In India, 43.5% of the population speaks Hindi. What is the problem in making Hindi as the national language of India?

印度43.5%的人口说印地语。为什么不把印地语作为印度的国语？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Nagesh V

79% of Indian Population is Hindu.

Should we remove all other religions and convert everyone to Hinduism?

52% of Indian population is Male.

Should we kill all female population to make India the Male country?

79%的印度人口是印度教徒。

我们是不是应该废除其他所有宗教，让所有人皈依印度教呢？

印度52%的人口是男性。

我们是不是应该杀掉所有女性人口，让印度成为男儿国呢？

More than 50% of the Indian celebrates New year.

Should we make January 1st the National festival?

On average, an Indian eats 5.5 kg of rice every month, as compared to around 4 kgs wheat.

Should we stop producing wheat and grow only rice as major portion of the people eat rice compared to wheat?

超过50%的印度人庆祝新年。

我们要不要把一月一日定为国庆节呢？

平均而言，一个印度人每月吃5.5公斤大米，吃4公斤小麦。

我们是不是应该不种小麦，只种大米就行了？毕竟跟小麦相比，吃大米的人更多。

71% of Indian population is Non-vegetarian.

Should we ban vegetarian food in India because major portion of the people are non-vegetarians.

40% of Indian households owns a two wheeler compared to 15% of four wheeler.

Should we ban the production of 4 wheeler in India?

71%的印度人口都是非素食者。

我们是不是应该在印度禁止素食，因为大部分人都是非素食者。

40%的印度家庭拥有两轮车，而拥有四轮汽车的家庭只有15%。

我们是不是应该禁止在印度生产4轮汽车？

I know some of the points are as stupid as this question, sorry for that :P.

India is so different in each and every way. Be it a Language we speak, religion, food, culture etc. Even with so many differences we are united as Indians. So, let us try to maintain that unity instead of creating a divisive thoughts among people.

我知道上面有些问题和标题一样愚蠢，很抱歉。

无论是我们所说的语言、宗教、食物还是文化等等，印度在各个方面都有丰富的多样性。尽管有这么多不同，但我们都是印度人，都要团结一心。我们要努力保持这种团结，不要认为制造分裂的思想。

Hariharan Swaminathan

Let me provide a simple example from the Union Territory of Pondicherry (aka Puducherry). There are four enclaves (districts) that make up the UT of Puducherry.

The total population of Puducherry is about 12.5 lakhs, of which, the districts of Karaikal & Pondicherry make up to 92% of the population. These two districts speak Tamil predominantly, if not, absolutely.

我可以举一个简单的例子—朋迪榭里(又名本地治里)，四块飞地组成了朋迪榭里的领地。

朋迪榭里的总人口约为12.5万，其中加里加尔和朋迪榭里地区占人口的92%。这两个地区主要讲泰米尔语。

Now, the other two districts - Mahe and Yanam account for 3.5% and 4.5% of the population of Puducherry, respectively and they speak Malayalam and Telugu, predominantly (read as absolutely).

现在，另外两个区- 马埃和亚南分别占朋迪榭里人口的3.5%和4.5%，他们主要讲马来亚拉姆语和泰卢固语。

The official languages of Mahe are Malayalam, English and French

The official languages of Yanam are Telugu, English and French.

That’s how things operate in a de ocracy, where, we do not automatically make people of Puducherry living in Mahe and Yanam to forcibly learn Tamil, because, 92% of Puducherians speak Tamil.

This is de ocracy: Govt. of Pondicherry - Electricity Department website (Screenshot below) has English, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam versions

马埃的官方语言是马拉雅拉姆语、英语和法语。

亚南的官方语言是泰卢固语、英语和法语。

我们不会因为92%的朋迪榭里人都说泰米尔语，而强制要求生活在马埃和亚南的朋迪榭里人也都要学习泰米尔语。

朋迪榭里政府-电力部门网站(截图如下)有英语、泰米尔语、泰卢固语和马来亚拉姆语版本

This is imposition, hegemony, arrogance or whatever you may want to call it: The website of Central Govt. for National Informatics Centre (Screenshot) has just English and Hindi versions.

而这是强制、霸道、傲慢等等，随便你怎么说：印度中央政府国家信息中心的网站只有英语和印地语版本。

Raagul Nagarajan

I will give you an idea about what would happen when we have a lingua franca in a country like India.

You definitely heard about United Kingdom. One of the so-called super powers and the ones who ruled over India for a good part of two centuries.

我来告诉你们，如果我们在印度这样的国家推行一种通用语会发生什么后果。

你一定听说过英国吧。所谓的超级大国之一，统治印度长达两个世纪之久。

Before they were UK, they were multiple kingdoms (duh… it's United “Kingdom” for a reason), each with its own specific language / dialect (Scotland - Scottish Gaelic, Ireland - Irish, Wales - Welsh). Now with UK being formed and English being termed their lingua franca, almost all the native languages have been obliterated. Less than 1% population can even speak their native language. Forget written.

在成为“大不列颠联合王国”之前，英国也存在多个王国，所以才会叫“联合王国”嘛，每个王国都有自己的语言和方言，苏格兰-苏格兰盖尔语，爱尔兰-爱尔兰语，威尔士-威尔士语。而随着大不列颠联合王国的成立，英语成了他们的通用语，其他王国的语言逐渐消失。只有不到1%的人还会说自己的母语，写就更不可能了。

This happens because, once there is a national language, and is considered part of your identity, you make very little effort to learn more languages. This is the power of convenience.

This is what a lingua franca does, when there are multiple language in exstence.

India should not have a common language. I will go as far as to say, India “cannot” have a common language.

这是因为，一旦选定了一种国家性语言，并且跟你的身份挂钩，你就没有动力去学习更多的语言了。这就是便利性的作用。

当存在多种语言时，通用语就会导致这样的结果。

印度不应该有通用语。我甚至敢说，印度“无法”拥有通用语。

Let's not destroy our diversity.

Now, proposing English as the link language, while on periphery sound lame, is a good idea for two reasons.

我们不要破坏了印度的多样性。

现在有人提议把英语作为通用语，虽然听起来没什么说服力，但却也是一个好主意，原因有二。

We will always know English is not anyway connected to our root. In fact there is an abhorance towards the language owing to the colonial history. So, even if we speak, it will never become part of our identity

Second, I paraphrase what a great Tamil Leader (C N Annadurai) once said, if you have to learn English anyway for connecting with international community, why not use it as the link language too. Sounds rational, doesn’t it

我们很清楚，英语和我们的文化之根无关。事实上因为殖民历史，人们对英语抱有一种憎恶。所以就算我们使用英语，英语也永远无法融入我们的身份。

其次，我转述一位伟大的泰米尔领袖(C N 阿那度赖)曾经说过的话，如果你别无他选，必须学习英语来跟国际社会打交道，为什么不顺便把英语作为通用语呢？听起来挺合理的，不是吗？

Anbazhagan Ambrose

70% of India eats non-vegetarian. We can apply this same “43.5%” logic to this as well and make non-vegetarian food as national food of India too. Just saying.

Does national food sound dumb? Yes it does. So does a notional, sorry, national language.

70%的印度人是非素食者。我们也可以把这个“43.5%”的逻辑应用到这个问题上，把荤菜作为印度的国菜。我就这么一说。

国菜这个说法听起来愚蠢不？是的，是挺愚蠢。所以抱歉，国家语言也是如此。

SriTeja Jeedigunta

Ok listen. Hindi is a beautiful language and I absolutely have no problem Hindi being the national language of India.

My first language was Hindi and I partly grew up in Delhi. So I speak very fluent Hindi and I also happen to love the language.

听着，印地语是一门美丽的语言，我绝对赞成印地语成为印度的国家语言。

我在德里长大，我的第一语言就是印地语。我能说流利的印地语，我也很喜欢这门语言。

Now pay attention to the following -

My mother tongue is Telugu. I was born in Hyderabad to a Telugu speaking family. I speak Telangana dialect with family and also the Andhra's godavari, Vijayanagaram, Prakasam and Chittor dialects inspired by several postings my dad had all over Andhra Pradesh.

However, I also speak very fluent Tamil. Because, I spent a good six years of my life in Tamilnadu, studying engineering for four years and began my career in IT and worked there for almost two years. I love Tamil. The language is like a beautiful old painting.

现在请继续往下读

我的母语是泰卢固语。我出生在海德拉巴一个讲泰卢固语的家庭。我和家人说泰兰加纳方言，也说安得拉邦的godavari、Vijayanagaram、Prakasam和Chittor方言，这是因为我父亲在安得拉邦各地都工作过。

不过，我也会说非常流利的泰米尔语。因为我在泰米尔纳德邦居住了六年时间，在那里读了四年工程学课程，我还在那里开启了IT职业生涯并工作了近两年。我喜欢泰米尔语。泰米尔语就像一幅美丽的古画。

Here comes the interesting part now. I'm married to an Odia woman for last 8 years. I also speak decent Odia and understand the language completely. I love Odia language and Odia people.

At work, I speak English. I've been working for the last 13 years in IT and English is the usual mode of communication with the whole world. I also love the English language because its funny.

Now that I know a few languages, I can say the following -

I have no issues Hindi being the national language of India. I'd say, go for it and pass the bill.

现在有趣的部分来了。我和一个奥迪亚姑娘结婚8年了。所以我还会说一口流利的奥迪亚语，也能完全理解这种语言。我喜欢奥迪亚语和奥迪亚人。

我在工作中使用英语。我已经在IT行业工作了13年，英语是和全世界交流的常用语言。我也喜欢英语，因为英语很有趣。

鉴于我会说好几门语言，我必须要说——

我对印地语成为印度的国家语言完全没有异议。我想说，努力争取吧，通过这项法案。

Or, go ahead and make Odia the national language of India. While you are at it, think about the 10,000 year old Tamil language and 4000+ year old Telugu too.

But.. before national language topic was brought up by our founding fathers, they spoke of two key things the country was built on - DEMOCRACY & CONSTITUTION!

I’d give higher priority to those.

Democracy & our Constitution instills two key rights for every citizen of India - FREEDOM AND CHOICE!

或者把奥迪亚语作为印度的国家语言。想想已经有着1万年历史的泰米尔语和4000多年历史的泰卢固语。

但. .在我们的国父们提出国家语言这个话题之前，他们还谈到了国家所依赖的两个关键——皿煮和宪法！

我认为皿煮和宪法才是最重要的事。

我们的宪法为每个印度公民赋予了两项重要的权利——自由和选择！

so I’d say, install any language you like, as the national language. I love all Indian languages. They have an amazing history and they are beautiful.

But dont impose it on me.

Give me a choice. If I am interested, I'll learn.

I'll learn the language if it's required. I'll learn it if I find it beautiful.

But if you make it mandatory, then you are hurting the very principles our country was built on.

Freedom of speech. That's my fundamental right.

所以我想说，你可以把你喜欢的任何语言视为国家语言。我喜欢所有的印度语言。他们都有着令人惊叹的历史，他们太美了。

但不要强加在我身上。

必须给我一个选择。如果我有兴趣，我自然会学习的。

如果有必要，我会学习这门语言。如果我觉得它很美，我也会学的。

但如果你强迫我学，那么你就伤害了我们国家赖以建立的准则。

言 论自由。这是我的基本权利。

Harish Natarajan T

Number of crows in india is greater than number of peacock. But what is the national bird of india?

Number of dogs in india is greater than number of tigers. But what is the national animal of india?

Number of roadside hibiscus is greater than number of lotus flowers in india. But what is the national flower?

印度的乌鸦比孔雀还要多。但是印度的国鸟是什么呢？

印度的狗比老虎还要多。但是印度的国兽是什么呢？

印度的芙蓉花比莲花还要多。但是印度的国花是什么呢？

So National “Thing” of a country should have a specialty, prosperity, uniqueness and a greater connect with the country over years. Without any such specialty, only because it is spoken by a wider audience how can “Hindi" become a national language of india?!

Already Hindi is one of the official languages of india. Then what is the status attained by declaring it as a “National language" ?

所以，一个国家的“代表之物”应该具有特殊性、繁荣性和独特性，并和这个国家有更紧密的联系。单纯因为说印地语的民众更多，就把印地语列为印度的国家语言，这怎么可行呢？

印地语已经是印度的官方语言之一了，把印地语列为“民族语言”，又能怎么样呢？

USA doesn't even has English as an official or national language. Russian is the official language of “Russia” and not ‘National Language’. French and English are the official language of Canada and not “National Language". What is the concept of making a language as “National Language" and in what way does it makes profit to a country?!

美国甚至没有把英语作为官方或国家语言。俄语是“俄罗斯”的官方语言，但不是“国家语言”。法语和英语是加拿大的官方语言，但不是“国家语言”。把某种语言列为“国家语言”的概念是什么？又能为这个国家带来什么好处呢？