Hindi imposition in India - In numbers - and why it must be opposed
India is a multilingual country that speaks over 1650 languages, each of them representing unique cultures and traditions. Twenty-two of these languages are official languages while 6 of them have been elevated to the status of a classical language (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia and Sanskrit). India is a central polity. It has a central government that runs the show while each state in the country has a say in some of these things.
India achieved independence from the British in 1947. English was the official language during the British Raj. During the early 20th century, when the Indian independence movement gained momentum, Gandhi wanted to unite the country, which was then fragmented as princely states, against the British. He felt Hindustani language could do it. With Nehru's support, he was able to convince the Indian National Congress (INC) to back Hindustani and the INC obeyed them. It switched from English to Hindi to conduct all its proceedings in 1925. Since then, the governments of India have promoted Hindi recklessly. And Hindi has been killing other languages ruthlessly as it rose to prominence over the years. This imposition has started shaking the very founding principle of this country - a union of multiple languages and cultures that can unite through its diversity.
This post using census data will show how the Hindi imposition has changed the demographics of India, destroyed languages and cultures. And it will attempt to show how this is not merely coincidental.
The first Hindi imposition
Gandhi began propagating Hindustani in south India as early as 1918. Along with Annie Besant, he established the Hindi Prachar Sabha. The Sabha began its operations in modern day Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra and Telangana. After the INC adopted Hindustani as its official language, it began imposing Hindustani on the states it ruled.
Hindustani-Hindi-Urdu: All three are essentially same language. They share syntax, grammar and much of the vocabulary. When the Mughals invaded India in the 12th century, they patronised Khariboli, added to its vocabulary from Arabic and Persian. This they called Hindustani. It is essentially a mix of modern Hindi and Urdu. Hindi is Hindustani without the Arabic-Persian vocabulary that has been replaced with Sanskrit words. Urdu is Hindustani sans the Sanskrit words. While Hindi is written using Devanagari script, Hindustani and Urdu use Nastaliq. So Modern Hindi did not exist before the 19th century.
When Gandhi and INC proposed Hindustani as lingua franca of India, the Hindi Sammelan Samithi opposed it and demanded Hindi be used instead. These communal forces went about arguing that Urdu is non-Indian (though it was not) with utter disregard towards the vast Urdu literature.
Even as debates raged, INC the party that was forefront in the Indian Independence movement began propagating Hindustani by making it compulsory in schools.
Census of 1931
The linguistic data for India (without Pakistan and Bangladesh) are not readily available. The above data has been arrived at by collating census data from 1931 and a series of articles written by Tara Chand in which he uses rough estimates for speakers of a language. The collated data was verified against the linguistic data available from 1951 onwards and the estimates are consistent with the trend observed in later censuses.
Census of 1951
During the period between 1931 and 1951, Gandhi, the INC party and the state governments try to enforce Hindi as the national language. There is great opposition for this, especially in Tamil Nadu (Read about it here).
During this period:
1. Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi see a dip in the percentage of the number of speakers. This could be due to a decrease in the number of Urdu and Punjabi speakers who are migrating out of the country.
2. Bengali also sees a dip in the percentage. Possibly due to people moving out of the country immediately after partition.
3. All regional languages also face a dip including the Dravidian languages. There is only one explanation for this.
Urdu, Punjabi, and Bengali speakers are moving out of the country. Hindi is penetrating.
Facing stiff opposition India decides not to make Hindi the national language. Instead, Hindi in Devanagari script is made an official language. India agrees to the use of English as an official language for 15 years (Article 343), but there is a caveat. A language commission could be convened after five years to recommend ways to promote Hindi as the sole official language and to phase out the use of English (Article 344).
1951-1971
During this period
1. The Ministry of Education launched a voluntary Hindi teaching scheme.
2. Use of Hindi was introduced in warrants for judicial appointments.
3. Two language commissions are appointed and they recommend that Hindi should be made the primary official language with English as the subsidiary one.
4. Compulsory training for Hindi typing and stenography start.
5. India's president Rajendra Prasad issues orders for the preparation of Hindi glossaries, translating procedural literature and legal codes to Hindi, imparting Hindi education to government employees.
6. Candidates knowing Hindi are preferred for central government jobs and civil service examinations.
7. The Home and Information & Broadcasting ministries of the central government issue circulars for replacing English with Hindi.
In 1971, about 7.8% of the population(see table below) speaks Urdu and Punjab. Using this information with the 1951 census, we can infer that in 1951, about 35% of the country spoke Hindi.
So in the period between 1951-1971, Hindi about 2%, while regional languages like Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada showed a dip. This is despite great opposition from Tamil Nadu and Andhra. Two protestors from Tamil Nadu (Thallamuthu and Natarajan) are killed during a riot.
The riots in Tamil Nadu come to end when the centre assures English will continue to act as an official language. Members of Jan Sangh and other pro-Hindi activists in North India went about the streets of New Delhi, blackening out English signs with tar.
Comparative study of growth of scheduled languages 1971-2001
From the data in the table above, we can make the following observations:
Between 1971 and 2001, in a span of 40 years:
1. Kendriya Vidyalayas and other schools where Hindi is compulsory start cropping up.
2. Matriculation schools are urged to follow three language policy.
3. In the late 80's Navodaya schools where Hindi would be compulsory are set up.
This is a period that did not see too many anti-Hindi agitations in TN, mainly because of the DMK-ADMK party split.
Between 1971 and 2001, Hindi grew a whopping 4%, eating into Marathi, Telugu and Tamil that saw more than 1% dip.
Between 1931 and 2001,
1. Hindi grew from 35% to 41%
2. Telugu dipped from 9.8 to 7.2%
3. Marathi dropped from 8.7 to 7%
3. Tamil dipped from 7.67 to 5.9%
4. Kannada dipped from 4.33 to 3.7%
Bengali also has started showing a slight dip in recent times.
The curious case of second and third language speakers:
North Indians claim that Hindi is spoken by over 50% of the country. Is it true? Yes, but if you consider people who are second and third language speakers of Hindi.
The native speakers of Hindi, according to 2001 census, is 41%.
If 40% of the country are native speakers of Hindi, doesn't that qualify Hindi to be the national language? Not if you take a closer look.
According to the 2001 census, Of the 41% native speakers of Hindi, only about 25% claim that it is their mother tongue. Other claims dialects like Bhojpuri, Chattisgarhi, etc as their mother tongue.
Although the following census data, seem to indicate it might be around 35%.
Debunking the Hindi myth:
We now know,
1. Hindi speakers grew about 7-8% between 1931 and 2001.
2. Of the 54% who claim to know Hindi, only 41% say they are native speakers. And of the 41% people, only about 25-35% claim Hindi to be their mother tongue.
From this data, we can infer that only about 35% were native Hindi speakers(including Bhojpuri and other dialects) in 1931 and Hindi was only the mother tongue of 17-25% people.
Now, if we go back to the early 1900's before Independence movement gained momentum, before Gandhi founded the Prachar Sabhas, before the communal tensions began to boil, before Urdu and Hindi become two languages, Hindi, as we know it today, was the mother tongue of maybe 10% of Indian population and possibly 15% spoke it. This Hindi, as we know it, has no literature to speak of before the 19th century and was never the national language of India.
And at this rate of decline in less than 300 years, all regional languages will be extinct. And that is why Hindi imposition must be vehemently opposed.
Note: This article acknowledges that there might be other reasons for a decline in the number of speakers like people moving out of the country, the difference in birth/death rates among different races/locations and such. However, the decline in numbers does not affect just one language, but all. This pattern indicates that Hindi imposition is killing languages.
References:
1. 1931 census
2. Articles of Tara Chand
3. 1951 census
4. Linguistic study of censuses 1971-2001
5. Debunking the Hindi myth
6. Death of Bhojpuri and Awadhi
India achieved independence from the British in 1947. English was the official language during the British Raj. During the early 20th century, when the Indian independence movement gained momentum, Gandhi wanted to unite the country, which was then fragmented as princely states, against the British. He felt Hindustani language could do it. With Nehru's support, he was able to convince the Indian National Congress (INC) to back Hindustani and the INC obeyed them. It switched from English to Hindi to conduct all its proceedings in 1925. Since then, the governments of India have promoted Hindi recklessly. And Hindi has been killing other languages ruthlessly as it rose to prominence over the years. This imposition has started shaking the very founding principle of this country - a union of multiple languages and cultures that can unite through its diversity.
This post using census data will show how the Hindi imposition has changed the demographics of India, destroyed languages and cultures. And it will attempt to show how this is not merely coincidental.
The first Hindi imposition
Gandhi began propagating Hindustani in south India as early as 1918. Along with Annie Besant, he established the Hindi Prachar Sabha. The Sabha began its operations in modern day Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra and Telangana. After the INC adopted Hindustani as its official language, it began imposing Hindustani on the states it ruled.
Hindustani-Hindi-Urdu: All three are essentially same language. They share syntax, grammar and much of the vocabulary. When the Mughals invaded India in the 12th century, they patronised Khariboli, added to its vocabulary from Arabic and Persian. This they called Hindustani. It is essentially a mix of modern Hindi and Urdu. Hindi is Hindustani without the Arabic-Persian vocabulary that has been replaced with Sanskrit words. Urdu is Hindustani sans the Sanskrit words. While Hindi is written using Devanagari script, Hindustani and Urdu use Nastaliq. So Modern Hindi did not exist before the 19th century.
When Gandhi and INC proposed Hindustani as lingua franca of India, the Hindi Sammelan Samithi opposed it and demanded Hindi be used instead. These communal forces went about arguing that Urdu is non-Indian (though it was not) with utter disregard towards the vast Urdu literature.
Even as debates raged, INC the party that was forefront in the Indian Independence movement began propagating Hindustani by making it compulsory in schools.
Census of 1931
The linguistic data for India (without Pakistan and Bangladesh) are not readily available. The above data has been arrived at by collating census data from 1931 and a series of articles written by Tara Chand in which he uses rough estimates for speakers of a language. The collated data was verified against the linguistic data available from 1951 onwards and the estimates are consistent with the trend observed in later censuses.
Census of 1951
During the period between 1931 and 1951, Gandhi, the INC party and the state governments try to enforce Hindi as the national language. There is great opposition for this, especially in Tamil Nadu (Read about it here).
During this period:
1. Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi see a dip in the percentage of the number of speakers. This could be due to a decrease in the number of Urdu and Punjabi speakers who are migrating out of the country.
2. Bengali also sees a dip in the percentage. Possibly due to people moving out of the country immediately after partition.
3. All regional languages also face a dip including the Dravidian languages. There is only one explanation for this.
Urdu, Punjabi, and Bengali speakers are moving out of the country. Hindi is penetrating.
Facing stiff opposition India decides not to make Hindi the national language. Instead, Hindi in Devanagari script is made an official language. India agrees to the use of English as an official language for 15 years (Article 343), but there is a caveat. A language commission could be convened after five years to recommend ways to promote Hindi as the sole official language and to phase out the use of English (Article 344).
1951-1971
During this period
1. The Ministry of Education launched a voluntary Hindi teaching scheme.
2. Use of Hindi was introduced in warrants for judicial appointments.
3. Two language commissions are appointed and they recommend that Hindi should be made the primary official language with English as the subsidiary one.
4. Compulsory training for Hindi typing and stenography start.
5. India's president Rajendra Prasad issues orders for the preparation of Hindi glossaries, translating procedural literature and legal codes to Hindi, imparting Hindi education to government employees.
6. Candidates knowing Hindi are preferred for central government jobs and civil service examinations.
7. The Home and Information & Broadcasting ministries of the central government issue circulars for replacing English with Hindi.
In 1971, about 7.8% of the population(see table below) speaks Urdu and Punjab. Using this information with the 1951 census, we can infer that in 1951, about 35% of the country spoke Hindi.
So in the period between 1951-1971, Hindi about 2%, while regional languages like Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada showed a dip. This is despite great opposition from Tamil Nadu and Andhra. Two protestors from Tamil Nadu (Thallamuthu and Natarajan) are killed during a riot.
The riots in Tamil Nadu come to end when the centre assures English will continue to act as an official language. Members of Jan Sangh and other pro-Hindi activists in North India went about the streets of New Delhi, blackening out English signs with tar.
Comparative study of growth of scheduled languages 1971-2001
From the data in the table above, we can make the following observations:
Between 1971 and 2001, in a span of 40 years:
1. Kendriya Vidyalayas and other schools where Hindi is compulsory start cropping up.
2. Matriculation schools are urged to follow three language policy.
3. In the late 80's Navodaya schools where Hindi would be compulsory are set up.
This is a period that did not see too many anti-Hindi agitations in TN, mainly because of the DMK-ADMK party split.
Between 1971 and 2001, Hindi grew a whopping 4%, eating into Marathi, Telugu and Tamil that saw more than 1% dip.
Between 1931 and 2001,
1. Hindi grew from 35% to 41%
2. Telugu dipped from 9.8 to 7.2%
3. Marathi dropped from 8.7 to 7%
3. Tamil dipped from 7.67 to 5.9%
4. Kannada dipped from 4.33 to 3.7%
Bengali also has started showing a slight dip in recent times.
The curious case of second and third language speakers:
North Indians claim that Hindi is spoken by over 50% of the country. Is it true? Yes, but if you consider people who are second and third language speakers of Hindi.
The native speakers of Hindi, according to 2001 census, is 41%.
If 40% of the country are native speakers of Hindi, doesn't that qualify Hindi to be the national language? Not if you take a closer look.
According to the 2001 census, Of the 41% native speakers of Hindi, only about 25% claim that it is their mother tongue. Other claims dialects like Bhojpuri, Chattisgarhi, etc as their mother tongue.
Although the following census data, seem to indicate it might be around 35%.
A Bihari's love for Bhojpuri and how Hindi killed it: Death of Bhojpuri and Awadhi
Debunking the Hindi myth:
We now know,
1. Hindi speakers grew about 7-8% between 1931 and 2001.
2. Of the 54% who claim to know Hindi, only 41% say they are native speakers. And of the 41% people, only about 25-35% claim Hindi to be their mother tongue.
From this data, we can infer that only about 35% were native Hindi speakers(including Bhojpuri and other dialects) in 1931 and Hindi was only the mother tongue of 17-25% people.
Now, if we go back to the early 1900's before Independence movement gained momentum, before Gandhi founded the Prachar Sabhas, before the communal tensions began to boil, before Urdu and Hindi become two languages, Hindi, as we know it today, was the mother tongue of maybe 10% of Indian population and possibly 15% spoke it. This Hindi, as we know it, has no literature to speak of before the 19th century and was never the national language of India.
And at this rate of decline in less than 300 years, all regional languages will be extinct. And that is why Hindi imposition must be vehemently opposed.
Note: This article acknowledges that there might be other reasons for a decline in the number of speakers like people moving out of the country, the difference in birth/death rates among different races/locations and such. However, the decline in numbers does not affect just one language, but all. This pattern indicates that Hindi imposition is killing languages.
1. 1931 census
2. Articles of Tara Chand
3. 1951 census
4. Linguistic study of censuses 1971-2001
5. Debunking the Hindi myth
6. Death of Bhojpuri and Awadhi
Comments
It is strange that knowing a foreign language is a matter of pride in our nation, but if one of our Indian languages, Hindi gets popularised then it is difficult for many people to digest.
There is a need for one language which should represent our country. It's very disheartening that still, we don't have any national language. This can be considered as one of the major drawbacks of our rich diversity.Language is a very crucial in unifying the nation. As Hindi is being understood/spoken by the maximum fraction of the Indian population, so it is possible to make it as our national language.
Anyway, learning a knowledge (just like we learned English) is always beneficial and you can't call it as imposing rather call it as encouraging.
Even if we take into account the higher birth rates among Hindi speaking folks, it should affect only the growth of Hindi native speakers and not the growth of second and third language speakers of Hindi. That is growing because Hindi is being imposed in Schools. Think about that.
Dear Anonymous 2,
English is the language of opportunities. I have a job today simply because I know English. It is the global language. Hindi is not. And Hindi is as foreign as English to most non-native speakers. Only one's own mother tongue can be a native language. Hindi, as you know it today, was spoken by 10% of the population pre-independence. So, how has it grown? Just like its disheartening for you to not have a national language. It's disheartening for a lot to have to learn Hindi that does not provide any oppurtunities. Hope you understand.
Ex 1)I shifted to Bangalore.I hired a localite cook.She used to prepare good food but there was a huge communication gap between us. When I said (in Hindi) to put less salt she thought that there is less salt in food and she added more :) Unfortunately and unwillingly I had to replace her and then I hired a Hindi speaking guy.
Ex 2)I used to purchase from a local shop(which everyone should do). But due to language differences, they used to take so much time. Then, I switched to Bigbasket.
You can see here who is at loss.
As said in my previous comment, everyone should take it as an opportunity and learn the language. There is no harm it. Even I have started learning Kannada and it sometimes helps me a lot.
-Anonymous 2
#In search of that "Unity" in Diversity.
And your arrogance comes across quite strongly. You are not looking for unity, you are looking to enforce you will.
This is what I want to emphasize. I would reiterate that there is no harm in learning a language.
As said before also, I am also learning Kannada. Maybe in future when I will be good enough in communicating in Kannada, I will again hire a localite cook and start visiting local shops for grocery.
PS: I don't have any grudge against any region/language(which I suppose you are thinking). After all we belong to the same nation.
-Anonymous 2
#In search of that "Unity" in Diversity.
The post is not against Hindi as a language. It is the against the imposition of it.
Anyhow, your ideology should be applicable to all and not only on techies working in MNCs.
I would like to cite another example:
1) The person who supplies drinking water can to my house is from Mysore.But he has sufficient knowledge of Hindi to interact with the customers. As a result, he has a rich customer base in our locality (he knows Telugu too). He is getting benefitted by just learning few lines of Hindi and other languages.
This is the point I need to make. One should be resilient enough to adapt to the situation. Just as you have shown resilience by quickly learning English to excel in your career!
I agree that many people don't get the privilege to study, but learning day to day used Hindi doesn't require any training. One should only have the knack to learn it,
just as I am learning Kannada. I am also not going to any institute for it (even though I can afford it). You just need to be receptive.
And again as I said before it's not an imposition but it's just an encouragement to excel in one's career as you must be doing.
-Anonymous 2
#In search of that "Unity" in Diversity.
Learning a language doesn't hurt. But that should be out of one's own volition. Not through imposition.
Firing you maid and switching shops because they did not know your language in their home is imposition. You might not see it that way, but it is that. And nothing else.
You mention you learn Kannada, but you could have done that before you fired your maid. You expected her to know it and you go on to assert "who's loss is it?" That is what we are against.
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