The article that was published under Public grievance cell on 15th of Sept 2005 ‘Lack of concern for Hindi in Nagaland’ by Shwenlo Semy Rengma, Hindi instructor of Dimapur; Nagaland seem to have captured many Naga youths mind. I am not against anyone or their wishful thinking and can understand that he wrote according to his experience and his golden age. Elder citizens always tend to be true in what they express and share about their knowledge but seldom it is not, on the notice that it can be misleading too. The future Nagas ought to express our thinking and have a right to open up with no fear of disagreement regardless of the age gap.
According to his writing since from 1972 before I was even born he was appointed as a Hindi teacher which is very rare and should be proud to be in those eras. He made it clear through his writing that he have been closely related to CIH and have been in the service of Hindi for the last 32 years. We agree that Hindi is a very rich language and have no harm in learning even knowing how to write and have a good grammar command to interpret more with Indian people. He further stated that in Nagaland, Hindi is not well developed which can be played as a very important role in Integration if urgent necessity of new schemes and ways to further promote Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states are taken up.
He said “Our country is unique. It has various religions, cultures, languages, customs and traditions. In spite of all these differences there is a sense of unity among the people of our country and Hindi can further bind the people in one thread”. First I would like to ask which country he is talking about? Nagalim or India? Is it only the Indian language which is known as Hindi that can bind us (The Nagas’) together? “We should strive to produce Hindi poets and writers like Jaishankar Prasad, Maithili Sharam Gupta, Surya Kant Tripathy ‘Nirala’ and Premchand even in non- Hindi states.…………”Have we ever heard of a Malayali writing a Hindi poem ? If the statement is referred towards the literature side why should we be indianised when our own Naga culture is so unique? I am sorry to feel and know that if senior Naga citizens have an Indian mindset what can we be expected to be taught? I would expect our elders to teach us our history, language and culture first and then follows other nationalities’ language and culture. “….but the lovers of Hindi in non-Hindi states are disappointed because of an indifferent attitude of some Hindi officials who are responsible for the upholding of this language………….”What more can we expect from an Indian government when the RSS Institution in Naga area have mislead many students by teaching two three languages in a go. As an example: Nagas in Manipur and Arunachal which seems complicated for the students. No matter how good the operation is they have marred immensely the mindset of students through wrong education.
“Hindi can be promoted in Nagaland by opening a separate Hindi section at Directorate of School Education Nagaland Kohima ….. Hindi Institute sponsored by the state Govt. has to be strengthened by providing R.C.C. building, modern facilities and equipments under the Central schemes…...If the above measures are fulfilled, and Hindi shall be well developed in our state.” If we are talking about the development of language for binding the Nagas together why do we need an alien Hindi language as such when most of the Nagas speak Nagamese and can form a universal language for Nagas instead of Hindi? And when will it be far easier for the interest of Nagas as a whole? For instance an Ao or Angami would be a much better language and can be developed much further if the same promotion is given to the Naga languages.
I strongly feel that instead of promoting Hindi in Nagaland it will be better to promote Nagamese or the Naga languages. No doubt we still need to work a lot inthose areas as we seldom find words that do not exist in and is a very similar well versed language as Bangali and Assamese. But we also should take a certain note that by taking various Naga tribes words for filling up which does not exist in Nagamese it will be a big and unique step for the unification of Nagas, it will make a unique and beautiful rich Naga languages.
For the Unification of Nagas instead of following Indian way of education, if we adopt our own system by strictly making English a common language and Nagamese or our own mother tongue as a second language instead of Hindi for all the Nagas in Naga areas I feel it will be a great step for Nagas.
Kuknalim
Lemyao Shimray
Former Bihar Navodaya Student
Asian News Channel, London (Reporter)
200A Munirka, New Delhi
