Hindi is understood by more than 60% of India’s population and is in the top five spoken languages in the world. Should it be made as one of the official UN languages? Hindi is also one of the India’s official language along with Bengali, Telugu, Marathi , Tamil and other languages. (17 in total)
India wants Hindi recognised as UN language
NEW DELHI (AFP) - The Indian government is pushing for the United Nations (news - web sites) to recognise Hindi as an official language of the world body, Junior Foreign Minister Digvijay Singh has said.
Singh told the upper house of parliament that a foreign ministry committee had been set up to push India’s case, the United News of India news agency reported Thursday.
The UN currently recognises Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish as official languages.
Hindi is spoken by nearly 40 percent of India’s billion-plus population. There are 17 official languages in India.
Singh said the government was coordinating its efforts with 20 countries in which Hindi enjoyed priority.
The government was also funding a World Hindi Secretariat in Mauritius that is intended to promote the language and for which a memorandum of understanding had been signed between the two countries.
Indians constitute 70 percent of the population in Mauritius.
A substantial number of people living in countries such as Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname trace their ancestry to India from where indentured labour was imported in the 19th century under the British rule
Hindi is spoken by a lot of the world's population, but as far as I understand it is the official language of only one UN member state.
Hence it's a poor choice to be considered a UN language. Languages such as Arabic, English, French, and Spanish are all the official languages of a large range of UN members, whilst Chinese and Russian are the official language of UN Security Council permanent members and hence cannot be ignored.
I am kinda indifferent to this question. Would it matter if Hindi becomes an official language in the UN? I mean, its probably just symbolic, anyway. The Indian Ambassador to the UN will still tune into the English translation on his headphone, just to be sure he is hearing what the rest of the world is hearing. Or even if he tunes into Hindi translation, no big deal.
We can slice and dice this issue several ways, talking about statistics and stuff. I’d say they should even consider make the remaining 100+ (whatever) official languages of member countries as official language of UN too. More power to them. In these tough times, atleast a few more translators will get jobs. :k:
Yes, It is more symbolic. None of the languages from the Indian subcontinent are of much value to the world market. None of the software developed is catered to Indian languages. It's a sad fact that though Sanskrit is considered a very well designed language (grammatically and phonetically) and so are other Indian languages derived from Sanskrit , they have no chance to compete before English.
In the next 100 years many Indian languages would become extinct.
Well, I am all for preserving languages and everything.. but if no one is speaking them, then it becomes kinda hard. Right?
I don'tt hink Hindi will become extint, though. I am sure, India being such a huge and diverse country, must have 100's of languages and dialects. If some of them fall by the way side, due to lack of interest, its probably all part of the evolution process.
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*Originally posted by Faisal: *
Well, I am all for preserving languages and everything.. but if no one is speaking them, then it becomes kinda hard. Right?
I don'tt hink Hindi will become extint, though. I am sure, India being such a huge and diverse country, must have 100's of languages and dialects. If some of them fall by the way side, due to lack of interest, its probably all part of the evolution process.
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7% classified as tribals. Indo-Aryan languages: 74.24%, Dravidian languages: , 23.86%, Austro-Asiatic languages 1.16%, Tibeto-Burman languages , .62% 15 national languages. 1,683 'mother tongues' (official figure). An estimated 850 languages in daily use
I do not think Hindu or even Urdu are of any value in the world stage. Take Arabic for example, from Morocco to Iraq, Arabic is spoken, or French, which is the mother tongue of many former colonies in the world.
Between grinding poverty, and many internal issues, is it even a good idea for the Indians to expend energy in a futile effort?
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*Originally posted by RajputFury: *
I do not think Hindu or even Urdu are of any value in the world stage. Take Arabic for example, from Morocco to Iraq, Arabic is spoken, or French, which is the mother tongue of many former colonies in the world.
Between grinding poverty, and many internal issues, is it even a good idea for the Indians to expend energy in a futile effort?
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we need south asians to be 100% literate . no vilagers interested in un debate rather watch some hindi films
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*Originally posted by RajputFury: *
I do not think Hindu or even Urdu are of any value in the world stage. Take Arabic for example, from Morocco to Iraq, Arabic is spoken, or French, which is the mother tongue of many former colonies in the world.
Between grinding poverty, and many internal issues, is it even a good idea for the Indians to expend energy in a futile effort?
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Arabic is the offical language of 22 nations, not to mention other Muslims who speak it very well and who teach it as a 2nd/3rd lang.
hindi? it’s not necessary as there are only a small handful of nations that have hindi as an official language…i could be wrong…maybe it is ONLY india. i’d vote no.
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*Originally posted by mufakkar: *
^But its not a real language...its the creation of a school teacher.... in the 19th centurey...more food for thought
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ohh really ??? time to refresh your knowledge of history. It was there for hundreds of year as "hindustani" and its cousin written in arabic script and closer to arabic/persian was known as Urdu. But for a common person in northern India there was no difference between these two. Its been a language of common people and such langauges are always affected with the state of the society, like this days we hear of a new version called "hinglish" ; but sure hindi is still there.
Why dont we see this whole discussion frm this point of view- around 800 million people around the world speek hindi/urdu! And its close to number of ppl who speek chinese!
ohh really ??? time to refresh your knowledge of history. It was there for hundreds of year as "hindustani" and its cousin written in arabic script and closer to arabic/persian was known as Urdu.
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Why don't you read some history books and find out who designated the language as "Hindustani" and when? Study the history of Hindi and you will see that it comes across as nothing more that a plagiarized sanskrit "cover language" if you will of Urdu.
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Why dont we see this whole discussion frm this point of view- around 800 million people around the world speek hindi/urdu! And its close to number of ppl who speek chinese!
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Is that the reason why all Indians here speak to each other in hinglish? "Can you speak Malyalam Ajay? really thats cool me too...."
Why don't you read some history books and find out who designated the language as "Hindustani" and when? Study the history of Hindi and you will see that it comes across as nothing more that a plagiarized sanskrit "cover language" if you will of Urdu.
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well I have my share of history read. I give the same suggestion to you without any intended contempt; Also read some world history book, not some paki version.
Well a few subtle points , that might give you direction- if you study grammar of hindi, you 'll find there are four kinds of words -
1) Tatsam - words derived frm original sanskrit
2) Tadbhav - sanskrit words , distorted with common man speeking
3) Desaj - words originated in country
4) Videsaj - foreign words accepted in hindi.
which precisely means what I said in last post.
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Is that the reason why all Indians here speak to each other in hinglish? "Can you speak Malyalam Ajay? really thats cool me too...."
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Well you are talking abt desi mentality not about a langauge; you know well same thign applies to hindi/urdu/tamil/telugu !
My point is that hindi(or some variation) most widely spoken in sub-continent. And its language of common man. Please dnt cite examples from desis in US/UK. You go to a grocery store in Delhi and shopkeeper wnt speek in english. Going by your logic, only english should have been the official language!
NEW DELHI: Hindi is likely to be accorded the status of an official language at the United Nations within a span of four to five months, Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay Singh said on Friday.
“Around 25 members of the UN share unanimity on this matter and we are hopeful of garnering the support of the remaining members within the next four to five months,” Singh said in an interview here.
A proposal on this would placed in the coming Assembly session of the UN where it would be passed, he said.
Singh admitted that such a move would mean an expenditure of Rs 100 crore on part of India, but said the issue was not that of money and government was willing to pay it to the UN.
Countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, and Mauritius were some of the countries which had agreed to India’s proposal and talks were on with other UN members to garner a majority in the Assembly, he said.
