Language and Politics Part 6

Might be I am goin completely off topic here and possibly goin in a philosophical direction. But only tamil or possibly sanskrit (even sanskrit language does have a historical relation to caste based slavery) can actually fall in the purview of being a national language. Hindi comes from hindavi dialect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindavi a language that actually came in to existence to help the islamic invaders, communicate with the native indian populations.In some sense hindi can be tied historically to enslavement compared to regional dialects. The concept of a unified india even came about because of the british invasion. Finding unifying clues in pre britsh past of india, will always cause us to come up with loopholes as no motivations for an unified india do come up.

A case for solidarity on the national level centred around an emotional affection for hindi against a regional language does not necessarily stand the test for nationalistic fervor if analyzed closely.
The reason that people in the north speak hindi compared to south indian states has more to do with the regions being under stronger mughal influence. This influence decreased as one went away from Delhi. Hindi had more to do historically with easing the mughal control over their conquered areas, rather than an emotional drive for unification based around the concepts of a free india. The historical use of the language had more to do with unification of the mughal kingdom and well beings of the mughal elites than the welfare of the people in the kingdom.

It is a well known fact that hindi is scarcely spoke in the southern belt of india. Demanding that these states show a bias in their affection towards hindi is more of an artificial construct, because the people of these states have no emotional history towards the language and whatever monumental moments in the history of their civilization as a part of the indian subcontinent, which give the people an identity inculcated with values of freedom, liberty among other things were played in the regional language rather than hindi.

When the framework for the indian nation was being put forward, it was initially suggested that there be 2 national languages with 2 centres of power. One in the north and other in the south. The only reason that such an idea was given up was because it would be an impediment against the conception of an unified india. It was not a question of emotion, but a case of practicality. However formation of states did not serve as an impediment in this direction as the union constructed of states as a whole, would be stronger than any individual state in general.

Every nation by definition has a language tht it defines as the natinoal language. Hindi was chosen only because it was spoken by the majority of indians. However as I have talked about above suggesting an emotional bias for hindi compared to regional languages as a requirement for display of patriotism falls short on quiet a few levels.