A. Brief Introduction

We often see politicians and activists raising hue and cry over a particular language. Activist would like to promote his/her favorite language and would like it to dominate over other languages and be used in administration, schools, offices and courts. But first let us understand which factors help in a language gaining domination.

B. Factors affecting Domination or non-domination of a language

In short, the factors which help a language to dominate over other languages can be divided into those affecting the demand of the language or affecting the supply of the language –

a. Demand of the language – Factors which naturally or artificially increase demand of the language are military and economic strength of the language speakers, whether they hold high positions in administration and courts, number of users of the language, whether the language is utilized in scientific and technical systems like movies, computer programming etc. and other market factors.

b. Supply of the language – Factors which increase supply of the language are how efficiently the education system is able to spread the language – words and its grammar to the common masses.

Let us explain these factors with some examples –

a. Examples of Demand affecting factors –

a1. Military and economic strength of the language speakers – Example – At one time, rule of UK was spread all over the world leading to usage of English language to be widespread. Those countries like USA, China who manufacture and sell items in demand in international market like electronics are able to spread their language more effectively.

a2., a3. Positions of speakers of a language in courts and administration, Number of users of the language  –

Most of our previous prime ministers were from Uttar Pradesh where hindi is spoken majorly leading to its dominance in the country. Also, hindi is understood by more than 60% of the population of the country.

a4. Whether the language is utilized in scientific circles and technical systems like movies, computer programming etc. –

The Bollywood movies do lot of business in the country and outside the country and with the movies which are watched by crores all over the world promote hindi.

a5. Other market factors –

Other market factors also play an important role in creating demand for a language. For example, English fonts use less bit space than Unicode languages, so SMS sent in indian languages which are in Unicode take 2-3 times more space than SMS sent in English. Therefore, SMS sent in English or in english fonts is more prevalent. Similarly, files having Unicode text take 2-3 times more disk space than their non-unicode counterparts.

b. Example of Supply affecting factors –

Jews from all over the world settled in Israel who were speaking completely different languages. And Ancient Hebrew was no longer spoken and not having words for things used as of today. So, the Israelis communicated amongst themselves and made a modern Hebrew language. But just making a language is not sufficient. The Israelis also developed a transparent, efficient and less corrupt education system which helped to teach the new language to the Israeli masses and commons.

C. Our proposals for encouraging Indian languages

1. Voters of each state to decide official language of the state via State level TCP media portal – Voters of each state will decide which 3 languages to be taught in school and used in State courts, administration and offices. TCP media portal at state level will help decide this. Via TCP media portal, parents can give instructions to officials which language to be taught in schools. Please see more about TCP media portal at this  link.
2. Bilingual school books and official documents – After the voters decide via TCP which 2 or 3 languages to be used officially, school books can made bi-lingual with a book having matter in one language on one page and the same matter in another language on the following page. Same to be done with other official documents like laws etc.
3. We propose increasing Swadeshi manufacturing by 100% Indians. This will help in increasing demand of Indian languages. Please see details  at this link.