Do you know that the position of Hindi is going down for some strange reasons. An unending agitation has been going on in post-Independence India by different communities for getting their languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Whenever a language/dialect is elevated to this position, the number of its speakers is deducted from the total of Hindi speakers. This, obviously dilutes the position of Hindi among the major languages in the world. The Chinese language, continues to enjoy the top position in this regard. On the other hand, Hindi has been losing ground. It requires to be taken up at appropriate levels to ensure that our national language, deserving recognition in the UNO, continues to retain its proper standing.
It appears that we have not been very much concerned over other languages/dialects of our country. According to a survey by the Language Research and Publication Centre, Vadodra it has been recorded that in the last half a century, 220 languages have disappeared due to this callous attitude. It has pointed out that in the similar survey of 1961, there were 1,100 languages out of which only 880 are alive. One of the reasons for this collapse was the faulty yardstick of not recognizing any language if it was not being spoken by at least 10,000 people. Secondly, there are certain communities known for their profession of indulging in criminal activities. In order to avoid this blot, the concerned communities, deliberately stopped speaking their dialect.
Recently I was in Jharkhand for about a week to attend a conference. There I learnt that there are 32 tribes still existing in that state. By and large they speak their own languages. Nothing significant is being done at the state government level for their progress. Several languages of small communites have already died out and if the same neglect continues, many more of the existing ones may also disappear. We are so proud of our rich heritages. Can one gauge the amount of loss on this cultural front if even in free India, we keep on losing age-old languages, of which any country would feel proud?
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