India is a diverse country, with 29 different states each with its own cultural background. Each carrying a rich culture, literature, and native rituals. There are 22 official languages and more than 750 dialects. India, a democracy, which against all odds is still managing to be a secular, democratic state. Before Independence, the idea of even having a country with so much diversity being ruled by people in a democratic manner seemed foolish to social researchers and scientists all around the globe. Indeed, the proofs were against us, but still, we managed, and quite good I must say, as we are emerging as a global power in the 21st century.Although being the largest democracy comes with certain disadvantages, corruption, a bar on absolute freedom of speech, communal riots and hatred, etc being some of them, the country has shown a tremendous development while considering all the factors.Hindi, according to Article 343 of the constitution, is an official language of India.
So, what is this ruckus that we see on news nowadays? Why is it suddenly that people are raising opinion on Hindi being one of the official languages of United Nations? Ms. Sushma Swaraj, our Minister of external affairs, has raised an issue of declaring Hindi as an official language of UN.
Indian parliament, being so diverse, has to be careful of every small decision as it can offend someone, somewhere. The current political regime of BJP is already viewed with a saffron shade and promoting Hindi as an official language of UN, will simply create a sense insecurity in hearts of south Indians. Many of the south Indians don't feel themselves to be politically aligned to any north Indian Party. They are already insecure of North Indian political dominance, that may be seen by the fact that in the history of India only 2 PM belongs to Southern State. Promoting Hindi as the official language will further deepen this insecurity as they are too much attached to their traditional values and languages.
Moreover, every other official language of UN is the official language of several countries. Chinese being the least with only 5 countries recognizing it as official but the Chinese speaking population is largest in the world. Hindi is the official language of India only. Every other language is the official language of at least 20 different countries.
The other problem with making Hindi the official language is the procedure, which demands at least 2/3 of countries in UN to agree and accept the cost of making it the official language.The cost being approximately Rs. 200- Rs. 300 crore per year. Before thinking about the cost to be small, remember that there was a strong opposition regarding the starting of Bullet Train in India, citing the economic reasons.
So, the question is "Do we really need to try such a step which will not only widen the gap between Northern and Southern states but also cause stress on our government funds?"
So, what is this ruckus that we see on news nowadays? Why is it suddenly that people are raising opinion on Hindi being one of the official languages of United Nations? Ms. Sushma Swaraj, our Minister of external affairs, has raised an issue of declaring Hindi as an official language of UN.
Indian parliament, being so diverse, has to be careful of every small decision as it can offend someone, somewhere. The current political regime of BJP is already viewed with a saffron shade and promoting Hindi as an official language of UN, will simply create a sense insecurity in hearts of south Indians. Many of the south Indians don't feel themselves to be politically aligned to any north Indian Party. They are already insecure of North Indian political dominance, that may be seen by the fact that in the history of India only 2 PM belongs to Southern State. Promoting Hindi as the official language will further deepen this insecurity as they are too much attached to their traditional values and languages.
Moreover, every other official language of UN is the official language of several countries. Chinese being the least with only 5 countries recognizing it as official but the Chinese speaking population is largest in the world. Hindi is the official language of India only. Every other language is the official language of at least 20 different countries.
The other problem with making Hindi the official language is the procedure, which demands at least 2/3 of countries in UN to agree and accept the cost of making it the official language.The cost being approximately Rs. 200- Rs. 300 crore per year. Before thinking about the cost to be small, remember that there was a strong opposition regarding the starting of Bullet Train in India, citing the economic reasons.
So, the question is "Do we really need to try such a step which will not only widen the gap between Northern and Southern states but also cause stress on our government funds?"
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