There’s been a lot of talk lately about how Hindi should be the go-to language for everyone in India. But let’s get one thing straight: India doesn’t have a national language.
Yes, you read that right. Hindi is often mistaken as our national language, but that’s not true. According to the Indian Constitution, Hindi is an official language of the Union, not the national language. In fact, India recognizes 22 scheduled languages, and states are free to use their own languages for official purposes.
So, why the confusion? A lot of it stems from the expectation that everyone in India should know Hindi – an assumption that often comes from North India. But think about it: India is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world.
In Maharashtra, people speak Marathi. In Bengal, it’s Bengali. In Tamil Nadu, it’s Tamil. Karnataka has Kannada. Every region has its own language, and it’s these languages that make India so beautifully diverse.
However, many Hindi-speaking people are going to different states and harassing those who don’t speak in Hindi. Here’s an example. A video of a woman harassing people in Bengal for speaking in Bengali has gone viral on Reddit. A Hindi-speaking woman is seen arguing with a Bengali-speaking woman, the former accusing the latter of not knowing how to speak in Hindi despite living in India.
She goes as far as to call the Bengali woman ‘Bangladeshi’ for speaking in Bangla. Have a look:
Bengali people being heckled because they spoke in Bangla, not Hindi.
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This angered several people online who highlighted how the imposition of Hindi on the non-Hindi-speaking population feels like an attack on India’s diversity. Here’s what they had to say:
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Language is a big part of identity, and telling someone to speak a different language is like asking them to let go of a piece of who they are.