The way we put Hindi speakers, orators, and Hindi linguists in our society is incomprehensible. This repugnance is generic and deep-rooted in our minds and behaviour. We as a father, mother, or as a part of society do not expect any less from English from our kids. Hence, enrooting the idea that Hindi is fragile, weak, and not worthy to ponder. Unfortunately, recent developments suggest that people aren’t taking their mother tongue seriously enough and losing their grasp on the language. The subsequent information can be justified as 7.97 Lakhs of student failed in the subject that requires little or no effort to master; cause you ‘literally’ babble in the same tongue.
To scavenge a deeper idea, the reason and aversion of such unprecedented, unfortunate and bizarre scenario we decided to engage in conversation with Dr Shreeniwas Tyagi. Dr Tyagi is Assistant Professor for Hindi at Gargi College affiliated by Delhi University. He has acquired his PhD from Jawahar Lal Nehru University. Dr Tyagi also administrator an NGO named ‘Gramin Neeti Partisthan’ to educate poor children who cannot afford proper education. So, without further ado let me present the exchange we had on the topic.
Shubham:- “Dr Tyagi, If You have been following up the news, You must have came across the banner of ‘7.97 Lakhs of Failures’ who cannot graduate from boards in their mother tongue. If we trace back like 200 Year, There is a significant decrease in pursuing Hindi as well as Sanskrit as a matter of pride or to have generic conversations respectively. Moreover, this unprecedented scenario reveals a lot about government policies over the language and the way the students tackle the subject?”
Dr Tyagi:- “We cannot put the blame of all 7.97 Lakhs failures on the shoulders of students in UP boards. For this bizarre scenario, the whole institutional process and the education system is responsible who longs for the English language. The most unfortunate behaviour in our society and our culture is, we tend not to say our mother, ‘Mother’ despite the fact. By the aforementioned, I meant to connotate the idea that we are not providing the respect Hindi deserves, at least not to its actual extent. Analogically speaking, If my mother isn’t beautiful and the aunt leaving beside is the portrayal of beauty, should forget the significance of our mother and start calling the aunt as a mother?”
Shubham:- “Um, No”
Dr Tyagi:- “(…)In fact, the poor who cannot afford the choice to study also long for the English language. So, If The society accepts the (Hindi) language as it is and treat the Hindi linguist with similar regard as they do for the English orators, this unfortunate case will automatically cease. Moreover, this behavioural disparity is just India centric, If we look around the globe, Mandarin one of the toughest language is yet spoken by Chinese. Japanese people speak Japanese. French people read francais and Germans study Germany and yet they are marching alongside others, respecting their mother tongue, studying them and pursing them in behavioural use.
However, In India after 1947, the influence of (…) (Britishers) remained quite prominent and left this stigma of English with us and those who perceive it as the only choice are still to attain freedom from the Europeans. If we consider the fact that, The Honourable Supreme Court or The Parliamentary sessions consider English oration as an official language. I want to ask Why? So this isn’t just the issue concerning the kids rather it’s an issue concerning several political institutions, autonomous bodies and the foremost, guardians at the primary level. Who consider English as a charm-language despite the ‘its and bits’ of the speaker.
This signifies the mentality and lack of understanding as ‘The language is medium and not the idea’ However society hype around a knowledgeable English person as omniscience and degenerate if one cannot achieve excellence in English.”
Shubham:- “I see”
Dr Tyagi:-“This also puts a question mark on the education system. How are they treating the language that a student cannot achieve excellence in their indigenous subject after 10-12 years of teaching and this blame must be shared with the student who doesn’t prioritise the study of the aboriginal tongue. considering all in an account, this is just a cumulative output.”
Shubham:- “Since we discussed the official language of the parliamentary session and The Honourable Supreme Court. Won’t you think other job notifications also scavenge only potential English linguist?”
Dr. Tyagi:- “This is the mentality I mentioned, The stones are turned and English is now comprehended as ‘a language of employment’ followed by the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu and Southern India. The objection was, Hindi linguistic people will have an edge over us in acquiring jobs. So, The notion of employment being associated with English is present amongst the people. Even though, after globalization and liberalization and the requirement of MNCs to understand the language in order to stay firm. (in Indian Market)
Shubham:- Yeah
But, all of it is a fluke, Upon pondering the contemporary circumstances the unemployment is on the rise anyway. (…) Despite that, the opinion leaders and so-called intellectuals have always projected that Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil or Kannada linguist cannot acquire a position in administrative or official work. (…) However, I am not abiding with the notion to boycott English, Germany French or Urdu but, the ‘mentality’ (that one language is superior) is a menace and one should know their aboriginal tongue, culture, society snd heritage. Technically, it will make a more profound human out of you.”
Shubham:-“ Dr Tyagi as you said it is about the mentality and how people look upon the linguist, the way language is admired or not, do you consider a possibility to abridge this moral disparity and reduce the influence of the Britishers”
Dr Tyagi- “This can only be abridged by a single mean of political succour. However, there isn’t a modicum of morale amongst the political stature and the demography is gullible enough to be divided on the language, their personal beliefs, needs and gratification. So, the language should be left out of politics. But, the oligarch looks out for their personal benefits which lie with the English language. (…) Consider, when you listen to the honourable CJI in Hindi, you’ll be able to understand every ‘its and bits’ of the recitation but English will reach just the tip of the iceberg. (…)So Unless people get aware of their language the abridging isn’t possible, the same goes if the government doesn’t advertise the language and vice versa.”
Shubham:- “Ehmm”
Dr Tyagi:- “The condition of Hindi is pathetic, If we trace the origin and the reason, high Schools are in English, engineering colleges are in English, medical colleges are in English but medicine can be written in both the languages.”
Shubham:- “If we consider such, our science is in English, the history, political science, most of our subjects are in English.”
Dr Tyagi:- “Ok! Chinese read science, don’t they? Japanese read history don’t they? Germans have psychology, right? all of them are conspicuous alongside the fact, they don’t create books (in a different language) for them. so, this can be a conspiracy (in India) to limit education only to a few selected cause if you teach them in the native tongue, they will understand it easily contrary to the mushrooming of English medium school which lacks the quality education. but education is a nuisance to the oligarch and this ruse to a wide no of the population is baffling. To make it worse, Indian society lacks the basic requirements and one cannot ask for privileges if lacking necessities.”
Shubham:- “Okay. The dignity and the heritage of a language are also weighed by the importance given to writers if we compare The Dinkar Awas or Rambriksh Benipuri’s home in Bihar with the Shakespeare’s House. Well, the former are ruins and the latter is a museum. So, the government do not take any step to preserve the heritage but criticism.”
Dr Tyagi:- “This unfortunate incident is because the preservation of language and culture isn’t on the list of the ruling government or the opposition further, the lack of cultural education justify these visuals but, when we look around the globe, all the developed countries and the European countries are great because they respect their authors and those who add to their culture. (…) However In India, people don’t read Hindi, even indigenous ones do not read them unless the literature is part of the syllabus. I think somewhat media is also responsible for the case, You cannot find any news related to art, literature and culture in the media, can you? and the fragment that is still somewhat surviving is full of bunkum; the Bollywood. (…) so, we cannot consider making a museum of Nirala or Dinkar in such a society which do not respect them and if they don’t respect them obviously the government will also take lesser interest in comparison.”
Shubham:- “There is also another case that I have been following concerning the language, A set of people exclaims that Hindi has been made unnecessarily complex despite being a simple language.”
Dr Tyagi:- “I agree with the fact that the translated Hindi is made a lot complex (…) probably on purpose. They are so hectic that you can easily understand the English, but to read the translations you require another translation. I say, If you want to translate a document it should be translated in a way, that laymen can absorb the information but that can create an issue to the oligarch. So, all this is a conspiracy to hide the fact in both the languages. I mean what is the requirement to say ‘Upargami Par Path‘ when Flyover is understood or ‘Loh Path Gamini‘ when Rails are understood. It isn’t like we don’t have foreign words in our language.”
Shubham:- “Yeah, We Have ‘Desaj and Videsaj’ in Hindi”
Dr Tyagi:- “Not just Hindi, every language has foreign words to keep themselves alive. In fact, Oxford adds several words from the Hindi tongue to their dictionary but this doesn’t mean that translational should be literal and dictionorial. (…) So, This issue can be cured only by co-operation and interdependency of society, media, government and education system.”
Shubham:- You mean this is a question mark on the whole society and Institution process?
Dr Tyagi:- “The whole country and I don’t just mean it for just Hindi. There are 22-24 languages mentioned in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. So, one should keep their aboriginal language alive. Not to mention, North Indian do not understand any of the southern languages but they rather learn french and german instead of Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. (…) The Deccan are also rich in terms of Literature but the Hindi linguist lack the interest towards them and expect one end co-operation. I mean why? So this is a complex issue but it can be averted with co-operation.
Shubham:- Since we are o page of all different language let me put a question from the mother of our mother tongue, Sanskrit. Sanskrit is almost at the brink of extinction. there are quite a few speakers of Sanskrit despite an easily comprehensible grammar.
Dr Tyagi:- This question has only one answer to it, Any language will be alive until the speakers and for that, you require proficient individuals who use them in society. (…) But there are very fewer people who want to peruse Sanskrit which makes this phase inevitable. However, the most scientific and easily understandable language is Sanskrit, even for computer and the files documented the language surpasses all others.
Shubham:- I believe every language has their own beauty and poetic feel to the words and one cannot understand the feeling unless he is proficient in the language. Hindi has its own feel, English has other then there is Sanskrit and French. So comes the Urdu. Recently a female journalist sided with an organisation having communism ideology incited “no one cares for Sanskrit”
Dr Tyagi:- “I agree with the fact that (…) every language has its feel to it and one should respect the differences instead of inciting hatred in the name of a language. The main purpose of the language is to communicate ideas and feelings. Certainly, all the languages including Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, French and German are capable in doing so. But to compare and point one out as superior to another is just political propaganda. I also couldn’t disagree that the people of India betrayed The Sanskrit and associated the tongue only with the rituals. This is one of the reasons the language is dying.”
Shubham:- I see, the keys of the conversation is, Language is a medium and not the idea, and we should respect every language however, we cannot leave the mother tongue to the grave. On this note, I would like to wrap it up and thank you for enlightening us with your wisdom.
Dr Tyagi:- It was my pleasure.