Hindi vs English language: Reasons for Hindi lagging behind

The spread of Hindi, the language spoken by majority in India, to non-Hindi speaking regions in India during the last decade may not be attributed to the efforts of Govt. of India alone but also to a great extent due to globalization, liberalization and popularization of cable and satellite TV networks. Popularity of Hindi serials like 'Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thee' compelled people to take interest in Hindi plays on the TV and understand the dialogues spoken by TV actors in Hindi.

What could not be achieved by Hindi movies despite the resources, small screen (TV) achieved it effortlessly. Now you move to any region in India, you will not face difficulty in communicating with people in Hindi language. However, people still can not understand languages other than dialects in interior remote rural areas where development has not yet spread its wings fully. I think enough is said about the spread of Hindi as a medium of oral communication. Let's come to the point.

What is holding back it from becoming a popular writing language despite celebration of "Hindi weeks" every year in all government offices and spending lot of money for organizing events in Hindi. Again some hitch is there. Organization of Hindi Week in offices has become a ritual or completion of formalities. People understand the intention of political parties whenever they make a propaganda using patriotic or nationalistic rhetoric based on languages, religion or region etc.

Let's stop here and try to understand the real issue.

Main reason for not being used by majority as a writing medium is use of complicated and difficult technical words. There is need to develop Hindi language with simple technical term. Just for an example. word used for train in Hindi is 'Lohpathgamini" that is difficult to remember. There are thosands of such words that are never used in common place. Real well wishers of Hindi or Patrons should make a committee at national and state level to incorporate and endorse simple Hindi words in place of complicated ones to make the language simple to use by common men.

If you search the net for Hindi blogs you'll find few sites doing business in Hindi and these sites generally use translation from English to Hindi. There are no common fonts like English fonts. If you visit different sites of Hindi, you will need to download different fonts for each site. However, C-DAC is understood to have developed common fonts to solve this problem.

In my opinion, there is need to develop a Hindi Keyboard similar to one used for English keyboard. It should have keys similar to English keyboard because most of the net users have inculcated a habit to key in English words using English Key board.

Programers and developers have really worked hard in past few years for popularizing regional languages. They have tried to develop software based on roman English (transliteration). "Lipikar" is such a software that is used for typing in roman English based on the sound of words in regional languages. Typing in regional languages using roman English is really easy for people not familiar with keyboards of these languages. This program is used for transliteration in more than 25 languages. Some programs are web based only whereas few can be downloaded and installed on desktop. "Quilla pad" is a web based program. User can type while online and export text to computer. "Lipikar" add-ins are available for browser Firefox. Lipkar can also be downloaded for offline use after installation on desktop but it comes with a price tag. Google IME is available for free use with windows and can be used conveniently typing in roman English. Configuration requires help that is available on the download page. Google's IME is available for several other languages and I found this program really very convenient for use. It helped me typing at a good speed in Hindi & other languages.

Objectives of this hub was to discuss the hindrances in the way of popularization of Hindi & other region languages and to find ways to overcome the technical issues that restricted the use of such languages. However, discussion through comments somewhat deviated and people started taking advantage of this deviation. Considering people's sentiments, author of this hub has decided to shut off the comment box and close the future discussions.