The idea of India goes beyond Hindi 

In the beautiful essay, Three Hundred Ramyanas, AK Ramnujan explains that for every Rama, there is a Ramayana. But there are unfortunate people amongst us who call themselves Ram Bhakts but want to have only one Rama. They were the ones who did not want this essay to be read by the young minds of Delhi University. No diversity of Ram is allowed in this land. Jawaharlal Nehru was once asked about the way he wanted to solve India’s problem. He said that while thinking about India he cannot but think about three hundred million individuals. There have to be as many problems and as many ways to solve them.

This is one way of looking at this nation and there is the other way we are confronted with right now. It says that there is only one Indian way,one Indian thought and one Indian way to solve a problem. This tendency is coloured by the north Indian, upper caste male idea of India. It considers itself to be the mainstream and pities others as tributaries which are there to be merged in the mainstream to gain meaning and significance.

According to this view of India, there is a centre which is again defined by this north Indian, Hindi-speaking , upper caste male and there are numerous margins. The broad category of Northeast does not tell us that this is the most diverse area of this country, neither do categories like Adivasis or South Indians , Muslims or Christians. All of them are invited to merge themselves into the mainstream and attain Indianness.

Recently, Shashi Tharoor questioned the desire of the government to make Hindi one of the official languages of the United Nations. The External Affairs Minister of India, Sushma Swaraj, said that the government was ready to pay even Rs 400 crore annually to achieve this but the rules and norms at the UN do not permit this.

This debate in the Lok Sabha reopened a debate in the country about the special status of Hindi in India and whether Hindi is the national language of India. A commentator debunked M Venkaiah Naidu who had said: “Hindi is our national language and it is impossible for India to progress without Hindi.”

She was right in telling Naidu, now the Vice-President, that Hindi is not our national language. It only has the status of Raj Bhasha and should never be called our Rashtra Bhasha. The confusion has long been in our minds and is very difficult to dispel even after reading the relevant section from the Constitution.

Swaraj was being practical when she said it was difficult for the Indian government to make Hindi the official language of the UN. Ideologically, she was a combative Hindiwali telling Tharoor that Hindi is the language of many other countries and, therefore, he should not question its right to be the language of an international body. She cited the name of Fiji, Surinam and Mauritius. But Yashi again corrected Swaraj in her column. Hindi is not the language of Fiji, it is called Fiji Bat.

Two years back, a wave of protest erupted in Karnataka and spread to other regions asking for language equality. It asked why the Independence Day address by the Prime Minister could not be simultaneously aired in all Indian languages. Many found the proposal impractical but advocates of this line pointed out that with technology on our side, it should not be difficult at all. Money should also not be a problem. If the government is ready to spend Rs 400 crore for Hindi, why cannot it find resources for all Indian languages? It is only a question of political will. Political will can only be mustered if you have a political vision to summon it. The moot question remains “What is your Idea of India?” Is it still driven by the easy to under¬stand slogan, “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan.”? Or ,can it handle a more complex approach to the project of nation making?

There were historical reasons for the spread of Hindi in pre-Independence India. Its cause was championed by those who were not Hindiwalas. A Gujarati became its supreme advocate and minds like C. Rajgopalachari were convinced that Hin¬di would be an effective unifying thread while weaving the idea of the nation of India. But it changed the moment India gained Independence when Hindi was positioned as the only national language. One needs to read the debate in the Constituent Assembly to understand the delicate poise that was being advised in this regard. To-day, that delicacy is lost.

It is not only the Muslim who is being told that there is only way to express one’s affection for this country. It is also the Hindus of the south and east who are being told that there is only one way of being Hindu and Indian. So, the people of Kerala are being told to mend their ways by stop-ping their celebration of a demon called Bali. They should instead pay homage to Vamana who had cheated Bali and robbed him off his kingdom. Similarly in Bengal, Ram Navami is being presented as the festival which should replace Durga and Kali.

One is filled with pity for the shaken and ravaged soul of our nation. It is being flattened and caged. It is fighting and has got bloodied. If we are the true inheritors of the Republic of India, we cannot let this delicate flower wilt.