Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have combined to made radical policy initiatives in recent times. EPA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have combined to made radical policy initiatives in recent times. EPA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have combined to made radical policy initiatives in recent times. EPA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have combined to made radical policy initiatives in recent times. EPA

Imposing Hindi across India threatens to undermine its linguistic diversity


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Standing before a packed stadium in Houston, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked his audience a rhetorical question: how are things in India? Before the 50,000 Indian-Americans who gathered to greet him on his US tour last week, he answered in Hindi: “All is well” – then repeated the answer in Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali and four other languages.

The point he was making was more significant than the message, but just in case it passed people by, Mr Modi later made it explicit. “Our various languages are an important identity of our liberal and democratic society,” he said. “For centuries, our nation has been moving forward with dozens of languages and hundreds of dialects.”

It felt like firefighting: an exertion to battle the heat that Mr Modi’s government has been facing this month after Amit Shah, his home minister, suggested it was “extremely necessary” for Hindi to project India’s identity in the world.

“Today, if any one language can do the job of holding the country together with the thread of unity, it is indeed the most widely spoken, Hindi,” Mr Shah tweeted a fortnight ago.

His remarks have ignited a blaze of controversy and echoes previous clashes over moves to impose Hindi upon a nation with thousands of languages and dialects. And it has raised the fear that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will try to do so again.

With remarkable wisdom, BR Ambedkar and his fellow architects of India’s constitution avoided designating a national language when they drew up the document in 1949. Instead, they named two official languages in which the federal government could conduct its business: English and Hindi. India’s states, they added, could determine their own official languages.

In a country where 43 per cent of people use Hindi as their mother tongue, this was a reasonable compromise.

Yet even as provinces were being formed along linguistic lines, this arrangement nearly unravelled in the mid-1960s. The Indian government moved to discard English altogether as an official language. Among the implications of this was that civil service examinations would be conducted in Hindi.

This set off violent protests. In Tamil Nadu and other parts of south India, where the languages belong to a different linguistic family altogether, riots ensued. The government backed down, not only retaining English but conducting public service examinations in regional languages as well.

There have been other protests since then, although none quite as violent. Most recently, in 2014, the newly elected BJP administration instructed federal government employees to use Hindi preferentially over English on their social media accounts – an instruction that was rolled back after Tamil Nadu complained.

As a result of this opposition, India has largely maintained its linguistic diversity, even as its neighbours have struggled with theirs. An undivided Pakistan's attempt to impose Urdu upon its Bengali-speaking eastern half played a role in the formation of Bangladesh in 1971. In Sri Lanka, a civil war raged from 1983 to 2009 after the minority Tamils saw that the majority Sinhalese people and their culture, including their language, were being accorded preferential treatment.

But Mr Modi’s BJP, with its large parliamentary majority and its role in governing 18 out of 29 Indian states directly or in coalition, could conceivably upset this fine balance.

Ideologically, the spread of Hindi aligns neatly with the BJP’s interests. Its version of Hindu nationalism is rooted deeply in the culture of the north Indian Hindi-speaking heartland. The south and the east have traditionally proven less susceptible to the party’s religious rhetoric but recent electoral results in these regions show a turn is under way.

The BJP government also rules India with the strongest federal hand seen in decades. In its revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood and in its plans to formulate a pan-Indian National Register of Citizens, modelled on its project in Assam, we see clear ambitions to define a narrow, rigid idea of Indian identity – one that poses risks for minorities of every stripe.

Further, as India's economy continues to be challenged under Mr Modi's watch, there is more incentive for the BJP to do what it does so well: misdirect the public by talking up cultural values and nationalism in a bid to distract voters from real issues.

Its intentions are clear. Last year Mr Modi’s then finance minister Arun Jaitley broke with tradition and presented sections of his budget in Hindi. Until then, budgets had been presented only in English – a language understood, admittedly, by a smaller section of the populace but still one that belongs to all Indians.

Even in regional airports, which are administered by the federal government, announcements are made in Hindi before being made in the local language. Federal agencies such as the telecom giant BSNL rarely field English speakers to respond to customers. Only an uproar convinced the federal highways authority to stop replacing English with Hindi in highway markers in Tamil Nadu.

Protestors burn India's Home Minister Amit Shah in effigy during a protest against his proposal of 'One Nation, One Language'. Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters
Protestors burn India's Home Minister Amit Shah in effigy during a protest against his proposal of 'One Nation, One Language'. Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters

If the BJP decides to press ahead with its effort to make Hindi the country’s pre-eminent language, it might feel encouraged by change on the ground of a more organic kind.

Half a century after the anti-Hindi riots, India is a visibly different country. Domestic mobility and migration have increased. In Bengaluru – a city whose auto rickshaw drivers spoke almost nothing but Kannada three decades ago – Hindi now works as a lingua franca in many situations. With the explosion of cable TV and social media, the reach of Bollywood has expanded.

But to conflate these voluntary shifts with a readiness for the imposition of Hindi would be a mistake.

The anger that greeted Mr Shah’s statement showed that linguistic identity is still fiercely protected and remains a provocative issue. Even with its political dominance, the BJP will find it difficult to force Hindi on other parts of the nation without meeting widespread agitation.

What is far more likely is that the government will attempt to smuggle Hindi in through the back door, switching it for English or making its use non-negotiable in an increasing number of situations. For anyone who prizes India’s linguistic diversity, this is the campaign they must watch out for.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Scoreline:

Barcelona 2

Suarez 85', Messi 86'

Atletico Madrid 0

Red card: Diego Costa 28' (Atletico)

UAE squad

Humaira Tasneem (c), Chamani Senevirathne (vc), Subha Srinivasan, NIsha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Esha Oza, Ishani Senevirathne, Heena Hotchandani, Keveesha Kumari, Judith Cleetus, Chavi Bhatt, Namita D’Souza.

The Greatest Royal Rumble card as it stands

The Greatest Royal Rumble card as it stands

50-man Royal Rumble - names entered so far include Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, The New Day and Elias

Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match

WWE World Heavyweight ChampionshipAJ Styles (champion) v Shinsuke Nakamura

Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe

United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal

SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos

Raw Tag Team Championship (currently vacant) Cesaro and Sheamus v Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt

Casket match The Undertaker v Chris Jericho

Singles match John Cena v Triple H

Cruiserweight Championship Cedric Alexander v tba

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
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Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
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Director: Jafar Panahi

Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr

Rating: 4/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to help

Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?

If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.

Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.

Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).

Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal. 

Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.

By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.

As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.

Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.

He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.” 

This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”

Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.

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Directed by: Walt Dohrn, David Smith

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake

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Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

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The five new places of worship

Church of South Indian Parish

St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch

St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch

St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais

Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais

 

UAE SQUAD FOR ASIAN JIU-JITSU CHAMPIONSHIP

Men’s squad: Faisal Al Ketbi, Omar Al Fadhli, Zayed Al Kathiri, Thiab Al Nuaimi, Khaled Al Shehhi, Mohamed Ali Al Suwaidi, Farraj Khaled Al Awlaqi, Muhammad Al Ameri, Mahdi Al Awlaqi, Saeed Al Qubaisi, Abdullah Al Qubaisi and Hazaa Farhan

Women's squad: Hamda Al Shekheili, Shouq Al Dhanhani, Balqis Abdullah, Sharifa Al Namani, Asma Al Hosani, Maitha Sultan, Bashayer Al Matrooshi, Maha Al Hanaei, Shamma Al Kalbani, Haya Al Jahuri, Mahra Mahfouz, Marwa Al Hosani, Tasneem Al Jahoori and Maryam Al Amri

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.

Part three: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

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How it works

A $10 hand-powered LED light and battery bank

Device is operated by hand cranking it at any time during the day or night 

The charge is stored inside a battery

The ratio is that for every minute you crank, it provides 10 minutes light on the brightest mode

A full hand wound charge is of 16.5minutes 

This gives 1.1 hours of light on high mode or 2.5 hours of light on low mode

When more light is needed, it can be recharged by winding again

The larger version costs between $18-20 and generates more than 15 hours of light with a 45-minute charge

No limit on how many times you can charge

 

War and the virus
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Year of birth: 1988

Place of birth: Baghdad

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Scoreline

UAE 2-1 Saudi Arabia

UAE Mabkhout 21’, Khalil 59’

Saudi Al Abed (pen) 20’

Man of the match Ahmed Khalil (UAE)

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Day 1 fixtures (Saturday)

Men 1.45pm, Malaysia v Australia (Court 1); Singapore v India (Court 2); UAE v New Zealand (Court 3); South Africa v Sri Lanka (Court 4)

Women Noon, New Zealand v South Africa (Court 3); England v UAE (Court 4); 5.15pm, Australia v UAE (Court 3); England v New Zealand (Court 4)

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One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient

The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers

Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades

Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic

First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations

Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades

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Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar

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Western Region Asia Cup T20 Qualifier

Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman

The two finalists advance to the Asia qualifier in Malaysia in August

 

Group A

Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar

Group B

UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia

 

UAE group fixtures

Sunday Feb 23, 9.30am, v Iran

Monday Feb 25, 1pm, v Kuwait

Tuesday Feb 26, 9.30am, v Saudi

 

UAE squad

Ahmed Raza, Rohan Mustafa, Alishan Sharafu, Ansh Tandon, Vriitya Aravind, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Karthik Meiyappan, Basil Hameed, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Ayaz, Zahoor Khan, Chirag Suri, Sultan Ahmed