Q: We have many languages in India and a kind of multi-lingual situation. How does that play out with the attempt to impose one language, Hindi, on the nation?

A: “The imposition of a language or the imposition of anything is actually not proper. It could also be considered a kind of violence.  Hindi is one of our national languages. Together with English we need Hindi, because we have about fourteen official languages in India across the country.  Majority of our people are Hindi speaking,  and so we could say the major language of India is Hindi. I think people should be encouraged through all kinds of incentives and encouragements to learn Hindi, but no imposition in any case. I think in a democratic country it’s not valid. No, that is not our national policy; it is the policy of some organization which stands for one language, and one nation, one religion.  People can be encouraged by giving different incentives. At the same time, I think imposition of any language is not democratic in the multi-lingual and multi-cultural cultural context of ours. We have cultural pluralism. We should encourage all the languages we have, but both English and Hindi should be there as link languages, and therefore people should be encouraged to learn them.”

Bp Chacko Thottumarickal SVD
Indore