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Speaking of languages
MAY 25 -
Nepal is a multi-lingual country with more than 92 languages spoken by over 100 caste and ethnic groups. These languages fall into four language families. They are Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian. In addition, Kusunda is a linguistic isolate. According to the 2001 census, 79.4 percent of the people speak Indo-European languages, 18.26 percent speak Sino-Tibetan, 0.20 percent speak Austro-Asiatic languages and 0.10 percent speak Dravidian languages. Kusunda is spoken by 87 persons.
According to the 2001 census, among the 93 languages, Hindi is spoken by 105,767 persons in the Tarai region. In the early 1920s, education commissions did not find any native speaker of Hindi in the Tarai and objected to the demand of some Tarai people that primary schools be run in the Hindi language. It belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. In India, it is spoken by around 180 million people as a mother tongue and by around 50 percent of the total population as a second language. It is an official national language there.
Nowadays, voices are being raised that Hindi be made an official national language of Nepal. Various people are seen opposing this demand at informal discussions and seminars in the name of “Nepali nationalism”. But they do not look into the situation of Parliament and the Constituent Assembly. In fact, leaders from the Tarai affiliated to the Nepal Sadbhavana Party before the republic was established and to the Madhesi People’s Forum, the Tarai-Madhes Loktantrik Party and the Sadbhavana Party after the republic have been making speeches in Hindi in Parliament and the CA. They have practically made it an official national language though there is no constitutional provision for Hindi to be used in that capacity. However, the speaker of Parliament or chairman of the CA has been mere spectators so far. It is not a bad thing to let a representative speak his mind in the language of his or her choice, but the question is whether the chairman of the CA will permit representatives from the Himalaya to speak their mind in Tibetan, Limbu, Rai, Tamang, Gurung or other languages.
Now, the question arises, why should Hindi be made an official national language? Is it on the basis of the number of speakers? The census of 2001 shows that there are 15 languages which have a greater number of speakers than Hindi. Nepali has 11,053,255 speakers, Maithili has 2,797,582, Bhojpuri has 1,712,536, Tharu has 1,331,546, Tamang has 1,179,145, Newar has 825,458, Magar has 770,116, Awadhi has 560,744, Bantawa has 371,056, Gurung has 338,925, Limbu has 333,633, Bajjika has 237,947, Urdu has 174,840, Rajbanshi has 129,829 and Sherpa has 129,771 speakers. Except Nepali, none of them is an official national language. The reason why Nepali is an official national language is that it is spoken by 48 percent of the total population across the country, and there is no region where it is not understood. On the contrary, Hindi is spoken by only 0.47 percent of the total population in the Tarai region.
Should we make Hindi an official national language of Nepal because it is a foreign language of our immediate neighbourhood? This logic also does not seem strong. Nepal is sandwiched between two great countries, China and India. In addition, Pakistan is also an immediate neighbour. If Hindi is an official national language of India, Urdu is also an official national language of Pakistan. Tibetan is one of the major languages of China. So, if we accept Hindi as an official national language, why should we not accept Urdu and Tibetan as official national languages too? Like Hindi, these languages also have less than 1 percent and more than 0 percent speakers in Nepal.
If Hindi is used as a contact language in the Tarai region by Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Bajjika and Tharu speakers, Tibetan is also used as a contact language in the Himalayan region by Hyolmo, Sherpa, Walung, Lhomi, Lhopa, Larke, Mugali, Manange, Bhote, Baragaule, Thumden, Tangbe, Dolpo and Topkegola speakers. How far is it justifiable to make three languages of foreign origin official national languages? If Hindi, Urdu and Tibetan can be official national languages, why can’t Bangla be another official national language of Nepal as it is also the official national language of Bangladesh?
Quite often, one of the languages is selected for wider communication, access to science, mathematics, technology, religion, philosophy and so forth. But for these purposes, English is more useful. Even India chooses English to achieve these goals. Hindi is effective in communication among the Madhesi population of the Tarai, but it does not appeal to hill and mountain people. Moreover, Hindi can’t carry the feeling of oneness among Nepalis. It can function only as a regional language like Limbu, Rai, Newar, Magar, Gurung, Tamang and Tibetan.
Nepali, once called Khas language, has spread its influence across the country due to the “Nepali language only” policy adopted right from the period of Prithvi Narayan Shah till the end of the Panchayat system. Now, it appeals to the Nepali people as their own language. Therefore, during the People’s Movements of 1990 and of 2006, political leaders made speeches in Nepali to win public support, and they became successful in their mission. Even now, the president addresses the people of Nepal in Nepali. It shows that only Nepali can carry the sentiment of Nepali nationalism. Therefore, it should be used as the official national language, and Hindi should be used as a regional language.
(The author is an associate professor at the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University)
Posted on: 2010-05-26 08:11
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