By Aditya Aamir
’English’. It denotes a people. It’s also a medium of exchange (yeah, not money) – a language spoken by more than half of the world. English has given voice to billions – status and riches, too. To the lost ship at sea, there’s no stronger emotion than ‘Land A’ hoy!’ English is like that, a savior! Give us more impact than ‘A rose by any other name…’and ride Hindi to superstardom. But this is not the time or era to condemn the aspiring Indian to wear a garland of Chameli.
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu should have kept English out of the discourse. ‘For, look ye, in the mirror, Mr. Naidu and say “English is a disease left behind by the British” and the mirror will smite you in righteous anger, indignation. The mirror doesn’t lie and will stare back at the liar unblinkingly.’ English was not “left behind”; it “stayed on” on tongues to give voice to millions.
And, Hindi cannot be the symbol of “socio-political and linguistic unity” in India. “Yeh bimari jo angrezi wala chhod kar gaya, is bimari se hamein mukt karna chahiye: (this disease that English left behind, we should rid ourselves of this disease),” says Naidu. What folly is Naidu Garu spreading? That too on ‘Hindi Divas.’
But for the English there wouldn’t have been a need for freedom. But for the English, there wouldn’t have been an ‘India’. There wouldn’t have been tryst at the midnight hour. There wouldn’t have been a Constituent Assembly. There wouldn’t have been a Constitution. The Constituent Assembly, which framed the Constitution, was an assembly of the English-speaking, not of the Hindi-speaking or the Urdu or Tamil-speaking. English bound them together, made them understand each other.
And the Constituent Assembly “accepted” Hindi as “one” of the official languages of the country on September 14, 1949; yes, only “one” of the many languages. “Have we been able to fulfil the wishes of the Constituent Assembly?” asks Naidu. What’s the big wonder in that? Pray, exactly what were the “language wishes” of the CA? The CA also adopted English as an official language at the same meeting, didn’t it?
Don’t forget, Naidu is a Jack of all languages, master of none! He has been keeping India and Bharat in splits with lots of fast-talking nonsense in and out of Parliament, garnering likes and views. He’s known to begin speeches in various states in the local language and then picking up the thread in either Hindi or English. What is Naidu’s mother-tongue? That question assumes importance because he says “it is very important that we encourage our mother tongue.”
Naidu’s mother-tongue is neither English nor Hindi. And if languages and emotions go together, he’s lying both on language and emotions. “If you want to reach out to people…understand them, then you have to properly express your emotions. It is easier to express your feeling in one’s mother tongue, in an Indian language. This is everybody’s experience. That’s why one should speak in one’s mother tongue at home.”
Sorry, dear vice-president, there lurks the ‘fake’ in your emotions. The BJP has taken agency to pitchfork Hindi into drawing rooms and kitchens. But don’t even think of bedrooms and balconies (Romeo & Juliet). ‘Mein Tumhe Chahti Hun’ flops in front of the universal ‘I Love You’. Try the former on a damsel and watch the emotion flit and pass on her face. Then, whisper in her ear ‘I Love You’, and there’ll be no need to look at her face! The electricity will hit before the chemistry.
And what and who gave Naidu the idea ‘Hindi’ was the main language of the freedom-fighters, “spoken and understood by most of the people in the country?” Which time-period is Naidu talking of? Is he sure Hindi was “the symbol of social, political, religious and linguistic unity of the country” then, at a time when India was only beginning to form as an idea? Or, is he saying, those not speaking Hindi had minimal role in the freedom movement?
What gives him agency to spread the fake news that “even today, these qualities make it acceptable among all other languages?” Has the BJP taken upon itself the Bheda (to use a Hindi word) of imposing Hindi on the masses whose mother-tongue is not Hindi? Every Tom, Dick and Harry in the country knows it’s the BJP’s hidden agenda to bind ‘Hindustan’ with ‘Hindi’ and ‘Hindutva’. When will it dawn on BJP leaders such as Naidu that they’re flirting with fire, with emotions, with tongues?
If the BJP wants democracy to continue to be progressive and become stronger, then it will have to give up its divisive language agenda. Yes, the perceived ‘unity in Hindi’ is ‘divisive in principle’. Venues like Vigyan Bhavan should not be used to promote Hindi at the cost of the other languages of India including English. Let there be a level playing field for all languages Indian including ‘angrezi’.
For far too long have the great unwashed been kept away from the fruits of fluent English. Learn from HD Kumaraswamy. The Karnataka Chief Minister has ordered government schools to each in English medium. He has boldly gone to where narrow-minded BJP leaders have never had the courage to go. Hindi doesn’t have the legs to stand on in wide swathes of India and those without English have no feet to stand on the world stage.
At a time when China is on a massive drive to teach English to more and more Chinese, and Africa is becoming a continent of the English-speaking, the BJP’s focus on Indians losing the edge they have over the Chinese is glaringly transparent. Strictly speaking, the Chinese are learning to speak better English than Indians by learning phonetically correct English. Naidu should take lessons in phonetics. As should every Indian who toys with English in ‘Hinglish.” (IPA Service)
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