Why Hindi can never be the National Language of India?
Argument No. 1 - Out of 28 States in India only 9 states use Hindi as their official language (according to the Cambridge dictionary, the definition of official language is
- a language accepted by the country's government.
- a language taught in Schools.
- a Language used in Courts of Law.)
and these 9 states only constitute 44.83% of the total population of India.
Argument No. 2 - As per article 343(1) of the Constitution of India, Hindi in Devanagari Script shall be the official language of the Union. article 343(2) provided that English shall also be continued to be used in the official work of the union for 15 years from the date of commencement of the Constitution.
The official language act was passed in 1963 which provided for the continued use of English even after the 25th of January 1965.
Argument No. 3 - According to G.N. Devy (Chief editor, of the people's Linguistic Survey of India), he says the 52.83 crore speakers of Hindi (according to the 2011 census) included not just the speaker of Hindi but also those of more than 50 other languages. For example, Bhojpuri which was claimed by more than 5 crore speakers, is placed within Hindi.
Thus the story of Hindi's growth is quite fictitious. Had the census not included these other languages under Hindi the strength of Hindi Speakers would have gone to about 39 crores. (32% of the total population)
Argument No. 4 - According to Dr Shashi Tharoor (Member of Parliament)
"Hindi is the mother tongue of some 50% of our population; the percentage has been growing thanks to the spectacular failure of the population control in much of north India"
and he is not wrong because if we look at the total fertility rate (average number of children that would be born to women over her lifetime) of Northern states
Bihar - 3.0, U.P. - 2.4, Jharkhand - 2.3
and if you look at the Southern States
Kerala - 1.8, Tamil Nadu - 1.8, Karnataka - 1.7, Andhra Pradesh - 1.7
According to Dr Tharoor "Language is a vehicle, not a destination and Imposition is rarely a good policy in a democracy and language should be an Instrument of Opportunity, not of oppression"
"The fact remains that 69 crores (according to the 2011 census) were non-Hindi speakers. In that sense, it was not and can't be the majority language of India"
- G.N. Devy
"the Defacto solution to this question has been a practical one: use Hindi where it is understood. but use English everywhere, Since it places all Indians from all parts of our country at an equal disadvantage"
- Dr Shashi Tharoor.
In the age of Globalisation and the rise of tech startups English is the simple answer because as of 2019, there were 59 sovereign states and 27 non-sovereign entities where English was an Official Language.
Not only that 5 states and 2 UTs already use English as their official language.