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One of the main reason behind the 'developing' state of India even after 70 years of independence is its differences which Indians still have in their mind. The

One of the main reason behind the 'developing' state of India even after 70 years of independence is its differences which Indians still have in their mind. The language barrier is the only barrier which is proving to be resistance let alone culture prevention and all that. Languages are just a form of communication between people and people should accept it. People should learn languages like English(Which have vast amount of resources available).As the growing trends suggest India will be the most populated country after 2020 and it will have around 70% of the citizens who will be youngsters. Believe it or not but sooner or later English will dominate(though i believe it's still dominating to bridge the gap between south and north india). In india you can't surf internet properly if you don't have any clue about English and india do have maximum number of smartphone users around the world and that will ofcourse help remove some sort of language barrier between people. Also Modi do promote Hindi(though his mother tongue is gujarati) but I believe he does so because he finds himself more proficent orator in the language. China is one more country which is preserving its culture by speaking chinese and i don't think anyone should stop someone to do so.Though it would be better if there is one unique language with which people should feel unity among themselves.

soneca 9y ago
Brazil never had this problem and it is still 'developing' 195 years after its independence. Same language, not that different regional culture (similar to USA I guess). And Europe as a whole was able to become developed despite its language barriers.
- ravirajx7 9y ago
  Just that it has almost double per capita income(PPP) when compared to India. $1576(76th) vs $7153 (122nd) respectively.
  - deanstag 9y ago
    I think soneca's point was Brazil is still developing irrespective of any language barriers. So how does your statistics on PPP become an argument for that?
    - astrodust 9y ago
      Rampant foreign interference and military juntas have a way of stunting your country's development.
      - deanstag 9y ago
        Are you talking about Brazil or India here? ( I apologize in advance if it looks like I am arguing by asking questions. But I am asking because of curiosity/lack of knowledge )
        astrodust 9y ago
        Specifically Brazil here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Military_Junta_of_1969 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Military_Junta_of_19... Decades of military rule is not good for your economy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_military_government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_military_government Not that India hasn't had more than its fair share of both over the centuries.
    - ravirajx7 9y ago
      There lies a difference between 'developing' & 'developed' and my point regarding it is with the development pace which is comparatively slow against Brazil or any other developing nation which usually has very few language as an official one. Brazil has only one 'Portuguese' as an official language but India has far too many.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
deanstag 9y ago
Promoting a language because the Prime minister finds himself more proficient orator in the language? I find that hard to believe. Do you have sources on this?
- ravirajx7 9y ago
  It's not just that. Ever since he has got his position he is trying to promote India's ethnic values and culture and he's not saying "Bhaiyo aur beheno bas hindi bolo" ( brothers and sisters just speak hindi) and nobody is imposing the language hindi on anyone. But if you're living in a country and serving people(working in government sector) where almost majority of the people speak hindi don't you think you should have some sort of understanding to treat the people in their own language? I live in india and i have seen situations where people find it easy to grasp hindi than any other languages. Out of all those 1600+ language majority of them resembles and sounds like hindi ( just few accent differences are there) rajasthani, marwadi, mewadi, Bhojpuri,urdu, Haryanvi all resembles hindi i.e. if you know even a little bit of hindi you can deal with majority of north indian languages.
  - deanstag 9y ago
    But If there is a better utility for a language like English, why not push for English + Regional Language?
    - nonamechicken 9y ago
      As a South Indian, there is no utility for Hindi other than to interact with North Indians (which is more or less non existent) or to watch Bollywood movies. English got me a job, everything I learn is because of English.
      - ucntseeme 9y ago
        Hindi is taught is schools...its you who dint gave it importance its not about what benefits you get from speaking Hindi..its more about what most states prefer to interact in. Out of 39 states 20 prefer interacting in Hindi..even when they all have different mother tongue. Its just the minority south states prefer speaking in there languages which doesn't matter to other as no migrates there( non existent)
athenot 9y ago
Language is also a connection to culture. More and more I think many places would benefit from embracing two languages—the utilitarian/economic one and the cultural/human one. Regional diversity is a good thing, and certainly doesn't deserve to be sacrificed in the name of economic convenience, at least not as long as we hold human life to be superior to material assets.
soperj 9y ago
Which language is Chinese? Mandarin or Cantonese?
- pySSK 9y ago
  In China, it's Mandarin. Cantonese is mostly mostly dominant and safe in Hong Kong. It is the language of Guangdong Province (Canton) however, it's being slowly phased out by government efforts [1][2] and by demographics (it's where all the factories are – it attracts Mandarin speakers from rest of China who go there to work and, recent trend, they're starting to settle there). [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-forcing-its-biggest-cantonese-speaking-region-to-speak-mandarin-2014-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-forcing-its-biggest-... [2] https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/07/26/clash-over-mandarin%E2%80%99s-ascent-in-guangdong/ https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/07/26/clash-over-ma...
zumu 9y ago
> China is one more country which is preserving its culture by speaking chinese There's so many different languages spoken in China, many of which are dying or endangered. Moreover, China is by no means a mono culture. The government of China actively promotes a singular language and culture at the cost of those on the margins.
- astrodust 9y ago
  This doesn't even count situations where the written language is largely the same, but due to dialect differences the spoken version is almost completely different.
jlg23 9y ago
Given that English is already fragmenting (just read a newspaper from Guyana) and with the example of the Arab language (watch an Egyptian try talking with a Moroccan - bring popcorn): I am not sure your advice is a good one. English, like every other language, limits what you can say to what can be expressed in it. From personal experience, I'd rather recommend to dabble in as many languages as possible: Each new language so far introduced new concepts (of seeing the world, if you will) and forced me to break through the invisible barriers erected by the language I was raised with. And, finally, if we need a "world language", can we please agree on French? I think it is so much more pleasant to the ear than English... and it saves those who already speak it from having to read "rsvp, please" ever again ;)
- asdfaefasdf 9y ago
  >just read a newspaper from Guyana I just glanced as 5 online papers, and one scanned tabloid-style paper. I still have no idea what you are talking about. What am I supposed to be detecting in the writing here? edit: I guess I found one or two slight different ways of expressing things, like starting a sentence with "Said he:", but, really it's fairly minor.
- wolco 9y ago
  I think the French language as the one universal world language movement has failed. There was a chance in the 70's but business and the internet has forever changed that.
- justbaker 9y ago
  I like French too, but the number of French-speaking individuals worldwide is rather limited.
Manishearth 9y ago
> China is one more country which is preserving its culture by speaking chinese "chinese" isn't one language. It's a set of many languages which share some grammar and a common logographic script (though the script isn't used in exactly the same way for each, e.g. Beijing will write/say 哪儿 instead of 哪里 for "where?" -- there are many other differences but I don't know enough to give a clear idea of its scale). The spoken languages are quite different otherwise, at least as different as European romance languages. There is a "Standard Mandarin (普通话)" however; which the government has pushed and is spoken by most residents of Mainland China. I'm skeptical that this is a good way preserving the culture. If language does have an effect of preserving the culture; this move would also have effect of killing subcultures from regions (which may indeed have happened in China; though I don't know). China and India are both pretty diverse culturally. You're making the argument that the popularity of English is detrimental to the preservation of Indian Culture and in the same breath suggesting forcing Hindi on everyone as a solution, as if it wouldn't have exactly the same effect on a culturally diverse country.
- HumanDrivenDev 9y ago
  "chinese" isn't one language. It's a set of many languages which share some grammar and a common logographic script I don't think that's true for any chinese languages other than mandarin and cantonese. I've been in Taiwan for the past few weeks and dipped my toes into Hokkien/Taiwanese/Souther Min, and the situation there is fascinating. In every day normal situations it's never written, if two native hokkien speakers want to send an email or text it will be done in mandarin. In the rare occasion Hokkien is written, it will be done haphazardly. Sometimes you'll choose a mandarin character that kind of means the same thing as a hokkien morpheme, and sometimes they'll choose the mandarin character that kind of sounds the same the same as a hokkien morpheme. Native speakers will be able to read this, but often struggle. I have read that people used to be able to write Hokkien in characters, but that's lost now. I'm confidently told by native speakers today that the language has no written component (沒有文字). There's romanisation system that seems to be able to represent every sound prefectly, and more has actually been written in romanised hokkien than by any other methods, but Taiwanese people have a bit of a phobia of the latin alphabet, and no one uses it.

soneca 9y ago

Brazil never had this problem and it is still 'developing' 195 years after its independence. Same language, not that different regional culture (similar to USA I guess). And Europe as a whole was able to become developed despite its language barriers.

ravirajx7 9y ago
Just that it has almost double per capita income(PPP) when compared to India. $1576(76th) vs $7153 (122nd) respectively.
- deanstag 9y ago
  I think soneca's point was Brazil is still developing irrespective of any language barriers. So how does your statistics on PPP become an argument for that?
  - astrodust 9y ago
    Rampant foreign interference and military juntas have a way of stunting your country's development.
    - deanstag 9y ago
      Are you talking about Brazil or India here? ( I apologize in advance if it looks like I am arguing by asking questions. But I am asking because of curiosity/lack of knowledge )
      - astrodust 9y ago
        Specifically Brazil here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Military_Junta_of_1969 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Military_Junta_of_19... Decades of military rule is not good for your economy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_military_government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_military_government Not that India hasn't had more than its fair share of both over the centuries.
  - ravirajx7 9y ago
    There lies a difference between 'developing' & 'developed' and my point regarding it is with the development pace which is comparatively slow against Brazil or any other developing nation which usually has very few language as an official one. Brazil has only one 'Portuguese' as an official language but India has far too many.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

deanstag 9y ago

Promoting a language because the Prime minister finds himself more proficient orator in the language? I find that hard to believe. Do you have sources on this?

ravirajx7 9y ago
It's not just that. Ever since he has got his position he is trying to promote India's ethnic values and culture and he's not saying "Bhaiyo aur beheno bas hindi bolo" ( brothers and sisters just speak hindi) and nobody is imposing the language hindi on anyone. But if you're living in a country and serving people(working in government sector) where almost majority of the people speak hindi don't you think you should have some sort of understanding to treat the people in their own language? I live in india and i have seen situations where people find it easy to grasp hindi than any other languages. Out of all those 1600+ language majority of them resembles and sounds like hindi ( just few accent differences are there) rajasthani, marwadi, mewadi, Bhojpuri,urdu, Haryanvi all resembles hindi i.e. if you know even a little bit of hindi you can deal with majority of north indian languages.
- deanstag 9y ago
  But If there is a better utility for a language like English, why not push for English + Regional Language?
  - nonamechicken 9y ago
    As a South Indian, there is no utility for Hindi other than to interact with North Indians (which is more or less non existent) or to watch Bollywood movies. English got me a job, everything I learn is because of English.
    - ucntseeme 9y ago
      Hindi is taught is schools...its you who dint gave it importance its not about what benefits you get from speaking Hindi..its more about what most states prefer to interact in. Out of 39 states 20 prefer interacting in Hindi..even when they all have different mother tongue. Its just the minority south states prefer speaking in there languages which doesn't matter to other as no migrates there( non existent)

athenot 9y ago

Language is also a connection to culture. More and more I think many places would benefit from embracing two languages—the utilitarian/economic one and the cultural/human one. Regional diversity is a good thing, and certainly doesn't deserve to be sacrificed in the name of economic convenience, at least not as long as we hold human life to be superior to material assets.

soperj 9y ago

Which language is Chinese? Mandarin or Cantonese?

pySSK 9y ago
In China, it's Mandarin. Cantonese is mostly mostly dominant and safe in Hong Kong. It is the language of Guangdong Province (Canton) however, it's being slowly phased out by government efforts [1][2] and by demographics (it's where all the factories are – it attracts Mandarin speakers from rest of China who go there to work and, recent trend, they're starting to settle there). [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-forcing-its-biggest-cantonese-speaking-region-to-speak-mandarin-2014-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-forcing-its-biggest-... [2] https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/07/26/clash-over-mandarin%E2%80%99s-ascent-in-guangdong/ https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/07/26/clash-over-ma...

zumu 9y ago

> China is one more country which is preserving its culture by speaking chinese There's so many different languages spoken in China, many of which are dying or endangered. Moreover, China is by no means a mono culture. The government of China actively promotes a singular language and culture at the cost of those on the margins.

astrodust 9y ago
This doesn't even count situations where the written language is largely the same, but due to dialect differences the spoken version is almost completely different.

jlg23 9y ago

Given that English is already fragmenting (just read a newspaper from Guyana) and with the example of the Arab language (watch an Egyptian try talking with a Moroccan - bring popcorn): I am not sure your advice is a good one. English, like every other language, limits what you can say to what can be expressed in it. From personal experience, I'd rather recommend to dabble in as many languages as possible: Each new language so far introduced new concepts (of seeing the world, if you will) and forced me to break through the invisible barriers erected by the language I was raised with. And, finally, if we need a "world language", can we please agree on French? I think it is so much more pleasant to the ear than English... and it saves those who already speak it from having to read "rsvp, please" ever again ;)

asdfaefasdf 9y ago
>just read a newspaper from Guyana I just glanced as 5 online papers, and one scanned tabloid-style paper. I still have no idea what you are talking about. What am I supposed to be detecting in the writing here? edit: I guess I found one or two slight different ways of expressing things, like starting a sentence with "Said he:", but, really it's fairly minor.
wolco 9y ago
I think the French language as the one universal world language movement has failed. There was a chance in the 70's but business and the internet has forever changed that.
justbaker 9y ago
I like French too, but the number of French-speaking individuals worldwide is rather limited.

Manishearth 9y ago

> China is one more country which is preserving its culture by speaking chinese "chinese" isn't one language. It's a set of many languages which share some grammar and a common logographic script (though the script isn't used in exactly the same way for each, e.g. Beijing will write/say 哪儿 instead of 哪里 for "where?" -- there are many other differences but I don't know enough to give a clear idea of its scale). The spoken languages are quite different otherwise, at least as different as European romance languages. There is a "Standard Mandarin (普通话)" however; which the government has pushed and is spoken by most residents of Mainland China. I'm skeptical that this is a good way preserving the culture. If language does have an effect of preserving the culture; this move would also have effect of killing subcultures from regions (which may indeed have happened in China; though I don't know). China and India are both pretty diverse culturally. You're making the argument that the popularity of English is detrimental to the preservation of Indian Culture and in the same breath suggesting forcing Hindi on everyone as a solution, as if it wouldn't have exactly the same effect on a culturally diverse country.

HumanDrivenDev 9y ago
"chinese" isn't one language. It's a set of many languages which share some grammar and a common logographic script I don't think that's true for any chinese languages other than mandarin and cantonese. I've been in Taiwan for the past few weeks and dipped my toes into Hokkien/Taiwanese/Souther Min, and the situation there is fascinating. In every day normal situations it's never written, if two native hokkien speakers want to send an email or text it will be done in mandarin. In the rare occasion Hokkien is written, it will be done haphazardly. Sometimes you'll choose a mandarin character that kind of means the same thing as a hokkien morpheme, and sometimes they'll choose the mandarin character that kind of sounds the same the same as a hokkien morpheme. Native speakers will be able to read this, but often struggle. I have read that people used to be able to write Hokkien in characters, but that's lost now. I'm confidently told by native speakers today that the language has no written component (沒有文字). There's romanisation system that seems to be able to represent every sound prefectly, and more has actually been written in romanised hokkien than by any other methods, but Taiwanese people have a bit of a phobia of the latin alphabet, and no one uses it.