Hindi's future looks increasingly uncertain in its heartland ... In India and abroad the decline of Hindi is a well-established fact ... despite ostensible government efforts to the contrary.
Political of Language
Hindi does not inspire hope today. Often it is so deeply influenced by other languages and English that it is difficult, in fact almost impossible, to call it Hindi. The uncouth medium dominating FM radio, cable TV and Bollywood in the 1980s and 1990s is neither a correct nor cultivated language. The Sanskritised and artificial sounding Hindi imposed upon us by the central government through the Air, Doordarshan and othergovernment agencies does not enthuse Hindi supporters either. In fact alienated Hindi speakers often ridicule these unproductive government efforts ... The reverse of this comprises the highly Persianised Urdu heard on the special Urdu programmes sponsored by the official media. These developments have kept pace with the gradual disappearance of good Hindustani from the average north Indian conversation which is now dominated by English slang and vulgar expressions, including abusive phrases, borrowed from other languages. Unfortunately, the decline of Hindustani and the step-motherly treatment meted out to Urdu in Uttar Pradesh, both related subjects reflecting the communalisation of language politics in India (is) not (widely) discussed ... The growth of cosmopolitan India and a westward looking Indian diaspora seems to have worsened the situation. The condition appears more pathetic considering the sizeable number of pro-Hindutva elements among the NRIs who generally support an exclusivist notion of Indian culture. Most of the NRIs and Indians settled abroad usually speak broken Hindi with a great deal of effort. This peculiar language is overshadowed by imperfect English and the identity crisis of its speakers. It hardly complements a cultural achievement commensurate with the material prosperity attained by the majority of the NRIs.
However, some people overlook the implications of these facts while asserting that Hindi should also evolve like other languages. They also fail to see that an argument for Hindi is not necessarily against its evolution. Evolution is a good thing and, given the historical nature of linguistic evolution, will happen despite the purists. But, in the process of evolution, the distinction between the enrichment and necrosis of a language should be understood as clearly as possible. This leads to more questions. Why is it that under the influence of Sanskrit and Persian local Indian languages evolved into their present syncretic form whereas English could never be completely Indianised despite the deep socio-economic penetration of colonialism in India? English, precisely because of the destructive nature of British colonialism and the isolation of the ruling elite, produced a linguistic reaction in India whereas Persian - like the Turko-Afghans and Mughals who brought it here - blended into the social and scholastic continuities characteristic of Indian history. Hence English could never combine with any Indian language to produce a literary and viable hybrid. After 200 years of colonial rule and 50 years of English' education only.5 per cent of Indians speak, read and write English.
After 1947 things have turned out differently in India. While the sentiment of anti-colonial nationalism has given way to widespread political cynicism the ruling classes have become increasingly westernised with the passage of time. Simultaneously the rise of Hindutva has also meant the selective promotion of Sanskritised Hindi in opposition to Hindustani and Urdu. But the swadeshi gimmicks of the saffron brigade have neither helped the cause of Hindi nor lessened the craving for English widely felt among the petty bourgeois supporters of Hindu communalism. The socio-cultural manifestation of liberalisation, which is also supported by Hindutva, have reinforced this trend. All this has ushered in a process of linguistic change in contemporary India which poses a grave threat to Hindi, its overall personality - both literary and spoken - and its capacity to express our history in a specifically indigenous idiom. Evolutionists will concede that this has not happened everywhere else in the world ...
The popularity of a language depends upon the social prestige, self-respect, regional pride and national sentiment of its speakers. State policy, which may not do justice to the relevant constitutional provisions mentioned earlier, significantly influences its future. Hence it is easy to see why Hindi fares poorly after 50 years of independence. In modern India, Hindi is not the language of social status and power. This salutary fact affects the condition of Hindi in multiple ways. Social scientists and linguists tell us that in every society the language of the ruling class moulds the language of society and political hegemony is closely related to linguistic dominance in general. Hence, the decline of Hindi can be located in the power equations of Indian society. It must also be seen in connection with a general debasement of values in India since the end of the freedom movement. The consequences are evident. For instance, Hindi is not preferred in the upper echelons of the administrative and judicial services. It is not patronised by the middle class and particularly the upper middle class, most private schools and the glamourised crust of the urban literary sections. In higher education, technical education, colleges and university departments Hindi, both as a spoken language and subject, is rapidly declining in importance. In most universities students pursuing Hindi for graduate and post-graduate degrees often find themselves isolated from the academic mainstream and sometimes even an object of derision. Higher academic research in the sciences and social sciences is often considered impossible to conduct in Hindi, which is supposed to be a 'backward' language belonging to the 'cow-belt'. In fact 90 per cent of the research papers written in Hindi speaking areas, most of which in any case are amongst the most underdeveloped in India, are in English. Professional journals are neither published in, nor translated into Hindi. Gunakar Muley, the famous Hindi science writer, asserts that Hindi, and Hindi users are spurned by India's tax supported scientific establishment at the terrible cost of their talent and self-esteem. This has bred and deep seated inferiority complex in those who cannot read or write good English which is thought essential for the functioning of India's much valorised, though socially ineffective, scientific fraternity. The situation is hardly better in the social sciences. For example, there are many Indian students who pursue higher degrees abroad and base their research on the Hindi belt with an insufficient grasp of either Hindi or Urdu.
Poor Cousin to English
The official formalities of promoting Hindi have failed miserably. The failures have begun at the top as usual. For instance, the children of Indian political leaders prefer studying in English medium schools before leaving the country in pursuit of greener pastures. These ambitions are shared by businessmen, intellectuals and academics alike and almost everyone prominent manages to send his or her children abroad on one pretext or another. This push towards the west, and the widespread social admiration and envy it provokes in the case of people who 'make it', has shattered the self-confidence of the Indian middle class and blighted the Indian nation-building project. The Indian elite cannot escape blame for having used public institutions for personal gain since independence ... from the universities to the NGOs. If higher education in India is not good enough for their children how do the professors of our universities justify their vocation? Why are masters and doctorate still being given by Indian universities? Obviously a colonial complex is at work here or else why are foreign degrees considered superior to their Indian counterparts per se?
The mentality is universal. Indian scientists have always dreamt of settling in the west for a number of reasons and if the bureaucracy is added to these role models a neat picture of a neo-colonial elite emerges. When the Indian ruling class wants to live off India without being a part of it, who will uphold the cause of Hindi or other regional languages? ... Government inspired and largely symbolic efforts to encourage Hindi, including the ill-conceived, badly managed and counter- productive Hindi 'sammelans', have failed. What is the point, we may ask, of taking Hindi to the UN in this context. A historical relationship exists between language and the social formation to which it belongs. The ideological and cultural super structures of a society are tied to languages in dialectical evolution.
The history of Indian languages proves this. After the Aryans brought Sanskrit into India, the transformation of the Vedic civilisation resulted in the emergence of Pali and regional Prakrits which were produced by the interaction of Sanskrit with locally spoken languages. The proliferation of Pali was also linked to the spread of Buddhism and the policy adopted towards it by the kingdom of Magadh. During the medieval period Indian languages were largely influenced by Persian which was patronised by the ruling elites: The result was the gradual evolution of new and highly cultivated languages like Urdu, and its moré popular cousin Hindustani, in the Hindi speaking regions. The process of linguistic interaction, assimilation and evolution which probably began with the advent of the Aryans in India was produced by, and in turn reflected, a long-term process of socio-cultural synthesis in India. British rule and Macaulay's vision changed all this.
In the era of imperialism, the English language and British mannerisms became popular amongst the social elite in most parts of British and princely India. But the nature of colonial rule meant that the influence of English was neither universal nor deep-rooted. It was resisted by the national movement and Indian literature of the period. But, for reasons stated earlier, the potential inherent in the protest against the imposition of English could not be realised in the Indian republic despite the anti-colonial noise its ruling elite continuously made. After 1947 English continued to flourish as the first language of the ruling classes and the state. This went hand-in-hand with the growing neglect of those values which had enformed the protest against the British during the freedom struggle. The dual educational system prevalent in India and the sway of English over the media, literature and science are living monuments to this neglect of national values. This politics of language also helped the Indian bourgeoisie keep the labouring masses disempowered. What had worked for the British, the new rulers of India quickly realised after 1947, could also work for them. Hence while the Turko-Afghans and Mughals were assimilated into Indian society and even their names vanished the elite spawned by India's colonisation and so-called modernisation chose to isolate itself from the very country and society of its origin.
The previous decade of liberalisation, with the elite's vain hope of catching up with the west in a sea of backwardness, has been particularly unkind to Indian languages.
The votaries of. English point out its merits in the context of India's regional, linguistic and social pluralism. Nobody can doubt that English is one of India's great assets. However, the admirers of English must also understand that successful nation states cultivate their own languages even at the cost of historical legacies they might unfortunately inherit. True knowledge and philosophy of a society cannot be developed in languages the masses do not comprehend ... (Source: The Economic and Political Weekly, 6 May, 2000)
