Chairing the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language, Union Home Minister Amit Shah called for the adoption of Hindi as an alternative to English. Also, he pointed out that nine communities of the North-East have adopted Devanagari script as the script of their languages. All the eight North-East states have also agreed to make Hindi compulsory till class X. Amit Shah also said that the development and expansion of Hindi should not be at the cost of Indian languages, but against English. However, some protestors did not like this. These include people like Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Kerala Chief Minister P Vijayan, AR Rahman and Prakash Raj. It is unfortunate that these victims of the colonial hangover are advocating for English. The statements of ‘Hindi eaters and English players’ like AR Rahman and Prakash Raj are the result of not being able to connect with the soul of India.
Amit Shah’s statement is of special importance in the context that at present, vigorous work is being done to implement the National Education Policy-2020 across the country. In this policy, there is a special emphasis on making mother tongues or Indian languages as the medium of instruction. But in the present scholastic-cultural scenario, this task is extremely challenging as Indian languages are apprehensive, invaded and vulnerable to the colonial language English. She is slowly adopting Indian languages. The place of 21 non-Hindi Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution is gradually shrinking in the intellectual world. The dominance of the English language is gradually increasing. In addition to socio-cultural life, governance-administration, market-trade, English has made unprecedented progress as a medium of education. Support, respect and acceptance of other Indian languages like Assamese, Dogri, Kashmiri and Punjabi, etc., has somewhat balanced the situation; But much work still needs to be done. Teaching in the mother tongue is also very important for the maximum development of the learner’s intellectual abilities and the propagation of Indian languages. There is interaction, communication and organization of languages.
Indian languages need to come closer to each other to deal with English supremacism. There is a need to strive towards eradicating their mutual familiarity and separation. Devanagari script can play a decisive role in the development, propagation and interaction of Indian languages. There is a need to transliterate the best literature of all Indian languages into Devanagari script and bring it to the majority and wider Hindi society. Many great men like Raja Rammohun Roy, Lokmanya Tilak, Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati, Mahatma Gandhi, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Krishnaswamy Iyengar, Muhammad Karim Chagla and Bineshwar Brahm talked about the adoption of Devanagari script by all Indian languages as the national script or link script. It is timely.
Having a single script for Indian languages will remove the familiarity, mistrust and distance between them. They will be able to come closer to each other. There will be more intimacy between them and sisterhood will increase in them. This is a project of far reaching importance. This can be started by adopting Devanagari script as the script of Indian languages and script-less languages and dialects derived from Sanskrit. Today there are many such languages and dialects of Jammu and Kashmir, North-East, Andaman-Nicobar and Goa Due to the absence of a script, they are facing an existential crisis. These gradually becoming extinct languages have a very rich tradition of oral literature. That rare literature not only needs to be protected; Rather it also needs to be taken to the wider society hitherto unknown. The literature of Nayanar-Alvar saints, Gitagovinda of Jayadeva, Guruvani of Nanakdev, verses of Shankardev, Bach of Laleshwari, Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas and Gitanjali of Gurudev should be read by every literate Indian. This will increase social closeness and cultural affinity.
Indian languages which have their own separate scripts like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam etc.; The adoption of Devanagari script as their co-script can solve many socio-cultural narrow-mindedness. The linguistic policy of India has been the center of discussion and contemplation for a long time. India is a multilingual, multilingual country. But despite this plurality, the undercurrent of Indianness is its biggest feature. Like the national language Hindi, the national script Devanagari script can play a big role in further strengthening this undercurrent of Indianness. Leaving all opposition and narrow politics behind, today Hindi has become the natural contact language of the country. It is also the vehicle of national integration. Similarly, the countrymen should be organized and active to make Devanagari script the link script of all India. The Devanagari script may also be partially modified/enhanced to accommodate the specific sounds of a particular language. The Devanagari script should show flexibility and generosity so as to establish its natural proximity and affinity with more and more Indian languages.
Many linguists refer to four linguistic skills under language-learning – listening, speaking, writing and reading. Two linguistic skills called listening and speaking are the first steps in language-learning; Whereas writing and reading are considered the second stage. The second stage of language-learning is related to script. The complex process of language learning can be made very simple and accessible by adopting a script for Indian languages. By doing this, new languages can be learned only with the first phase. Due to the difficulty of the second stage, in any linguistic community, people who are proficient in the first stage i.e. hearing and speaking are much more than those who are proficient in the second stage i.e. writing and reading. The first phase will also be quite easy as the cultural context and vocabulary of Indian languages from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Kutch to Kamrup are very similar. The basic reason for this is that many Indian languages are derived from Vedas, Sanskrit. It is also the key to making Indians multilingual. An educated Indian will be able to read and write many languages easily and will be able to get acquainted with their rich literature and cultural traditions. It is also worth mentioning the fact that Indian languages are not mutually competitive, but complementary. With the adoption of Devanagari script, this mutuality and complementarity would gradually increase. In Indian languages, there is no enmity, friendship and exchange are necessary.
The script of most languages of the Arab world is Arabic and the script of many languages of Europe-America is Roman. Therefore, not only do they have better socio-cultural dialogue, but trade and tourism are also flourishing. Today there is an interdependent relationship between market and language. The market expands through language and language is spread through the market. That is why Hindi is developing and expanding so much. Other Indian languages would not only be culturally enriched by being associated with their elder sister Hindi through the Devanagari script; Rather, it will also be able to make its place in the employment, business and tourism sectors. Being the language of a large market increases the recognition and demand of the language internationally. It can decisively intervene in foreign policy-making, influencing international diplomacy. Indian languages can build a united front on the basis of shared cultural background, common vocabularies and Devanagari script to combat English-linguistic terrorism. The original script of Dogri language was Takri and that of Kashmiri language was Sharda. But over a period of time, Dogri adopted Devanagari and Kashmiri adopted Nastalik. Today Dogri is also read and understood by the Hindi society. But the Kashmiri language is gradually shrinking. She can also connect with her Hindi and Indian languages by adopting Devanagari. can develop and expand. Even so, the Devanagari script has evolved from its native Sharda. So naturally its script should be Devanagari script.
It does not plan to abolish or replace any Indian language or script; Rather it is a project to increase mutual understanding, sharing and sisterhood of Indian languages. This project will not pose any threat to any Indian language. If anyone is at risk, it will be colonial supremacism. Before the Roman script becomes the script of the Indian languages, we should take proactive steps to deal with this menace. Politics is a work of manipulation. That’s why it adds and breaks. But culture, if it really is culture, then connects and connects. Therefore, it is the responsibility of cultural workers more than politicians to make this project successful. They should come forward and unanimously contribute to this project of national integration and language preservation.