Literature today 2024: On the second day too, the Sahitya Aaj Tak 2024 program is illuminated with donations from artists and art. Renowned poets, writers, writers, artists and historians of the country participate in this program, which will take place over three days (November 22, 23 and 24). During this time many topics and ideas are being discussed. On the second day, “Will Hindi/Devanagari get sad?” There was also an open discussion about the session. Arguments for and against were heard.
Will Hindi/Devanagari get sad? Present on stage in the session were language expert, writer and language doubt researcher Kamlesh Kamal, language expert and writer Prof. Parichay Das and language activist and consultant, Speaker Research Initiative Rahul Dev. This session was moderated by language expert and author Dr. Suresh Pant.
How much Hindi is heard and seen?
Linguist Rahul Dev said that language is what you and I speak, the common medium in which the common man speaks is language. Language has visibility and audibility, that is, being visible and heard. Based on these two criteria alone, how much Hindi can be heard and seen in India’s capital? If you look at the names of markets, hotels, train stations, roads and places, do you see more English or Hindi? Everyone knows it. The visibility of Hindi is declining in the Hindi heartland. 99 percent of Hindi is heard in small towns, but it is a new Hindi and not the Hindi of 20 years ago. I have serious doubts that Devanagari and Hindi will not survive in the way we want and should survive.
He said, ‘Now parents are teaching their children in English medium schools instead of Hindi. Will unscripted Hindi survive? I have been saying for 25 years that all Indian languages, including Hindi, which have taken a thousand years to develop, are in a deep crisis. If this is not changed, they will become extinct within two generations.
What is being done to save Hindi at the government level?
Linguist and writer Kamlesh Kamal said that I do not agree with Rahul Dev. Because it seemed that Hindi was in a very pathetic condition, there was no future for Hindi and Devanagari. Visit small shops of Delhi and see the use of Hindi. 70 percent of India’s population speaks Hindi and 143 million people around the world understand Hindi. In India only three percent speak English. The most watched channel and the most read newspaper are in Hindi. Veer Kunwar Singh and Tatya Tope used to write letters to each other in Hindi. The language of communication in India was Hindi earlier and it is even today.
Talking about Hindi at the government level, Kamlesh Kamal said, “The Constitution of India speaks of Hindi from sections 343 to 351. Although there are some areas like justice, justice is delivered in Hindi in four courts of India. They are being making preparations to teach in Hindi in medical and engineering colleges. In Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and later in Rajasthan, efforts are being made to teach medical and engineering studies in Hindi. A civil engineering dictionary is being prepared. the Scientific and Technical Terminology Commission, a scheme of the Government of India, and I myself am a part of it.
Can’t medical and engineering studies be done in Hindi?
Kamlesh Kamal said that people have adopted this mentality. If it can be taught in many languages including Japanese, German, Mandarin and Russian, by what logic can it not be taught in Hindi? This argument is wrong. An American scientist said that the Devanagari script is best suited for computing and science. Efforts are also being made in India. There is a central translation office and more than seven lakh words have been translated into Hindi. Home Ministries’ Shabd Sindhu project is creating a huge inclusive dictionary by combining words from different languages and states. Hindi content has increased on Google and social media, in films, in business and on OTT platforms.
There is no danger of extinction of a language in which memory remains: Professor Parichay Das
Linguist and writer Professor Parichay Das said Hindi remains the language of thought. There can be no danger of extinction of a language in which memory remains. Even on social media, most of the content is in Hindi. You will have to leave Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata and go to nearby cities, you will have to go to places like Meerut, Lucknow, Azamgarh, Ballia, Nalanda where you will see creative Hindi. However, sometimes there are mistakes in Hindi in newspapers and channels.
‘200 engineering books have been written in Hindi but…’
Rahul Dev responded to the words of Professor Parichay Das and Kamlesh Kamal. He said, ‘The good thing is that 200 original books written in Hindi have been prepared in the first year in the branches of civil and electrical engineering. But except in some NITs, studies in Hindi or Indian languages have not started smoothly anywhere. The students are not studying. The poor are somehow teaching their children in English. The crisis of Hindi is the crisis of all languages. If only Hindi survives, other languages will not survive either.
