Are the English papers feeling threatened by the onslaught of Hindi media? Apart from the increasing Hindi readership of the press, there is a progressive rise in Hindi viewership of TV channels. Nevertheless, the mindset continues to be against Hindi, and this is what Hari Krishna Nigam has dealt with in his collection of 47 Hindi essays.

The Hindi language has been degraded time and again and identified with the hinterland. Hindi-speaking regions have been ridiculed and its people considered to be zealots. Nigam in this collection has remarked on how well-known writers like Khushwant Singh, Rakshit Puri, Amita Mallick and others have abused their own mother-tongue. “These scribes identify the country’s official language as that being spoken in backward regions, which are not so sensitive to changes and modernism,” he says.

Much of the mess, states Nigam, has been created over the last few decades as politicians have tried to find a link language for their respective political base.

While negative views are expressed by a portion of society, in a multi-lingual nation like India, Hindi is seen as the glue to bind the country. Thanks to Mahatma Gandhi who championed the cause of Hindustani. Even the noted Anglophil, Nirad Chowdhary, wrote in 1941 that “there will be no escape from Hindi in this country”.

This was at the time of the national freedom movement, when Hindi was considered to be the impetus to bind the nation and unite it against the British. More interesting is the fact that no other language with the exception of English, has been promoted and enriched by its non-native speakers than Hindi. “Hindi can truly claim credit of having produced the largest number of first rate authors and creative personalities who without having Hindi as their mother tongue, have mastered it and used it as a vehicle of expression”, says the author.

The first whiff of liberalisation has seen Hindi being recognised as a language of profit. Rupert Murdoch was one of the first to cash in on the huge Hindi-speaking market.

Other satellite and cable channels have equally followed as the proportion of ad revenue to total earnings in the visual media has generated surprising results. This has spurred the growth in the number of Hindi channels. Moreover, increasing number of English language channels have gone in for dubbing their programmes into Hindi. However, even as Hindi has gained in popularity of late, there is a deep-seated fear that the growth of English on the internet could well wipe out many languages of the developing world. An eminent US author, Kensington warned that as many as 1000 languages could be wiped out as internet grows and brings about standardised communications.  

                                                                                 - Freny Patel