The recent debate between actor Ajay Devgan and Kannada star Kiccha Sudeep on Hindi’s “national language” status has initiated the conversation about its imposition and the linguistic diversity of India.
A seemingly innocuous photo taken at the Darbhanga airport by an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer fuelled the same conversation on Twitter.
On Saturday, IAS officer Awanish Sharan shared a photo of a poster that had many “misspelt” Hindi words. These “misspelt” words were enclosed within a red box.
हमारी हिंदी की दुर्दशा. pic.twitter.com/TUqRylyrAd
— Awanish Sharan (@AwanishSharan) April 30, 2022
The photo was of a Covid-19 awareness poster, which was written in the Devanagari script. It had information about symptoms of Covid-19 infection and had issued a list of dos and don’ts to prevent its spread.
While sharing the photo, the IAS officer captioned it “हमारी हिंदी की दुर्दशा”, which roughly translates to “the plight of our Hindi.”
बहुत दुःख होता है यह देखकर, हिन्दी हमारी राष्ट्रभाषा है और हिन्दी भाषी क्षेत्र में वो भी दरभंगा हवाई अड्डे पर इतनी अशुद्धि। यह न सिर्फ हमारे राष्ट्रभाषा का अपमान है, अपितु यह हमारे देश के गौरवशाली परंपरा का भी अपमान है। ज़िम्मेदार अधिकारी दण्ड के लायक है। @narendramodi @AmitShah
— Kingshuk Mukherji (@KingshukMukhe13) April 30, 2022
Secunderabad Railway Station pic.twitter.com/fhn0i8gEcL
— Ashiwani (@Ashiwani_kr) April 30, 2022
सबसे सशक्त भाषा की दुर्दशा😟 pic.twitter.com/qlkO7mLb1a
— Rita Singh (@RitaSin63071437) April 30, 2022
Many people agreed with Sharan that such mistakes at a national airport are disheartening, while some pointed out that the words were not misspelt as they were written exactly how Hindi is colloquially spoken in Bihar. Echoing this sentiment a Twitter user wrote, “The way we pronounce we write”.
यहां हिंदी बहुत बेहतरीन लिखी गई है।
मात्रा-पाई, सब संतुलित।
जैसी बोली वैसी ही लिखावट। गलती एक भी नहीं। #बुंदेलखंड pic.twitter.com/fjjaMR6Eka— Shivam Bajpai (@JBreakingBajpai) April 30, 2022
The way we pronounce we write https://t.co/srmO5Jm8Mb
— BHUSHAN MADKE MD (@rashlessdoctor) May 1, 2022
Sir you saw the plight of Hindi but it was mandatory to have Maithili language there, you did not see that.#StopHindilmposition https://t.co/S9DxlM9dNn
— ভরেশ মৈথিল (@BhaveshShandily) May 1, 2022
Hindi, which is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, has different dialects across North India. Therefore, it is argued by some that there is no correct or standardised way of writing or speaking Hindi.
इसमें हिंदी का कोई दोष नही है ! ये सब निक्कमे सरकारी कर्मचारी का दोष है जो बिना संज्ञान (review) लिए अनुमति दे दिया है!
— Pankaj S (@srivastavap2) May 1, 2022
It is not done on Google translator,the designer who is making the file on Corel draw are mostly having poor language knowledge,the owner at printing press need to first proof read it and then the concerned dept for final approval..seems in this case one bothered to take the pain
— Anup Agrwal (@anup_agrawal) April 30, 2022
सब Googal Translation का कसूर है ।
— Naresh Jagania (@JaganiaNaresh) April 30, 2022
In the comments, many people blamed “Google translate” for the mistakes on the poster, while some said the administration did not proofread the text.
