Promoting a language because the Prime minister finds himself more proficient orator in the language? I find that hard to believe. Do you have sources on this?
(generally there always has been a push for the Hindi language from the central government as well)
I don't ... dispute that? You're continuing with the non sequiturs and it's really hard to tell what point you're trying to make.
("most" is also "bit more than half the population", which isn't that compelling)
> Folks resist and protest because it's not their native language and somehow worse than having English everywhere.
You have not understood the resistance. People don't think it's "somehow worse than having English everywhere". There is no analogous push for English everywhere that people are not opposing.
Sneaky tactics of the last few years include
* In 2014, Modi decided that all social media accounts run by the government would communicate in Hindi, not English. [2]
* In November 2016, new notes were issued that had numbers in Devanagari for the first time in 69 years since Independence, rather than Arabic numerals. [3]
* In March 2017 mile markers in Tamil Nadu were in English and Tamil. Tamil was replaced by Hindi [3]
But this is not limited to this particular government. Previous governments have taken similar steps. Personal anecdote - I studied in an institution funded by Union government where all signposts were written in English and Tamil. This was replaced across the campus at great cost with signposts written in Hindi, English and Tamil. There was not a single person on that campus who didn't know English or Tamil or both, but the Union govt wanted to send a message anyway. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The sad part is that its not just about hurt feelings, as some Hindi speakers might characterise all of this. We are going down the exact same path as Pakistan did post Independence. They tried to force Urdu down the throats of the millions of Bengali speakers living in (then) East Pakistan. "Incentives" to learn Urdu effectively ended up discriminating against the Bengalis, leaving them disenfranchised. Eventually they couldn't take it any longer and declared Independence. I wish we could learn from history rather than repeating the same old mistakes.
[1] - http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/p17351.html (It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India)
[2] - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/india-pm-modi-dem...
[3] - http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/web-edits/by-pushin...
Just a minor correction, they are Indian numerals not Arabic.
Out of 39 states 20 prefer interacting in Hindi..even when they all have different mother tongue. Its just the minority south states prefer speaking in there languages which doesn't matter to other as no migrates there( non existent)
“Let’s speak Tamil or kannad. These states are doing supremely better than all of the Hindi speaking states. Obviously language has something to do with our success, and it would be wrong of us to keep it to ourselves when it should be used to help the nation.”
This short circuits enough wires, and is polite enough to not engage the depressing flame war that is sweeping such discussion.
It’s not logical, but most of this argument is not logical, the proof of which is too much for the margins of this comment.
Out of 39 states 20 prefer interacting in Hindi..even when they all have different mother tongue. Its just the minority south states prefer speaking in there languages which doesn't matter to other as no migrates there( non existent)
You understand that this is not regionally uniform, yes? The 40% Hindi speakers is not "40% Hindi speakers in any given region"; it is "40% Hindi speakers overall", where most of the Hindi speakers live in the northern states and various cities.
> i have seen situations where people find it easy to grasp hindi than any other languages
Again, this is highly regionally biased.