The opposition in Maharashtra is celebrating the decision of the state government to withdraw its decision to offer Hindi as the third language in school curricula after English and Marathi. While it is a desperate need for outfits like the Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena faction and the MNS to find a cause that could revive their political fortunes, even the Congress is opposing the ‘imposition’ of Hindi, despite seeking to revive its fortunes in the northern states.
Language chauvinism has no place in modern India. Certainly, Hindi need not be forced upon anyone even for the most patriotic of purposes. This is because it has been spreading on its own, as people learn it in the natural course in all parts of the country for economic and social reasons. Just as, at one time, learning English was considered necessary to be educated and cosmopolitan, Hindi today is the fallback language in circles that matter. Reject it at your own peril!
In the old days, the business community in Gujarat knew how to make money and prosper – where English was required, someone was hired to do the needful. Similarly, it is money that talks nowadays, irrespective of one’s mother tongue.
It is an irony that the people of Mumbai, for instance, should oppose Hindi even though that city is identified, more than anything else, with Hindi cinema. Most of the pioneers and stalwarts of the Hindi film industry have been Maharashtrians. It is incredibly insular for people of the city and the state to surrender this extraordinary legacy for the sake of consolidating a votebank. There is not a city or state in the country where Hindi movies have not been screened to full houses, even where much of the audience has known very little of the language.
All the same, the Maharashtra government has rightly understood that sticking with its attempt to promote Hindi would alienate a large section of the people. It should not have attempted to do so in the first place. Hopefully, Hindi enthusiasts will learn the right lesson and not create such unnecessary controversies. They should work, instead, to further enrich it by writing poetry, novels, research papers, and making movies in the language, so that people continue to be attracted by its simplicity and charm. It should be understood by any person wishing to get ahead in India, which is increasingly becoming the frontier of economic and technological progress, that not knowing Hindi would be their loss. But they would have to pull their head out of the sand to realise that!
