Three-language formula: Chhattisgarh as a case study

The NEP's approach could give a fillip to linguistic diversity and also improve education

- ANURAG BEHAR

Growing up mostly in Bhopal, then the capital of undivided Madhya Pradesh, I was exposed to a range of language variants that we bundle between Hindi and Urdu, all of which I loved. English was a part of the environment, including at school. My first language, though, was neither Hindi in any of its forms, nor English. It was Chhattisgarhi. My family hailed from a small town called Sarangarh in Chhattisgarh. At home, we spoke Chhattisgarhi.

By the time I graduated from school, I counted various versions of Hindi, Urdu, English and Chhattisgarhi as my own languages. For college, I went to Trichy in Tamil Nadu, and developed deep admiration for the Tamil language and culture. I learnt to understand the language, but could not speak fluently. Now I have been living in Karnataka for decades, amid Kannada's rich linguistic and cultural heritage.

Even as a child, I noticed and was puzzled by the curious phenomenon of many in my extended family and friends circle, living in Chhattisgarh, preferring to speak in Hindi and not Chhattisgarhi (which also has variants). Over time, it became clear that it was a much wider social phenomenon. It was almost as though Hindi was the language of mobility, of the elite, or the 'court language' as it were. As you moved up, or wanted to move up, or wanted to show that you already had, you abandoned your own beautiful and sweet language for another.

We ourselves, not all but a significant proportion of Chhattisgarh's people, were imposing Hindi on ourselves. Despite my love for Hindi, and greater fluency in it, I found this abhorrent. It was particularly galling that we ourselves were doing this.