Indians hate Hindi?

hey... i m not 1 of them... i love hindi... infact i m teaching hindi to some chinese ppl here... n learning chinese from them...

I think there still more space to reflect on this. I am a South Indian, and I have nothing against Hindi. I watch Hindi movies, I love Hindi literature, and respect Hindi as a language. But, if you ask why some people, especially South Indians, hate Hindi, there could be a few valid reasons. I would like to dwell into them, instead of false glorifications. India, as a country is a concept based on the unity it had to gain during the freedom fight, and for the same reason, is a colonial construct. I mean, before the British empire, Indian was a number of scattered princely states. After freedom, when the democratic government treid to implement the concept of nationality, based on the European norm, and brought in symbols like a national language, a national dress, a national birf, a national fdlag, a father of the nation and things like that, it was an attempt at homgenization in the name of nationality. Many people would not have felt comfortable in it. For instance, in the language issue, Hindi is the mother tongue of the North Indians and nothing else is imposed on them in school other than Hindi, as a language. English, though the colonial language, is studied by all out of their choice, as it is an international language and edcuation all over the world is mostly in the English medium, and in some fields like computers, it has become a must, mainly due to the American dominance. So, in South India, when children are asked to learn both English and Hindi, both of which are foreign to them, Hindi more so because it is less represented in official circles or institutions like hospitals, they find it very difficult to cope with. Just imagine a situation where a north indian child is asked to learn a south indian language and english at school, and you can see that they will definitely protest. since Hindi has failed to gain any international significance than any of the south indian languages, there is not motivation behind learning it as a language other than for the fad of being patriotic. So, I would say that the choice of Hindi as a national language was flawed. As I said, I have nothing against it as alnguage, but I am speaking from the political perspective. People who love languages in general will agree that Hindi is wonderful and intelligent as a language, but for those who take education as a means to get good employment (and in South India, you can't question that attitude as we know how badly people need employment) Hindi can be a burden at school. A similar situation would be the case in the US where Spanish is more or less forced in schools and they protest, saying that they do not need to learn a language which they are not interested in, for the sake of some government policy. To see and respect Hindi as the national language may be a good vision, but it fails pragmatically when it is forced in schools where it is not the mother tongue, along with one more foreign language, English. In the states which are closer to Hindi speaking areas, like Hyderabad, they have nothing against speaking both Telugu and Hindi, but their Hindi is slightly different from Mumbai Hindi. It's all a question og geographical and cultural differences.

I Luv HINDI. No 1 can hate their Mother tongue. In todayz world, u got to know English coz its d Lingua Franca. In every country a common language is English, so if u know it, u wont face problems, but that doesnt mean to hate HINDI.

I am not Indian, but I found reading through the responses here to be very interesting. First of all, I finally found out what Bollywood movies were- I've been meaning to look that up and just haven't gotten to it yet. Second, I did not realize that so many different languages were spoken in India and that language is such a social and political area on contention among the Indians. I made the wrong assumption that all Indians spoke one language, just as all native-born Americans speak English. I would think that this is a major issue which needs to be resolved before India can unite and advance as more of a power in the International world. If not, India will continue to have states where the people are living in oppression and extreme poverty. Am I correct????

you are wrong.no one hate hindi language in india ,i belongs to south india and i love to speak in hindi more than my mother tounge telugu .

Here in india since our freedom..we r being moulded 4 english medium higher educations like medical,dental,egineering ..etc.we cant study in our regional langauge or else in hindi.For better understanding and 2 make it easier parents started forcing children 2 english medium .Wid english medium study 4 abt 8-10.hw can any1 b comfortable wid regional langauge .And ofcourse english is being focused as a royal n prestigious .this made many ppl 2 hate mothertounge n own culture .

look cofeechat I am south Indian but i love Hindi more than Tamil. Because it has the ingredient to unite the india under one language. besides it is our national language, we should show some respect towards it.

have you met indian who hates hindi. please explain his name with full contact number so that i can interact with him for his disliking. Hindi is our mother tongue and we should not be ashamed of using this language. have you heard once Mr. Bajpaee delivered his speech in hindi at UNO.

Hey May be u might have met people particularly from south India state called Tamil Nadu, They hate Hindi really but no other state of our country hates hindi.. Iam from south India and Hindi is not my mother tongue even then i learnt hindi and talk hindi Hindi is Indian Natioanl language....

No apart from being the National language Hindi is my mother tongue. I love it.

i dont know what makes you say that. but i being from south india find it more nice to converse in hindi. further in north where i stay hindi is basic language used as a medium. but in metros like delhi i feel people are more fashioned to speak in english. but that doent mean that they hate hindi. based on some peoples reaction one cannot generalise that indians hate hindi....

I think there is a lack of unity in Indian people surely. India is a large country both in terms of land and in terms of culture, language, eating habits and so on. If you observe other countries like USA, France etc, their people almost have the same culture. But in India, language changes after very small distances. Another problem is that Indians don't respect each other's traditions and culture. I am also agreed to non-Hindi speaking people that they should not be forced to learn English. But you know one thing, this kind of pressure is also there for Hindi speaking people. In states like Maharashtra and Karnataka, Marathi etc state language is necessary to learn in schools. Now if they don't want to learn Hindi, why will a Hindi speaking person like to learn Marathi or Kannad.

I do not think any Indian would hate Hindi, but some may not like it. Not liking is different than hating. There is an opposition to Hindi in some south Indian state and it has nothing to do with the language. Soon after the formation of Indian states some political powers enforced Hindi (Being the National language) starting from the primary school. This was not welcomed by some of the southern states. The political divide and rule policy further fueled this difference of opinion and slowly bringing in a dislike towards Hindi. Today the situation has changed. Bangalore has a mixed crowd of different language and Hindi is second most popular language. In fact Hinglish is quite popular in Bangalore , which is a mixture of Hindi and English. Hindi in Mumbai (Formerly known as Bombay) has a tinge of marati and urdu. English is widely spoken in southern states though one can manage with Hindi. State of Tamilnadu had a strong opposition to the enforcement of Hindi education earlier but today it is much diluted. May be the rural regions still say a strict No to Hindi but not the Urban community. The growing economy is distributing the business community all across the country which is another reason for this change.

Coffeechat, I have followed the various responses to this discussion and I find that you are a very keen student of History and may be of Political Science too.The fact that you have made a fine distiction between RajabhaaShA and rAShTrabhAShA, referring again to the Indian Constitutional declaration- the distinction that has been made by the founding fathers between National Languages, and the Official Language. To have an Official Language is an imperative.There must be some language to communicate to people in all parts of India. Hindi was chosen to be this link language by the founding fathers, as Mahatma Gandhi the Father of our Nation and one of greatest leaders of the Freedom Movement, preferred and propagated Hindi as the Link language. His close associate C.Rajagopalachari, was an ardent proponent of English as the link/National/Official Language. The reasons for CR's insistence on English was that it is truly equidistant to all the languages of the subcontinent at the same time a language that opened the window to the world-an International Language. The stress on the National Languages- or, as our people, I mean Indians would better understand the regional languages- has weakened Indians' hold on the English Language, which is still the language of Higher Education, and the main reason for India being an Educational Tourism destination. India is able to have an edge over China or Japan in the Software Industry, only due to the majority of her technically trained humanpower is very comfortable with English, and in addition, if they were English school educated is very proficient too. Now, the choice of Hindi was to re-establish the pride in our own culture and to help throw away this mental slavery to the colonial past. I for one do not think that has helped at all. As for me, I am from the South, but I can speak Hindi very fluently and have even authored technical papers in the language. Yet I do not insist that everyone must be forced to learn a language.As you have also observed, I see very educated colleagues of mine who are non-Hindi mother tongue people do not appreciate this "imposition", in that no body wants to take a great part in the Hindi promotion schemes. Many seek my help to do their children's Hindi lessons/ esays etc., all the while cursing having to learn under compulsion. Down south the stress is on obtaining a good employment based on education and therefore people do not want to have to learn a language that they may have to use only in the street. That is why, you see people queue up to see Bollywood movies, but who may not want to learn and use the language in official communication. In Tamilnadu, people see Hindi as a subtle way of domination by the northerners, who in their view are putting themselves at an advantage as to use of language- for it is still mother tongue for them and hence they learn it effortlessly;they therefore want to oppose Hindi on political grounds than due to an inability to learn the language. But one thing is true:- As for learning a language that is so different from theirs, is equally difficult for them whether it is Hindi or French for that matter. That is why Tamilians are not enthused to learn Hindi. But they do not mind getting a working knowledge of the language. As for your question, No, I do not hate Hindi, why, I do not hate any language, and perhaps I developed this love for languages from my stay in different states of India. Kudos to you for having chosena topic that got you 100 + responses, most of whcih you have patiently responded with such panache.

hi,no i think it is wrong..the only one state in india hate hindi,because of their closed mindness.they are ready to speak english,but they feel bad to speak hindi,what a bad.......o.k.,when it comes to hindi,i am also from nonhindi speaking area,but i love hindi also as this language is just like mother to indians.

hey im not one of them i love hindi vey much ...

I am an Indian and I am proud of Hindi. Yes people from extreme southern region are not comfortable with it but then its there problem . Hindi is a National Language and whole north and central india speaks it and 90% understand it too. After all every one watches Bollywood Hindi movies.

I donn't hindi although it is not my mother tongue but it is our national language. we should have a respect for it. yeah it is right that some people hate hindi, i have too seen people.

The truth is I HATE HINDI....!!! Im ready to accept that..!!! Im a south indian... better to be called AN INDIAN thats it..!!! And i dont like the language Discrimination inside India itself... n breaking India into two as North and south India.... but trying to make PEACE with other countries like PAKISTAN ....!!! i really dont understand....!!! Ive learnt Hindi... but i prefer speaking in my mother tongue and in English....!!! :)

no i dont hate hindi.. infact i m trying to use it in my office also... u indian??