A CALCUTTA DIARY-Going, Going

September 16, 1967 with Hindi? This, too, is shortsighted. It can be justified only if English is to be the sole link language of the Indian Union. If there is to be an indefinite co-existence of two link languages, then every Indian who wishes to go places in India will have to have a smattering at least of both these languages. It is just good luck for the Hindi-speaking peoples that their mother-tongue happens to be one of these languages. They might be compelled to learn some other modern Indian language but they need not. But the non-Hindi peoples have to learn the necessary amount of Hindi for comprehension and limited communication. This is not much of a burden. Indeed, the many Tamilians outside Tamilnad have easily taken it in their stride. It is certainly wrong of the Hindi chauvinists to go about attempting to compel a rapid transition to Hindi as the sole link language. But an anti-Hindi backlash will not help either. Hindi is far easier for the Indian peoples to learn than English, even for the vast majority of the Tamils.