A few days ago an undergraduate student friend of mine and myself debated over the national language of India. DOES INDIA HAVE A NATIONAL LANGUAGE?
Many of my fellow South Indian friends as well as the other non-perfect hindi speakers would have had the "wonderful" experience of being ridiculed at some point of their life, by a fellow "educated" hindi speaking Indian for not being able to articulate in the language that they deem to be INDIA'S NATIONAL LANGUAGE. wake up call to all of you!
Articles 343 - 351 of the Indian Constitution deal with the official language of our nation and it clearly states that Hindi and English shall be the recognised "official" languages of our country and official does not mean national. It merely entails to the use of the language for any official government purpose. Hence, it is equally foolish to say that every Indian should know Hindi because it is his national language as it is to say that every Indian should know English because it is his national language.
A recent judgment delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice S J Mukhopadhaya in the Gujarat High Court that India does not have a national language reaffirms this. The court furthermore stated that it maybe true that a majority people use the Devangari script and speak Hindi, but it still is only the official language of the country. The petitioner was Suresh Kachchadia (PIL in 2009).
Well, but that still leaves us with some food for thought.
WHAT THEN, is India's national language? :p
JAI HIND!
