There is hope for India, after all. But, you have to bottom trawl the Net or bury your face in the inside pages of newspapers to get this sense of hope.
Quoting from a news item ‘Use Hinglish words to promote Hindi’, (no by line, no dateline) in The Hindu of October 14, 2011: “ …puritan use of Hindi generates disinterest among the masses [and] the Union Home Ministry has recommended that these [words like misil, pratyabhuti, kunjipatal, sanganak] be replaced with English alternatives in Devnagari script for official work.”
Thank Ms. Veena Upadhyayin, secretary in the Home Ministry’s Department of Official Language. The circular issued by her advices “use of popular Hindi words and English alternatives to make the language more attractive and popular in offices and masses.”
Of course, I expect the cultural elitist mob, joining hands with the linguistic purists and fanatics, to take arms against this advocacy. The argument will be a mish-mash of elitism, dumbing-down literacy, cultural exceptionalism, anti-colonialism, a level of disguised xenophobia, and others that are surely lined up but beyond my ken.
I read the advice as a commandment, “Thou shalt not use file notings and official correspondence to promote a language.” The utilitarian aspect of the suggestion is encapsulated here: “There is an urgent need to make changes in the process of English to Hindi translations … [They] should carry expression of the original text rather than word-by-word Hindi substitute.” Popular words in other languages that are anchoring current social interactions even in Hindi heartland should not be shunned, for the lone fact that they are foreign.
I have learnt a lot of words thinking they are Hindi words (because I heard them in Hindi movies; impenetrable logic) – adalat, muqadma, kagaz, daftar without realizing they were, Oh, my God! foreign words. Thanks to the circular I know they are rooted in Arabian, Turkish, Farsi. Thanks also to the circular, I do not have to go in circles to figure out the Hindi words!
Now, each state government secretariat should have an ersatz Ms. Veena Upadhyayin. Then we would have multiple vernacular Englishes called: Benglish (Bengali), Gunglish (Gujarati), Kanglish (Kannada) …
By the way, I am striking keys on my keyboard rather than kunjiyan (?) on a kunjipatal. And, that gives me hope about India!
Raghuram Ekambaram
Quoting from a news item ‘Use Hinglish words to promote Hindi’, (no by line, no dateline) in The Hindu of October 14, 2011: “ …puritan use of Hindi generates disinterest among the masses [and] the Union Home Ministry has recommended that these [words like misil, pratyabhuti, kunjipatal, sanganak] be replaced with English alternatives in Devnagari script for official work.”
Thank Ms. Veena Upadhyayin, secretary in the Home Ministry’s Department of Official Language. The circular issued by her advices “use of popular Hindi words and English alternatives to make the language more attractive and popular in offices and masses.”
Of course, I expect the cultural elitist mob, joining hands with the linguistic purists and fanatics, to take arms against this advocacy. The argument will be a mish-mash of elitism, dumbing-down literacy, cultural exceptionalism, anti-colonialism, a level of disguised xenophobia, and others that are surely lined up but beyond my ken.
I read the advice as a commandment, “Thou shalt not use file notings and official correspondence to promote a language.” The utilitarian aspect of the suggestion is encapsulated here: “There is an urgent need to make changes in the process of English to Hindi translations … [They] should carry expression of the original text rather than word-by-word Hindi substitute.” Popular words in other languages that are anchoring current social interactions even in Hindi heartland should not be shunned, for the lone fact that they are foreign.
I have learnt a lot of words thinking they are Hindi words (because I heard them in Hindi movies; impenetrable logic) – adalat, muqadma, kagaz, daftar without realizing they were, Oh, my God! foreign words. Thanks to the circular I know they are rooted in Arabian, Turkish, Farsi. Thanks also to the circular, I do not have to go in circles to figure out the Hindi words!
Now, each state government secretariat should have an ersatz Ms. Veena Upadhyayin. Then we would have multiple vernacular Englishes called: Benglish (Bengali), Gunglish (Gujarati), Kanglish (Kannada) …
By the way, I am striking keys on my keyboard rather than kunjiyan (?) on a kunjipatal. And, that gives me hope about India!
Raghuram Ekambaram
6 comments:
Raghuram,
I love this post. And I’m going to punish you for making me love something.
Language can be a divisive force as well as a unifying force. Interestingly, in the Bible, the attempt by men to live a unified life was jettisoned by God himself! Let me quote the Bible for the readers (though you don’t need it):
When the people decided to live together in unity by building the tower of Babel, “the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language... and nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language...” [Genesis 11].
A unified language is a strength for human species. Those who want to divide the species for the sake of personal benefits make a separate language (ideology, isms, etc).
I’ll be happy if some language, any language arises as a universal language. Who will let any such language arise? Not we, Indians. Because Sanskrit, a dead language, is our classical language. Or because Hindi is our national language and national pride won’t let any other language arise? Similarly, Chinese or Japanese will have their own ways of thinking just like the Biblical God!
Thanks for the fulsome appreciation, Matheikal. Yes, about the Tower of Bable, I have read that and have used it in many places.
By the way, Esperanto was tried out and it did not even take rotts. I am not sure memtic evolution, just like genetic evolution, thrives on differentiation. We can only slow the process down, in the iterest of the survival of the species.
Raghuram Ekambaram
Enjoyed the blog Raghu...you know something? Ever since I joined Government, the standing instructions are exactly what contents of the recent circular emphasize. The idea has always been one of effective communication, not airing knowledge of sanskritized 'Benarasi' Hindi.Urdu words are very common too. English words written in Devnagari script are common too.
Whenever I am required to write something in Hindi in official noting,I often use regular English words, that too in Roman script, within a hand-written sentence in Hindi.:).
Thanks Aditi ... perhaps you will switch to Cyrrilic script just to thumb your nose at the "benarasi" fanatics :)))
Raghuram Ekambaram
Dear Shri Raghuram, I agree the vitality of a language is in its felicity to absorb new words as also in its ingenuity in coining new ones to suit its growing needs. But, the reason adduced for use of other language-terms in place of Hindi is amusing:”use of pure Hindi terms leads to disinterest among the masses”. I say that because, the GOI circular is addressed not to the masses but to the Bubus who wrack their brains while making official notes (for internal use) in Hindi. The circular asks the Babus to use simple Hindi in official work or the usual English words as frequently as they might be doing in their conversations. That might not sound very bad at all. But it implies that Rajbhasha – the language of translation- has traced a full circle and returned to where it started in 1947.Now, Pure Hindi is for literary purposes while its ‘mixed’ version is for practical work purposes. In one stroke the circular has ‘officially’ erased the distinction between the Bombayya- street -lingo and the Pure Hindi.
If the official note prepared, as per new guidelines, has to have more of English terms than of Shuddh-Hindi Bhasha , why not simply draft the notes in readable English which is also is one among the many Regional languages of India.
Regards
Sreenivasarao sir, the way I see the issue is middle-way.
I do not know how many people, within and ouside government, understand what a misal is? kunjipatal is.
What I am arguing for in this blog is follow a stricter version of how words find their way into a dictionary. Its usage must be widespread among the public, not just the officials. It must be a word that reached a certain level of survival. It must be beyond being misunderstood. I supsect if you applied these standards to the so-called pure words, you would some of them violating these justifibale norms.
I think you would, with these clarifications, agree with my stance.
Raghuram Ekambaram
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