Towards Making Hindi The New X-Factor (Hindi Day article)
Towards Making Hindi The New X-Factor
Also published in Movie Talkies
Link to the Hindi version of the same article :
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When spoken it resembles Urdu, when written it is like Marathi ; while its origin is Sanskrit, its name itself originated from Persian.
Hindi is like the River Ganga. Alaknanda, Mandakini, Bhagirathi have different identities and characteristics, yet they all are ultimately Ganga. Hindi becomes Hindustani, when you add a few Urdu words to it ; pepping it with Urdu phrases, makes it morph into Urdu. With addition of English words, Hindi become Hinglish. Be it any form, the core of Hindi is to provide communication and emotional connect among Indians in India and among South Asians across the world.
More than a language, Hindi is a movement. Languages can divide people. A movement unites people. Movements are characterized by their unchartered paths. Likewise, the big three forces that have spread Hindi have also come from quarters that were least excepted by the post-independence architects of Hindi.
My 2003 visit to Nante, a small town in France, made me realize the first force. A French radio channel that interviewed me wanted their questions in French to be answered in Hindi (to make it look authentic). Guess, who could be the Hindi to French interpreter in a small town in France ? She was not neither Indian nor French. She had never ever visited India. She was a Maldivian staying in France…… AND…… a big fan of Bollywood. Welcome to the power of Bollywood…!
To understand the second big force, I will take you to my college days in the 1980s when the anti-Hindi spirit was so strong in South India that during an independence day celebration, the Dravidian activists (including a few govt officials) prevented school children from singing “Saare Jahan se achchha……” Why ? Since they thought “Hindi hain Hum, watan hai Hindustan hamara” meant that “Hindi is our language” when, “Hind-i” here means ‘Indian’. In such fanatic times, it was difficult to communicate since very few would know Hindi or English. And guess, the easiest way to find such a person – search for a Muslim in the locality….! Yes, the role of the Muslim community in increasing presence of Hindi in Southern and Eastern India has been very significant.
The third big force has been technology. It is thanks to Whatsapp that non-Hindi speakers have started reading Hindi and Hindi speakers have started typing in Hindi. While more than 100 years back the architects of Hindi and Urdu had rejected a British government proposal to use the Roman script, it is now that people are using Roman characters to type Hindi – the hidden power of technology. (Incidentally, Malaysia and Turkey have successfully implemented the British proposal. Whether it would have been good for India, will always remain a topic of debate.)
A movement may have an unchartered path but every movement ultimately has to become responsible. Hindi is now the fifth most spoken language in the world. And its big stakeholders – The Government, Hindi media and Entertainment industry will have to play a more responsible role.
While Bollywood has spread Hindi but has not done much to develop Hindi. Limited vocabulary that Bollywood currently uses, will become its own bottleneck in future. As the Hindi film audience gets sophisticated and as market for Hindi films gets global, Bollywood will have to search for more mature subjects that require more complex communication, which means richer and developed language. Relying solely on English words for abstract nouns and adjectives will have its limitation. Content will risk losing its authenticity (the French radio interview).
The myths that complex and abstract ideas cannot be communicated in Hindi AND that dignified Hindi does not connect with audience have been completely decimated by Mr. Modi and Mr. Bachchan. With selective use of English words for technical terms in a dignified Hindi, both come out as extremely powerful speakers and connect with audiences across all genres. In 80s and 90s, HMT (Hindi Medium Type) was a derogatory term used in college campuses; speaking Hindi was then a stigma. But Mr. Modi and Mr. Bachchan have converted it into an X-factor and to me this is their biggest contribution to Hindi. People are now so much more confident talking in Hindi on public platforms. Also, their speeches work towards developing the language itself. Entertainment Industry needs to draw lessons from them and perform its responsibility towards developing the language. As entertainment becomes a new global soft power, the gains for the industry and the nation will be in multiples.
The other stakeholders, government and the Hindi media need to avoid making the mistakes of 1960s when Hindi meant “No Foreign words”. Hindi – with Sanskrit origin has also drawn support from Prakrit, Pali, English, Persian, Arabic, and Turkish. Thus, its natural character is that of an assorted bolee. When one tries to modify its character, it ceases to connect with people. Let Hindi remain a movement and not the imposed pure Hindi language that only divided people and is remembered only as a subject of jokes and comedy films in 1970s.
Pure Ganga, that originated from jatas of Lord Shiva, is an unworkable proposition today. Ganga today requiresre juvenation so that Ganga-jal remains powerful wherever it is used – be it India or abroad. So is the case with Hindi.
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