Stop Hindi Imposition Campaign

The Stop Hindi Imposition campaign is an internet activism campaign attempting to bring linguistic equality to India.[1] It started as hashtag activism campaign.[2] The movement started in August 2015 when users shared examples and stories of Hindi imposition with the hashtags #StopHindiImposition, #StopHindiImperialism and #NotHindiRepublic in January 2016.

Origin

The Indian people speak 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. The official languages of the Union Government are Hindi in the Devanagari script and English. The 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages that have been referred to as scheduled languages and given official recognition and encouragement. The Government of India awarded the distinction of "classical language" to Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Odia.[3] In 2006, an "Anti Hindi-imposition conference" was held in Bangalore on 14 September, which is celebrated as Hindi Divas ("Hindi Day") in Indian central government institutions. The aim of the conference was to discuss plans for countering the imposition of Hindi on Kannadigas and the central government's Rajbhasha policy.[4]

On the 69th Independence Day of India, Narendra Modi delivered his prime ministerial speech in Hindi. This launched the movement, which slowly started trending on Twitter in several cities in South India, including Bangalore and Chennai. Government advertisements and websites that used Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states were pointed out by online activists.[5][6] The hashtag #StopHindiImposition trended nationally on 23 August 2015.[7] Internet users raised issues including the absence of local languages in the security and safety instructions on flight announcements, trains and even LPG cylinders.[8] In Bangalore, activists questioned the use of Hindi over other linguistic majorities in the trains of Namma Metro.[9]

Reach and Impact

The Twitter activity launched a debate on issues faced by non-Hindi speakers.[10] Previously, the announcements at Bengaluru Metro stations and inside the trains were made in English and Hindi. Post-campaign, Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) started making more announcements in Kannada, and Hindi announcements have been reduced.[11]

The campaign was covered by news media and non-Hindi websites. It also got support from major cities in south and west India, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Mysuru and Mumbai.[12]

Photo Exhibition

A group of techies organised a photo exhibition at Ravindra Kalakshetra Art Gallery on 13 September 2015 on "India's language policy must promote equality".[8]

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, April 13, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.