Strengthen functional Hindi

Hindi8217;s historic role led our Constitu-tion-makers to the historic decision to give itthe status of an official language of India. The Union government came out with the Official Language Act in 1963 amended in 1967, the Official Language Resolution in 1968, the Official Language Rules in 1976 and the Annual Implementation Progra-mme since 1968.

Committees like the Ke-ndriya Hindi Samiti and the Hindi Sala-hkar Samiti were also set up to promote Hindi in routine work in government offices, undertakings, and nationalised ban-ks, among other places. But, still, almost all official correspondence and business tra-nsactions and activities are being condu-cted in English. Even the non-official sector evinces no enthusiasm for Hindi.

Parents prefer English-medium scho-ols for their children. The assumption is that English alone can provide good job opportunities. Middle class families eage-rly insist upon English-knowing or quot;convent-educatedquot; brides for their sons. Even in the shopping areas of small towns, most hoardings, nameboards, signboards, cash receipts and bills are in English. Evenvillage children call their elders quot;unclequot; and quot;auntyquot; instead of quot;chachaquot; and quot;chachiquot; or quot;mamaquot; and quot;mamiquot;. The social attitu-des have stalled Hindi8217;s statute-envisaged progress.

Is it justified to preserve the colonial legacy?

The question is warranted all the more for the fact that the country8217;s policy on Hindi is liberal to a fault. The policy does not impose Hindi. It aims only at promoting the use of a representative or mixed kind of Hindi. It is this kind of Hindi that is familiar to the common Indians like Hindi spoken in Uttar Prade-sh, Bihar, Delhi, Hary-ana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan, the Bombayia and Guj-arati Hindi, the Deccan Hindi of Hyderabad, Hi-ndi in Oriya, Assamia or South Indian accents, and the Kashmiri and Urdu-mixed Hindi of Kashmir.

In the same category falls Hindi with a liberal use of popular foreign words like station, bank, bus, phone, radio, loan En-glish, picnic, hotel, restaurant French, button, kurta, kameej Persian, kamra, aalpin Portuguese,rickshaw Japanese, and chai Chinese. The natural transformation through such means of Hindi and other Indian languages has actually made them more lively. There can be no genuine complaint that functional Hindi of this kind is difficult to learn.

It should be all the more acceptable for incorporating several words and phrases common to many Indian languages including Hindi. Words like chapati Tamil, upvas Telugu, and tarkari Bangla, besides those like paisa, lungi, dhoti, and bazar are among the many, many used by almost everybody in the country. The official language policy also states that such Hindi should become the language of our official communication or file work.

The policy also makes functional Hindi free from the excessive rigidities of grammar. The grammatical and spelling mistakes, to which non-Hindi-speaking people may be prone, are to be overlooked. Thus the basic idea is to encourage functional Hindi. In order to do so, several incentives and awards are given, but there is noprovision for any pe-nalty in the Official La-nguage Act or rules under it. This underlines that the aim of the policy is to propagate Hindi, but not by coercion.

Many people may still be unaware that fu-nctional Hindi has also earned its separate place in the academic as well as the professional wo-rld. It is now being ta-ught as a different subject in several univers- ities, so as to enable the students to opt for a whole range of jobs. The government alone offers an array of posts created by the policy of Hindi promotion 8212; like those of a Hindi officer, a Hindi instructor, a Hindi journalist, a Hindi translator, a Hindi teleprinter operator, a Hindi stenographer, a Hindi clerk. Unfortunate-ly, due to lack of information about such jobs and therefore of qualified candidates, many of these posts remain unfilled.

Besides, several job entrance competitions in the government and the public sector, including for all-India civil servi-ces like the IAS and the IPS, the Central secretariat services, thesubordinate services, banks and undertakings are now conducted in Hindi as well.

Our unemployed youth should take cognisance of all such job openings availa-ble to the Hindi-knowing and must atte-mpt to avail themselves of the opportunities. More importantly, they should remain faithful and committed to Hindi even after getting their jobs, and help its cause by doing office work in Hindi. By doing so, they would be fulfilling their individual needs together with the larger need for Indian citizens to serve the nation through the first among our national languages. This would definitely go a long way to restore releva-nce to the task of Hindi promotion.

In fact, once the promotion of Hindi ga-thers real momentum in the official sector, the non-official and private sectors would automatically fall in line. The popular apathy towards the cause of Hindi will begin to be shed only if and when the people see Hi-ndi as a possible means of earning a livelihood for themselves or their children.

It is in thisconnection that the Union go-vernment has yet to provide convincing pro-of of its commitment to Hindi. Instead of sh-owing undue concern for the achievement of certain targets or figures, what it should strive for is increasing use of functional Hi-ndi in its real, day-to-day functioning. For doing his or her work in Hindi, it would be better to reward an individual officer or employee in real terms like a promotion in service or quicker increments and not ju-st with some monetary incentive or occasio-nal prizes in kind. Modalities for providing permanent or solid rewards can be worked out. If this is deemed a burden on the nati-onal exchequer, the awards currently being offered may be curtailed or scrapped.

This article is written in English, as it is addressed to those unacquainted with the potential of functional Hindi and unconvinced about the need to promote it in national interest.

The writer is a Hindi poet and senior bank officer