Memory has not yet lapsed when a representative addressed the august house of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly in Hindi language. His maiden address in Hindi had evoked applause as well as public backlash, although the debate that ensued thereafter never reached a logical conclusion.

 

After a short spell of stillness, the central government chose to tread on a hitherto sacred path of stealthily imposing Hindi language on the Northeasterners. After experimenting with Hijab-ban in Karnataka and armed with a court’s judgment in their favour, the current dispensation at the Centre ambitiously ventured into the realm of the Notheast’s most diverse and resourceful asset, its language. What is more distasteful is the apparent spineless and passive acceptance of the imposition by the toothless governments across the region.

 

What oftentimes strikes our conscience is the recklessness of the current dispensation at the Centre who seems to derive hedonistic pleasure in stirring up controversy by stepping onto such grey areas, even when the government instead could well better spend its energy and time (and even resource) in other welfare and research projects. The trajectory projects towards an authoritarian mode of government even though they themselves are well aware that authoritarianism and dictatorship do not last long.

 

The central government reorganized the former state of Jammu & Kashmir mainly to prevent terrorism, to complete integration and to uplift its people. However, the empirical reality of dissecting the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir projects a sheer contrast to what the Central government had primordially objectified. Community was segregated along the lines of religion, and kept the perceived advanced community checked for the rest to catch up. “There were no strikes, hardly any stone pelting, schools were running, shops were open and tourist inflow had increased. Everyone was happy. Then, in one stroke they have antagonised every Kashmiri who was with them” lamented a resident of Srinagar to a correspondent of The Indian Express for the news article ‘In silent Srinagar, the echo: Delhi wants Kashmir, not Kashmiris?’ on the scrapping of Article 370.

 

Relevant: HINDI ROW: RPP demands clarification from Nagaland government

What is common to Jammu & Kashmir and the restive India’s Northeast is the homogeneity of means and laws of the central government to keep the two regions under continued suppression, but not liberating them. Imposition of AFSPA, 1958, for instance. Hence, it remains apprehensive that the recent move by the Centre on making Hindi language mandatory till standard 10 may turn out to be yet another deceptive engineering to antagonize the Northeasterners.

 

When the people of the Northeast resent and oppose the move, the central government will then find a perfect ground to repel, repulse and subjugate them. This has therefore questioned the intent and purpose of the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, recently introduced in Lok Sabha.

 

Under this Bill, biometric information like finger impression, footprint impression, palm-print impression, iris and retina scans; physical and biological samples like facial recognition, photograph; behavioral attributes including handwriting and signatures are envisaged to be collected, processed and stored for upto 75 years. Gauging the central government by the present standards, any slightest resentment to their beliefs is promptly tagged anti-national and charges registered for sedition.

 

Going by such standards and with (if the Bill was enacted as laws) almost all biological and physical attributes at their disposal, identification of those who resented imposition of Hindi language (or any other policies / programs of the central government) on them would be rather easy to apprehend and get booked. In such a scenario, there would be hardly enough space to resent, to propagate and express ourselves freely, the oil with which democracy runs.

 

The government first instigates its subjects and then adopts variable remedial measures, which it deems fit, just to keep themselves busy and appears like it is working for them.
Union home minister lecturing leaders of the Northeastern states to accept Hindi as an alternative to English does not augur well with the present local and international trends, and therefore presented us with a huge upfront task in moving ahead.

 

What is equally lamentable is the passive acceptance by the leaders of the region. Empirical data shows that comparatively more Indians are holding prestigious positions in various multinational companies than its Chinese counterparts. Alphabet, Microsoft, Twitter, Adobe, for example. Research has ascribed proficiency in English language by Indians as an advantaged possession for its larger presence in MNCs over its Chinese counterparts. If Hindi is to be an alternative and therefore a compulsory subject at the cost of learning the English language, it would effectively disable our students from carving their own niche.

 

Imposition of Hindi, if it materialized, suffers from two maladies. Firstly, a host of industries and institutions providing quality service and employment in the region are being run by the central government. Such establishments are now heavily gravitating towards the use of Hindi as a medium of communication. In a short while from now, proficiency in Hindi language may well decide our eligibility to hold a job in such establishments.

 

With this in mind, the central government is in haste to impose the ‘official language’ upon students. Primacy of Hindi language over English will have a negative connotation on us especially in the service sector (IT & communication) and from opening ourselves to the outside world. Academic community once argued that scientific and technological works were not sufficiently translated into Hindi medium, unlike the critical and exhaustive contents in English medium.

 

This was one reason for the relatively poor performance of candidates with Hindi medium in UPSC exams. We will be significantly deprived of our access to complete information if English is overlooked in our attempt to understand the complex world, and will keep us shut and be subjugated, so long. Therefore, English and our mother tongues are to be encouraged, learnt and mastered at a fundamental stage (class-1-10).

 

Secondly, making Hindi compulsory in school has further strengthened the idea of ‘New Delhi wants Northeast, not its people’, akin to Kashmir case. If the centre is truly concerned about the welfare of the region, it should create an enabling environment for the people to prosper, but not to limit their ability at what they prosper at. If New Delhi doesn’t want the people from Northeast and therefore looks for assimilation of its people with the rest of Indians sans integration, it is morally obligated to delink Northeast from the rest of India as well. Many people earn their livelihoods solely by their ability to transact, conduct and do business in English. Scrapping English equates to scrapping someone off their right to earn livelihoods.

 

The state government must act in the interest of its people and resent making Hindi language compulsory up till standard 10. This is because only we alone know that our tongue is inclined to Tibeto-Burmese lingual family and our writing does not align well with devnagari script. It will impact our education, interfere with our right to earn through the language of our choice and will consequentially leave us far behind.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *