By invitation: Want Hindi signboards? Namma metro not for you!

It's true that a very large number of people in India read and understand Hindi. It's equally true that a larger number of people don't. The idea of making Hindi the National Language of India has been brought up several times over the last 100 years. It has always met with great resistance from other linguistic provinces and states, which hugely outnumber the Hindi-speaking ones. Even the controversial Constitutional provisions, Article 343 to Article 351, have not been fully realized into law or action because other language states, starting with the erstwhile Madras, have blocked it. The idea has always failed and often provoked violent responses. 

Efforts by Union governments over 70 years to promote Hindi have only led to divisive feelings and irritation. In fact, Bollywood songs and features have done more to promote Hindi than their crude impositions. The Urban Development Department had a meeting last year and issued a directive in non-Hindi speaking places, making Hindi a must along with the regional language and English, in “Metro stations signboards, name boards, announcements and publication material, etc for the information of the public”. 

What is the point of this? It is deficient as they did not consult with all the State Governments and public. It has been done secretively, without negotiation and citizen consultation. This is the problem. Soon Hindi will be a must for passports, bank forms and central government forms or even for letters addressed to get film shooting permissions. 

I have nothing against Hindi and I even act in Hindi films. It is about the principle of any language being imposed. We love Hindi because we have a choice to, but not when it is forced on us. The constitutional provisions favouring Hindi need to be scrapped. Tamil is precious as life to Tamilians and Odia to Odiyans. Each Indian language is no less than the other to its users. To force them to learn Hindi because less than half a dozen states, cannot control their population growth, is a crude and irrational scheme. To make Hindi the automatic second or third language in a non-Hindi state is wrong. Hindi cannot be made superior to any other Indian language. Rules have to be rational. Let's have a nationwide discourse and evolve a consensus, in order to have a language policy that is common across India. Otherwise, just let it be. Please.