Saturday, 22 June 2019

On Imposition of Hindi in govt offices

Why am I writing this article?
There is this official language Act, 1963 which gives power to impose hindi language in offices and I don't like it. It does serve some purpose but does it make the offices more effective? No, as people in offices are better versed with english than hindi.

What about communication with those who do not understand english?
Here, this act plays part. Use of language should depend upon the intended recepient. If the recepient is a laymen then hindi should be preferred.

The points in favour of Hindi are-
1. It is the most widely spoken language in India.

The point against Hindi is-
1. People in many parts of India didn't pay attention to Hindi language while they were in school. They still don't feel the need to learn detailed Hindi. Even I am not quite fluent with tough hindi.

My contention is-
Humans by nature are purpose oriented. They are driven by want or need. For e.g- A person who is interested in languages/hindi scriptures would want to learn hindi. Similarly, those who have to live in hindi majority area need to learn hindi to interact with those around. Why force hindi upon those who are not interested in learning it? When need be they will themselves learn it.

The language which needs to be promoted for official work should be English because most of the working people need to understand English as it is a global language and india is merging with the global economy.

Why not use Hindi as well as English for official works?
Because the people at work who are not well versed in Hindi struggle with finding suitable words to express themselves. It adds to the burden of their work to do the same work in hindi as well as English. There is this app called translate but it is not v. reliable as of now.
Also, saving paper is the need of the day. Writing a thing in Hindi as well as English wastes lots of paper.

How else to promote hindi?
1. We can use simple hindi to do works which necessarily require to be done in hindi.(As even I, belonging to hindi speaking population, don't understand tough hindi words like अवलोकन, प्रतिवेदन etc)

2. For oral communication, hindi should be promoted in offices. Even that is not needed as people easily learn where they need to learn.

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