It is the day to think of Hindi, my mother tongue and our rashtriya
bhasha (national language). On this day I reminisce Ramdayal Munda’s
couplet: “Aaj atwar koaao, hamaray saath baitho, Bhaat khao aur
hadia pio” (Come on Sunday, sit with me and share rice and hadia).
Jharkhand’s
cultural icon, through this touching couplet in Hindi, wants the “dikus”
or the outsiders to share rice and hadia — an inseparable part
of tribal life — with him so that they can celebrate the tribals’
life in true spirit.
The polyglot linguist,
who has spent years in educational institutions in the US, has always
preferred Hindi as his medium. He has chosen Hindi to increase the
non- tribals’ and outsiders’ appreciation of the tribal
people and lifestyle of those people who speak Mundari, Ho, Santhali
and other folk languages
besides Hindi.
If anything, Ramdayal’s
couplet proves that Hindi is the most effective language of communication
among the people in the country. “I have travelled from Kanyakumari
to Kashmir only to find that Hindi will enable one to live and land
in any part of Bharat Varsh,” says the Hindi litterateur Khagendra
Thakur. Constitutionally,
Hindi is the “raaj bhasha” (official language) and English
is the “associate” language of the union of India. But in
practice, English enjoys the status of the primary official language.
The Union finance minister invariably presents the annual budget in
English, the Union secretaries communicate with the states in English
and courts deliver their orders and sentences in English even after
over a half a century of our Independence.
Though Mahatma Gandhi
emphasised the importance of Hindi as the primary language of India
and great freedom fighter Ram Manohar Lohia launched a popular movement
to strengthen Hindi as our republic’s primary language, the post-Independence
ruling elite simply ignored what the fathers of nation and Lohia stood
for.
But Hindi has survived
as the “language of the masses”, thanks to the people who
kept thinking in it and speaking it in the large part of our Union.
The people of Jharkhand, a part of Hindi heartland, too have been
playing a major role in keeping the rich
language. The novel Saltnanatko Suno Gaon Walon, authored by the Jamshedpur-based
novelist Jainanadan, depicts the reality of life in Jharkhand’s
hinterland.
The state also has
reputed novelists, poets and short story writers such as Shravan Kumar
Goswami, Pankaj Mitra, Mahua Majhi and Vinod Kumar. Vinod Kumar’s
latest novel Samar Sesh Hai aptly depicts the battle between moneylenders
and tribals in Santhal Pargana region.
Read Jagdish Trigunait’s
Mundari Lok Kathayen to understand the lifestyle of the Mundas. Shravan
Kumar Goswami also brings out Kanchhi, a literary journal in Hindi
from Ranchi.
The journal is full
of poems, short stories and literary essays delineating the reality
of people’s life in the state. Not to speak of our Union’s
ruling establishments, even the market-driven industrial houses have
not done much to enrich the national
language.
They closed popular
Hindi periodicals such as Ravivar, Dinman, Dharmyug and Hindustan
because of market considerations. Still, many popular literary journals
like Hans, Kathadesh, Wagarth and Aalochana come out, thanks to contributions
from Hindi lovers. The only industry, which has played a major role
in spreading our national language even in the non-Hindi speaking
states, is the film industry. Born and brought up in a Hindi heartland,
I am proud to note that Hindi is not slave to the patronage of the
ruling establishment.
