It is indeed ideal if “we can create a situation where every person can study in the language he dreams in, and live in an atmosphere where all in India can understand one common language”. But in a country with well-defined linguistic diversity and consequent chauvinism this is an impossible dream. As a Tamilian born and brought up in Kerala, I recollect quite a few of us voluntarily joining Hindi classes after school hours, and conducted by the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha. Our national feeling brightened as Hindi was not imposed on us and it did no harm to our mother tongue. If one follows the Kerala model, there do not seem to be problems with Hindi.
In some districts in Kerala, buses have route names in Hindi written in Devanagari to help the large numbers of migrant labourers. However, the Central government in no case can impose Hindi in Tamil Nadu.
C.V. Venugopalan,
Palakkad, Kerala
