The Hindu Business Line : Take pride in Indian languages: Advani

INDIANS should take pride in their languages and learn to express themselves forcefully. Only then can they hope to gain the respect of the rest of the world, said the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, here today. He added that this could be done without striking any antagonistic posture towards English.

He was speaking at a public meeting on Monday after inaugurating the Raj Bhasha Swarna Jayanthi Bhavan built near the railway station here at a cost of Rs 70 lakh to propagate Hindi.

Mr Advani said the Hindi cinema had done a great deal of service to the cause of the language and many people in non-Hindi speaking States could at least understand what was being said in Hindi, thanks largely to Bollywood.

"I was born and brought up in Karachi and till my 20th year I did not know much Hindi. Whatever little Hindi I picked up was only due to the influence of cinema,'' he said. He said the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha had also done great service to propagate the language in the South. The other Indian languages such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam should be promoted along with Hindi and languages should not be politicised. Much of the opposition to Hindi stemmed from purely political reasons, he said.

"In fact, we have the edge over other Asian countries such as China in certain fields, especially information technology, because of our knowledge of English. It should not be spurned and our approach should be pragmatic,'' he said.

The BJP President, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, said that not much headway could be made in the corridors of power in New Delhi unless one gained mastery over Hindi. "I am speaking from my personal experience and politicians in South India would do well to realise it,'' he said.

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