India: A Cultural Coalition

The famous philosopher and post-modernist Michael Foucault said “language is oppression”. This may be partially true, since it allows only those who do know the language to communicate, shunning all those who don’t to a section of the society that gradually and inevitably disintegrates. Communication is a very central aspect of who we are, and our ability to communicate ‘in harmony’ reflects our togetherness, or rather, integrity, as a people and our capability of being able to establish a nation that stands strong. Although a national language would be hard to establish as such, an official language should do. A national language has far more severe consequences as opposed to official ones. This is because the official languages serve only to formalise business communication; the national language would attempt to unify the people of the nation. For a predominantly English-speaking nation, this is easy. For a nation like India, this is not. We have official languages in double digits, fine, but since all of her 30 or so states have been formed on a lingual basis, the inclusion of a provision for a national language in the constitution would invoke chaos within the nation. India is a coalition of different cultures: having a national language would be having a bias. It is not easy in India to conflict the values of the peoples of one culture while you try to side with another. It is a delicate balance, and the best solution would be to just stick to officialising business communication. The south Indians, especially the Tamilians and the Malayalis, don’t take as easily to Hindi as do the Telugu and the Kannadigas. On the other hand, the Hindi-speaking peoples are exposed to a different kind of lingual characterisation than the southern languages, and adaptation is again difficult. There are, of course, many more problems beside these, but I think you get the point.

However, my point in this post is that how only your mother tongue seems to be able to deliver the style of communication you need. No other language you could learn will come to serve you as finely as your mother tongue. If everyone observed this, a possibility of a nation language in the offing would seem even more bleak. Your mother tongue is your native language, it is something you have been listening to being spoken since birth, and it is something you have been speaking yourself. Many of the necessary habits of life taught to children are during their younger ages, when they learn without questioning and also follow it blindly. Even thought they may come to realise the purpose of it all later on, that time period when their mind is ripe is a rarity. And when you the child learns a language in this period, it is difficult to forget it wholly, and later on, it is also difficult to let go of it. It is as if the language has been mixed into your blood. This nativity  in language is present among all the peoples of India, and those asking for the establishment of a national language should take into consideration these factors also. Apart from the commercial aspect of it all, India’s existence as a cultural coalition is a very important factor in the determination of such matters. No other nation is like India, and we can’t come to a conclusion derived from a comparative study. If we can’t have a national language, then we don’t need a national language. That’s all.