Is the Language Policy derailing the nation building process in India?
Many will be
surprised to know that in the first general election in 1952, after the Indian
independence, Congress that led the independence movement, failed to get
absolute majority in Tamilnadu, as the several parties, banking on the support generated by
the ‘separate Dravida Nadu’ demand of ‘Periyar’EVR,
won significant number of the assembly seats. Worse, tempting few of those
parties to defect, under the initiative of Rajaji, Congress formed the first
government in TN, after the independence.
Interestingly,
before the independence, Rajaji supported the ‘separate Dravida Nadu’ demand of his friend ‘Periyar’EVR,
who entered into the public life, under the influence of Rajaji.
The demand for the separation
of Tamilnadu (then Madras Presidency) from India even before the independence,
gained unbelievable support, due to the imposing of Hindi by the then CM
Rajaji, as the following article, rightly, explained.
“In 1937 when the
Madras Presidency under C Rajagopalachari insisted on a compulsory learning of
Hindi in the State, the Dravidian movement spearheaded by the Justice Party of
E V Ramaswamy (popularly called Periyar) got a major campaign agenda. They vehemently
opposed this imposition, and the agitation went on for three years before it
was revoked in 1940.” (https://swarajyamag.com/culture/the-language-genie-put-it-back-into-the-bottle-for-the-sake-of-national-unity
)
The anti-Hindi
steam sustained the anti-India sentiments in Tamilnadu, which was exploited by
Rajaji’s U-turn w.r.t Hindi, to support 1965 Anti-Hindi agitation, joining
hands with the DMK leader C.N.Annadurai, resulting in dethroning in 1967, not only the
Congress party, but also all the national parties from TN politics; forcing
them to survive as the ‘tails’ to the Dravidian parties; apart from discontinuing
the voluntary learning of Hindi in TN schools.
Unfortunately ‘Periyar
EVR’s opposition to the 1965 anti-Hindi agitation & his experiencing the
humiliations in the agitations, were not subjected to objective debate, which
might have revealed the reasons for the failure of the nation building process
in Tamilnadu. Without encouraging such debates, worse, ‘Periyar’
parties in TN, now resort to ‘thug’ style (காலித்தனம் in EVR’s words)
agitations. (‘The Dravidian Movement
& Rescuing Tamilnadu’ ; http://tamilsdirection.blogspot.sg/2014/10/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none_10.html
)
I doubt if the language policy of the Indian govt, takes into account, the threat to the nation building process, due to the imposition of Hindi on the non-Hindi speaking people.
I doubt if the language policy of the Indian govt, takes into account, the threat to the nation building process, due to the imposition of Hindi on the non-Hindi speaking people.
Had the first war
of Indian independence 1857 succeeded, India would now be under the rule of more
than 50 kings.
Ignoring the above
fact, the nation building process, after the Independence, was subordinated to
the dynastic vested interests of Nehru family (http://tamilsdirection.blogspot.sg/2016/10/caution-bjps-support-to-strengthen.html
) ;
spreading the
dynastic infection to the regional parties, including DMK.
The failure in the
nation building process was mainly responsible for the growth of the
chauvinistic regional parties and the separatist groups; in turn weakening the
soft power of the government & forcing the employment of hard power as
witnessed in Kashmir, which, in my view, would have prospered like Sikkim,
minus the mischief from Pakistan.
Encouraging the role of the mother tongue in education, administration, and social life, will help the nation building process; resulting in a socially conducive environment, in which, the encouragement to learn other non-mother tongue Indian languages including Hindi, Sanskrit, etc will work.
Encouraging the role of the mother tongue in education, administration, and social life, will help the nation building process; resulting in a socially conducive environment, in which, the encouragement to learn other non-mother tongue Indian languages including Hindi, Sanskrit, etc will work.
Imposing Hindi not
only will derail the nation building process (cautioned well by
most of the TN members in the constituent assembly debates; “This kind of
intolerance makes us fear that the strong Centre which we need, a strong Centre
which is necessary will also mean the enslavement of people who do not speak
the language of the legislature, the language of the Centre. I would, Sir, convey
a warning on behalf of the people of the South for the reason that there are
already elements in South India who want separation and it is up to us to tax
the maximum strength we have to keeping those elements down, and my honourable
friends in U.P. do not help us in anyway by flogging their idea ‘Hindi
Imperialism’ to the maximum extend possible.”- T.T. Krishnamachari; http://www.languageinindia.com/april2006/constituentassemblylastdays.pdf
) ;
but also will cause a kind of pyramid like infection to even the regional languages, to ‘destroy’ the other mother tongue languages, under the ‘misused power’ of the regional languages, as explained below.
but also will cause a kind of pyramid like infection to even the regional languages, to ‘destroy’ the other mother tongue languages, under the ‘misused power’ of the regional languages, as explained below.
“But interestingly
this concept of linguistic imperialism runs right down the pyramid. For
instance, the oral languages and dialects of Karnataka like Beary, Tulu,
Kodava, Konkani, Siddi, Hakki Pikki which are oral languages bereft of scripts,
feel terribly threatened by the hegemony of official Kannada, which in turn
fears a Hindi, which eventually is intimidated by English!” (https://swarajyamag.com/culture/the-language-genie-put-it-back-into-the-bottle-for-the-sake-of-national-unity
)
Anti-India steam in
TN acquire boosting, whenever TN Tamils visit countries like Singapore &
Srilanka, raising the question why Tamil,
unlike such countries, in the administration of the Indian central govt, should
continue the inferior status. The steam get additional boost, when they visit
European countries, China & Japan, where the mother tongue dominates in the
education, administration & social life.
W.r.t the anti-India
steam in TN, I like to draw the
attention of the pro-Tamil Hindutva supporters to probe, if the Archelogy &
Linguistics related central govt departments in Mysuru & New Delhi, discriminate
against Tamil, Tamils & Tamilnadu, as the following link suggested.
If the above
allegations are true, PM Modi government need to act to rescue Tamil, Tamils,
& Tamilnadu; as I fear that such unattended discriminations will lead to
the future separation of Tamilnadu, headed by political thugs, misusing the
Tamil sentiments & transforming TN to decay more like African countries,
looting the remaining natural wealth, & safeguarding MOSTLY the non-Tamils in TN (http://tamilsdirection.blogspot.sg/2016/09/1967.html
)In fact, thanks to the above alienation, the selfish agenda of the Dravidian parties disabled their potential to exploit the anti-Hindi steam in TN. Also thanks to ‘the Sasikala phenomenon’, the Dravidian parties corrupt rule of TN will end soon. Hence the Modi govt is now having a ‘buffer time’ to initiate concrete steps, to influence TN to enter into the Indian unity stream, to rescue Tamil, Tamils & Tamilnadu.
The mother tongue language based identity of the individual, excluded in the nation building process, will not only derail the process but also destroy it in the long run; as my research had revealed that unknowingly ‘Periyar’ EVR, decrying mother tongue based education, encouraged western-English mania in TN, divorcing the values based cultural roots of the Tamils, leading to thugs dominating in the public life.
I shall not be surprised if any study revealed that the period of accelerated corruption in public life in India, and the period of accelerated growth of the English medium (commercial) education in Tamilnadu, were the same, and also inter-related.
& objectively
sense the vested interests in operation, both within the pro-Hindutva as well
as anti-Hindutva circles;
to play a
constructive role for the welfare of all the people in the country.
The developments in Natural Language Processing (NLP) could be employed to empower all the languages of India in education, administration and social life, ensuring a strong nation building process.
Will Modi Govt wake
up to include the NLP based language policy in the agenda of the Digital India?
Note: 'Why Karl Marx on castes in India, Noam Chomsky on Nandigram and Amartya Sen on Modi, were wrong?' ; http://veepandi.blogspot.sg/2017/06/why-karl-marx-on-castes-in-india-noam.html
Note: 'Why Karl Marx on castes in India, Noam Chomsky on Nandigram and Amartya Sen on Modi, were wrong?' ; http://veepandi.blogspot.sg/2017/06/why-karl-marx-on-castes-in-india-noam.html