Hindi Enforcement and Attacks on North Indians in Mumbai
TAMIL TRIBUNE, March 2010 (ID. 2010-03-02)
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DEFINITIONS
Hindian: People whose mother tongue is Hindi (similar to Tamil speakers are sometimes referred as Tamilans or Tamilians).
Indian government's enforcement of Hindi as the official language of India is the main reason behind the Mumbai attacks on North Indians. This article analyzes the root cause behind these attacks.
The "Anti-North Indian" sentiment is not because of North Indians settling in Mumbai. The problem arose because of the attitude of the north Indian Hindians towards the concept of India. If Hindians realize that "India is not a Hindi Nation" and that "India is a country of linguistic and cultural diversity", the problem would not have come at all. Hindians settling in Mumbai do not learn and use Marathi, instead they have changed the demography of the place and attempt to make Hindi the default language of the place
Hindians should learn to accept the diversity of India. They are not embracing the language and culture of the states where they settle down. Rather they force down their own language and culture in an aristocratic way. It is unfortunate that no media dares to discuss about this attitude problem of Hindians and the need to educate the concept of diversity to them.
Even South Indians who have not traveled to north India might have watched a Hindi movie or read about the Hindi poet Kabir. But we would seldom, if ever, see a North Indian seeing a South Indian movie or reading about Thirukkural. Even after 63 years of forming India, North Indians have not absorbed anything from South India.
Indian government is responsible for this one-way integration. All these years, it has been pushing Hindi to non-Hindi States through central government offices, schools, radio, television, Hindi Prachar Sabhas etc. By promoting Hindi aggressively to non-Hindi masses, Indian government has indirectly promoted all products that come with a Hindi tag and thus helped Hindi people benefit. With the enforced reach of Hindi, a Hindi movie can now be easily sold to South Indian masses and Hindi artists and producers can earn more money. It is easier for North Indians to move about freely anywhere in India with out the need to integrate with their counterparts as the Indian Government has spread their language, culture, food habits, etc. into every nooks and corners of India.
It is high time that the Indian government amends the official language provisions of the constitution that is resulting in inequality to non-Hindi Indians. Why should employees of telecommunications company BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), post offices, banks etc. use Hindi while working in non-Hindi states? Non-Hindi languages are promoted by the respective state governments. Why not leave Hindi language promotion to Hindi state governments? Why should the Indian central government use our taxes to promote Hindi?
Integration of the various Indian states existed in a natural way even before independence. Telugu people settled in Tamil Nadu learned Tamil. Tamils who settled in Bangalore (Karnataka) learned Kannada. As such diversity of the states were protected and still people were naturally united. Post independence, the Indian government created a need for Hindi in non-Hindi states also. Why create a need for Hindi in Andhra, Karnataka or Maharashtra? Now, if anyone from TamilNadu had to settle in Hyderabad, there is no need for him or her to learn Telugu, he/she could mostly live with knowledge of Hindi. As such Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, has lost its Telugu identity. Bangalore has lost it's Kannada identity and Mumbai has lost it's Marathi identity. The only major city in India that still has it's identity is Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, thanks to the two-language policy of Tamil Nadu government. If all Tamils had learnt Hindi, Chennai would also have become like Mumbai, Hydrabad and Bangalore, losing the Tamil identity. Thankfully, Tamil Nadu's two-language formula has protected and saved the Tamil identity of Chennai.
Other Indian states should follow the Tamil Nadu model and protect their identities.
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