Hindi because I do not believe Hindi needs Tamialians as much as Tamialians need Hindi.
I think that anand is right in his reasoning about tamilians coming across hindi speaking populations outside TN. Hindi has sort of been a convention. Most 'Golts' :) speak Hindi and not Tamil even though we are neighboring states and our languages are somewhat similar (I think). Here I'd like to enquire Karthik's reason of learning Telugu rather than Hindi :). Perhaps, karthik, you were/are trying to woo a golt chick :). You are also right about the indifference thing which ultimately works out to our detriment since people who don't know/enjoy Hindi stuff miss out on the fun when out of their pond.
So, don't crib out Hindi da Karthik. I'm sure the hindi speaking population have good looking women too :).
Anand,
i see that you tried to sound objective in your assessment,but even you couldn't resist from giving out the self-righteous, holier-than-thou kinda attitude for more than one paragraph. Hence, you first try sounding objective and then go on to say when we come of our cocoon. That is exactly my point. We learn english to take care of our communication needs when we leave our cocoon, and i fully agree that the more languages you know the better, but i get pissed off when my hindi-speaking countrymen leave their cocoon, albeit a larger one, go to parts that don't speak the language complain about it and start giving all the reasons why others should learn hindi so that he can communicate better. My contention is that it is a two-way street and it is a personal choice.
Also your example of Bollywood movies in places outside India doesn't say much. The point is there are a large number of universities within the US where Telugu will be a majority, yet you would find people complaining that both telugu (to some extent) and tamil (to a large extent) speak in their own language rather than english. However, the same logic is not applied when someone who doesn't speak hindi is around. Rather, he is told he has to know Hindi because he is Indian which i don't agree. As i have said earlier, its a purely personal choice. It is not always this way, but this scenario is quite common.
You are quite welcome to have your own opinion on the need between hindi and tamilians.
Arvind,
I am not cribbing against Hindi. I just get furious when people who have no clue about what happens in TamilNadu, who have never been to chennai start stereotyping people with their self-righteous, holier-than-thou attitude because they happened to learn a language, not out of love for the language or volition, but because they did not have any other choice.
C K
Talking about your relevant points, I fully agree with you when it comes to people visiting Chennai. If they are not well-prepared due to ignorance, arrogance, or any other reason, I have so sympathy for them. They ought to know what to expect and be prepared accordingly. For example, tourists and businessmen who go to Africa do take all necessary vaccinations to protect against illnesses. Similarly, people going to Chennai should take up responsibility for their own well-being and not blame Tamilians for not knowing hindi or being 'less' Indian. TN has indeed made significant contributions to India's growth.
I also agree with your 'two-way street' concept; only that the size of one side of the street is a small fraction of the size of the other. After having had an opportunity to get an insight into the psyche of Tamilians from close quarters for over two years, I have made a policy that there should never be more than one Tamilian living in my 5-bedroom apartment at any given time. I've seen many a wealthy (who wanted and could afford the single-occupancy rooms - not very common in the student community here) Tamilian go away disappointed with this policy. I don't care if the Tamilians make a similar policy. Unless they multiply faster than rats, I'm always going to have options beyond Tamilians when its my turn to look for a place to share. Beyond a certain extent, it is not the responsibility of the 'rest of us' to make a few arrogant/ignorant Tamilians feel wanted. The onus is on them to fit-in. Ok, an objective assessment would be to speak in a language that is understandable to all. But for how long? Imagine a situation where a non-American (say, Britisher) joins an American company in NY or CA. He gets along quite well with the Americans and go out with them for lunch, etc. The first few days, the Americans may feel benevolent about their favorite lunchtime discussion of baseball or American football. Instead they look to be accomodating towards the Brit and discuss soccer or cricket and introduce the Brit to their sports. But if the Brit says to them that baseball is only an insignificant subset of cricket (cricket with no spin, no seam, only full-tosses), what do you think the Americans will say/do to him. (Its a different matter that I agree with the Brit:D; however that part is irrelevant here).
I agree with Anand completely.TN is the only state which is averse to teaching Hindi. Any other school state curriculum has 3 languages-English, Hindi & a local language. These three languages can prepare you to survive anywhere in India. I think you need to learn Hindi more for 'survival' rather than being a 'national language'. If you go to any state be it Bihar, UP,MP etc not many speak English and Hindi is the most common mode of communication. I guess you would have realised that if you had travelled extensively in India. So the bottomline is you can survive with Hindi & English in any Indian state other than TN and that's why the criticism.
Anand,
its unfortunate that you are not able to come up with valid arguments and end up ranting about your apt, tamilians, rats etc., And your analogy about Baseball and Cricket is so out of place. First of all, what we are talking not talking about people from two different countries. Second, the point i am trying to make is this, Brit likes his cricket and finds no interest in Baseball. Its his personal choice. He doesn't go around telling Cricket is better than Baseball. The thing is he is not interested in Baseball. Your contention is that just because he is in the US, he should like/learn Baseball, which even you would find unreasonable (i hope).
Sapan, If you are talking about the survival of tamils when they leave TN, then you can see that they have done well for themselves wherever they go. If you are talking about the survival of ppl who come to TN with just hindi, then its upon them to take care of their survival.
Its interesting to see these comments, yet i haven't seen a convincing one.
Let me make one last attempt here..
Learning baseball is not a personal choice but a necessity. I have not had the need to learn baseball because I don't have to be friends with too many Americans at work. But Ashish Page (another common friend; a very good ametuer cricketer; and 'loyal' cricket fan) didn't have many Indians to go out to lunch with and so, he not only picked up the sport but even sometimes tried to convince me why its not that bad a sport for us for follow. He is now able to appreciate quite a few things about baseball. What were his options? Sit with a long face everytime his friends spoke about baseball? Or go alone for lunch? Or walk ten blocks (or go to D.C.) to catch hold of some idiotic, incompatable desi just because that is the easier way out?
You are a fine guy and would be among the first I would approach if I was looking for a business partner because I agree with your outlook in several (almost all) other areas of life and because of your trustworthyness. Also, your other posts are quite ok. But here I see some personal grudge somewhere within you which prevents you from being objective. I really hope I am wrong but this is more like someone who has been molested now shouting hoarse for molesters to be mercilessly killed, every time the debate comes up.
Lets get KC a hindi girl. And lets make sure she is hto, so he is "forced" to learn hindi. :)
And Anair, most of the points KC made are true. But the reason these things happen is because of the way tamilians are "perceived" as. The reason this is a debate is because its more psychological and based on perceptions than on tangible logic.
Anand, let me also try one last time to make you see my point. Ashish made a personal choice to learn the game and appreciate it. No one is against that. But, if those american friends of his start telling him, that just because you are in US, you Have to learn Baseball, then don't you think there is something wrong with this scenario. If you don't then let us drop the arguments right here. There is no point talking about this anymore.
I dont see anything valid with the molestations, molesters and molestees argument.
Srini, if only you can follow up your word with action!!!!
Yes, completely agree on that last one. It is absolutely wrong on the part of the American to insist that the Brit learn baseball. However, it would be a lot more healthier and convenient for the Brit to learn baseball? Ok, this might be more of an opinion than a fact but I feel running away from baseball (when learning it could make fitting in to a group a lot easier) reflects a lazy mind and someone with a defeatist attitude and stinking of negativity. (Actually baseball wasn't the perfect analogy. If you replace baseball with tennis, you may get a clearer picture coz Tennis is probably among sports what Hindi is among languages).
Let me do some spoon-feeding to help understand the other argument..
Molestees: Foolishly arrogant Tamilians.
Molesters: Normal Indians who punish these fools.
Molestations: Playing Bollywood movies, cracking jokes in Hindi, etc. when having Tamilians in their midst, thereby forcing the Tamilian to choose between hunting for other Tamilians or learning Hindi.
Thankfully, there are quite a few Tamilians who are healthy-minded and open enought to choose the latter option.
By the way, can you imagine a situation where Dravid (or any of the other nine, for that matter) is discussing something on the field and Dinesh Kaarthick is saying: "Hindi Nahi Maloom"?!
----X---X----
cool...now i have made you understand atleast one flaw in your argument. But immediately you go back and over compensate by changing the games.
tennis = hindi ==> you can put any game you want, its not going to change the argument one bit since that was not my point. Maybe it will take a lot more of going back and forth to make you understand.
Molestees: Foolishly arrogant Tamilians.
Molesters: Normal Indians who punish these fools.
Think about this and MAY BE you will realize who is foolish and arrogant giving this type of reasoning ;).
anyways see u over the weekend
Continue the blogs.
Let not minor arguments discourage you.
srini, no time yet to write a new one. no other reason.
I am a tamilian so I say right on to Karthikeyan. But the opposite happened to me when I was in school. My parents were in a transferrable job so they made me study Hindi instead of tamil ( i dont converse much in Hindi because of personal choice. ) And to this day, i do not know to write in tamil and I have been asked similar questions by my friends in Tamilnadu. For most people, mother tongue comes first, in tamil you say "thai mannu". So for us, it should be tamil first.
Now the thing is I am a person who knows hindi and can converse in Hindi but North Indians make fun of my accent. Now you see tamilians who know hindi are molested as much or if not more than Tamilians who dont know hindi.
and Anand when you are talking about fitting in, if the Tamilian chooses to converse with you in English, after all you are in the United States, why are you not willing to compromise.
Only people from a few parts of Andhra Pradesh speak Hindi and thats because of Mughal and other settlements being there for hundreds of years. As Karthikeyan mentioned, we feel that it is important for us to pass down , study and understand Tamil literature. I dont think Madhya Pradesh or Bihar has deep roots to another language. Look at West Bengal for examples, Bengalis give priority to their mother tongue. Its because that several important people involved in the freedom fight and also cricket team etc were from Bengal and the interaction helped people learn Hindi.
The problem is when a North Indian, comes to Tamilnadu or meets a Tamilian, he automatically expects him to change for the sake of "adjusting". This would have happened even if Hindi WAS NOT the national language. Its just an excuse. People from North India cannot converse in English, which Tamilians can. So they expect and also force us to learn Hindi so that they dont have communication problems.
Suppose a Tamilian wants to stay in Anand Nair's apartment. He does not speak in Tamil around anand and also does not do anything characteristic of a tamilian but does NOT speak to him in hindi, would anand allow him to stay??
http://vetri-vel.blogspot.com/2006/12/india-does-not-have-national-language.html
Part XVII of the constitution:
This part 17, defines an OFFICIAL language, NOT a national language.
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17.html
Article 345: This gives the State govt., power to decide its own "OFFICIAL LANGUAGE"
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17345.html
Article 343: This defines Hindi in devangari script and English to be the "OFFICIAL LANGUAGES" of union govt.
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~sk4zw/india-const/p17343.html
DIFFERENCE between National and Official Language:
NATIONAL LANGUAGE: Defines the people of the nation, culture, history.
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: A language that is used for official communication
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