I have just read Mathur Sir”s diary about Hindi day. I first thought to write comments on it, later I thought it is a nice subject to discussion, so following are the some points.
The first thing is when we say about the relevance of the words like “ Lohpathgamini or Lokvahan or other words like this, we first keep one thing in mind, that translation from any language to any other language does have some limitations. There are many words in Hindi also whose translation in English is not very easy, or if translated not commonly used. This kind of translation is called: sabdaanuvad:, where you keep a word similar to the original language to the translations. Now how successful this translation can be depend upon its usage Now imagine if our government banned the word Train or Rail and it become an ordinance that everyone can speak or write Lohpathgamini only. Then this word would become popular because we would not have the alternative word of Rail and Train. So not in English or Hindi but in all the languages like Spanish, Russian, Japanese or Bangla, the word-to-word translation has some limitation and the relevance of word is highly depended on its usage.
The second thing is why English only, Why do we give so much preference to English only. I am telling you very frankly I have been to all over India, from Villages to towns and metros, visited many prestigious academic Institute, there are very few people Just handful who genuinely know English or write it in its proper forum. Almost all the people just kaam chala rehein hain. So the issue here is the mentality that relates with Economics. Most of the rural or urban people think that knowing English will lead them to get the job, or respect in society. You can see many advertisements in daily newspapers where it was written that speaking and writing English is compulsory to the job. This is the main reason of mushrooming Institutes of English Speaking courses and Private schools emphasizing on conversation in English.
In the above paragraph I discussed about the Economic reason of giving preference to English, My final point is more sociological and political whose roots are deep drawn in our history. For almost two centuries English people or British whose mother tongue was English have ruled us. Most of the government works were done in English. So when British left India Indian administrative structure was more or less remained same or adopted by the Indian government. Desi sahibs replaced gore sahibs and whose mannerisms were same as of English.
So these are some points I believe responsible for giving preference to English over Hindi
