“Apareeksha na karthavyam
Karthavyam suparikshataa |
Pashchat bhavathi santapo
Brahmani nakuli yatha ||”
The moral shloka from the very famous ‘The lady and the mangoose’ story of Panchatantra.
We all know the story, how just by assuming that man goose might have killed the baby, the lady murders it, only to find out later that mongoose had cut ally saved her baby’s life. She repents her action but of no use.
So Panchatantra says always act after proper Pariksha(examination or analysis) of a situation, otherwise it will lead to sorrow just like what happened in case of Brahmani(the lady) and Naakuli(mangoose).
Two incidents brought back this shloka’s relevance in today’s world.
Should we say ‘ Amit Shah and the hindi’ story or should we say ‘Nirmala Sitaraman and Mysore Pak’ story??!! Or should ‘we’ the Indians, take panchatantra’s advice very seriously and examine what is causing such hindi-non hindi, tamil-kannada debate!! Is someone really playing all if us?!!!
Yes its a possibility. Otherwise,
Anyone who had listened to the union home minister Amit Shah’s address on the occasion if ‘Hindi Diwas’ can clearly understand what he speaking about, unlike the media reported which caused such a series of protests and debate on Hindi imposition.
Amit Shah, speaking on Hindi Diwas, stressed on need for unifying language to mark India’s identity in the world and which can keep “foreign languages” from finding a place in the country.
“Though I believe that the diversity of languages and dialects is one of the biggest strengths of India, there is a need for our country to have one language, so that foreign languages don’t find a place. This is why our freedom fighters envisioned Hindi as ‘Raj bhasha’,” Shah said in his address at a Hindi Diwas programme.
Amit Shah emphasized on the point that many countries after getting subjected to the Colonial British rule lost their language and embraced English. By doing so they lost a major part of their culture. He said that any nation that abandons its language cannot preserve its culture and consequently loses its existence, even if it continous to exist geographically for even thousand more years.
“We need to understand that, the richness of Indian languages cannot be compared with any foreign languages” he said.
And he also appealed to citizens of India to use their mother tongue more so as to preserve its existence.
“A language stays alive only when the community of its speakers take pride in it, promote it, and encourage the young generation to use it”
Him promoting Hindi became a hot topic of debate and abuses were hurled at him. Now let us keep aside all the political views points and personal opinions on his remarks. Let us see some facts,
Just last year former Chief Minister of Karnataka H D Kumaraswamy announced in his budget speech that the government kannada schools will be “merged” with 8,530 nearby schools. The merger is the technical word used in the primary and secondary education department to mean closure.
Though he said the measure is being taken considering inadequate admissions, experts in the education field had called it a “disastrous decision”.
Many educational experts had opined that Instead of announcing merger, then Chief Minister should have announced a ban on permitting new private schools or disallowing private schools within a 5-6 km radius of government schools.
As per records 2018, around 28000 ಕನ್ನಡ medium schools were at the verge of shutting down. Why this scenario?
In Karnataka, Hindi had been an optional third language subject since many years why suddenly such a hate has been risen against the language, is it Hindi which is causing Kannada schools closure? NO. THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE ENGLISH IS WHAT IS RESPONSIBLE.
For every Kannada school betting closed, there are 4 English medium school are being given permit.
When the government knows that its scientific for a child to have its primary education in his/her mother tongue why not promote Kannada medium schools or in other sense have a control over the English medium schools which are rising up like Mushrooms.
Even if we see history, Karnataka or any part of India had constantly been under the rule if kings who spoke a different language at some part of the time, but this never tarnished growth if a language.
In recent times, with debates for need of a ‘Dravida union’ is under rise, the language is being used as a weapon to create differences among the countrymen.
We have already seen this take devastating turn in the state if Tamil Nadu. The propoganda is being run through various means.
Take Aryan invasion theory for example, the false narrative if North and South Indians, have been put in place. Yes there are few problems in relation to the attitude of few political leaderships regarding the south India and its languages but none are trying to suppress or oppress its development.
As Amit Shah clearly mentioned it is upon every citizen to promote his mother tongue and prevent a language such as English to demolish our thousand tear old culture.
Indians need to be very careful, the break India forces have been more active than ever to divide India into pieces. For them the prosperity if the language comes second to their political ambitions.
These people even took shield under language when corrupt politicians like DK Shivkumar and P. Chidambaram were arrested. Their vendetta is clear. Let us not get blinded by that.
We may not agree with Hindi as the only language for India, and clearly Amit Shah did not even mention so. But to create such menace over language is unacceptable.
And today Kannada news channels went a step ahead and have fooled themselves spreading a satire as a divisive policy of Nirmala Sitaraman.
As citizens of a country, residents of a state, before shouting at a debate or taking out a dharna, we should realise the responsibility upon us. To bring language into politics is like cutting down a tree harboring vast diversity in it. Let us never do that.
Dr Sindhu Prashanth
