The issue of National language caught the attention of everyone again and a controversy was brewing around it although it appears that it has been diffused, for now at least. The problem however is one that will not tolerate being ignored and will definitely crop up again, some other day, some other time. So, while there certainly is no need to hurry with regards to solving it, it is definitely important that we bear in mind that this problem too, like all others, needs a solution to quell it permanently and especially because Indian identity and integrity will be affected by it.
India's greatest strength has been without a doubt the variety of its culture and customs. Invaders looking for a homogeneity have been frustrated by the sheer amount of new things one can discover in walking from one village to another, a characteristic that made it particularly difficult to subjugate the whole of the Nation at any point of time in History. Languages have been, one of the foremost indicators of that variety in India. There are 22 official languages in India: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu. According to the article 343 (1) of the Constitution of India, "The Official Language of the Union government shall be Hindi in Devanagari script." The individual states can legislate their own official languages, depending on their linguistic demographics [1]. As I have pointed out, it is to India's great merit if the variety, specially in Languages is retained by us. After all India has always been and will continue to be a very lucrative destination for attack and invasion and these are the soft powers that may defend us. To put it in proper perspective allow me to present an analogy: "Scientists believe that if the Earth were to be invaded by Aliens, their path would be barred not by Humans first but by the Planet herself. The atmospheric composition, the atmospheric pressure, the gravity, the microbes, all of these would be foreign to the invading powers and be a roadblock. All in all they should buy us enough time to rally our forces and mount a credible defense." Similar is the role of languages and cultural variety in the defense of our Nation. So we have, at least found the answer to one part of the problem: the variety in languages needs to be retained and encouraged. Any attempts to steamroll them or impose some sort of homogeneity (a concept very dear to militaristic minds) will be counter-productive.
That being said, we cannot ignore the need for a National Language. Certainly one is required. Why is it required? Simply because we are one entity politically and it will not do if we do not communicate with each other or always have to rely on interpreters to get our messages across. The need is so real and so crucial that already India has, unconsciously, moved towards a National language which is not our own: English. People from different parts of India either are unable to communicate at all or communicate in English. This is, somehow, the most demeaning thing happening to us right now. Let me explain the situation as best as I can: No one is ready to agree to the imposition of a language that is of Indian origin as the National language ( I am not talking about Hindi alone, people wouldn't agree even if the proposal was about Bengali or Tamil or any other Indian language) out of internal rivalry. English, a language that fetches you a job, a language that allows you to easily replace the Firangi Sahibs of the colonial era, a language that allows you to accredit yourself as educated has therefore easily encroached into a domain which we can very easily fill very honorably. Today the Army officer commands the soldiers in English (along with following the colonial systems of the batman and separate Mess for Officers and Jawans), the student submits his/her project report in English, the Researcher writes her/his dissertation in English, the best-paid and the most respected Newspapers and media-persons are associated with the English media and even small-time bloggers like myself have to advocate the cause of an Indian language in English, essentially a language of the invaders and of those who ruled us with a view to make us forever subservient to them and their profits. Therefore we reach to a second very important conclusion: we need a national language for us to remain one Nation and that language should not be English if we nurse hopes of being a prominent world power if not the outright numero uno.
So now to the most important question of all: which Language then? It is my conviction that only and only Sanskrit is the language that can fill this void. Hindi is at best a regional language that cannot be imposed on the culturally advanced South Indians or East Indians. To do so would arouse too much passion and fear, eventually causing a breach of trust, something that needs to be avoided at all costs. Likewise, languages like Bengali or Tamil or Telugu are even more regional in their outreach as compared to Hindi and their imposition as a National Language would create even more number of people crying foul. This is the reason that no statesman has even suggested doing so. This line of reasoning eliminates all Languages that have been recognized as official by the constitution of India but one: Sanskrit. Now, the strange anomaly with Sanskrit is that in terms of outreach it is minuscule when placed against the likes of Hindi, Kannada, Assamese, Oriya, Malyalam etc. Yet, it is my calculation that it is exactly this point that will work to its advantage. It can easily replace English as a language of the literate because of that. Besides no one will feel threatened either because all Indians will have to make a compromise by accepting Sanskrit, a move that will make sure that fears of Hindi Supremacists will be suitably addressed. Then again almost all Indian languages have borrowed to some extent from Sanskrit, an observation that can be made from the vocabulary in use. As a matter of fact, modern studies have debunked the very idea of Indo-European and Dravidian languages and instead propose Indic languages as a separate group all by itself which encompasses all the languages spoken in India [2][3]. In so far as political considerations are concerned Sanskrit will not only be the best compromise candidate but also the best candidate in terms of our primary aim, that of securing growth of Indian languages. To be sure, the system that I propose is: Sanskrit as the National Language and all other languages as the State Languages. Any communication which is between two Central Government institutions is in Sanskrit alone. Any communication between a central and a state institution will be in Sanskrit and State language (of the state in question). Any communication between two institution of different states will be in Sanskrit. Any communication between two institutions of the same state will be in Sanskrit and the state language.
The system has many advantages, some of which I pointed out. The most important accomplishment however will be that we can throw off the English language and begin to Nationalize ourselves as thoroughly and properly as is important, throw of the last vestiges of foreign domination. Of course, it will not be an easy task since Sanskrit's development has been very much stunted for very long now but definitely nothing that a team of experts and researchers cannot remedy. A language in which so much of our genius lies recorded can most certainly be resurrected and made the life-blood of India and Indian resurgence.
Even if my proposal is unacceptable then also the search for a National Language must continue. It is time we Indians faced our fears and our challenges, took them head on and emerged from these small brawls with tricky situations as victorious and honorable men. We all can trust each other and cherish the genius of our forefathers, forefathers like Sant Tukaram (Marathi Poet), Kambar (Tamil Poet, composer of Kamba Ramayana), Tagore (one of the most celebrated poets of the Bengali language and modern History) etc. It is not important that we squabble whose language should be National, instead we must find a language that we all can happily call our own and make it the National language so that we can cement our identity and integrity.
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