Let Hindi language legacy fly high
WE COME from a very proud heritage – one where our pioneering great-grandparents established various socio-cultural and religious organisations in South Africa.
Such was their greatness that not only did they advance religion, cultural traditions and the Hindi language (and other vernaculars) in our communities, but they also established major institutions to foster our culture and teachings for succession and continuity. In the apartheid era, the Indian community was forced to learn Eurocentric ideologies and adopt Western culture, but being the visionaries they were, our forebears also promoted vernacular classes to keep the light of our languages burning.
Despite the challenges of restrictive legislation and social adjustments, the magnanimity and determination of our ancestors was such that they made every sacrifice to preserve our cultural identities.
This was all achieved on a meagre wage. Many decades of struggle and sacrifice went into upholding the integrity of our vernacular schools – these are the legacies that should never be forgotten. Historically, the Hindi Shiksha Sangh has always promoted the teaching and learning of Hindi in the Devnagri script (which is more than 2 000 years old). The Sangh was cofounded by the Shree Sanathan Dharma Sabha of South Africa and the Arya Prathinidhi Sabha in 1948, and led by the visionary Pundit Nardev Vedalankar.
Additionally, the global popularity of Bollywood movies has also continued to promote an interest in the Hindi language. Closer to home, Hindvani plays a critical role in this regard.
Today, we, as the youth of this nation, need to come together with a consolidated and all-inclusive plan of action to claim our heritage and take full responsibility for sustaining it in South Africa’s multicultural landscape.
We need to teach our youth that all Indian languages have an inextricable connection to our Hindu scriptures and therefore form the gateways to vital lessons inscribed in our sacred texts.
Hence, by preserving and learning our vernacular across generations, we embody Hindu principles and inculcate essential morals and values to lead a life that is scripturally based, while being socially relevant. In so doing, we will able to overcome the challenges faced by the youth in our community.
Globally, cerebral studies have illustrated that linguistics is not only significant to culture, but also plays an important role in the psychological development of children as it stimulates and enhances the synaptic functioning of the brain.
It is evident that we need to do more as a community and to engage with our mandhirs and sabhas. By learning our vernacular, we ultimately promote our cultural heritage as well as our scriptures. Aside from this, Indian language and culture, which are separate entities from religion, should never be lost as such aspects form a fundamental and intrinsic value to one’s ancestral lineage.
In my introductory prologue, I recalled the great sacrifices and efforts made by our ancestors to keep the Hindi culture and language flying high. The least we can do to reciprocate their tremendous and valiant strides is to encourage and train vernacular teachers of the Hindi language and use every opportunity to promote it, learn it and speak it. There is a branch of the Hindi Shiksha Sangh close to your neighbourhood.
We, as the youth, together with the community, need to make greater efforts and take bolder strides to promote and learn our vernacular languages.
In South Africa, our languages universally reflect cultural and regional practices – we do not see any divisions. We need to take cognisance of the fact that our vernacular forms a large part of our cultural identities – it is embedded in our DNA and can very easily be ignited. It is our responsibility to prevent ourselves from losing our rich cultural heritage and our ingenious mother tongue.