A national language is the symbol of unity amongst the people of a nation and binds them together. It is what separates a nation from other nation’s. Amidst the sea of human beings of different race and culture having same facial features, it is a language which the person speaks that shows his/her identity(nation). It is a heritage of the entire nation which the people take pride in and it is what becomes their identity on the global platform. A person knowing many languages, connects them to many culture but there will be only one particular language in which they will take pride which is their national language.
Significance of national languages
History is evident of the statement that all the great leaders did their best to strengthen their national language to get an authority of power for their nation at the global platforms. One such example is of Zedong Mao, founding father of the People’s Republic of China ,who despite knowing many languages preferred to converse in Chinese at all global platforms . Today Mandarin Chinese, one of the thirteen Chinese languages is the official language of China and is the largest spoken language by the native speakers i.e. majority of the Chinese population prefer to converse in this single language which showcase their strength and unity.
Language Movement was one of the major cause of the start of civil disobedience movement in East Pakistan which led to the formation of an independent nation what we now call Bangladesh. During the partition of India , Pakistan got the western part as well as extreme eastern part of the former India which consisted majority of Bengali Muslims followed by Bengali Hindus and Christians. Though the religions were different it was the common term “Bengali” which is the language spoken by the natives of Bengal, which united the people there and thus put forth the pressure on the dominant Pakistan government to carry out all the official works in Bengali instead of Urdu. The clash of language and the reluctance of the latter to fulfill the demands of the inhabitants of West Pakistan was the reason for the formation of a new country.
What is the need of a National Language in India
India is a land inhabited by billions of people belonging to different culture practicing different customs and traditions but what unites us is the term “INDIANS” i.e. the nationality we share. There are 22 languages recognized by the Indian constitution which are mentioned in the eighth schedule. In the land of diversity while our nationality is the thing which bonds us, language sometime acts as a barrier to express oneself when a person is in a different part of the country.
If a north Indian from Punjab goes to South, trying to converse in their regional language ,their mother tongue which is Punjabi, the receipient may not understand the words. However, if there was a common language apart from the mother tongue which both the parties understand the act of expressing would have become more easier.
Should Hindi be recognized as a national language?
According to the CBSE curriculum, which have its school spread across almost every city of the country, Hindi is a compulsory language till class VIII.
Moreover, there are two main branches of languages in India which are Indo-Iranian and Dravidian languages. The INDO-IRANIAN BRANCH OF LANGUAGE is mainly spoken in the northern part of the country and various languages spoken in the northern part are derived from it like Hindi, English, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, Urdu. Being from the same branch of language they are more or less the same.
Whereas, the DRAVIDIAN branch of language is dominant in south taking regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malyalam under it wing.
Also, the north eastern languages are different from both of these.
Since majority of India speaks Hindi, it can be included as the national language not forgetting that it symbolizes the name of the nation in hindi which is HINDUSTAN.
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