Did you know that 21st February was declared the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO 25 years ago in a bid to promote preserve linguistic diversity and promote mother tongues? When one of my blogger’s groups decided to give this as a prompt, I knew I really wanted to write about it.
India is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. We have 22 official languages, about 121 languages are spoken by 10,000 or more people and over 1,600 dialects exist across the country.
And then there is English. The language that unifies us across the country and is also the aspirational language of the masses. English proficiency was and is recognized as a key to better career opportunities, improved income and social status.
Hindi – the language of my heart and English, the language my brain speaks
Like all middle-class children, my sister and I went to an English medium school as well. Coming from a well-educated family, where everyone spoke good English, it was easy for us to pick up the language. By 8-9 I was also a voracious reader and had discovered Enid Blyton novels, which I consumed at a fast speed!
But my mum always wanted us to stay connected with Hindi and she had subscribed to a number of children’s magazines such as Champak, Nandan and Balhans. And our love for Hindi stayed put. My sister and I would race to home from the bus stop, when the new issue of any of these was expected! So much did I love reading Hindi stories, that I would dig out old hindi magazines and read through every story, including even the agony columns! A lot of these were not just stories but gave me an insight into lives of different types of people, different types of families. A peek into the thoughts, fears and aspirations of people, of women across India.
Add to that the fact that my dadi (my paternal grandmother) had published her story collections in Hindi and also had a few novellas to her credit. And my nani (maternal grandmother) used to bring out a women’s magazine for many years, which she unfortunately had to stop after being widowed at an early age.
By grade 9th and 10th, I also started reading stories and novels by well-known authors like Munshi Premchand and others. One of the vernacular works that made a strong impression on my was Ashapoorna Devi’s trilogy of Pratham Pratishruti, Suvarnalata and Bakul Katha. Originally written in Bengali, (but I read in Hindi), the trilogy spans three generations of women, starting with the strong willed Satyabati in 10th century and ending with her granddaughter Bakul in the 20th century. It highlights the gradual but hard-won progress in women’s rights and masterfully portrays how social norms evolve yet persist, making it one of the most powerful feminist narratives in Indian literature.
In my teenage years, I also got introduced to Ghazals (thanks to my mum again) and fell in love with Urdu, Gulzar, Jagjeet Singh and Nida Fazli (not necessarily or maybe in the same order). Gulzar’s voice and his writing completely hooked me!
A couple of years later, when I fell in love, my boyfriend (now husband), wooed me with his beautiful Hindi-Urdu poetry. He would give me his poems on scraps of paper, which I would diligently write in a handmade, rough papered diary, and stick in it flowers picked on that day’s meeting with him. And then I had another diary, a diary that I wrote to him, where I poured all the conversations I had with him in my mind, because I couldn’t be with him 24 hours.
I realized then that I could only write my deepest emotions in Hindi. English is the language of my brain, but Hindi the language of my heart.
Keeping Hindi alive for the next generation….
Unfortunately, this love of the language could not be passed down to the next generation. When my son started school, I was a bit miffed to find out that they start Hindi only in Grade-2 and even so not enough attention was paid whether or not the kids excelled in the language. Anyhow, Arnav did learn the language to an extent. But when Abeer started going to school, we were already in a different country, where forget Hindi, even English was a luxury to come by. Just like many other third culture or expat children, mine too understand and speak their mother tongue but struggle to read and write in it fluently. So I have been trying hard to get both the boys to get a little more literate in Hindi – Hindi tuitions during summer holidays and some Hindi writing and reading during school days – but not sure that I will be able to get them to reading books in Hindi ever ☹ In any case, we try as much as possible in Hindi at home and show them Hindi movies and shows, in an attempt to hang on to as much Hindi as possible.
We are all connected…..
Talking about living in another country – I have been working in Central Asia for the last 6+ years and recently moved to Turkiye. From a language point of view, it was fascinating to see the connect between the Central Asian languages and Hindi/Urdu and also find similarities between Russian and Sanskrit – the origin of Hindi.
Of course I am not gifted in the language section, and even after 6 years, know just a smattering of Russian, but I loved making the connections between our different languages. As I noted in this post on Central Asia, Hindi/Urdu have Persian, Turkic and Arabic influences. Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Turkmen are Turkic languages while Tajik is a Persian language. This connection largely stems from centuries of cultural exchange, trade, and the influence of Persian as a court language in the Indian subcontinent during the Mughal era. Persian, which has historically influenced many Central Asian languages, was the language of administration and poetry in Mughal India. This led to a significant Persian imprint on Urdu, and by extension, Hindi. Words like duniya (world), mohabbat (love), and kitab (book) are shared across Persian, Urdu, and many Central Asian languages. In addition Sanskrit and Russian are also closely related so many Russian words would similar to Hindi words with roots in Sanskrit, such as agni, pita, mata, bhrata.
I work with people of different nationalities and often it is fun when my colleagues from Jordan, Central Asia and Pakistan and I from India are perfectly able to understand a particular word! And it is difficult to figure out if the word has Arabic origins or Persian or Turkic!! Or when for instance I spoke to my mum in Hindi and said something like, “Zaroori hai kya?” and immediately my Uzbek colleagues recognized the word Zaroor! Or when Tajik officials used ‘lekin’ and ‘albatta’ I understood what they meant by those words. (regardless of the fact that I understood little else!) These linguistic overlaps serve as a testament to how languages evolve, adapt, and intertwine, reflecting centuries of shared history. (Another post on this perhaps some day!)
Keeping multiple languages alive….
While talking about Central Asia, I should mention that Russian for them is like English is to India. A unifier of sorts – a language that binds the Central Asians together and also allows them economic opportunities in Russia and other Russian speaking countries. It has long been the region’s lingua franca, a language of opportunity and connection, particularly in urban areas.
However, there has been a growing resurgence of native languages, a conscious effort to reclaim cultural identity and reduce dependence on Russian. Over the years, I have noticed an increasing trend in all of the countries of switching to their own national languages. 30-35 years after the end of the Soviet Union, these countries are coming into their own and also going back to their traditions, culture, religion and languages. More and more the younger generations, especially from rural areas, speak their native languages (Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik) and are not familiar with Russian.
Indeed, this is a positive development—language revival is always a sign of cultural strength. Nevertheless, while it is good to see them embrace their culture and languages (I was surprised by how much the Soviets had managed to wipe out), I also feel that it might be nice to maintain both their national language as well as Russian. This shift, while rooted in cultural pride, risks limiting access to broader opportunities, whether in education, employment, or international engagement. After all, Russian is what connects them to many other countries and provides job opportunities. To note, almost 20-30% of some of these countries’ GDP comes from international remittances mainly from Russia.
I would think that the ideal scenario is not a battle between languages but coexistence—a balance where cultural heritage is preserved without shutting off access to the larger world. Because, language is power, and the ability to navigate multiple languages opens doors. In India, English gave us access to the world, but Hindi and our other regional languages kept us anchored to our roots. Indians have managed a unique balancing act—embracing English as a global connector while fiercely preserving their linguistic diversity. Many Indians can speak 3-4 languages easily (not me alas – just Hindi and English for me).
Ultimately, language is not just about words—it is about identity, connection, and opportunity. As societies navigate the complex balance between heritage and modernity, the key lies in embracing multilingualism, ensuring that no language is lost but rather that every language serves as a bridge to a richer, more connected world.
“This post is a part of ‘Embrace the Native Blog Hop’ hosted by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed under #EveryConversationMatters”
This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’
hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.
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Regards, Sakshi aka tripleamommy
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