हाम्रो विचार

The point I am talking about here today is Languages-practices, demands and controversies in Nepal. I am raising this issue here in the aftermath of oath taking ceremony of the first vice president of Federal Republic of Nepal who took his oath in Hindi, which is one of the two official languages of India. There are numerous arguments for and against VP. Being a first VP of the youngest republic of the world, Nepal, he failed to win the heart of all the Nepalese people living home and abroad and disappointed them.

There is a bad tendency growing among the youngsters of Nepal. They feel superior speaking English or knowing it. And some fringe parties based on Terai tend to love Hindi more than Nepali. It is necessary to promote mother languages of Nepal like, Maithali, Bhojpuri, Tharu of Terai and Magar, Gurung and Kirat languages of hills and mountains. But we should not forget the truth that Nepali language is the common language of all the Nepalese living home or abroad which can unite all of us together. So along with their mother languages all the Nepalese should learn Nepali language and should love it. Nepalese people should be proud to be Nepali.

These days we are giving unnecessary importance to English. Knowing English is important but not merely an end. It’s just a lingua franca. Knowing English doesn’t mean you know everything. We have to love our own language which helps to develop our country. But at the same time we have to deal with the outer world as well in business, politics, culture, information and many more so we need English as well. Similarly Nepal is in between two giant nations of the world; India and China, so it will be an advantage if we can speak Hindi and Chinese as well.

So what I think, first of all the government of Nepal should take proper initiative to promote all the languages spoken as mother languages by different ethnic groups of Nepal and preserve them from disappearing. At the same time make all the people feel the importance of their national language, Nepali. Secondly, it has to encourage the young students to become multilingual. All the young students should learn good English and either Hindi or Chinese or if possible both of them. I think this will make people understand the importance of mother language and national language and the advantage of to be multilingual.

While surfing the internet today, I found a heart touching episode of Nepali popular comedy TITO SATYA satire to vp and such tendencies. Hope you will also like it.

First part

Second part

Third part