I must inform our subscribers that we received over 300 replies to this thread/topic but only about 30 emails were allowed. We have tried to give a complete flavour / sense of the emails and we would like to close this discussion with our observations so that we can move on to better topics (IAC is not a gaggle of armchair internet warriors ... ).
1) IAC is now undoubtably a cosmopolitan and diverse group of patriotic intellectuals who are able to discuss over a wide spectrum of views in relative harmony.
2) Language is a divisive subject with potential to divide peoples instead of uniting them.
3) The Constitution of India stands for equality of opportunity and status to all citizens. Imposing an alien language (English, Hindi, Sanksrit, Esperanto etc.) through law has not worked for 63 years of the Republic and is unlikely to work in future. Similarly many other ancient well meaning provisions - Reservation, Art 370 etc have also outlived their utility and deserve to be removed.
4) There is no such language as Hindi, and what passes for Hindi on DD and AIR is a government concoction far removed from the people's language - Hindustani (which is well understood throughout most of Northern and Central India).
5) All languages need to be preserved and promoted, as culture is saved, enhanced and transmitted through language.
6) Sanksrit needs to be preserved and promoted as a symbol of our nation's heritage and for transmission of Hindustan's ancient religious knowledge to those who believe in traditional value systems.
7) English is an international language with which India can rule the world.
Sarbajit
PS: @Harpal. In my education in Mumbai we were taught Marathi from 2nd standard (as 2nd language) in my English medium school, and only started learning Hindi from Class 4 (as 3rd language).
Since I have not contributed to this thread, I would like to share a language incident. In my youth I was backpacking across Europe with my brother and we had reached Paris to observe their Bastille Day (This was in 1987). In the evening the French had put up this wonderful fireworks display on their public buildings synchronised to music (Jean Michel Jarre). Lying on the open lawns we were next to 2 young illegals from Sri Lanka watching the show and got friendly with them. Despite being from the same sub-continent and technically "neighbours", the only language we had in common and could converse in was GERMAN which all of us had picked up in under a month - (the illegals had reached France through Germany).
On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 7:11 AM, Harpal Selhi <drharpal@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Runa n othersWe are not saying that as a nation resist Hindi, but what matters is when for their political benefit they start promoting Hindi over the regional language or our mother tongue.Can you imagine in Punjab, schools teach Hindi first and later in 3rd they start with Punjabi and then encourage Hindi in 9th n 10th grade, further children are encouraged to speak English or Hindi but told not to speak Punjabi.I would like to hear your views on this!!!!!RegardsHarpalNext time you are driving, keep this in mind:
"Honk if you love Jesus, text if you want to meet him!"
Sent from my iPhone
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