Maharashtra okay with Hindi but says don't snub Marathi

As Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah pitched for Hindi as a common language for India, Maharashtra seems to be quite okay with it.

Shah's statement coming ahead of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls could have a potential of a reaction like that witnessed in southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka but politicians in the state seemed to be guarded.

A cross-section of people including politicians to whom DH spoke, said that while Hindi as a language is important, it needs to be seen that Marathi's place needs to be maintained.

Maharashtra's urban areas including the vast Mumbai Metropolitan Region has a vast Hindi-speaking North Indian population.

"Hindi is the mother tongue of 64 crore people and second language for 24 crore people and for 42 crore people it is third, fourth or a foreign language," said Dr Karunashankar Upadhyay, Professor & Head Hindi department, University of Mumbai.

"All the 30 big economies, there is a national language, common language," he said, pointing out that Israel, with 80 lakh people, had 12 Nobel laureates whereas India, with a population of 130 crore, was nowhere close to it.

"It is time, we have to analyse the reasons. If we want to see India as a real 'vishwa guru' we have to promote Hindi," he said.