The High Court decision has further cleared air about status of Hindi. The court held that though a large number of Indians feel that Hindi is national language, it is not officially recognised as the country's national language.
The Gujarat High Court made the observations while hearing a petition filed by one, Suresh Kachhadia. The petitioner had said that all packaged commodities should carry details about the goods in Hindi, and that should beprinted on cover.
The court however noted that there was no notification that Hindi was a national language. As per the constitution of the country also, there is no national language in India. Hindi is indeed an official language or Raj Bhasha (not Rashtriya Bhasha) along with English.
All other languages including Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and Urdu are national languages and this list of 22 such official languages includes Hindi. But there is no single national language or Rashtriya Bhasha in India.
The figure for Hindi speakers gets higher in census as dialects and languages including Hindustani, Rajasthani, Bihari, Maithili, Bhojpuri,Gondi, Santhali, Malwi, Nimari, Chhattisgarhi, Bundelkhandi, Awadhi and dozens of such major regional languages spoken by indigenous population, tribal and villagers are clubbed in Hindi and listed as part of it.
TIH Bureau
