OF Hindi and Tamil?

RK Narayan once said, “ You may give a man an excellent cookery book, but it will not help if the man has not learnt how to cook.”

Mr. Narayan was not referring to culinary matters. Rather, he was touching upon a rather queer fact: the knowledge (read lack of) of spoken Hindi in Tamil Nadu. He quoted the above when replying to a rather staunch supporter of Hindi who was complaining that the 8:00 pm DD news was given only in Tamil and not in Hindi (this was before the days of FTV). The fact is clear: Tamil Nadu is dismal when it comes to speaking Hindi.

During the first few days of college I remember a lot of “northies” in my class complaining that the moment they stepped out of the railway platform, it was as if they were in a whole new world (linguistically). Right from the auto-rickshaw driver to the traffic policeman, no one spoke Hindi! To make the trip from the station to the campus was an ordeal for many, as they had use signs and contoured faces to describe their destination. Some of the places had nearly unpronounceable names and to top it all, the road signs were all written in Tamil (barring the few English ones that have been put up recently)! It also doesn’t help if one doesn’t know the Tamil numeric system; a street-smart auto-rickshaw driver might actually con an innocent customer into paying double the normal rate.

Without pointing to people or being specific, I would like to put forth two rather contrasting views on the topic.

Almost every politically motivated party in Tamil Nadu seems to be discouraging the use of Hindi in common parlance. Their argument is that Hindi is not their “native” language to begin with. Tamil on the other hand is classical, beyond comparison and even without peer. Why should one impose an alien language onto an alien culture? Also, they say, Tamil “fundamentals” are so ingrained into the psyche of the common man that it would be hard to change. Recently, these views have taken up concrete footing, what with the state government contemplating introducing compulsory Tamil education at the primary level and completely ignoring Hindi.

Hindi speaking “junta”, or atleast those in power believe that it is morally wrong not to speak Hindi in a state. Their view almost reaches dictatorial terms, as they believe that their “soft language” is THE ONLY WAY of dealing.

Are these arguments for real? In my humble opinion…no. I have no right to say which language is better than the other or for that matter whether any other language is better, since I am not proficient in any of them. But I feel that we are all Indians first and whatever language group next. In order for us to develop as a nation we should share a common bond, a feeling of one-ness. For that, it would be necessary for us to have some lingua franca to enable, say, a farmer from Tamil Nadu to be able to talk to a farmer from Haryana or Assam. Right now, Hindi is the best bet for that and so it would be paramount to give them that ability. There was a time as Mr. Narayan puts it, when every family had atleast one or two members who took up serious study of Hindi. All that is gone, though it shouldn’t be.

If Tamil is the cake, Hindi should be the icing. Everyone in Tamil Nadu, should have a sound knowledge of our cultural heritage and traditions but at the same time be able to speak Hindi to convey those very same ideals to others. Let Tamil be compulsory in schools, but let Hindi also be taught, not in an academic, mark-oriented way but in one that would permit exchange of views, even ideas! We should use this tool to forge new bonds and let the ideals of nationalism surge through us. After all, it is only then that every “Tam”, “Dig” and “Be- hari” can prosper.

>>Berhael