Language policy in India – advantage to be highlighted rather than imposition

The debate over learning of Hindi across the country has led to strong reactions from the non – Hindi speaking states especially the North East and South India!!

The national NDA government should adopt a different strategy rather than make it look like an imposition – similar to the hugely successful digital payments strategy

Instead, the national government should run a mass campaign highlighting “Advantages of learning different languages”. Like learning English is seen as a passport to better job prospects, learning a foreign language is construed to lead to better prospects globally, learning Hindi can be highlighted as a major advantage in a huge and diverse nation like India.

Major advantages that need to be highlighted –

• Better job prospects across the country- any company will prefer to recruit a Hindi speaking competent candidate from South India as they can give varied exposure to the candidate across the country
• Enhanced ability to connect with more people across the country for business people – business people from say Kerala can converse with a business connect is say UP.
• Easier for students whose parents are in a transferable job
• Ability to connect with more diversified set of people across India and understand different cultures

As a part of the same strategy, the national government can also make learning non-Hindi languages as an option in Hindi speaking states – why can’t a student in Himachal Pradesh learn Tamil or Bengali for a couple of years?? This will lead to better cultural sensitivity across a diversified country like India. Lack of teachers needn’t be constraint as it can be overcome using technology.

From my own personal experience of hailing from Tamil Nadu but having lived mainly outside TN and outside India, I have reaped the benefits of learning different languages especially being a fluent Hindi speaker. During my first overseas stint in China, me and my wife learnt Chinese too understand China better.

Time to have a holistic approach to the language debate!!