By Melarbor L Thabah
As you have been aware that the mandatory use of Hindi for learning in schools, colleges, UPSC, SSC, Military exams or any other Central exams is greatly opposed by the 5 South Indian states championed by Tamil Nadu which is the state that has been most vociferous culminating in the Anti Hindi Riots in 1965which resulted in innumerable number of deaths as the sole reason why national parties like the INC and BJP could never ever win in Tamil Nadu. The Southern states hold the most sway when it comes to Hindi opposition because of the large southern region and its economic contribution to the nation rather than the small North Eastern states.
Successive Indian Governments have always exhibited democratic behaviour to assuage the concerns of these non-Hindi speaking regions of India. They are very mindful of not imposing the tyranny of the majority against the opposers. For having this concern, the Indian government needs to be lauded and showered with praises.
I fervently believe that India must have a single unified national language. Though being a non-Hindi speaking person myself from Meghalaya, North East India. I have the following cogent suggestions which must be fundamentally incorporated and accompanied with compromises in order to truly make Hindi the national language of India through its usage in schools, colleges and in central government job examinations.
For Schools and Colleges: (a). The writing for Hindi must be in Roman alphabets for the next 50 years, (b). The Hindi being taught from Class 1 to 10 will all be exclusive of Hindi – English translation or Hindi – Regional Language translation and none other so that we will truly be able to understand and speak Hindi, (c). The marks will be disbursed on a 60:40 ratio which means that 60% of the marks will be written as Hindi – English translation or Hindi – Regional Language translation and the remainder 40% marks will be Viva by teachers from other schools assigned by the school board in which the teacher will speak in Hindi and the student will have to translate it into English or Regional Language which is 20% marks and then the teacher will speak in English or Regional Language and the student will have to translate into Hindi which is remaining 20% marks thus, totaling 40% of the Viva Marks. This is for Board exams for Hindi. For non-Board exams from Class 1 to Class 9, the procedure will be the same as aforementioned with the only difference being that the Hindi teacher(s) will be from the same school itself. At the end of the day, we want everyone to understand and speak in Hindi. “Speaking” always comes “First” since in our meetings, daily interactions, conferences, symposiums, work and national level seminars, Speaking is the mode of communication. Writing comes in a distant second which is why I had emphasized that the writing in Hindi will be in Roman alphabets for the next 50 years to hammer this point home.
For all sorts of Central Job Exams (CJE): All Central job exams must be in “English” whether SSC, UPSC, Military, Central Departments or any other Central Job, the job exam should be “Monolingual” for the next 50 years. There has been a lot of complaints by non-Hindi mother tongue speakers for almost all Central job exams which are bilingual for which mother tongue Hindi speakers have an undue advantage since the meanings are simpler, easier and direct to understand in Hindi unlike in English where the meanings are more complex, indirect, twisted and not easy to comprehend. This assumes more significance in reference to the high-ranking posts conducted by the UPSC with special emphasis to the most prestigious job exams in India that is the Civil Services Exams (CSE) in which Hindi speakers have the upper hand. A solution to this issue is a barter system for which there will be a “Moratorium” on Hindi for the next 50 years for all central job exams in return for compulsory usage of Hindi in schools from Class 1 to 10 with an additional compromise to use only Roman alphabets in writing for the next 50 years. After this, all types of central job exams can once again be Bilingual and perhaps Hindi alphabets may be used in schools though as a second language paper from Class 1 to Class 9 only or as the case may be 50 years from now.
By humbling ourselves for the greater good and unification of the nation for our beloved motherland, a necessary, hard and worthy compromise by the Competent Authority is an absolute must to be able to make bold decision so that all the children of India will now learn, understand and speak the Hindi language fluently so that we will be a nation truly unified under one language. In the years to come, by undertaking this compromise, it will inevitably bring a single unified voice for demand and inevitable admission of Hindi as one of the official languages of the UNO joining Russian, Chinese, French, English, Spanish, and Arabic. Room for comprise through my cogent suggestion is a pre requisite for implementation so as to enable Hindi to succeed in this nation and be that National Language in its every sense of the word, in letter and spirit, which has always been my long-cherished dream. For this humbling, compromising and reformative act, I will remain eternally grateful the Competent Authority.
