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Hindi as a national link language? || Acharya Prashant, with IIT-Ropar (2022)
Bharat
1.2K views
1 year ago
Language
Spiritual Identity
Hindi
English
Colonization
Reciprocity
Culture
Translation
Description

Acharya Prashant clarifies that when he speaks of Hindi, he views it as a representative of all native Indian languages rather than a replacement for them. He emphasizes that he has never advocated for Indians to abandon their native tongues like Gujarati, Tamil, Bengali, or Punjabi in favor of Hindi. His objection is specifically directed at the colonization by the English language, which he views as a spiritual problem. He argues that switching to English often involves dumping a cultural legacy and important spiritual values in favor of something less useful. He points out that the resistance to Hindi in Southern India often stems from a lack of reciprocity from Northern Indians, who rarely attempt to learn Southern languages while expecting Southerners to learn Hindi.