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Of the concept of one identity and all its facets as a vehicle bringing harmony and stability, there is no debate on that.You just dont seem to understand self preservation very well. The situation in China is any land they view as belonging to their people they vigorously pursue and anyone trying to divide their nation is heavy handedly put down.
They dont nor do any self respecting people divide their land into integral or not integral. This categorization only tells people youre expecting to part with your land and identifying what youll part with if they press you hard enough. Every inch of your land should be sacred and as important as your capital and your own house to you. I wonder if our ancestors deemed kabul and kandahar not integral or if they decided that the indus river west punjab and sindh were not integral. From the history it seems indians only found their home state integral and that mindset kept india in slavery for over 1100 years..do you want to it to keep going that way?
China believes as does the west in assimilating everyone into their national identity and language. it creates peace stability and prosperity being able to relate and communicate to your other country men and women. If india has respect for their native cultures why cant her people choose one of her languages like hindi bengali or tamil as her national language instead of speaking english. Itd be as ridiculous as china using japanese as their national language or the polish using german.
However, the contention that India should or could have similar oneness in all its facets, as is there in China or in Europe is a bit skewed, since the circumstances and historical antecedents are different.
The Han people of what is now called China, have been imperialists and have in various stages of its history. As they kept conquering what they called 'barbarians', they though a variety of soft and hard means forcibly converted these 'barbarians' to the Han civilisational facets. Simultaneously, they wiped out the roots of these 'barbarians' to include the cultural, tradition, customs and linguistic roots. In India, there has never been a dominant race or people, who could conquer India and forcibly convert the people to the ways of the dominant race. Hence, there was no one dominant native language which could be used as a common denominator.
Here comes the twist. Why English in India? Good question.
English is there since it was a similar replication of how Mandarin (Han language) has become the language of China. The causative resultant of brute racial and imperialist force. The English conquered India and they imposed their way in all facets of existence. I am sure all are aware of Mandalay's Minutes of 2nd February 1835 and the infamous line:
Han did it in China and so did they do it in Europe to impose the racial attributes of the dominant race amongst their Nations.We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, --a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.
Languages and dialects in France
I might draw the attention to the revision of the French constitution creating official recognition of regional languages was implemented by the Parliament in Congress at Versailles in July 2008.
The 1999 Report written for the government by Bernard Cerquiglini identified 75 languages that would qualify for recognition under the government's proposed ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. 24 of those languages are indigenous to the European territory of the state while all the others are from overseas areas of the French Republic (in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean and South America).
Languages in UK
I could go on to indicate that there are many languages that exist in each of the European Nations.
And yet, in the business place, for official work and when interaction is to be done by the different racial or ethnic entities, there is the common language, which we mistakenly believe is the sole language of that nation.
If one is not perfunctory and does some indepth study, these very countries being mentioned have a variety of sub cultures that are vibrant and kicking.
If all was the same, then we would not have the demand of a separate nation for Scotland, or the distaste for Prussians in Germany, or the ethnic riots & the animus of the industrious Southerner of the Northerners in China and so on.
The Han of China, though imposed Mandarin on all as they conquered each bit of territory to make the political China of today, did not have one type of Mandarin.
In fact, Chinese comprises many regional language varieties that are passed off as the Chinese dialects, The primary ones are Mandarin, Wu, Yue, and Min. These are not mutually intelligible.
Many of the regional varieties (especially Min) are themselves composed of a number of non-mutually-intelligible subvarieties. As a result, many linguists typically refer to these varieties as separate languages.
Until the mid-20th century, most of the Chinese people living in many parts of southern China spoke only their local language. As a practical measure, officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a common language based on Mandarin varieties, known as GuÄnhuà .
But they share a common written form. Now, what is known as 'simplified Mandarin' has been enforced so that all understand each other.
In India, one cannot impose a single language since there is deep rooted regional identities with all its faced.
Yet, there is a necessity to have a Link Language. English was universal because of the British imperial imposition and Hindi because it was comprehensible to some extent even during the British times even in areas where it was not the natural language as the labour, the lower strata factory force, the railway workers etc were from Hindi speaking areas and since they were the real engines to drive the economy, it was essential to know how to communicate with them for profits.
That is why Hindi and English continue to be Link Languages, though some mistake Hindi to be the 'National Language'.
Lastly, India may speak many languages, have different cultures, traditions, ethnicities. Yet Indians of all hue have one National Identity - Indians - and they are proud to call them so.
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