Before launching on the subject let us first understand what the word ‘Lingua Franca‘ stands for. ‘Lingua’ appertains to the spoken language and ‘Franca’ as the commonly accepted ‘Lingua Franca’ therefore means the language commonly spoken and written by all.
With the country winning her independence, it was generally felt that Hindi, which was spoken and understood by the majority of the population of the country would automatically and naturally be adopted as the ‘national’ language of the country.
But that was what was not to happen and that is what has not happened. Under Article 343 (1) of the Constitution of India, Hindi in the Dev Nagri Script got recognition as the ‘official’ language but not as the ‘national’ language.
At that moment of history when India won her independence there was such a flush of enthusiasm and spirit of nationalism that anything, then proposed would have widely, rather blindly, been accepted.
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During the freedom struggle, Hindi had continued to be used as the medium of mass communication in all parts of the country Even Mahatma Gandhi considered Hindi as the language of the nation and linked Hindi with nationalism.
But our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, with his Western educational background did not have that love or attachment with Hindi — English language was closer to him and he felt himself more attuned to the English ‘lingua’ — both in speech and in writing.
And he used his influence and pressure not to let ‘Hindi’ be accepted as the ‘Lingua Franca’ of independent India, rather Hindi in the Devnagri script got incorporated in the Constitution as the official language and English was accepted to remain the link language for another fifteen years.
This very fact, in one stroke, broke the backbone of Hindi as it was accepted that Hindi could not be the ‘link’ language for those particularly in the Southern States of the country With so much time granted, the protagonists of the regional languages got time and opportunity to raise up the claims of their own regional languages and at one point of time there were bloody riots in protest against Hindi as it was being felt by them that Hindi was being imposed and forced upon them.
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The narrow parochial regional sentiments were allowed to gain ground with the half-hearted will of the then Prime Minister and the government under him at the Centre with regard to Hindi.
In the census undertaken in India in 1971, 1652 languages got listed as mother tongue spoken by people in different parts and the Constitution of India recognised 18 languages as the official languages in the country along with Hindi.
Thus even the ‘official language ‘status of Hindi was greatly diluted and its status greatly decimated. Thus Hindi got reduced to one of the official languages, what to say of it being recognised as the national language.
Even C. Rajagopalachary, who as the first Governor General of independent India favoured Hindi, later turned hostile towards Hindi after relinquishing this high office only to appease the people of his southern State to which he belonged.
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So much and so great rose up the agitation against Hindi that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru got India divided into linguistic States — thus striking the last nail in the coffin of Hindi being recognised as the national language.
India — an independent country which had broken the shackles of the British slavery, became politically free but remained mentally a slave. India won the battle but lost the war.
English has continued to dominate the mind and thought of India and the scene has further been leaning towards this foreign language. The worst example of this was demonstrated when Members of Parliament from the southern States raised objection to the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee addressing both houses of Parliament in Hindi during the event of the then US President Bill Clinton’s visit to India, when he addressed the two Houses.
India is the only nation which has no national language and this is a slur on it.
It is not that Hindi is not understood by the people of the South or the Eastern States. People have a working understanding of the language.
The Hindi films and the Hindi songs of these films can be found being seen and heard in every home, but when it comes to communication in Hindi, they plead their ignorance. This is the scene which regional politics has created.
After independence, the preponderance of English medium schools has far more increased; English is considered as the symbol of status and elitism.
So much has the glamour been attached to English medium teaching that even the poorer classes of people who can ill afford two square meals a day desire to get their children admitted to English medium schools and there is a mad race to start such schools in every nook and corner even of a small town?
Children studying in the English medium schools do not know the Hindi alphabets; they hardly know the Hindi numerical and parents feel proud about it.
With this scenario presenting it before the nation, Hindi has to suffer neglect more and still more and there does not seem to be even an iota of a chance that Hindi would now ever achieve the status of the national lingua franca.
Even that in the northern part of the country known as the Hindi heartland, people do not show that regard towards the language which they should be expected to do. Shops and commercial establishments carry their names in English and feel consciously proud about it. They feel, they would fail to attract the elite if they do not do so.
Such is the neglect of Hindi at the hands of those who should have been its champions. How then can we expect any future for the language?