Kaustubh Katdare
In that case, adopt a third language that is the root of all Indian languages - Sanskrit.
Would just like to add a piece of information Biggie. Sanskrit is not just the root of most Indian languages, but also of some modern European languages as well.
In fact, Sanskrit has also had a significant effect on Chinese dialects. But then, Sanskrit is quite difficult to master.
Apurwa.Thakur
National language is what the majority of the country follows. Is it right?
Pensu
Oh, this is still going on! Look it's not about tamil, telgu or hindi. It's about identity. It's about bonding a nation. If tamil was spoken by masses, I am sure my stand would here be to make it the national language. But the thing here is I have to talk in English with my fellow countrymen and neither of us is fluent in it. So, why cant we teach a 'single' language to all the people in the country? Why are people arguing that let the people converse in whatever language they want to? This is one pathetic scenario where we lack the will to unite the nation. We are putting our interests first, someone doesnt want to learn new language so he doesnt want Hindi to become national language. Dont people in France talk in French, or people in Spain in spanish, then why people in India can't talk in Hindi? Of-course this is not easy, there are problems, but you can't ignore it just because it would be difficult to learn a new language. May be I am thinking too much here, but you guys sounds like politicians, being diplomatic when we need to have a firm stand!
#-Link-Snipped-# and #-Link-Snipped-# - I would like to answer a part of your questions with a few counter-questions. (Apologies for diverting a bit from the focal point).
14% of the world's population speaks Mandarin Chinese making it the most widely used language by any single group of people as their mother-tongue. So, should Mandarin Chinese be made the International language instead of English? Should every person in the world know Mandarin Chinese as one of the languages? Should it be made compulsory in all schools throughout the world? Would that be the perfect solution?
So, should we gear up to learn Mandarin Chinese right away? What do you say?
Pensu
Oh, this is still going on! Look it's not about tamil, telgu or hindi. It's about identity. It's about bonding a nation. If tamil was spoken by masses, I am sure my stand would here be to make it the national language. But the thing here is I have to talk in English with my fellow countrymen and neither of us is fluent in it. So, why cant we teach a 'single' language to all the people in the country? Why are people arguing that let the people converse in whatever language they want to? This is one pathetic scenario where we lack the will to unite the nation. We are putting our interests first, someone doesnt want to learn new language so he doesnt want Hindi to become national language. Dont people in France talk in French, or people in Spain in spanish, then why people in India can't talk in Hindi? Of-course this is not easy, there are problems, but you can't ignore it just because it would be difficult to learn a new language. May be I am thinking too much here, but you guys sounds like politicians, being diplomatic when we need to have a firm stand!
#-Link-Snipped-# - Have a look at the following:
- France: population = 65.43 million
- Spain: population = 47.27 million
- Entire Europe: population = 739.2 million; Number of official languages of the European Union = 24.
- India : population = 1241 million; Number of official languages = 22 plus English.
Given the magnitude of India's population, such a diversity of languages is justified. Also, we must notice that there is not any one common language in the entire Europe as well.
Kaustubh Katdare
The languages that have several common words and many similarities are easy to adopt. I learned to speak Hindi more easily than English. Why? Because my mother tongue is Marathi - which makes it easier for me to learn Hindi. There are several common words. But think about Kannada or Tamil or Telugu native learning to speak Hindi? Why should they be enforced with Hindi?
My proposal treats everyone equally : Make Sanskrit the lingua franka and open the doors of wisdom that have continued for ages. The change can happen in just 10 years!
Just adding a bit here Biggie. Actually, if we consider Kannada, Telugu or Malayalam, then more than 60% of the vocabulary of these languages of ours has commonalities with Sanskrit. The similarity percentage with Sanskrit is a bit low for the vocabulary of Tamil though.
This debate seems to have polarised us in to North and South. What about the laterals - the East and the West? Why are we ignoring these regions?
We have our North-Eastern states too. If a certain language is imposed as the National Language, it would ultimately gain more utility and may even threaten the language of North-Eastern states with extinction, as their users are fewer as compared to other languages of our country.
As it is, these states have been ignored quite a lot. The difficult terrain of that region virtually cuts-off the states from the rest of the country. The people from those states are almost always mistaken as foreigners (either as Nepalese or as Chinese) in their own country. This is the single behaviour from their fellow countrymen that hurts them the most. Leave alone knowing about the languages of this region of our country, most of us would find it difficult to even recollect the names of all the North-East '
Indian' states along with their capital cities.
I am sorry for my harsh words. They are just meant bring an issue in to focus, and not to offend anyone.