We shouldn’t be upset about the government forcing us to speak in the same tongue, because diversity is overrated
If we all speak just one language a few generations from now, we won’t need to communicate with the world outside again. Representation pic
It’s always nice when politicians go above and beyond their duties to try and make our country better. Stepping away from comfort zones, they dip their toes in all kinds of pies for our common good. When we’re lucky, their children get into the habit too, by taking the trouble of heading sports committees and allowing our athletes to focus on more important things like playing sports instead.
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Take our home minister, for instance. He has done a spectacular job of keeping India safe from outsiders. There have been repeated lies about our land being captured by the Chinese every other week, but none of our news channels have reported this so it must be untrue. And yet, despite this thankless task of keeping our borders almost secure, his work ethic continues to be exemplary. I was amazed at how he found time to head a Parliamentary Committee on Official Language.
To be honest, I had no idea we had a Parliamentary Committee on Official Language. I blame my ignorance alone, not the fact that we have so many committees. There’s probably a committee keeping track of what all other committees are doing, and I must simply work harder to keep abreast of these developments. So, when I first heard of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language, I assumed it must be some sort of secret organisation tasked with making sure we could all understand each other better. Why else would it be headed by a home minister?
Anyway, the committee presented its 11th report last month, reportedly recommending that Hindi be compulsorily made the medium of instruction in all technical and non-technical educational institutions.
It maintained that English be the medium of instruction only where absolutely necessary and gradually be replaced by Hindi. This made sense, given that our innumerable attempts at becoming a superpower over the past seven or eight years have failed. I should have known our reliance on English was the problem. As a highly educated member of a political party who was also convenor of the second sub-committee pointed out, English is an alien language that needs to be eliminated.
A part of me was saddened about a life spent living with an alien language. It is what I was born into, and the only language I spoke while growing up, which upset me because it meant my family was equally to blame for imposing this alien tongue upon me. What they did in the process is condemn me to a life of seamless communication with the world outside, forcing me to interact easily with billions of others stuck using the same language. If only I hadn’t been forced into speaking it, I thought, I too could have become someone great like a home minister or even a prime minister. My fellow countrymen would see me struggle to speak coherently and assume that I had come up the hard way, armed with nothing but a degree in Entire Political Science in Hindi.
These upsetting thoughts took a backseat to reports of angry politicians up in arms against this recommendation. While a few claimed that the language was being ‘imposed’ upon them and the people they represented, others said it ran contrary to the spirit of the Constitution and India’s linguistic diversity. These arguments didn’t make sense because the last decade or so has repeatedly shown us how overrated our notion of diversity is. We don’t need 700 languages when just one will do. It’s a brilliant idea if one looks at the ramifications of this ground-breaking policy. If we all speak just one language a few generations from now, we won’t need to communicate with the world outside again.
Cynics say the insistence on using regional languages in technical institutes will damage India’s future, rendering our children unemployable and denying them access to research in English. This is laughable because numerous studies have shown how unemployable India’s engineers already are. It is obvious that their rote learning gets in the way of them creating something awe-inspiring. Raising them to study in Hindi alone will force them to abandon science and technology created in the West and turn to India’s majestic past instead.
I foresee an era of marvels within our grasp, a time of flying machines and robot doctors, putting India at the forefront of art, science, and technology. I see countries falling over themselves to abandon their own languages and adopt Hindi, just so they can try and keep up with us. Jai Hind.
When he isn’t ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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