Should Hindi be the official language of India?

Should Hindi be the official language of India?

Introduction

As per the Constitution, India is a multi-lingual nation. It has 22 languages. But people in India give their first preference to English language. It is used as a medium of communication in most of the schools and offices.

There has been a massive uproar by the Modi government asking the ministers and officials to use the Hindi language everywhere. Mr. Modi gave his speech in Hindi at the Bhutanese parliament during his first official overseas trip.

All the government offices in India will have a Hindi software installed in their systems. According to the new government, all the officials and employees should be well-versed in Hindi. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is all set to promote Hindi as the official language.

The National Language status for Hindi is a long debated subject across the nation today.

Yes – Hindi should be the official language.

1. Indian Constitution – The Indian Constitution states that Hindi should be the official language of India. It should be in Devanagari script. Still, many regions are not ready to accept this fact.

2. Widely spoken – Though India has 22 languages, Hindi is the most widely spoken amongst all. Hindi is the 5th most widely spoken language in the world.

3. Hindustan – India was previously known as “Hindustan”. The word itself implies that India is the land of Hindi speaking people. Hence, it should be the official language of the nation.

4. Identity – Even before independence, Hindi was considered to be the official language. Today, English is a global language but it does not mean that we should adopt it. We should try to promote our own identity.

5. Rural India – Around 75% of the country resides in villages where people are aware of Hindi mostly. It would be tough for these people to accept English as their official language.

No – Hindi should not be the official language.

1. No record – Gujarat High Court has passed a statement saying that Hindi is not the language of the country. The Constitution has stated Hindi as the official language and not the national language. Hence, it is not necessary to use Hindi as the official language.

2. Multiple languages – India follows multiple languages. For example, if a Tamilian joins a job in some other region, he might have to speak the local language. If he joins an MNC, he might have to speak English. Hence, English can be used as the common language for the nation.

3. Right to speak – Around 22 languages exist in this nation and, thus, people have the right to speak in any of those languages.

4. Harmony – Creating a debate upon a language to be official or not disturbs the harmony of a nation. Our country is best known for its unity in diversity.

5.Foreign relations – Instead of Hindi, English should be widely practiced in our country. Government employees should be skilled in speaking English. It will also help improve foreign communications.

Conclusion

The debate regarding the status of the official language of India is an ongoing process. One group of people demand Hindi to be recognized as the official language and another demand English. The Modi government is giving stress in promoting the Hindi language across the country. Even though this is being criticized by certain political parties in Tamil Nadu, the effort has gained a bit of success.
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    Discussion

  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Krishna Ramalingam (07/17/21)
  • Many of the points stated in this post are false. Hindustan does not connote a majority Hindi speaking population, it connotes a majority Hindu population. Hindi did not even exist in the Indian subcontinent for a long time. The idea of a national language in India is merely a British construct.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Hindi - Group Discussion (07/02/18)
  • Our diverse culture is well known in the world. It is a matter of great surprise for many to see how we live together and enjoy great bonding despite huge diversity. Pluralism is the soul of India, this has been ensuring India a towering growth. Secular belief has helped us to achieve trust of foreign investors. Declaring Hindi as official language can be a big threat to the bridge of unity. Creating unrest by raising a issue of language is a poor mindset. Instead, providing more accommodating environment will take us towards inclusive development.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Hindi Language - Group Discussion (04/26/18)
  • India is multi-lingual since its independence, changing the status quo would disturb harmony. Hindi is widely spoken in India and so are 22 more languages. There are many states where Hindi is hardly used, regional languages are being used largely. To ask them to learn Hindi to live in this country would be a great injustice. We should have Hindi as official language with effect from the day of freedom. We failed to take decision then and reversing time is not possible, making hue and cry on the languages is nothing but political gimmick to reins in few votes. There are many grave issues staggering, focus on those would be great for the country.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -umesh (08/04/17)
  • most people in comment, clearly and boldly putting that some(HIIINNNN...) should be made official or national language..... these people forget that whole india is dividided and made as states based on language only and made as india based on percentage of some religion followers that HINDUISM.... that's why it is called HINDUSTHAN or other name BHARATHA nothing in any way it is associated with some particular language....

    if languaage itself should be learnt.... then how abuot all recognized languages under constitution come together and do research and adapt best of all languages.... this never happens because you see chapatti and allu eating people ego get hurts, but other state pepole should learnt what they speak.... what is the logic in this..... is these hindi speaking state population is more than whole south and NE(odisa, bengal and 7 sisters of india)..... if something should be accepted just because most people speak them.... is it ok to do or accept just because it is in majority(like doing over mining, over industrial production)...... thus the so called major spoken language HINNNNDDII speaking people logic show how much their mental accumen and their want to be part of progress of country as integrating with other peoples of different states....

    if south indian or NE or some other state learns HINDI, it means that, it is included as part of ciriculum during his school days.... if HINDI can be included in syllabus means, same can be done with other language which is invented by colluding all official languages with fine amount of all wiseness in them...

    SO HIIINNNDDDIII people, if you can learn some foreign language means, the why not learn the local languages.... i mean here, not to profeciency of any doctorate of that language, or local atleat how other non-hindi speaking person manage with what he knew and keep adding new words by means of hearing or reading or communicating with locals.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Indira kundu (07/05/17)
  • I think English and Hindi should go side by side. English should be official language and Hindi should be national language.if Indian can live closing the border and put a wall round it and stay inside India .then just make Hindi is the official language. All the books mainly written in English .so let's not fight for the language and try to develop the country so Indians have electricity,education,healthcare,water,agriculture,jobs ,shelter.free from proverty.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Siva Dorairaja (02/05/17)
  • Yes. We should standardize into one national indian language. When there are too many differences in languanges then it will create ego which will lead to hatred then destroy unity. No point having oldest language in the world when there is no improvement or unity. So please let go all the ego join hands and unite to all my indian friends. With unity and 1 languages it easy to communicate, solve lots of problem, save lots of time, through unity we can be strong and good fir the country and economy will grow rapidly. Through unity we can all share the benefit. No one will struggle. Outside people most of them dont know whats tamilan, Punjabi, gujarati, haryana etc.. They only know we are indian. So 1 race 1 language unity and wise leadership= success without problem. We can do it. Although its pain in the heart to write in english because most of indian cant read hindi. But i hope one day everyone can read indian language. Its will be better if hindi could be named as indian language.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Siva Dorairaja (02/05/17)
  • We should standardize into one national indian language. When there are too many differences in languanges then it will create ego which will lead to hatred then destroy unity. No point having oldest language in the world when there is no improvement or unity. So please let go all the ego join hands and unite to all my indian friends. With unity and 1 languages it easy to communicate, solve lots of problem, save lots of time, through unity we can be strong and good fir the country and economy will grow rapidly. Through unity we can all share the benefit. No one will struggle. Outside people most of them dont know whats tamilan, Punjabi, gujarati, haryana etc.. They only know we are indian. So 1 race 1 language unity and wise leadership= success without problem. We can do it.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -AKASH ALAN (10/13/16)
  • according to my point of view there may be any language official but adding one point in the debate is that if English is the official language of India then it is obvious tha the person is fluent in Hindi he should not consider bellow the skill level He also has skills but he has the way to represent their skill in Hindi.In India he should not be rejected only the fact that don't know English which is found a lot now a days
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Guna (08/10/16)
  • Most of them comparing India's growth with Japan and China!! I mean common guys what's wrong with you? Since u speak hindi doesnt mean that our whole country speaks hindi. In japan there is Japanese lang alone. In china thers is Chinese lang alone. And what you guys are saying feels to me is that Japan made Japanese lang official by terminating all other languages(incase in same situation as india) and so do Chinese? India is a only country which has many languages and even some ancient languages still survives here yet standing as an united india. But the fact you are saying isn't worth listening for. All hindi speaking saying that tamil nadu is the only state which opposing hindi. Yes i accept that. Since the British era the importance for Dravidian languages (tamil, telugu, malayalam, Kannada, etc) as shrunk and a large amount of tamil speaking people left india not because of the language debate. Its because of the caste's and communities which let them to choose their own way. In singapore there are many official languages including tamil. And in Malaysia lot of them speaks tamil and though no official and national languages there too. If i said japan and china there is one common language for them from the past like traditional Chinese and modern Chinese, but the core is chinese. But in india the same theory won't apply. Since you guys pointing out tamil nadu which opposing hindi. Yes hindi is opposed here , not because we are afraid we'll loose tamil. It's because we'll loose our indian identity which holds UNITY IN DIVERSITY still holds to that. And many of the tamils gave their lives for their language. One can simply say that they lost their lifes simply for thier sake. Yes but we have a passion for our language. And if still hindi imposed on us then tamil nadu will be the first state to oppose that kind of agenda. There is lot more serious issues than language. The first and foremost are the caste's and communities. If that still perceives then the language debate will be on edge deciding the fate of indian unity. Still other countries are stunned by our unity and infact that is astonishing achievement by us so for. And imposing hindi is a threat for that. Since i spoke more about tamil may feel more uneasy for you guys. But that's my mother toungue. If a telugu speaking person like me suports for telugu same for kannada and malayalam..if the hindi speakers speaking boldly to give national language status then we(all other language) have a right to speak for their own. If thats wrong in your point of view! Then that classifies who you are. Still i cant bear the fact that because of hindustan our country should have hindi as national language. I mean guys if hindustan is tha name of ancient india then what so called south india? You are treating south india like south korea. But we are not treating anyone like north korea.. Since it's being a national issue the comments could be far more better and not hindi oeiented.. If english should be eradicated then the necessary steps could have been taken like giving official status to all other languages except hindi. And eradicate the English "just from the books" because English had already grown as a giant link between the countries. If the countries can link with English why so called states could link with well known English rather than learning whole new hindi language!? What you guys saying is to communicate in india usage of single language could be easier. Yes so far english is easier for this generation of peoples especially students. If all languages are made offcial and given their own status the job opportunities may incrrase that may lead to more employment. But still imposing hindi in non hindi states may add oil to the fire which had started already. I have respect for every language. Im from Pondicherry and i know tamil telugu french and English. And choosing a language is upto me. I didn't choose these languages because i hated hindi, it is because our surrounding has nothing to do with hindi. Then why should we learn? French helps me to secure job in france as Pondicherry is under french rule caused some impact not like harsh British rule. Even french rule while leaving india gave opportunity for Pondicherry peoples to come along with them to france where equality is promised. And thers is a ship awaited at that time for peoples who are willing to accompany them. Though some of them went and remaining stayed here. Thats y still french colonium survives in Pondicherry and those who stand by india here comes a language imposition. Iam telling the fact that eventhough people stood for india most of the nort stood by hindi and leaving other states to feel like a refugees in their homeland. So take it as a request and don't hurt our feelings. Once again signing off as an INDIAN.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -jeetu akola (07/25/16)
  • Ya Hindi should be our official language because mostly the people are awareness of English they can't understood English so that's why that can't get a job so Hindi must be official language we loves our Hindustan we loves Hindi after some time Hindi will spread all over world but first you should avoke and pushing to go head because India will became a super over please adopt your language not others we should not go anywhere any country because we love our country
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Mayank Manocha (07/12/16)
  • Yes,Hindi should be a official language of our county because most of the population of country is living in a rural areas and they know only know their regional language.For them it was very difficult to learn English and ofcourse they need not to be learn English.But as we see the people living in cities or towns prefer the English language because from their childhood they used to study in English medium schools.In their schools there is environment of speaking English. Faculity of school and Parents also motivates their child towards speaking English.
    In India,I found one thing that is a major problem,People think that if you are not able to speak in English you are not educated.There are many people in our country that have a better ideas,talent but they lack due to their communication in English,that is no fair.It is a fact,English is a global language but somewhere our Mothertounge also stands.We are living in a democratic country where 22 languages were spoken and we have a full right to choose the language in which we communicate.
    From my point of view, To Learn English it is good and beneficial for our career in MNC's or at good companies,it is our additional point but while seeing majority of the country Hindi should be a official language in our country and i am appreciating the ruling Party that make efforts to give respect to our languages.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -pooja Gangurde (07/11/16)

  • Yes Hindi should be our official language... Keval interview aap candidate ke English bolne par usko judge nahi kar sakte... Interview mein English language compulsory Karna chahiye... Interviewer jab questions English mein puchta hai.. Iska matlab usko Hindi language ya toh samajh nahi aati ya fir Hindi language sunne mein sharam aati hai.. Har school mein ab 1st language Hindi hona chahiye and 2nd language Marathi and 3 dd language English honi chahiye
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official & national language of India? -Capt Venkatesh (06/11/16)
  • Emphatically NO! Hindi has played little or no role in unifying India...emotionally or politically. What is bad about great languages like Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi? Hindi cannot match Tamil in the field of literature. There is nothing to match the Sangam Age of Tamil. Can you tell me about one single period in the 5000 years of known Indian history where Hindi has made any commendable contribution to the progress of India? Hindi is comparatively a new language with respect to other Indian languages.
    To cut a long argument short I conclude.....only two languages have the right to become the national and official language of India.....ENGLISH or SANSKRIT!!
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -bald oyabun (05/28/16)
  • Never Hindi has ruined many lives and is an irritating claptrap.
    Please help us get rid of the tyranny of Hindi https://www.change.org/p/prime-minister-of-india-declare-english-as-official-link-language-of-india
    North Indians can have their sweet fantasies but Hindi will NEVER be anything other than a regional language.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -vinit singh (05/28/16)
  • According to my opinion it is right that widlly spoken language around the
    World is English but an India concern it should mandatory that hindi is
    Official lunguage, there are many resion take example of china all thing are conducted by chines people in chines lunguage ,he has developed some advance technology as we know with out English Lunguage so why Indian not.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Shruti Shrabya (05/28/16)
  • In India, there are 22 regional languages. In 1950, Indian Constitution has declared “Devanagari” script or Hindi as an official language which is a comprehensive language in India.

    If we recall our country’s old name ‘Hindustan’, it enfolds the word Hindi. 45% of Indian communicates in Hindi, mostly suburbanite. 75% of them are wary of Hindi. Enduring English language for them might be next to difficult.

    Hindi language is our selfhood and we can’t oppose it. To some extent, English is one of the most articulate languages, especially among the rising generations for whom a conversation in Hindi makes them feel shameful.

    In conclusion, along with English as an official language, Hindi should also be coalesced. Yet, we have to undertake Hindi as our solemn language.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Durgesh singh (04/02/16)
  • In all over india only tamilnadu's people are unable to speak hindi otherwise people from any state can speak just because hindi is not presrnt in their school syllabus.
    /Just look at China and another country who are not using english as its official laguage
    are they not being globlized ?
    If we will not pay adequate respect to our national language then who will ?
    though hindi one of the though language to learn but not in india.
    e.g. A tamil person joins indian army at the hindi language is completely wash out for him
    but within one month he speaks very good hindi so it just because of familiar environment.
    remedies:-
    Hindi language should be necessary in all official work and people who dont want to speak hindi they should be charge for this.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Rajesh Ku Mishra (04/02/16)
  • Yes in my point of view Hindi should be chosenas the official language in india bcz, in our country most of the people can understand hindi very well but not English. If people fell like stranger in his/her own country due to language barrier then why should we choose English.
    So we must choose Hindi as official language.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Shabarish (03/06/16)
  • If the consituitson states that india is a country with a lot of lanuages, then how can it state that hindi is the offical lanuage. This is, with no doubt, a baised artixle is based on somebody's opionon.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Diwakar Shashi (03/01/16)
  • Yes.
    As by the todays condition of the children are very worse in respect to Hindi.
    If this will be continued then a time will came when other country people will laugh when we will speak " WE ARE HINDUSTANI".
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Somkarsingh (02/22/16)
  • I proud of that I'm an Indian that has unity in diversity .we have several languages .Hindi language is our identity but we cannot avoid importance of English language because English is a medium of communication between interstate . I'm not in favor that we should need Hindi as our official languages because we Indian dose not think scientifically. First we should take a look on school of villages that are under Indian government those children are not able to compete with the children of cities. because Hindi is only medium. So I think we should focused on global situations and put some more efforts to improve English its need of today .
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Abhinaya (02/22/16)
  • There are 23 languages spoken in India, Gujarati is spoken in whole Gujarat, Tamil is spoken in whole Tamil Nadu, Malayalam is spoken in whole Kerala and so on. if so then all these languages should be national language.
    Hindi is just a regional language and all the people prefer English in all the companies. Hindi should be respected as a language but not considered as a official language because it will be very difficult for all the people around India itself to know well.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Guna (02/21/16)
  • Could u guys please stop spreading fake percentages of hindi speaking people in india. If 80% of people speaking hindi in our country then how come there is 23 languages in India? Hindi is also one of a regional language which is spoken in some parts of north. And the language is not old enough like Sanskrit and tamil. So imposing Hindi on non hindi speaking States may lead to greater conflicts. As of now English is a link language widely used in India. If hindi speakin guy comes to south then he'll use English as a link language. Vice versa for other language speaking people. If hindi had to be made official language in india then those who know hindi have to learn any one language from 22 of them. Then the rest of non hindi speaking states will accept it. There also global languages are there in 23 Indian languages. So if that's global then how come the people will learn it just for the sake of your fake percentages. So kindly do a research before posting something. Thank you. Signing of as an Indian.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -shubham kumar (02/08/16)
  • hello everyone!
    i am an engineering student and i want to Hindi should be official language of india.Because of in india around 70 % people feel comfortable in hindi .because every country should be its own identity .as we know english is a global language but we have language converter so if we adopt hindi then no problem. in recent day modi ask ministers about hindi as official language.and he wants to hindi as official language.
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Kaushik (01/26/16)
  • No, Hindi should not be imposed as National language of India. It would be a disaster to do so. If such a thing happens, then there will be rebels throughout India. India will get divided and many states like Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bengal, Orissa, Assam...etc will carve out a separate nation for themselves. Out of 125 crore population, Hindi speaking population is only 40 crores. Do you think the remaining 85 crore Non-Hindi speaking people would agree for such a hilarious suggestions to be implemented as a rule?! Just like how previous Soviet Union got disintegrated into different nations like Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhistan....etc, India also will get seperated like Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat.....etc
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Mohd. Mursaleen Ansari (01/22/16)
  • Hello Frenzzzzzz,

    This is Mohd. Mursaleen Ansari, According to me hindi should be the official language of India. As you know that India is the Multilanguage country and in india there are more than 20 Languages which are spoken but mostly people give preference to English and they speak English and English is spoken as medium of communication in offices and schools.

    As we know that we live in HINDUSTAN so as name says that our national language is Hindi and we should spread this. So that our Hindi could be promoted and if our hindi will be promoted so definitely our India will progress and we will be able to distinguish.

    But now as we adopt the English language as official language and we keep on speaking and we keep on spreading the English so just because of this in India most of the states doesn’t aware about hindi and they are not able to speak hindi language this is very shameful for us because we leave in india and we are unable to speak hindi.

    I think there are so many countries where English is not official language of that county for Example Saudi Arab. Arebic is the official language of Saudi that the reason we say that they are AREBIAN. And you know what our identification is? Our identification is INDAIN not HINDUSTANI because we have adopted English and we have lost our identification.

    There are so many people who keep on saying that English is the international language but they don’t know that how it became International. It has became international because the people of British ruled over on so many countries and where they went they use their language and they did not adopt any other language thatswhy it becomes international.

    So if we work hard so we can also spread our HINDI right now are unable to make hindi is the international language but we can make this our official language as our Prime Minister start a mission to promote hindi all the government offices in India will have a Hindi software installed in their systems.

    Thanks to read this
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -SOHAN (01/20/16)
  • As i know maximum country has their own language like japan has japani language and china has chiniz language america has american...then why we can't make hindi official language of india i know it,s not easy bt not impossible and it can't be immidiatly bt definatly it will be when people will be aware and intrested about their own language in banks i have seen many old man those who know writing hindi bt they don't know eng....thats why they have to request to students for filling the forms
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -sreedeep mohanta (01/17/16)
  • human invented languages for easy and effective communication. as globalisation is at its peak nowadays, in my opinion we should use the language which maximum people around the world could understand ! as English is one of the most known and widely used language hence it should be used as our official language .. here in India we people are very much familiar with hindi , hence making it our national language should not face such dilemma !! majority of people who are opposing it are south indian, my question for them , if they could learn understand English very well , which is introduce some mere 300 years back , why cannot they learn Hindi !!
    just read a short story titled " the last lesson " - Alphonse Daudet
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Aditi Sharma (01/16/16)
  • Yes, Hindi should be the official language of India because first, it is understood by 80% people of our country.Second,why English is given so much importance than Hindi.?By giving importance to english we always prove that till now we are under British rule and we also enjoy it.
    We usually say that Japan is very well develop country but we never try to find out that why it is so developed.The reason behind its progress is that the people of Japan never treat their language as "SECOND"language.
    So we should accept "HINDI"as our official language and also respect it, to take India in the direction of progress
  • RE: Should Hindi be the official language of India? -Adi Sis (01/16/16)
  • Yes, Hindi should be the official language of India because first, it is understood by 80% people of our country.Second,though English is given much importance thanHindi but we should never forget that we are Indians not britisher.So, we should promote it rather than treating it as second language.
    we usually say that japan is very well develop country but we try to find out that why it is so developed.the reason that japan is progressing is that the people of japan never treat their language as "SECOND"language.
    So we should accept "HINDI"as our official language totake India in the direction of progress

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