Interestingly the 60-year-old former Army Chief attacked communalism, parochialism and linguism. Gen. Cariappa advised the Congress leaders to stop imposing unwanted things like Hindi upon the people, till such time as the people themselves decided upon their national language.
His interview given in 1961 has been posted as the first comment.
– CLN Newsdesk
The claim that Hindi makes one “more Indian” is deeply flawed. Does speaking or knowing Hindi confer a deeper Indianness? Are Hindi speakers more Indian than those who speak Tamil, Assamese, or Bengali?
The myth of Hindi as India’s unifying language has long been dismantled. Today, for better or worse, English functions as the lingua franca across universities, courts, corporations and bureaucracies. Not knowing Hindi is not a barrier to participating in public life. Those who insist otherwise are rarely asked: in what way is Hindi essential?
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INDIA IS A NATION – BORN OUT OF A CONCEPT
GEN CARIAPPA. – BOMBAY, Sept. 29 —
From the Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore) – Saturday 30 September 1961.
The former Indian Army Commander- in-Chief, Gen. K. M. Cariappa, on Wednesday suggested India’s division into three or four multilingual administrative units as a remedy to “the present defective and sadly inefficient administration based on emotional ideologies.” In an interview published here, the 60-year-old former army Chief attacked communalism, parochialism and linguism as “three wicked children born to an ogress called linguistic states ushered in by the ruling Congress party.”
“India is not a nation in true sense of the word as its administrators are busy with interstate border and other disputes and talk in terms of backward and forward classes,” Gen. Cariappa said. Advising the Congress leaders to stop imposing unwanted things like Hindi upon the people.
He pleaded for the retention of English “which is the only language capable of binding the Indian people together till such time as the people themselves decided upon their national language.