Kangana Ranaut has said that Sanskrit should be made India’s national language. Her views come amid the controversy over Hindi which erupted after a Twitter feud started between Ajay Devgn and Kichcha Sudeep. Ajay had taken offence over Sudeep’s statement that ‘Hindi is not our national language’ and rebuked him asking that why does he dub his films from his mother tongue to Hindi in order to release them in Hindi speaking belt.
Speaking at the trailer launch event of her film Dhaakad, Kangana weighed in on the debate and said, “We (system and society) are a country of a lot of diversities, languages, and cultures. And it is our birthright to feel proud of our respective culture and language. I am a Pahadi. However, when we consider our nation, in order to make it one unit, we need a thread to connect all of us together. When the constitution was made, Hindi became a national language.”
She further said, “And now when you say Tamil is actually older than Hindi, it should be noted that Sanskrit is older than that. In my opinion, Sanskrit should be our national language, because Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati, Hindi, all these languages originated from Sanskrit. I do not have the answer if you ask me if so, why Sanskrit wasn’t made our national language instead of Hindi. Those decisions would have been made during a certain time. There are a lot of layers to this issue. And when you are talking about language, you should be aware of all these layers. When you deny Hindi, you are denying the constitution and the government of Delhi.”
The actress also spoke about how English connects people across the world and said, “When you go abroad, the German, Spanish, French - they are very proud of their language. But no matter how dark the colonial history is, fortunately, or unfortunately, English has become that link. Today even within our country we are using English as the link to communicate. Should that be the link? Or should Hindi, Sanskrit, or Tamil be that link? We have to decide that. We have to make that call. So keeping all these in mind, a decisive call should be taken. As of now, Hindi is the national language.”
Extending support to Ajay, Kangana said, “And when Ajay Devgn ji said, Hindi is our national language, he is not wrong. But I understand the sentiment of Sudeep and he is not wrong either. And if people saying that Kannada and Tamil are older than Hindi, then they aren’t wrong either. Also it is very unfortunate that there is a debate on South and North films. They have always received step motherly treatment and it shouldn't have been so in the first place. It is also very unfortunate that we have never had a South actor in Bollywood as a leading actor. If things were under my control, I would say Sanskrit is the legitimate language, from which German, English, and French have originated. Why don’t we have the Sanskrit language as the national language? Why is Sanskrit not mandatory in schools? I dont know that.”
India doesn't have a national language, and Hindi and Kannada are among the 22 languages listed in the eighth schedule of the Constitution. Both Hindi and English are official languages that are used by the Union Government for its workings.
(Source: PTI)
